The Natural Host Craig Kilborn talks Minnesota Timberwolves

This is The Rich Eisen Show. So guys, I'm accessible.

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I find him accessible. The Rich Eisen Show. Earlier on the show, Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles. Coming up, host of the Life Gorgeous Podcast, Craig Kilbourne.

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How's about that? The host of the Life Gorgeous Podcast and somebody I met many, many moons ago. 1996 for the first time when we did a SportsCenter together. One of my favorites. Craig Kilbourne is here, everybody. Ladies and gentlemen.

Timer Wolf's pride. Nice to hear you and Chris talk about Paul Made in hair gel. You two guys are riveting. You guys talk about Paul Made. Well, hey, man. I used to put in the crew. It was like a crew sort of paste back when you and I did SportsCenters together. I had the flock of seagulls. I had the wisp, right?

Was that the phrase we heard the other day? I had the wisp. Jerry said the wisp. That's on having Seinfeld on.

Thank you, sir. I'm a big fan of his. I love his. I think I like the man more than the television show.

He focuses. It's all about jokes. He knows what he wants to do.

It's pretty simple. Joke, joke, joke. That's all he thinks about. He's a comedy technician. Yes. He's a technician.

Yes. Good to see you, man. Thanks, brother. When I texted you last week, I said, how does next Tuesday seem?

And then you texted me back right in the middle of another wolves sweep. We popped that up on the screen right there. Oh, yeah. Look at that.

The martini glass, the wolf emoji, and the fist pound. Yeah. And look at us right now.

Look at you sitting in this chair halfway through a sweep right now. Look at this. Yeah.

It's stunning. And a lot of the people in Minnesota are confused, and they can't comprehend what happened last night, because Rudy Gobert was not there, and we thought we might split, and then it was a bizarre shellacking, because going into the playoffs, I think we all thought Denver was the best team in basketball. I agree. And Jokic is the best player. He's crafty, and he doesn't have to jump, and he has a soft touch.

Left hand, right hand, whatever he wants. But now the world is understanding. There's a guy named Nah, Nikhil Alexander-Walker, and Jaden McDaniels. Nas Reed, the Wizard of Nas. And then the guy, Anthony Edwards, has taken it to another level. He's unbelievable, man.

Yeah. I mean, I've just always wanted to have somebody like that to root for. Now, being a Knicks fan, seeing Brunson do what he's doing right now. Yeah, Brunson's playing very well.

I mean, it's just awesome to see that and feel that. I mean, rooting for Anthony Edwards right now must be just a total blast right now. Yeah, he was raw coming out of college. He was the number one pick.

He didn't get Rookie of the Year, because LaMelo Ball was more polished at the time. But, physical specimen who, like Dwayne Wade and LeBron, not the greatest jump shooter, he's hitting it now in the playoffs more so. You know, he had a stretch of four games at the end of the regular season where he went 0 for 22 on threes, like four game stretch. And he got in the gym and would just keep working on his shot. And he's shooting so well. And the other thing is, his floor game has improved, because they double team him, and he has to get rid of the ball and then get it back. And Mike Conley and Finch, you're telling him, get out of the double team, we'll give it back to you.

And he's learning how to play the game. Conley's awesome, too. Tell him the story about Conley when you texted me.

What do you mean? Tell us what- I was in my distressed leather club chair in the morning having coffee, listening to Bill Evans, and I get a text. Mike Conley's coming on the show. Do you have anything for him, Rich? Maybe your best interview ever, Rich. You told me you- why did I slip my mind? Hold on a minute.

Now I'm going to call this up on my text with you here. So I gave him a couple- That's right, you did. He was great. Mike was awesome. Anthony Edwards, for some reason, calls Mike Conley bite bite.

That's right. Which Mike doesn't like. He likes Minnesota Mike.

36 year old Mike Conley hanging out with 22 year old Anthony Edwards. That's right, you wrote- And I gave you that gem. You did.

You actually, you even wrote one more gem. He was asked recently if he ever yells at his teammates because he's so mild-mannered and he says no because what? Sometimes late in a game or something like that? Yeah, he'll take the coach's seat. He'll take the coach's seat.

Mike Conley. Kilburn, did you- that was next level. How did I totally forget that? I'm so- Because you have other things on your mind. You did give me all that. You were at that roast where you were dropping F bombs and I can't watch that. I had to cleanse and watch a couple of Frasier episodes.

All those F bombs, young people. You went to the tossed salad and scrambled eggs as a sort of a palate cleanser? Is that what you did, Craig? That's my favorite sitcom, Frasier. Is it really? Yeah.

Your favorite sitcom is Frasier? Yes. Erudite. Yes.

Kind of a white collar. Yeah, I like that. Niles.

You gotta like Niles. It's a great- By the way, the people in Minnesota don't want to be here to talk about this. They want to be talking about the- No, that's not all. Come on, man.

The Terrible Wall of Pride. Dude, let me tell you something. I remember when I first started seeing you on SportsCenter. I was in Redding, California, just up the- well, not just up the road, but you started in Salinas, California. Salinas, Monterrey.

Yes. You lived in Carmel. So there I was in Northern California, knowing that you had made a career path from Salinas to SportsCenter. And I'm like, that's what I want to do from Northern California. Just turn it on TV and then seeing William Shatner's photograph over your shoulder.

