Brian Anderson: there is a fever pitch for Jalen Brunson in NYC

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This Rich Eisen Show terrestrial radio affiliate, Sirius XM Odyssey. Our podcast listeners, we say a good Wednesday hello to you all right here in the middle of this week in the month of May when the NBA playoffs and the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs are white hotched to the touch. Two playoff hockey games went to overtime last night and there's nothing like overtime playoff hockey is there.

The NBA second round got some first seeds through with very little blood drawn in their series. We'll discuss that. Brian Anderson, the man who's doing the play by play of game two with Reggie Miller tonight in Madison Square Garden will be joining us short time. Right first up in this show, our number two and in studio guest Deshaun Foster, the head coach of UCLA football is going to come down the 405 and hang with us. It'll be a good time with him.

And then our number three, Albert Breer, because we miss talking football. And Brea will be joining us in our number three and you at 844-204 Rich number to dial on this program. Good to see you over there, Christopher. How are you? I'm great.

DJ Mikey Diaz and Deez Nuts. Good to see you. I'm sorry. Good morning, Rich. Oh, good. Thank you for, for, for giving us the heads up of, uh, there you go. Ladies and gentlemen, Mike Del Tufo is allergic to this program. You'll be out Friday.

Those things are not related. Good to see you, TJ. How are you?

Candles lit candles lit. It's great. How are you doing?

I'm great, man. So listen, let's just get started on yesterday's program. We had the Larry O'Brien trophy sitting right here on this desk. And I'm like, I started the show saying, who wants to be MJ? Who wants to be Michael Jordan? Is it, uh, the, the great Ant-Man who is crushing it right now, Anthony Edwards for the Minnesota Timberwolves, who are now up two on the defending NBA champs. They have yet to lose a playoff game in these playoffs. And then you have Jalen Brunson who came off of a 40 point game for a fourth straight time in the playoffs. Got to do that was Michael Jordan tonight. Jalen Brunson goes for five in a row, which would separate himself from Bernard King and Michael Jordan and get him one behind the logo for the all time record. We'll see if that happens tonight.

Right? So I come on the air today saying, okay, the one seeds, uh, I've kind of proven that they deserve to be the one seeds in these NBA playoffs. Factual, you know, let's start with the, the, the team that everybody thinks is going to win at all. Uh, and the Boston Celtics, they made 18, three pointers last night, Derek white made, made a seven of them. That's how we do it. And you know, that was the difference. I mean, uh, the Celtics took 46, there were 88 three point shots hoisted up in this game. Celtics took a shot 46, the calves shot 42. The Celtics made 18, the calves made 11. That's you could probably do the math right there.

I mean, that's a, we can do the math. That's 21 points right there. And the Celtics won by 25. It's kind of the difference maker right there. And, um, you know, the Celtics shot the lights out, did what they had to do. And if there's anybody out there who's wondering why that happened, it's clear it's cause Chris Brockman didn't take a photograph with the Larry O'Brien trophy yesterday.

That's exactly why that happened. Had he taken a photograph with the Larry O'Brien trophy, do you know how much iron would have been drawn? The clanking noises you would have heard last night. What is that noise?

Are there pipes breaking in my house? It's cause it's cause my friend did not take a photograph with Larry O'Brien. Let me ask you this question with all sincerity though, with all sincerity, when did Derek White become Steph Curry? When did that exactly happen?

When he came home and became a member of the brotherhood, he was even doing that. Now like this, like this guy, Derek. Yeah, we were talking about just like, who's your all playoff team so far.

Derek White has to be on it. He's been the best Celtics player through in the five playoff wins. Let me tell you this, 28 three pointers in the last six playoff games for the Celtics. That is the most in the history of the Boston Celtics, as long as there's been a three point line. That's absurd.

And they, as you pointed out, that's what they do. They launch threes. Do you know in the last 21 games that Derek White has just attempted a dozen threes? The Celtics record is 21-0. 21 straight wins when Derek White attempts 12 three pointers.

So all you got to do is just keep hoisting him, Derek. But when did he, as a matter of fact, back to back playoff games with at least seven three pointers he's made now. The other guys who have done it are Desmond Bain, Curry and Clay, the Splash Brothers. That's it. That's the list in postseason history as long as there's been a three point line.

