Did Giannis Antetokounmpo overreact?

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Learn more at Discover.com slash credit card. Limitations apply. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Draymond Green got ejected from a basketball game again.

What is your major malfunction? Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. And now Green runs over Nurkic and he'll be called to the foul. Oh, man. What's going on with him? I don't know.

Personally, I feel like that brother needed help. Earlier on the show, Bengals running back Joe Mixon hosted pro football talk Mike Florio. Coming up, senior writer for Sports Illustrated, Chris Mannix. Plus your phone calls and more. And now it's Rich Eisen.

Ah, yes. Our number three of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air. 844204 Rich is the number to dial. We're going to have Chris Mannix on the program shortly. We'll take your phone calls. I got a top five most intriguing games list to get through before I hop on a flight to Indianapolis for Steelers and Colts on NFL Network. Kurt Warner and I will be in the booth together in Lucas Oil. I'm always on the 50 yard line in Lucas Oil Stadium in an actual suite.

I'm going to be on the other side of the field this time. Oh, nice. In the booth. That's right. I mean, we create our own booth in a suite for the combine. That's right. This one's going to be the actual booth.

So rock and roll. I love that stadium. I don't get the pond. I finally get the pool. I actually don't. Where are you?

Where are you? You were never in the real booth. That's right.

Because it's through all the 40s on that side. Yeah. That's right. Yeah, Mike. Well, you know, look, you haven't been around. I've been around. I don't know things. I mean, I did a lot of those. Come on.

I've been around a long time. Come on. By the way, Jonathan Taylor has just been ruled out for that game. He will not be back. So it'll be the Zach Moss Show. I need him next week.

From the running back. Yeah. That's your fantasy stuff. It's kind of funny how everybody just it's where everybody's talking about fantasy and I'm sure all these players are like, what do I care? They do not care. No, they don't care.

Unless they're playing. You know, some some players do play fantasy. I'm sure they do.

I bet you the majority of them do. I don't know about that. I don't know about that. Really? You don't think?

I don't know. Well, the most famous story, right, is Chris Cooley scored three touchdowns, but he was playing against himself in a playoff game. I remember that.

I guess he doesn't care about that. Yeah. MJD as well. I know he was big. So this is one of the wildest NBA stories because it involves star players and it involves the the play in tournament. I mean, the the in-season tournament and it involves, I guess, personal player traditions and it involves team security and it involves the game ball. Who knew the game? You know about game balls in the NFL, right?

Yeah. And so the game ball in in last night's Pacers-Bucks game was was a major source of contention. I don't even know how to unpack this story.

Where do we where do you want to start? Well, I guess it's got to start with the in-season tournament semifinal that the Bucks lost to the Pacers. OK. Tyrese Halliburton makes the essential game ceiling shot and points to his wrist. And Damian Lillard is on the losing team. And after that game, Lillard is like, you know, hey, kind of be careful.

You kind of stay humble, but I respect him. And I don't think the Bucks really did respect Tyrese Halliburton. And last night, Giannis was coming in hot. See, I think he even threw like a through a shoulder into Halliburton last night. And the sweet old sweet old Giannis was bringing his A++ game and he was he showed up angry last night. Yeah, he did. And he dropped 56, 58 on him at some point and then was out of the game because it was a blowout.

And there was some chippiness where he got fouled hard and his brother was about to come off the bench. He was losing his mind. He was kind of like, oh, hold me back, but, you know, I'll hold myself back, you know, I'm not really going out there. What was he going to do? But I don't know. I don't find out either.

It got chippy and then but it got close. So Giannis comes back in the game and winds up scoring 64, which is a franchise record. And you could see in the video of a team security guard from or a guy who's I guess he's one of the big doms, if you will, of the Bucks, goes and grabs the ball from the referee. Because Giannis, apparently for big game balls in his career, sends them to his mom. And it's important to him and franchise record. And this is a big moment for him. But then there's seemingly Giannis after the game is now on the Pacers side of the floor.

Now, normally these guys just leave the floor and he's barking at the Pacers and Halliburton who seems to be holding the game ball. And essentially, there's a player on the Pacers, a rookie, what's his name, guys, again, is great question. He scored. I don't think you want me to pronounce it.

Go ahead. He scored his first point of his career in this game. And they wanted the game ball because the Pacers in their, I guess, tradition is to give the game ball to anybody who scores their first career point in the game. And they want. So they took the game ball. His name is Oscar and then.