I'm like, this guy had me at hello, you know, for sure. You know, it's interesting when you're- my childhood was comedy and basketball. And then when you're in your 20s and 30s, it's all comedy and pop culture. Now that I'm older, I don't care about comedy as much. I just like acting superior. That's kind of what they're- and I like the life gorgeous. And my Instagram is the one that really sings.

It's so easy for me and it's celebrating me deep breathing in a French bistro or bonding with a chill martini. And you're always so supportive because we didn't- Rich and I didn't know each other that well, did you know? Well, you were there for only, I think, the first two, three months that I was there. Oh, is that brief? That's it.

Yeah. Oh, wow. I'll never forget the first night you took me to dinner.

I love- I love taking the young people out for dinner. Have I told this story to you? Yeah, you've told it. I don't do you. Have I told you? I have, yeah. Where you- I repeat my stories all the time.

No, no. Well, I mean, you know, when you're on three hours a day for me here, I'm repeating myself all the time. But yeah, where you're- you took me to dinner and you're the spark. Let's get in the car. And you took me through the Kenny Rogers Rollin' Roaster drive through. And then you started telling me about this new opportunity you might have.

You described a daily show to me. Yeah? You asked me what I should- what you should do.

You asked me for career advice and I'm like, I just got here. What the hell are you talking about? And I heard that you were in hot water because you didn't want to do like a Duke, North Carolina game on ESPN2 or something like that. Yeah, I was- The deuce was beneath Kilby. Will I ever tell you, you'll get a kick out of this.

It's supposed to be a criticism, but I took it as a compliment and I apologize. The first time I met Jay Leno was at CBS. I'm doing the Late Night Show at CBS. He was- we had the adjacent studio Bill Maher was doing politically incorrect on ABC.

And Jay was doing the show. And I saw him in the hallway and I was going to go down to rehearse and he goes, Craig, Craig, Craig. And I said, nice to meet you. You know, first time he goes, hey, you seem a little standoffish. And I loved that. Leno accused you of being standoffish?

Yeah. I was a little into my own world, which I obviously encourage that. I'm just joking, Rich. I'm just being silly. When I played ball, I was creative.

I was like Pistol Pete, but then I don't play ball anymore. So I need an outlet. Sure. So, but yeah, I thought, don't you love that word standoffish? It's certainly coming from Jay Leno. Yeah. So did you become less standoffish after hearing that?

I mean, I did a show once years later. He was nice to me. Yeah, he's nice to the guests.

So it was all good. Yeah. Speaking of standoffish, what's wrong with Jamal Murray?

Bad vibes. I don't know, man. Is he going to get suspended? How does he not?

That's what I'm saying. If he hit the ref with the heat pack, could you imagine? He's lucky he didn't make contact. The refereeing has been bizarre. I like that they're letting them play. That's an advantage to the Timberwolves because they play physical defense.

Yes, they do. But did you see game one? Did you see when Ant got clobbered? Oh my God.

Yeah. I mean, Reggie Miller's like, this is the second round of the playoffs. You can't miss calls like that. I mean, that is the definition of a hacking foul. And then they called a taunting technical on him and they rescinded it after the game where he just made a layup on Reggie Jackson and just looked at him because Ant can get into the game. He can get into the game.

That's one way to say it. He had a lot of technicals. He's not as bad as Luca, but he's toned it down in the playoffs. But the refereeing is, how does Mike Malone not get a technical for running on the court? I think he wanted one to inspire his team.

Yeah, it looked like he really was going for it. Look at this. Look at the production of the Rich Eisen show. Face to face.

It's like a boxing pre-fight standoff. Okay. McKeel Alexander-Walker, three pointer, go. I don't think we got that. Nice. I appreciate it. Oh, well, we got it. We got it.

I like that. That's a hook, by the way. That's a hook. That's offensive foul. But you're right. I mean, listen, he went face to face with the ref.

That's one thing. Because to me, I don't mind when refs don't have a quick technical trigger or a home plate umpire doesn't eject somebody. But to throw a heat pack onto the court and it's just like you're clearly trying to throw something at the officiating.

Even if you're sitting there saying you're not, you're protesting the officiating by throwing something onto the court. Right. Now, I heard other reports that he threw a towel and they quickly took it off. And I also heard he did the money sign for the refs that were being paid off. Well, let's go. Bear did that, right?

Bear did that and he got in major trouble. Right. So I just hope, you know, games three and four, I want some peaceful basketball, going to a French restaurant afterwards, Mason Margot, David Fima.

And I don't want any fouls or any dirty play, you know, when the champs are struggling. What does Craig Kilborn at a French restaurant look like? Can you paint the word picture to me? What is, what do we, first of all, how are you trying to, are we going to ask Scott?

What are we doing? I don't always have a microphone in front of me, even though I request it. No, I, you know, it's very fattening. I love puff pastries. I love beef wellington.

I love pâté. But Rich, one day after the Wolves win the championship, well, I don't know what to knock on here. Okay, okay, yeah, yeah.

Hold on. That's superstition. Are you superstitious?

No, not at all. I was doing it for the listeners. The commoners.