I'm being straight up with you. When did he become this player? Was it, was it in the finals against the Warriors a couple years ago? It feels like he really took a level up this year though. You know, it was like Derek White's a good all around player. He's a great defender. He's one of the best guards at getting blocked shots. And then, you know, he can hit a couple clutch threes when you need him. But it seems like this year you maybe haven't drew a round, maybe haven't portzing us around. But he doesn't have portzing us right now.

Opening up the door, gives him a lot more open looks. He's knocking him down. As long as Tatum doesn't have to carry the team. Remember, remember in that finals a couple years ago he was, he was basically on, on fumes. On fumes, Jalen Brown was struggling, turning the ball over, missing free throws. He's on fumes.

Tatum felt like he had to do it all. Not now. Ran out of gas, not anymore. He had a pedestrian, what, 18 and 9 last night. Very, very ho-hum. Brown at 32.

White, I mean my gosh. Spider Mitchell had 33 points and the Cavs got within 25. So there's that. And then the other number one seed. A lot of people are learning slowly but surely who the Oklahoma City Thunder are, right? They're learning that they have the coach of the year. They're learning they've got an MVP candidate in SGA, Shea, Gilgis, Alexander.

They're, they, they also learned that there's two Jalen Williams. One J-A-L-E-N, J-A-Y-L-I-N. By the way, those, the Jalen Williamses last night combined for 29 points and 11 of 22 shooting. And the team set a franchise record 29 assists in the playoffs. And SGA had damn near a triple-double.

29, 9 and 9. While Mr. Triple-Double for the Mavericks, Luka Doncic did not have a good night. He's now under 40% shooting in these playoffs. And remember he said he let down Kyrie in the first round and then of course turned things around. And he has not performed well last night. It did, it's kind of wild that Luka's line was 19, 9 and 6 with two steals.

And we were like, what's up? Well, that game that he said he let down Kyrie, he had a 29 point triple-double. And five turnovers last night as well, six of 19 shooting. He's, as I mentioned, under 40% shooting in the playoffs now and had this to say when asked kind of what, what gives last night.

Who cares? We lost, man. We just got to move on to the next one. I got to be better. We got to be better and just, you know, we're known for game one struggling, but we got to focus. They're a great team, great defensive team, great offensive team.

So it's not going to be easy at all. We got to play very good basketball and focus basketball for eight minutes. How, how can you be better? Effort, making shots. How can you be better? I mean, you're looking, you're looking for, you're looking for a soundbite there when you ask how can you be better? You know, what was it?

Not, not, not missing. How are you going to answer that? They got back at it on Thursday and I'm asking you this guy. I asked Brockman a question about his team. When did Derek White become Steph Curry? I'll ask you this question.

I understand that because it involves your team. What if those years ago, when Kawhi walked into the Malibu home of Doc Rivers and said to him, let's get Paul George. I'm coming. And the Jets scrambled for the clips. What if he walked into Doc Rivers's house and said, I'll play with SGA.

I'm coming. Ooh, baby. You know, Chris, what if that had happened? Like I see what the Chris about a month ago and I was like, I see what the kid can do or I believe, you know, what if they said, well, I don't think anybody thought he'd be an MVP in three years.

So I know that there's a little bit of revisionism here, but still, I mean, it's a fun, what if, but what if he's walked into that Malibu home and said, I'm coming just, you know, let's see if we can get a little more firepower. Let's I'll play with SGA. I'm not looking for PG. I'll play with Jay Gilges Alexander.

Yeah. I mean, like, like since revisionists, because Kawhi at that point of his career probably wouldn't have said that about a then rookie SGA. Chris and I brought this up to Chris about a month ago and I'm like, I don't know if the Clippers would be in any different position maybe this year. But previous to this, the only thing better is we keep all those draft picks and SGA. So now, you know, maybe we end up with a Jalen Williams, one of the two of them, you know, I don't know, maybe we have a Lou Dort. Could you imagine if that had happened?

Whoo. Clippers would still be the fourth seed? I don't think so.

I don't know. Well, maybe they would be because Kawhi would have gotten hurt. But Jal's got to look at SGA's had a chance to really spread his wings.

No question. He would not have had that opportunity. Maybe not on the Clippers. And he had that year with Chris Paul.

Chris Paul kind of maybe taught him some ropes there. So just decided to throw that one out there. But for the next five years?

Yeah, there's no question. We should have held on to the amount of young talent in the NBA right now. Just look at the two guys leading the West right now.