And she we and the crazy thing is, is I'm sorry. The crazy thing is, is that it's not his first career point. It's his first recorded career point, because his first career point was his one point that he scored in the Pacers in season tournament finals loss to the Lakers. But those games are like the play in tournament games. They don't count anywhere.

They're just in the just in the ether. So this is his first recorded point. And it was a fight for the game ball between the Pacers wanting to do that for their guy and Giannis wanting the ball for his big night in the history of his career in the Bucks. And Giannis thought the Pacers took the game ball and he ran into the tunnel like gang busters.

Can you imagine somebody that size running after you and they started yelling each other in the tunnel? He had someone dragging him. One of the Bucks peels crazy trying to hold him back.

Didn't know good. So Earl Campbell, this is Rick Carlisle of the Pacers, the head coach, the Pacers after the game describing what the hell's going on. What happened at the after the game was was unfortunate. There was there's a misunderstanding about the game ball.

It was Oscar. She weighs first NBA official NBA point. So we always get the game ball.

We were not thinking about Giannis' franchise record. So we grabbed the ball and a couple of minutes later, several of their players ended up in our hallway. I don't think any punches were landed, but my general manager got elbowed in the ribs by one of their players.

And so he certainly has a bruised, bruised rib and who knows, you know, if it's anything more than that. But unfortunate situation. We don't need the official game ball. There's two game balls there. You know, we could have taken the other one, but it didn't need to escalate to that. There's two game balls. Peter Shibley needs one and so there's another one. So take that one. And it's, you know, Giannis, if the Bucks security guy had it, how did it wind up with the Pacers?

Like, we need another two minute report. This is Giannis after the game last night. I really don't know.

I don't know. I have a ball, but I don't know if it's a game ball. It doesn't feel like the game ball to me. It feels like a brand new ball. Like I can, I can tell, you know, from, I played what, 35 minutes a day, you know, I know how the game ball felt.

I've never seen this before. I feel like you can, I don't, I don't, I don't, you know, I'm not even gonna comment on that. I don't know if I have the game ball to be honest with you. And that's what you, you thought they had the game ball.

That's why you ran after them. I knew they had the game ball. I don't even think they had the game ball. I knew they had the ball.

I mean, this is like, can we get a possession arrow involved here? I mean, Giannis also said he doesn't have the game ball from the NBA finals game six. Doesn't know where that is.

The one that he dropped a 50 piece and they won the championship. That's the, he says he doesn't have that one either. But there are a couple of things that are new to me here. First of all, didn't know there's two game balls, but you have to figure there is. Yeah, because they don't use one ball the whole game. I don't know. I thought they did. No. I don't know.

I don't know. And it's kind of like every quarterback knows when one's busted out of the box and when it's new, which is why every NFL quarterback wants their own football, which happened years ago when Manning, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady and Hasselbeck at the time went to the NFL and said, funky things are happening with two minutes to go. I'm getting a slick football placed in my hands on the road by the home team that was in charge of the footballs.

Crazy stuff was happening. So Giannis, it makes sense that he would know if something's new, it sounds like he got the second game ball. And Oscar Shibwe got Giannis's 64 point actual game ball. And if the Pacers knew it and they're just like, we don't know what's going on, we're just doing it for Oscar.

The big O, their big O. You know who I think is loving this, even though they don't want a general manager to get an elbow in the ribs. They don't want Giannis running after people in a tunnel. But yeah, man, when they came up with the in-season tournament, did they think it would cause bad blood about what happened in it, residually when the season, regular season would begin again?

Yeah, you couldn't. Did they think that would happen? Because the Bucks and the Pacers play twice more.

I think in the next couple of weeks, too. Now that's what they want is that the in-season tournament and pointing to your wrist, creating bad blood and knocking out the Bucks in the in-season tournament would lead to Giannis showing up angry in the next game and then dropping 64 on him and then being so angry thinking they're pulling shenanigans with the game ball and what he normally sends to his mother. You're messing with his mother. That's his mom, man.

This is how Tenecumpo needs her son's basketball. Yeah. They play back-to-back games on January 1st and 3rd. Ooh, baby. See what I'm saying?

And so the in-season tournament is now creating bad blood between two teams? That's fun. Turning Giannis into Warren looking for his baseball? Seriously?

Bring some beans. Wow. Has anybody seen Giannis' basketball? You know, the great thing, I don't know if it's great, for years everyone was saying, getting on the NBA about, these players are too friendly and they like each other too much and blah, blah, blah. Now you're starting to see, you know, we got a little friction, is this what you want? Are you not entertained?