The commoners. I'm not superstitious. We're going to go out for a martini. I'll take you to a French restaurant.

We'll celebrate. I'll do it. Yeah. You can drink a martini, right?

Sure. I know you love your Barolo wine, which I do as well. I do. I do like the red, the Italian red.

It's better, yeah. You know, I can- Stick with wine, young people. I will never in my life have an espresso martini. They're disgusting and unhealthy. Oh. Very popular. Exactly. So much sugar and caffeine.

Very popular. Just have the straight vodka. I don't understand the point of an espresso martini. It's just a fad. Because doesn't it cancel each other out? I think so.

The alcohol content gets canceled out by the caffeine, does it not? It's a waste of my time. Now I'm getting upset. So you're not superstitious.

No. Neither am I. Yeah. Because I told you he wouldn't be. I told you. We had this conversation.

I thought he would be. And hour one, you and I would not have been able to make contact because we had the Larry O'Brien trophy here in hour number one. Oh, wow. Which would have been great if we could keep it.

We wanted to keep it for the next couple of hours. I got a picture of it once a couple of years ago, so I've got that. It's new. Oh, did it?

Oh, it looks beautiful. They have some ice on it? Some diamonds?

No. They have some silver on it. There it is right there. Oh, beautiful. For the basketball, I guess, grooves.

And then they've made a net out of the back of it now. You can see that. Is that silhouette, is that figure right there more iconic than the Jordan Nike?

Which my silhouette is, I don't know. Yes, I will agree with that. It is more iconic than the Jumpman. Yes, sir. Wow. It is. My original logo, as it was created almost 10 years ago right now, was an exact replica of my running style from my 40-yard dash, exact to the point where the right leg that's up was flayed out because I don't have a great running style at all.

And I watched them as they graphically pulled it back into a more athletic looking stance. And there you have it right there. Exciting. It's all exciting.

All the anecdotes. We have so many. So what do you think of Karl-Anthony Towne? I love him.

By the way, we had him on a few months ago. I love him. What a sweetheart of a guy. So he is. He's a very sweet man. He's polarizing for some people.

Why? Well, he picks up silly fouls. Now, he's a seven-footer, he reaches sometimes.

He also, I'm going to get a little technical here, unbelievable offensive savant, can shoot the lights out, great touch, won the three-point contest. He'll spot up, shoot, or he'll freight train to the rim drive. He doesn't go three dribbles pull-up. He doesn't do pull-ups like Kevin Durant or Brandon Ingram. So that causes a little bit of a problem. So he'll get some offensive fouls and he'll get some fouls reaching on defense.

And it infuriates people. Including Anthony Edwards. Yes. That soundbite that he had.

Yes. Stop effing fouling. And he was dead serious, by the way.

There wasn't like a tongue in the cheek at all. Like he's like, we can't be stopped if he's not in foul trouble. And Carl Anthony Towns said something along the lines of, well, yeah, my game is also predicated on defense or whatever. And Edwards like, yeah, stop effing fouling. I'm telling you, Anthony Edwards' personality is real, authentic, down to earth, charismatic. He's so entertaining for everyone. I've seen non-sports fans listen to interviews with him, and they're like, this guy's great. He's amazing. Can't get enough of him. Where do you stand on the MJ of it all? That name's been thrown out a lot over the last... It's the highest compliment you can...

It is. But you, as somebody who sat on the SportsCenter set for the heyday of Michael Jordan, where do you stand on that? Well, I think it's, I mean, Jordan's the best and has a long way to go, in my opinion. I did say during the regular season, and I hope I'm wrong, I said, I don't think he'll ever be as fundamentally sound as Michael Jordan. Jordan just was more fundamentally sound.

But Ant is learning how to make the right pass, not to turn it over as much. Did I tell you? I met Ant at a Wolves practice this year. Can I quickly tell you something funny?

Please, what are you doing? So they were practicing, they had a layover here in LA, and I know Finchy, really super nice guy, but great coach, and he's coaching them hard this year, which I really appreciate. And I'm just talking to him, and I was doing jokes, it was after practice, and they were shooting around. I said, hey, can I go talk to slow-mo and get the hitch out of his shot, because Kyle Anderson has a hitch in his shot.

And Finchy goes, good luck. And then he said, have you ever met Ant? And I said, no, so I knew he was going to call Ant over. And I said to Finchy, I said, just so you know, Joe DiMaggio, at the end of his life insisted that he was introduced as the greatest living Yankee, just so you know. And he said, how do you want me to introduce you, which I thought was hilarious, because he had so much on his mind, and now he's going to introduce me to Ant, but I want to tell him what to say.

I mean, I'm being silly. I said, well, I did late night, I like being called a natural host, that's what I said. So Ant comes over, I shake his hand, and Finchy says, this is Craig Kilborn, he's one of the original ESPN SportsCenter anchors, and he finished it, I said, I'm a legend to Ant. And he laughs. And we took a picture, and I said, keep working on your game, man, and try not to turn the ball over. And then he said, nice to meet you, sir. And I said, you don't have to call me sir. And he walks away and I said to Finchy, is it okay that I told him not to turn the ball over? And he said, we're all telling him the same thing.

But I loved it, we were talking about the intro. The natural host. Oh my gosh, and it's so crazy, man, that, you know, he's 22. So you were long gone from SportsCenter when he was born. Yeah.