No, this is what I want. You know what they love too? The Lakers are going to raise a banner. They're raising a banner.

No, Chris, don't do the oh sheesh because you were one of the biggest proponents of this in-season tournament. What, a banner? You loved it and now the Lakers, when they got a banner, you're like, ah. You know what the Lakers are doing is they're raising a completely different, no, no, no.

They're raising a different piece of cloth. And they'll just add the years to it? And they're going to add extra years to it if, or in their case, they think when they win the in-season tournament forevermore. There's going to be a specific banner.

I can see that. So the NBA in creating the in-season tournament, hey, do you want it to matter? Yeah, of course we do. Do you want players to get into it? Absolutely we do.

Do you want a rising star in the league to get a spotlight thrown on him that otherwise wouldn't in Tyrese Halliburton? Yeah, we do. Do you want it to mean so much to the players that it would create a bad blood feud once their games began again in the regular season? Absolutely. Would you want the Lakers to win it? We wouldn't say that out loud, but sure, we'll take that. Do you want the Lakers to raise a banner with it? Absolutely. What a raging success the in-season tournament is. They want it either the Celtics or the Lakers to win this going in. And you know, we're not, we're not the, you know, talk about things just because they're, you know, uh, on the wrong side of propriety, but there was a battle between the Pacers and the Bucks.

Those are good games. And, and part of it is the bad blood that occurred in the in-season tournament playoff. Yeah. Holy cow.

Also last night, Giannis kind of had a breakaway dunk when he didn't really need to score and really flexed and yelled and that didn't help either last night. I'd love it. Let's sneak in a phone call before we get to Chris Mannix right here on the program. Jared in Las Vegas. We'll take your call. What's up, Jared? Hey, Rich. How's it going?

What's up? I just wanted, I wanted to say, you know, that, uh, you're completely wrong on the, uh, the, the fumble rule. I'm with Brockman.

My man. You, you have to, you have to suffer the ultimate penalty when you humble the ball, the ball is everything. Possession of the ball is what the game is all about.

Right? You should serve ultimate penalties. And that includes even if you're on the doorstep about to put the game away for the Super Bowl. I don't care. We all know. We all know what the deal is.

The deal is the ball. Two things. Jared, Jared, two things, two things.

First of all, checks in the mail. How dare you? Okay. How dare you call into this program and say, you disagree with me and agree with Chris Brockman. What is the matter with you, Jared? That's number one.

Number two. What if you say that possession means everything, then why do you give the ball back to the offense anywhere in the 100 yards in between the pylons? If it goes out of bounds, why, why? I don't agree with you.

I don't agree with that either. I feel like if the ball goes out of bounds, then it should go to the defending team. So then the defender doesn't even, the defender doesn't even need to recover it. Then why did the defender, any ball that's on the ground, just slap it out of bounds? You want to see that?

Because that's the unintended consequence of your rule. You want to see that? You want to see ball slapping?

Jared, is that what you want to see? You don't see enough of that in Vegas? But there's also, there's also that ability to happen all the time. For instance, a team is backed up against their own end zone. Do they not slap the ball out of the end zone to save seven?

I think K.J. Wright did that once. He got penalized. He didn't. He didn't. But he should have. Thanks for the call, Jared.

I appreciate that. He was making such a salient point. He believed in it so badly.

He did not hear my off-colored remark. But K.J. Wright once batted out of the end zone. And he should have gotten penalized. He should have gotten penalized and he wasn't. And that was also, that screwed over the lines big time on a Monday night game. Big time.

Big time. But that is a penalty intentionally hitting out of bounds. But I with him.

Any of them out of bounds. Boom. Defense. OK. Let's take a break. Chris Mannix is going to join us here on the Rich Eisen Show. Let's talk some more association with him. Let's do it.

All right. Chris Mannix. Well, joining us on a Zoom.

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I'm glad that you are here to explain to me. Do you have the game ball? Did you take it to Phoenix from last night? Do you have Giannis' game ball, Chris? What the hell was that?

What was that? That was that was an aggressive reaction from Giannis Tentacumpo. I mean, Giannis has accomplished a lot in his career. He's a former MVP and NBA champion. He's put up incredible individual statistics for him to react that way over a game ball that recognized his 64th point or 64 point game. It just made no sense to me.

My reaction was similar to the reaction of Tyrese Halliburton. If you looked at him in that moment, he's kind of looking at Giannis and probably thinking the same things I just said to you, like, why or why do you want this particular game ball? But for whatever reason, Giannis wanted it. Well, I mean, it's a personal best.

It's a Bucks best. And apparently he sends game balls to his mom. Like apparently that's the truth. And look, I'd be the comment he made afterward that stuck out with me was that he doesn't have the ball from Game 6 of the NBA Finals. That's the ball that I would want, not an individual achievement in a relatively meaningless regular season game. Well, I guess that's also my point, too, that I just made is the NBA obviously will look into this. But deep down, they've got to be thrilled that the in-season tournament has created bad blood that spilled into the rest of the regular season. Like this apparently comes from Halliburton's game time moment after hitting the game sealer against the Bucks in the semifinal in Vegas. And they came in hot last night, the Bucks, against the Pacers. Yeah, the bad blood between these two teams has been brewing in. And look, part of that is what happened in the in-season tournament.

Part of it is kind of a rise in Indiana over the last couple of years. I mean, that in-season tournament, one thing it showcased was that the Pacers are for real. They have been a team on the rise for really the last three years, two and a half years since they got Tyrese Halliburton. Halliburton's playing at an MVP level. And the intensity of that semifinal game was playoff-like. And if these two teams ever wind up meeting down the line in a postseason series, I think you'll have some spiciness attached to it.

So just some other curious questions here, and then we'll get to the other, I guess, clearly more serious matters at hand. How many basketballs are used in an NBA game? How many are there? So before a game, the referees, and I believe two of the players, selected players, effectively pick out two balls. Like there's a rack of balls that gets rolled out for players to warm up with before the game, halftime, all the stuff you see over the course of a game. Two of them are selected before the game that are to be used as game balls.

One is obviously put into play right away. The other is on standby in case there's an incident involving blood or some other issue with the ball. So there are two balls that are defined as game balls. Clearly Giannis won the one that was in play. And Rick Carlisle said after the game, look, we don't necessarily need the one that was in play, just give us one of the game balls to honor our rookie's first career point.

So this felt like a situation that probably could have been easily diffused with a little more conversation and not an altercation. And how often does the second game ball get used? Have you ever seen something like that? I don't see it happen all that often. When I see it happen, primarily when I see it happen is if blood gets on a ball, right? So if you have a guy that gets cut, a little bit of blood gets on the ball, they're not just going to wipe it off with a towel. They're going to basically take it out of circulation, at least for the rest of that game. That's primarily when a second ball comes into play.

All right. These are fascinating things to me. Honestly, I saw that last night when I heard about Giannis wanted the game ball. I thought to myself, they can't have only one basketball in an NBA arena. I mean, you just watch these players warm up.

There's 50 of them out there. And Rich, they're all the exact same ball. It's not like there are two balls that are different than the other balls that are played. They are quite literally the exact same basketballs that are rolled out there on the rack.

I think it's like six across, four down. I mean, you're talking to a former ball boy, so I have a deep knowledge of the basketballs in an NBA arena. They are the exact same.

They're all the exact same that are put out there. So when Giannis says it didn't really feel like the one that we were playing with, that doesn't really line up with kind of what I know about the game. That's about to say. So are you speaking as an NBA insider right now? Are you speaking as a former ball boy right now, Chris? A little bit of both. I'm tapping into both of my knowledge.

So I guess now that leads to my last question, I swear, and then we will move on. Was the ball boy last night like freaking out? Was there some young ball boy last night in that arena just freaking about a basketball, Chris? Probably, probably not, because once you saw the security director for the Bucks immediately go and get his hands on one of them in that moment. And again, speaking as a former ball boy in a situation like that where I am a teenager making like 50 bucks a game, I'm staying the hell away from that. I want no part of whatever's going on between Giannis and the Indiana Pacers. Chris Maddox here, former ball boy, senior writer for Sports Illustrated, or were you a senior ball boy?

Should I give you a tell? I got to senior ball boy. When you get to your senior year of college, you're still a ball boy.

That's your senior ball boy. Where was this? Where was this? This was in Boston for almost 10 years. In the garden? I never got into the old garden.

I was the first year of the new building. Oh, really? Okay. So did you ever have like a run-in with anybody at any point in time as a ball boy? We'll have to do this the next time, Rich. There's a lot of ball boy stories I can tap into, that's for sure. I will now in fact move on.

All right. So what do you know about the decision to give Draymond Green an indefinite suspension by the league? So the NBA's thinking in all this is that they don't believe that just giving Draymond a set number of games is going to make any kind of impact.