It's kind of wild. And just to let the national media know, some of these people are like, he's got to go to a bigger market. He's not leaving. He's not leaving.

Well, they say that about anybody who plays in Wisconsin or Minnesota or whatever, like, as fuck. Tim Duncan's got to leave San Antonio. No, he doesn't. And he didn't.

And he didn't. Craig Kilborn here on the Rich Eisen Show. Let's take a break, we'll come back. We've got a top five. We're just going to go wherever the hell our conversation takes us.

That's the beauty of it. Lord Kilby is here. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Let's talk game time. Boy, do we love using game time tickets at the Rich Eisen Show. And every single time I've been watching the basketball playoffs on TV, I've been wondering what it would be like to be at these games. And when you choose your tickets on game time, you can see the view from your seat where the court is, where you are in relation to it. And then the all-in prices.

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Power 2023 award information, visit jdpower.com slash awards only at a sleep number store or sleep number.com. Craig Kilbourne here on the Rich Eisen show. Our radio audience just returned.

He's the natural host right here on the Rich Eisen show. So also known as kind of pathetic. No it's not. There it is. There's your Chiron.

The natural host. T-woolz have the second best odds right now. Yeah. Well they should.

Why wouldn't they? Yeah. I mean the way that they are playing they could get through the west I would think. I was going to text my friend if they won game one at Denver and I was going to say we just won the championship because I thought Denver was the best team and now that we were able to win the one game there we're going to win the series. We play well against OKC who we might play next.

I think they'll be Dallas, Boston I have a lot of respect for. The wolves will not have home court in any of these by the way. Correct. Yeah. Right. Including it. Well I mean is it top seed in the NBA finals or do they flip it?

Top seed Boston. That's the way it works? Unless they change the rules. It's the top record right?

OK. Yeah. I think that's why baseball used to flop it. It was an American League year and a National League year or something like that. Then it was the All-Star game. By the way. We're not talking baseball. Sorry. Let's go.

Although the Twins just had an 11 game win streak. Congratulations on getting my favorite Michigan quarterback as your quarterback. So tell me.

What should I expect? I know it's a crapshoot with all these guys. The Bears go Trubisky, Fields and now Caleb Williams. Yes. This is the highest we've drafted a quarterback. 10. Number 10. Since Christian Ponder.

11. Yeah. So you're saying. He's not Christian Ponder. OK. With all due respect to the Ponders.

Yes. OK, this guy's all right. I don't mean to denigrate anybody else. I love this kid. He's great. Great. OK. And I have been from this chair pounding the table for him and singing his praises and being such a Michigan hunk that both of these guys that are to your behind you and TJ Jefferson and to your left and Chris Brockman are sick and tired of me talking about the Michigan Wolverines.

They don't want me to talk about him. Congratulations on the win. Thank you, sir. Oh. That's huge.

The national championship. I just I can't resist it, but these guys met J.J. McCarthy in person in Detroit. Right.

And they they can't resist. He is. Can I say something and tell me what you think it is? Obviously, I'm pulling for J.J. McCarthy. Yes, sir. I'm also pulling for Sam Darnold. I think he's talented. But I do that. Well, I'm Baker Mayfield in Tampa. Come on.

It's fun. I agree. And Darnold is in that sort of launch position. More talented than Baker, right?

Maybe I'm wrong. He moves well. He has a stronger arm.

We'll find out. I think he's going to get the year to to do that as well. I think he's going to get the week one start. And I think they're going to want J.J. McCarthy to kind of have the and this is not I'm not comparing the two because obviously the quarterback rookie quarterback in division is the kid who's been compared to Patrick Mahomes. But they want to do the sort of have Sam Darnold be the Alex Smith of this situation. Take a team to the playoffs when they are potentially playoff ready as this team is. And that J.J. McCarthy sit there, maybe wet his beak a little bit in the final week of the season and then take it over. That's the I think what their plan is going to be and that Darnold will have a possibility to just show everybody that he's the guy who was third overall in that draft because they are that talented. They are they are they are that good. And your coach is awesome, too. And let me say one of you're 100 percent right. Thank you. The only thing with K.O.C.

just make sure you the marriage of the run in the past run the ball a little bit. I'm just these are technical things. Hey, Chris.

Hey, Craig. Yes. Rich. Yes. Brian Flores. Yeah. Love him. Yeah.

We're lucky to have him as the defensive coordinator. Yes, indeed. You have an opinion on him?

I think last year the defense looked a little different, didn't it? Yeah. So I like him.

Yeah. I like him a lot. And I think he's really talented. And I think there's a ton of talented guys on that team like the Vikings being overlooked though, right? And Aaron Jones going there, too. It's significant.

Well, I think I've heard them. They're going to say it's a tough division now and they've been picked to finish last. Well, that's because everybody is believing in the Caleb Williams.

I can't call it hype because it's real. But the fact that Caleb Williams will have a smooth transition into the NFL and is that talented and that much of a difference maker that the Bears are going to be a playoff team. And then last year you have two other playoff teams coming back looking even better because they drafted well and they did well in their roster building over the last couple of months in the Lions and the Packers. And plus everybody's wondering who the quarterback is and how good Donald's going to be. We'll see.