And they're basing that on very recent history. They've suspended Draymond Green four times in effectively the last nine months. They suspended him for five games just a month ago. So the NBA came to the conclusion that just giving him a defined number of games where he doesn't have to work towards anything, he doesn't have to show them anything. He just has a date where he's allowed back on the floor and that's that.

They decided that wasn't working. So in making this an indefinite suspension, they're putting benchmarks on this. I don't know specifically what they're going to ask Draymond Green to do, and it is muddy waters to kind of wade into making mental health decisions, making emotional health type of decisions. But the NBA is going to want to see some things from Draymond Green before they allow him back on the floor. That's why it's my belief, and this is more just a belief than anything the NBA is telling me at this point, you're going to exceed 10 games with this suspension before we ultimately see Draymond back on the floor.

Any idea of how Green is taking this? You know, I've had some short conversations, text conversations with people around him. I would imagine he's frustrated by the indefinite suspension, but I think he's going to do what he has to do to get back on the floor. I mean, look, Draymond knows that what he did was completely out of line. That's why he was immediately in the media room after the game trying to do some damage control apologizing. He didn't hear him apologize to Rudy Gobert in the aftermath of that interview, he apologized to Yusef Nurkic. He did get defensive, though, about this idea that this was similar to what happened with Gobert. With Gobert, he made a bad decision to go in there and jump on him. He continued to suggest that this was just a basketball move, that he was kind of flailing to sell a foul.

And I can tell you the league didn't buy that, and I didn't buy that. You know, Draymond came up and wound up and clocked Yusef Nurkic across the skull with the side of his forearm. That's not a basketball player trying to sell a basketball play in any stretch.

So he's going to have some work to do in showing the league that he's ready to get back on the floor. Yeah, and he couldn't use as an excuse that he didn't know Nurkic's whereabouts because he was wearing Nurkic as a cape, pretty much, for the entire sequence where he was close to an eye. I had some people texting me afterwards, like, look, the foul itself was a modest foul by Yusef Nurkic.

Of course. The kind of play you see all the time. He had kind of a grip on his jersey on the right side, Draymond green swung, hit him on the other side.

What people were texting me after the game was, look, Nurkic was kicking his backside in all game long. It was more the frustration that probably had to do with that than anything was happening specifically in that moment. Right. And then to say as well that I'm apologizing for it because I didn't mean to do it.

If I meant to do it, I would be unapologetic, which is something that if my five-year-old said, Susie and I, my wife and I would sit him down or her down and say, what are you saying? Like there's a certain thing called remorse and respect and what have you. So I guess my question for you is, is that does anything, because, and I know this is spreading it to dangerous waters here or, or, or 10, uh, tenuous is probably a better word for Chris is again, it was March and then April and then November and then December all in this calendar year and the Jordan pool incident that went without him being suspended by his own team.

Again, I don't know all the details right there. Is there anything that's that's happened with Draymond Green to cause this string of, of acting out in, in ways that are one shocker after another Chris? It's really hard to say because I don't know of anything specific going on in the life of Draymond Green that would trigger something like this. Uh, I do think that the frustration level within Draymond Green has to be at an all time high for a couple of reasons. One, the warriors are not very good.

Like they have been healthy for most of this season and they have not been very good. 10 and 13 on the year Draymond has taken a step back. Clay Thompson has taken a step back. Andrew Wiggins has taken a step back. So this is kind of the, you're witnessing sort of the crumbling of the dynasty and along those same lines, you know, Draymond is not the same type player. I heard Charles Barkley in an interview recently, you know, talk about how like when he wasn't the same kind of guy, he would lash out in stuff like this. He took a shot at Othello Harrington at the end of his time in Houston because Othello, while he wasn't the player that, uh, Charles Barkley was, he played harder and was able to do things that Charles couldn't do. So I think that probably plays into it as well.

The regression of the Golden State Warriors as a team and the regression of Draymond Green as a player. Yeah. I heard Charles said that.

I think it was on DP show Chris. And then, and that was on the heels of him, um, in, in the broadcast where Turner's here and ESPN's there, he screams over at Bob Meyers on the ESPN set, you know, like you, you left the sink and ship just in time. And I'm sure Draymond hears that and I'm sure that that all sinks in, in that spot, you know, when he's getting frustrated, it's just, yeah, it absolutely does.

And look, the wires are a difficult position right now. They've got Steph Curry's still playing at an MVP level, but the rest of these guys are not. And the clay Thompson on an expiring contract has almost no trade value. Draymond Green with four years left on his contract has zero value at this point.

Andrew Wiggins looks like the guy we saw kind of struggling through Minnesota and not the guy we saw the last couple of years. So I think they're, you know, they're in a predicament where I don't know what writes the ship in golden state. So before I let you go here, what is the story you're going to be keeping an eye on over the next six weeks to unfold for this season as we, we had it into the, the Christmas time era and then, uh, and then obviously the trade deadline coming up after an all star game.

What do you, what do you, what are you keeping an eye on here, Chris? Well, you know, for starters, just exactly what golden state does off the top, because you don't trade Steph Curry in season, that's for sure. But at the end of the year, does a discussion take place with a guy who's got two years left on his contract about, does he want to be here while this team is going through some kind of rebuild? The more short term story is can John Morant save the grizzly season and Memphis is bad. They're a bad basketball team right now, but we're about, what is it a week away from John Morant being eligible to return for Memphis. So it'll be very interesting to see if you're just injecting him back into the lineup, puts a Grizzlies team that look, believed it had, you know, finals potential just months ago.

If he can make a difference this late in the season. And then any other conversation about Jokic getting ejected in, uh, in, in Eastern conference arenas where he's only there one time and fans in Detroit and fans in Chicago, Chicago fans there for Serbia night. Uh, he gets a one technical ejection and what, what's the conversation you're hearing on that front?

Yeah, that's tough. I don't hear a lot about, you know, it is sort of strange, the, the cities that it's happened in, in the circumstance and look, Jokic has had a very un-Jokic like stretch as of late. He hasn't been playing his best basketball, so maybe some frustration settles in for him as well. But look, he, you know, overall you're going to see Jokic back in the MVP conversation over the next couple of months.

If you're talking about a team to beat Rich, it's still the Denver Nuggets, you know, at the top of that totem pole. Chris, thanks for the time. Greatly appreciate it, brother.

You'd be well. You got it. That's at SI Chris Mannix, bringing his expertise as an insider and former ball boy here on the Rich Eisen show.

Wild. Who wants Curry? Is that what he basically kind of said? That's in the ether. If the Warriors continue to struggle, there won't be an in-season thing.

I can think of like 31 teams, 32 that. Two years left on a contract too. Yeah. Bring him and you basically say, we'll rip that out. Can you rip it up? I don't know the CBA rules.

Rip it up and give him a new one and, and you're, you're now here for the rest of your career. It's been the rumors of LeBron wanting him for a while. LeBron can say whatever he wants. There's a team in New York City that should have drafted him years ago. I was at that draft. You were right. Yeah. So there's two things we learned that he was at in the show.

One that he was at that draft and another one I had no idea. And Susie has already texted me. She would like to delve deep into this subject when she's in this chair tomorrow. You were near North Korea once? Yeah. Okay. She texts me. She's like, did you just say he was right near North Korea? There's photo proof of that.

Okay. He's right in front of North Korea to El Segundo. Hey, I've been everywhere. Alright, phone calls in my top five list, baby. Top five most intriguing match-ups for week number 15.

That's coming up as we finish up this Thursday program. Back on The Rich Eisen Show, AutoZone wants you to make sure you listen to tonight's NFL Thursday night game, as well as every single broadcast of the NFL on Westwood One. You could stream it for free, sponsored by AutoZone. Just tell Alexa to open Westwood One Sports or listen to every Westwood Run broadcast on the NFL Live on the NFL app or on your Westwood One Affiliate Stations digital platforms.

AutoZone's free battery testing and charging is available for free at your local AutoZone. Restrictions apply. Get in the zone. AutoZone. Let's go to Jimmy in San Antonio, our buddy Jimmy. What's up, Jimmy? Jimmy. What's on your mind, sir? Jimmy. What's up, brother?

I wanted to add a TJ in Del Tufo, first of all. Hey. Hey, guys. Hey, Jimmy. What about Jimmy?

And then Brockman and Rich, I got something for you. But first, did you play something that DK Metcalf turned 26 today? He did. He does. So some dude 18 years older than DK grew up listening to you?

That's crazy. You liked that one the other day, huh, Jimmy? Heard that one? One guy who sounded like he was eight says, I grew up listening to you, and I'm like, how old are you? He said 44. I'm like, okay. I swear.

I thought he had a paper route. I was shocked, too, when he said 44. Okay. I know. Okay. Brockman, I need you to step up with me, brother. Brother. Yeah.

Shots? It's time for old coaches to go. Popovich is done in San Antonio. Come on, man. You just sound like a four or five-year extension.