That's pretty much it right there. I'm feeling good about the team. But I mean, J.J. McCarthy's just, I'm very excited for you.

Happy to hear that. He's a winner. He's lost three football games in his life, I believe.

Two in high school and one at Michigan. So obviously I'm very biased. Fired up.

Okay. So Craig Kilborn is here on the Rich Heisler Show. Who did you do your first sports center with? Who was it? Might have been Carl.

Steve Levy or Carl Ravitch. I can't remember. Yeah. You did most of your sports with Carl.

And then Brett Haber. Yeah. Because Carl went to do baseball tonight. That's right. Now the voice of Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN.

That's his sport. College Psych. Do you remember what, it was at 2.30 in the morning? Was it at 2.30 in the morning? Yeah, we did 2.30 in the morning.

And it wasn't the healthiest of schedules for me. Because if I said something clever, I had to stay up and when it started at 6 a.m. and I would eat some breakfast and then watch, listen to myself and critique myself and yeah. You watched yourself to critique yourself? Yeah.

That's the only way I learned. You're being obnoxious. People are going to say, you're going to watch this and say you're obnoxious? Yeah, probably. Very self-deprecating. So you weren't told, you know, you're being obnoxious?

You'd learned it yourself? Oh, I think my dad said, your mouth's going to get you into trouble. Is that what he said to you?

Yeah. My dad was very funny. But he also thought I was poised and clever and you know. My older brother who I took to the Phoenix games one and two in Minnesota, that was fun. He's an older brother who was introverted, the lone valedictorian of his graduating class of 500 software engineer, had the high jump record for 15 years at Hastings High. And as I'm introducing him to people, my restaurant friends, they're all like, you know, he's slightly better looking than you Craig.

He was very entertaining for me. Well Keith Olbermann was the one who would walk past me in the hallway for about a week and he would just walk past me and go, nope, not yet. Wow. And I'm like, okay.

And I was, again, 26, just fresh off of Redding, California, coming to Sports Center and we shared an agent. Uh oh, what was that Mike? Is that your, is that phones are going off right now? Amber alert. Yeah.

Everybody's got phones. Oh, this is a test. Oh man.

That's weird. So anyway, so Keith is walking down the hallway and saying, nope, not yet. So after a week of it, uh, I bit and I'm like, what are you talking about? And he's basically told me I was joking too much on the air and that, um, and that I, I needed to do one highlight without a joke and one segment without a joke and then one half a show without a joke and then do one entire show without a joke and then do an entire week like that.

And then I'm halfway home is what he told me. And I want to apologize. I wasn't, I was sleeping.

I wasn't able to watch your shows and give you my feedback. Very nice of KO to reach out like that. Although I, again, uh, killer, uh, I will tell you this, I do remember passing by you for the first time in the hallway cause again, I was a big fan going there. I remember exactly where it was.

It was in the stairwell between the third and the second floor and exactly where it was. We passed by each other, you went right up the stairwell and then you open the door again and you say, Hey, spark literally. And then I'm like, yeah, I'm going to introduce myself.

I'm rich. And you're going, I'm Craig. I know who you are. I watch you. And you said to me, you're doing a lot of stuff that I do.

It's a huge compliment, I think, I hope it's a compliment or I was giving you no, but it's one of those moments where you gave me what I was looking for and acknowledgement that you exist. That's number one. And number two, that, that you were, you were yourself on the air and you were yourself off the air.

You know what I mean? And that's, I, I w and then you and I started doing sports centers together, which were, I think we only did like two or three and then you were in the comedy central wind. Yeah.

Yep. Happy times. We had fun. They were fun. Went back there once and I just, it was wild. When did you go back?

I went back for the 2004, I think the 25th anniversary, did a sports center with DP and it was just weird. You know, I said, I can't believe I lived here cause I fell in love with California and you know, LA and everything. So it was just, but when you're young and you're working hard, you'll do anything. You'll stay up late.

You'll just work hard, work extra hours, all that kind of fun stuff. Yeah. And DP would, DP would haze me with love where, you know, I would look at the tapes in the, you know, in the, in the machine when they came up from the 11 o'clock sports center. So I was as ready as possible, you know, and I was really into it, staring at the screen and I just looked to my left at one point and it's Dan looking down at me. So you're nervous like that. And then, and then he would counsel me on occasion. The one there, there was this, this sports center spot I was in where I got sent down to the miners and I was like, I'm like, really like of all the sports, like I've been there three years, four years.

And I was kind of, you know, saying I'm established here, so why am I the choice of being sent down to the miners? And he's like, don't be an idiot. Like they're choosing you because it's, you have comedy chops to do that.

You should do this. And it turned out to be a really great commercial. And Dan reminds me of that all the time. I got to tell you, so DP story quickly, I just had gotten there. I came, you know, so I came from, everyone knew I had lived in Carmel, worked in Monterey, the 110 market. And they said, come down and watch Keith and Dan do the sports center. So you see how it's going. You know, they're doing a live show or like 8 p.m. or whatever.

And they were getting a lot of tapes. It was a little bit of a rough show. And Dan says it, hey, are there any openings in Carmel, California? I'm out of here. It was very funny. Oh my God.