I can give you different reasons why. You can't tell the fans to not boo the opposition. I heard that when he was with Kawhi coming back. I know he grabbed the mic like it was Sam Wyche. I saw that one.

We were on break, I think, when that happened. Every city has their identity, and San Antonio's identity at the heart is a little Latina woman that will hit you with a chancla in your head, and he told her no. And you don't do that, and he keeps losing, and I think he's lost this city.

Oh, interesting. I don't know, man. I mean, I couldn't imagine a better guy to have Wen Banyama's important first season in his hands and the growth coming. You just... But, Rich, he's not worried about winning. He's worried about making these guys good men, which is not a problem, but do that off the clock. I need some wins. Let's do something.

R.C. Buford, you've been a great GM. Get after it. We have draft picks.

We might have the number one pick with the way we're going. It's time to get to work. Jimmy, thanks for the call, brother. How about that?

See you, dude. Just like Belichick, right? Where you're just sitting here saying, I don't know.

I don't know. How about Ron Washington, you know, in his 70s? Hey, man, congrats. You're a manager again.

You lost Otani. By the way, I think he's being introduced today here in Los Angeles as a Dodger. Get ready, guys. Get ready. Get ready. You're going to see him there in the Dodger blue and it is going to be jarring. And get used to it. Did you hear in his contract that he can get out of his contract if the majority owner or Andrew Friedman lose their gigs?

He can walk at the end of that year. And if you're the GM or if you're Andrew Friedman of the Dodgers, you know what I'm doing? I am parking wherever the hell I want. I might drive right up to the front gate and just and just leave my car there and flip the keys to anybody and say, just leave it there. And then I'm going to go into the Dodger club and I'm grazing. I am going to graze.

I'm just going to take a hot dog here and I'm just going to take my hand and just stick it right in the nuts, the mixed nuts, stick the hands right in the candy, right in the candy jar. You're putting your feet on everybody's couch, wherever I want to put a chair on top of the dugout. What do you do about it?

Put a chair. What do you want to lose? Oh, Tommy. Yeah. That guy right there. You do whatever you want. Andrew leaves.

I want to talk about Teflon. He's wearing Kev large is whatever you want to do. Wow. I saw that. I'm like, just put your feet up, man.

Can I have the entire left field? That's it. You're you're like Charlie Sheen sitting out there.

Kick everyone out. I'm sitting right here by myself. What else is that the greatest that you've got? Oh, Tommy's got your back. That's some job insurance for you, right? It's just not. He said it. That's written in the contract. Apparently is. Yo, I understand if they sell the team and you got a whole different ownership group. Right. But the GM is not going to GM.

That's great, man. So all the fans might be calling in locally like Freeman's got to go pitching stinks, but it's like, oh, you're going nowhere. He's going, you know where he's at. He gonna be there. He's the anti-magic. Magic is sitting there. He's going to be here. Magic is going to come out and make that sound bite. Oh, he'll be there.

Oh, he'll be here. By the way, did anyone check Magic's tweet when no Tony came? No, I know I did. Oh, I did. It was it was straight up magically. I was congratulating the you know, his fellow fellow, the ones who got it done. Hell yeah, he's doing that. I saw that.

I'm like, this is the greatest day in the history of generally and managing all of it. All right. I've got a top five list. Let's hit it. Let's hit it going out the door. Hit it.

Hit it. High five. One, two, three, four, five.

Richest top five. Here we go, everybody. My top five most intriguing matchups of week 15. Oh, yeah, I'm starting in Lambeau Field. The Green Bay Packers after taking Tommy DeVito's right cross, taking it right in the chops. Here comes Baker friggin Mayfield. My guy. He's coming to plant the Tampa Bay flag right in the middle right on that G. And that OG is coming to Green Bay. Could you imagine he gives the Bucks a win here?

They're seven and seven. And he's already talking about I have found a home. I have found a home and it is Tampa Bay and I am going to win this division.

I am planting a flag. And by the way, last time he played here, he played for Cleveland on a Christmas day and he balled out and he threw an interception at the end because Donovan Peoples Jones got grabbed. OK, for you Browns fans.

And there was no flag. That was a big game against Aaron Rodgers. He's like Aaron Rodgers, that's Jordan Love. I got this.

And Jordan Love's like, OK, didn't play my best game, but guess what? We are going to be seven and seven. I'm not going to have this tie break against us if the Bucks don't win their division. It's a big football game between two six and seven teams.

Very big. Number four on this list is the Saturday night game as part of the triple header on NFL Network, Broncos and Lions. Hey, Lions, this is it.

You're going home and you you need this one. I know it's not a conference game, but there are the Vikings are sitting there. I mean, could you imagine big Nick Mullins tries to come and win this division?

You're opening a door here that you don't want open, even slightly ajar, OK? And you want to you want you want to be something other than the three seed. You want to get up to the two seed. You want to start restoring the roar here from the first half of the season, win this football game. And then Russell Wilson's coming in seven and six. They are in a mosh pit in the AFC playoff race. And by the way, have a shot to win the division. They are one game behind the Chiefs, guys.

I know. And so they can win this football game. It would be huge.

They'd go home on Christmas Eve night. I'm calling that game Broncos versus New England. Can the Broncos go on a playoff run, starting right now, or they actually start about a month ago, but finish this run. That's number four on the list. Number three on the list is the final game of the week.

Pardon me. No, the the final game of Sunday night. It's Sunday night football. It's the Ravens and Jaguars. Jaguars have lost two in a row. What's going on with these Jaguars? Is there any chance in heck that the Texans can win their game with Davis Mills if they play and they win and then suddenly they're tied again with Jacksonville and Houston because the Ravens are coming in? Or are the Ravens going to come in and get the Jaguars best shot and the Jaguars plant their feet down and say, we blew the one seed last time we were on this field by giving Jake Browning a bust in Canton and no, sir, not here Lamar Jackson and keep this one seed is an open question in the AFC a little bit more with the Jaguars having a chance to get it because they would have a huge tiebreak onto Ravens here. Let's see what happens on Sunday night football. Then there's the Monday nighter, the first ever flexed into existence Monday night football game. It is the Eagles and the Seahawks. Seahawks have lost four in a row. Do they need this one?

That's a rhetorical question. This is it. AJ Brown and DK on the same field, some of the best physical receivers this game has playmakers all over the Philadelphia lot that have not played well for weeks. We had Nick Sirianni on yesterday's program. Seek it out.

If you didn't see it on our YouTube page or on the Rich Eisen Show Roku collection page, go check it out. It was a great conversation. He knows it. He knows it. Got to take care of business in this one. The Philadelphia Eagles have the ability to win out and win the East and maybe win the one seed because of their conference record.

This would defray it losing this one in Seattle. Strange game. And then number one, we all know what it is. I understand.

You could say it. It's the varsity. It's Dallas rampaging into Western New York, taking on the team that you can make a great argument has been playing the best football in the American football conference over the last month. Josh Allen and Dak Prescott, two of the best in the business managing the game to some. But to me, they are red hot quarterbacks. You could make the case that the two hottest quarterbacks in the NFL right now as well.

Brock Purdy aside, I can't wait for this one. The Bills have a shot to win the division. They went out and get a little help from maybe even Dallas taking on Miami later on.

They could win the division and then the Cowboys can win the one seed. This is huge. That's my number one. I'll give you one more. All right, we'll get one more.

There's an eye in my first and last names. So I'm going to say the one more is the game I'm calling and and and and also it's two seven and six teams, folks. They're seven and eight. I mean, there's currently, pardon me, six and seven in the wild card race. OK, there's seven and six and they need to win it. And it's on the line and I cannot wait to call it with Kurt Warner.

That is my top five most intriguing matchups of week one, five right here on The Rich Isaac Show. Susie will be in this chair tomorrow. I'll be zooming in for what's more likely, Chris, her guest zooming in. His name is Shaquille O'Neal, who I do believe you said the last time chastised you for interrupting Susie. He's a T.J. Don't interrupt Miss Susie. OK. And we'll find out. We'll find out if anybody ever once took his game basketball. I doubt that.

I mean, no, not and of course, so much more. That'll be on Friday's edition of The Rich Isaac Show. I'll be zooming in from Indianapolis and that will wrap up this edition. Thanks to Mike Florio and Joe Mixon and Chris Mannix for being guests here. We'll wrap this show on the Roku Channel in a moment.

You love Lala Kent on Vanderpump Rules, now get to know her on Give Them Lala. I don't know that I would call it respect that I have for Sandoval, but the world hated him. He still went out, performed shows with his head held high. He showed up to the reunion when we all were going after him like he didn't skip a beat. The way he's handling it, if I were in his position and I said it straight up to the entire audience, thousands of people, I would tell you all to **** and the room was dead. Watch what Lala is talking about on YouTube or search for Give Them Lala wherever you listen.