So it wasn't just me. That is so Dan. That is fantastic. God, I love that man.

I love that man. Let's let's let's channel our old sports center a little bit here. We've got a top five list. I got a top five list. I asked you to come up with a top five of your favorite athletes of all time. Yeah.

But I took it any way I wanted. So I have three contemporary and a couple old school athletes. All right. So we've got Craig Kilborn's top five or we've renamed it.

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

Lord Kilby's. Top five. All right. You got a little music for him, Mike? Somebody is very talented here. Good graphic design. Thank you, sir. You've got the Rich Eisen Show team Emmy nominated, but never won.

What the hell's the matter with people? We're going to go five to one. That's correct. Number five on your list is who? Justin Jefferson, the best wide receiver in the NFL, plays for my Minnesota Vikings and he'll be signing a long term deal shortly.

He'll be the highest paid non quarterback in the NFL. OK. So Justin Jefferson is number five on this list. Yes. Yes. Huh. OK.

So you went contemporary right here. Very good. Number four, I'm staying with the Vikings. Probably my favorite Viking. I like saying the hit man. Hitman Harry. Harrison Smith.

Safety out of Notre Dame. The hit man. Have you ever met him? You've ever met him? I've not met him.

He's been on the show. He was funny, right? Yeah, he is. He's quirky, funny, low key. Yeah.

Yeah. He's very. He's a cool guy. Harrison Smith is number four on the Great Kilborn list of top five favorite athletes. All right.

Next up. Three is a player that we've mentioned. He's an NBA player.

I love the NBA. It's Anthony Edwards. I like Kat a lot because he was there before and I support Kat, but Anthony Edwards is obviously very special and everyone is freaking out.

They're watching him and he's playing better than I thought he would in the playoffs. Anthony Edwards. Those are our best uniforms, by the way. You like those? Yeah. But they schedule the uniforms where you were wearing these other white ones that we've had for a while and they won't schedule those until like game five or six in the demo series and it might not go five or six. They'll go five. I'm sorry.

Gentlemen sweep. Destroy this tape. I don't want to. It's too late. It's too late. We're live. We're doing it live. Anthony Edwards, number three.

All right. Let's get to the top two of Craig Kilborn's favorite athletes. My favorite player growing up was the doctor from Roosevelt High.

Let's see. How did we used to say that? There once was a man went sailing through the air though his knees might be ailing.

He started to stuff and that was enough for his high wire act was on way on failing something. We used to write limericks of Dr. J. Julia serving favorite player growing up. He's over your right shoulder. There's TJ Jefferson and over your right shoulder. Oh, that's my favorite picture.

That's in the ABA dunk contest from the foul line. Is that right? Is that where that's from? Yeah. The good doctor, the doctor, and I always loved how the zinc would announce him right in that forward, the rest of the two sets, now smoking in the spectrum.

Back when they had to announce there's no smoking in the spectrum. All right. I think I know who number one is on this list, but obviously it's your top five. You have at it. Larry Legend.

Enough said. The greatest forward of all time, Larry Legend. You had mentioned his name and sports center highlights when he wasn't obviously on the screen. You would do that all the time.

Would you do like- I like passing. As Moses said, anyone can shoot because Moses could rebound. Well, anyone can shoot, but he had touch passes like Arvidus. A lot of the point guards are moving and they create angles. These guys would find angles at being stationary and he would over his head. So Larry was pretty special and the fact that he talked trash was hilarious. The legend of talking trash, right? Now you see so many players go like this because he's too short to guard me.

They put their hand down like that. I met Larry. He was shooting a commercial out at the Smokehouse in Burbank, a beer commercial, and a friend of mine was directing it and I got to chat with Larry. When he was in Indiana State right before the draft, NBA draft, playing softball, he broke his finger on his shooting hand, his pointer finger, and never straightened out.

Never straightened out. And his friends would say, yeah, he shot pretty well in the NBA, but you should have seen him in college before he broke his finger. He couldn't miss. Oh my God.

That's insane. All right, hit it, Mike. Here you go. Do you think we need one more? All right, we'll get one more. All right, you have one more? Do you have one more? Well, you said I could do an honorable mention.

Yeah, please, a bonus. My father, his favorite athlete and his favorite sport was baseball. His favorite athlete was Willie Mays.

So you were giving a little shout out to the Say Hey Kid. Willie Mays. Very underrated. I mean, he's one of the greatest all-around players. He could run. He could hit. He could run. He could catch. He could steal bases, the whole thing. I think he's underrated in, you know, that whenever people talk about the greatest of all time. That's what I'm saying.

The goats. They don't mention Willie Mays. Yeah, and my dad taught me. I mean, he said he was the greatest player of all time because of all-around. Better than Ted Williams, better than all these guys, but my dad was biased towards Willie Mays.

Willie Mays, 93rd birthday yesterday. Is that right? Yeah. Yep. I'm not saying that because I did a top 10 list of my favorite Larrys with the Larry O'Brien here, and I killed off Larry Merchant, and when we showed Larry Hagman, there was Barbara Eden on the screen, and I said, may she rest in peace, and she is very much alive.

They're both in their 90s as well. So we can still dream of Jeannie, is what you're saying. Very good. I killed off people.

I also mentioned that Stuart Scott once killed off Richard Pryor during a lead-in. Oh, wow. Yeah. I was sitting at home. It was two in the morning.

I was in the sports center. I couldn't go to sleep. I turned it on, and there's Stuart doing a lead-in, talking about the late, great Richard Pryor.

Oh, boy. I called the control room. I'm like, did Richard Pryor die?

They're like, no. We're going to have to stay late and redo it. The old days. Remember the days of fixes?

Oh, fixes. You remember killing... This is kind of depressing. Yeah.

No, don't go back that far. Yeah. You know what's weird? There's a writer who does a lot of the roasts. His name's Ray James. He worked on the Daily Show, and then he moved on, and he said to me, when I was doing the CBS show, he says, doesn't the Daily Show seem so far away like high school? So all of this stuff seems so far away because there have been different things going on, and it's just wild. Oh, I see pictures of myself back then. I look completely different.

My kids see it, and they're like, wow. You know? You have more authority now. With authority? Yeah. I remember that.

With authority. Have you ever interviewed Brian Cox or not? Oh, the actor? Yeah. No. Not yet? No. I would love to.

I find myself... I heard you watched Succession. Of course, Succession. I watched a little bit of that, a little bit of Billions, but I find myself really liking him in the Bourne series. He was in one of the episodes. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And he's so dynamic. He's the greatest. Yeah. Fantastic.

You should get him. You should get so many great guests. Thank you. Thank you, Lord Kilby. Do you want to stay one more segment, finish up the show? I'm here to help. Fantastic.

We'll finish up this Tuesday show with Craig Kilborn, a fun, feel-good edition of The Rich Eisen Show when we come back. Afford Anything talks about how to avoid common pitfalls, how to refine your mental models, and how to think about how to think. Paula, while certainly you can mess up on a million dollars a year, it is far less likely than it is on $30,000 a year. I would meet wonderful people that were struggling with a budget that was super tight.

It was 100%. You need to make more money. Make smarter choices and build a better life.

Afford anything wherever you listen. What's up, everyone? It's Reality Steve, your number one source for all things Bachelor Nation and reality TV. Every day, I'm giving you the behind the scenes juice and your info on all your Bachelor Nation stories and also interviewing some of your favorite reality stars.

My name has been synonymous with spoilers, but I'm so much more than that. Give me a listen. The Reality Steve podcast, part of the Believe Network. Just search BLEAV on YouTube or wherever you listen. Back on The Rich Eisen Show where I'm sitting at The Rich Eisen Show desk, furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger has the right product for you.

Call clickrainger.com or just stop by. Craig Kilbone, final segment here with Craig. Oh, I was going to tell you my Seinfeld. So I've never interviewed him, but I met him once briefly when I was at Comedy Central. But I love his concentration. He writes jokes. He thinks about it. His life is simple and magical, and I really respect that.

And he does transcendental meditation, and that helps him concentrate. And I don't do TM. I do my own thing in my distressed leather club chair. I do basking. I bask, listen to Bill Evans jazz, maybe have a hand mirror, and I just breathe and think.

But I did try to learn TM. It's four classes, trained professional. You go there, you breathe. I was doing very well in class. I was up front, the lotus position, deep breathing. I was kind of dominating the class.

I was doing really well. And then at the end, Rich, they have to give you a mantra. They give you a mantra. You have to repeat that to have your mind shut down as you're meditating. And I said to the lady, the instructor, I said, can I please choose my own mantra because I'm a control freak? And she says, no. And I said, well, listen, I'll give you some help if you're going to choose my mantra.

Better include the words Larry and legend or I'm out. And I was out, didn't work. I said goodbye to the class. I said goodbye. I extended my finger like Larry did after winning a three-point contest. And I said, you're all playing for second place in life.

So I kind of taunted them as I left. You know what I'm saying? That's your meditation story? Yeah. Yeah. Didn't work, did it?

Didn't work. It's hard to learn sometimes. Anybody here meditate or not? I can't, man.

Susie tries and we try it sometimes and she seems to have a much better ability to do it. Because I'm like, whenever it starts, I just think like, what else do I have to do today? Like it's the exact... You can't shut, you're supposed to not think of anything. That's why the mantra is supposed to just keep you simple.

So why wouldn't she let you choose your own mantra? Larry legend, Larry legend. I would be so successful if I would meditate and if she had said Larry legend, instead I'm just drinking wine, eating cheese.

That is so funny. Steal by bird, steal by bird. That's it. Sure. What would you... TJ, what would be your mantra?

What's your mantra? Oh man, that is a great question. Yeah.

I only asked those. How about them cowboys? How about them cowboys? How about them cowboys? Yeah. How about them cowboys?

It never turns out well. Poor Dak. Poor Dak. Poor Dak Prescott. Yeah.

Oh my gosh. They're not going to win anything. I don't feel that bad for them. Well, I mean, I can't clear my mind. Yeah. It's hard to do.

I just can't. I'm always thinking like... Do you work out? Yeah. It looks like you do. I did today. Just this morning. Do you have a trainer?

I do a trainer. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I do a little bit of a place called rise movement. So I rise and I move. Traffic to get there? Oh my God. Not traffic to get there.

Traffic to get here from there. Did you shower? Did I shower? He hesitated.

Didn't really answer. There's a lot of things. Little hitch in the giddyup right there. Of course I showered. You start the show early. I don't know how much you can do prior to the show. No, I mean, I didn't just do a little roll on when you come here.

I got to make sure I know how you're showing. By the way, three piece is next level. Next level. You don't just put a three piece on for anybody.

Well, these are cords. That's good. They're supposed to match. You pull it off. By the way, I can't wear a blazer to the games three and four.

They have us wear, it's a whiteout, so I wear a quarter zip, a Timer Wolf's a white one with the emblem there. Or you could show up like Fantasy Island. Can't you get some white suit? Come on now. Show up like Mr. Roarke.

Show up and full Ricardo Montalban, like Saturday night, 1982 look, man. Let's go. Come on. You know somebody. You can get it nice and tailored before game three.

Come on now. I might try that. I might try.

I might try there, too. Because last night, it started at 10 o'clock on the East Coast. It was seven here. The Wolves game. Because they had to show the Knicks pacers first. Mountain time is as far west as you're getting right now in the NBA playoffs. Everybody's out.

California's out. So they only get to see the Wolves in prime time until they get to the finals. By the way, during the commercial break, we look up because I've got the sports mix on here. ESPN and Colin on Fox had the same lower third of, is this series over? Are the Nuggets done, essentially? At the same time, they're having the same conversation.

They're just repeating material. We have natural host on ours. We have kind of natural host. The natural host.

The natural host. We got top fives. And they're just doing the basic question. Yeah. We're talking meditation. We're talking French bistros. Come on now. But the series is over, right? Right. You know what I'm saying? I don't know. No, I'm going to respect them and say they're going to win a game I don't know when.

Maybe after we've swept them, maybe they'll... Well, I mean, if I'm them, I'm holding my breath to hear what the league has to say about the Heat Pack throw. I mean, how does your mind... How do you get away with just a fine on that one? I heard a lot of guys, like on NBA TV, Sam Mitchell, former Wolves coach and Wolves player, scored the first basket in Wolves history, Sam Mitchell. He said, you know how dangerous that is? What if somebody slipped on that? A player slipped on that.

He had actually stepped on it after he hit a layup, or it happened during when he was scoring. That's how you turn an ankle or something like that. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's really dangerous. So let's hope the league hammers, you know, Jamal Murray, who's got a bad attitude.

He's got a bad attitude. Are you sending messages right now through the Rich Eisen show? Craig, is that what you're doing? Are you... Because, you know, we affect... We can affect news here. Yeah.

You know what I mean? Just make sure. Just say... Just do a poll and then make sure it's 90. Do a poll.

Make sure everyone knows, the league knows. Who does that? It's not Keke, is it? Who does the discipline? Is it Keke van der Weijs? I don't know. It used to be Stu Jackson.

Oh, no. It might be Joe Dumars. It might be Joe Dumars. It is Joe Dumars.

It is Joe Dumars. Yes. Yeah. You know, can we... Steven, they called the league office to find out why a player had done... Yeah.

Russell Westbrook had been fined. So are you going to use your stroke to maybe see what's up with Jamal? Good question.

I mean, I don't want you to be a snitch or anything. Good question. Yeah. Why don't you just call the league?

I'm going to wait and see what they do. And then I'll go... You'll adjust? I'll adjust.

Get intense. I know Mr. Silver. I had David Stern on my late night show. He was... That'd be cool.

The only guy that did late night. And it was during the Lakers. I wasn't a big Shaq Kobe Laker fan.

I like the Sacramento Kings because they played the game the right way. But all of her questions, I had the writers there, I said, hey, David Stern's coming up. What questions should we ask them? When are they going to have a women's professional league? They do all these silly questions.

They already had the WNBA. But every guy would say, how come that big guy in the middle gets to knock people over? We just kept doing Shaq offensive foul questions. It was hilarious.

He's very difficult to referee. I'm sure. That's what he said.

That sounds like the commissioner of the NBA, David Stern, for sure. All right. The Life Gorgeous drops once a week? We're dropping once a week?

Yeah, usually on Tuesdays, the Life Gorgeous podcast. And as I mentioned, I still love my Instagram. It's a creative outlet. It's fun. And you've always encouraged me.

Oh, my God. When you got on it, we saw if you would come back in here and say, like, you know, banner day when no doubt about it. So Craig Kilbourn, let's do this more often, certainly as the wolves progress, sweep. And I'll have you on the Life Gorgeous. I know your schedule is busy and then we'll go to Rao's. There are other restaurants I like, Republique, which is a French restaurant in Hancock Park.

I know Walter Manske. Kilby, everybody. Thank you, guys.

Good to be, good to be home, good to be home. John brings his skewed sense of humor. Jeff brings tips to cut strokes off your next round. Together, it's those weekend golf guys.

They'll pay a lot of money to PXG and Tylus and Calloway and da, da, da, da, da. How many yards do you think you're going to pick up with that extra driver? I think I can get an extra five to ten. What if I give you fifteen to twenty?

You pay me more. That teaches on a sliding scale. Those weekend golf guys, the podcast, part of the Believe Network. Just search BLEAV on YouTube or wherever you listen.