And in SGA. Well, the the the not even to mention general belief, I think right now, an overreaction Wednesday is it's T. Wolves versus the Thunder to see what's what feels like it in the West to see if they can take on the Celtics with all due respect to what goes down tonight in Madison Square Garden. Because again, if Tatum is going to go 0 for 5 from three and shoot 7 of 19 from the floor and the Celtics just flick that right off their shoulder. That's that's that's a tough one. And this is without Porzingis.

My goodness gracious. So speaking of Madison Square Garden and not being able to see anything coming, I got a an Instagram video sent to me by Don, money manager to the stars this morning, my guy. It was one of those videos from June of 2022. After Jalen Brunson or July of 2022 after Jalen Brunson had signed with the Knicks.

You know, and Durant was with the Nets. And there's a whole bunch of videos of people in sports talk, television programs, saying how the Knicks just blew it and how, you know, Jalen Brunson ain't it. And the video is about a minute and a half long and he sent it to me and I'm like holding my breath because you know how I've been talking about how Jalen Brunson has got me back into being a Nick fan again and how he's made me feel about this team in a way that I haven't felt since I was 13, 14 years old.

And Bernard King was my guy number 30 in your program, number one in my heart for the Knicks and how he has restored my love for the team and faith in the organization and has lit up the city. And anytime I get those videos sent to me, I'm like holding my breath. Yeah, you don't want to be in those videos. I don't want to be in those videos and everyone was in it.

Name somebody who does this job for a living. I saw, I think I saw this video. Dan made it, DP made it. And I was getting through it.

It's about a minute plus in minute. You could see, you know, how much time's left in the video when you're watching these reels on Instagram, you could see, you could see that white line go across the bottom of your screen and I'm like rooting for it. I'm rooting for it to end before I see my face. And I was the last one saying that Durant is not with the Knicks and the Knicks feel like they're going to be fine. Essentially with Jalen Brunson, I said those words into this microphone from this chair in front of God and country.

Yeah, at that time, everybody felt that way. I wrote back to Don, money manager to the stars. I wrote back to him, um, your financial advisor, executive. I'm sorry. He might not like the way I'm referring to him. I wrote back to him. At least I wasn't alone.

Yeah, you were not, but everybody thought that. Damn it. I did make that video.

The last guy, the last guy. I almost made it. I almost made it through. I was white knuckling that thing.

28. You're like through it. I made it. I dare at the end of the tunnel.

The light was so bright on that white line running out of time, but you weren't as adamant as a lot of other people. I was upset. I was upset like the ranch with the nets and the Knicks feel like they're just going to take this guy on the, on the Mavericks and give him nine figures. Really?

That's what they're going to do. And as you pointed out yesterday, it's the greatest bargain in the NBA. I mean, he's worth three times that right now. He's like the super max. He's incredible.

He has totally shut everybody up and flipped the entire script, man. You got to figure KD might be looking back on that and going, maybe I made a mistake because two teams later for him could be with the Knicks. And the Knicks take the court tonight. Cannot wait for that game. I am totally set.

Eight Eastern, five o'clock out here. That's the night to themselves. And, uh, the three men on the call, Stan Van Gundy, Reggie Miller in the house tonight.

And our next guest, Brian Anderson, the voice of the Nixon pacer series on TNT is about to join us. So that's the setup. My, first of all, may a couple, my bad July 22, send this video to me.

I'll send it to the DM. You'll see it. It was not, it's not good for anybody. That's Seinfeld line, right? It's not good for you.

It's not good for anybody. I believe so. Yeah. Oh, he was in it. I think he, I think he made multiple appearances. He's the, I think he might be the only one made multiple and Nick Wright's in it. I'm in it. I believe Collins in it. Dan's in it.

We all, we all got a piece of that. So you weren't alone. So happy to be wrong. So happy to be so wrong. Cause I never thought anybody would ever, the gravitational pull of the Dolan wormhole is so strong, so strong.

And, um, this guy pulled me out of it. And can he come up with a fifth 40 point game tonight? I hope he doesn't need it. Cause the Knicks, I don't want them on. I don't want them on fumes. If they get past the pacers and then they're going to stroll in a TD garden on fumes. No, thank you.

No, thank you. Unless there's no fumes because Josh Hart's got a deep tank man. And the rest of this team has as well. And can't wait to talk about it with Brian Anderson of TNT. That's next Albert Breer Howard three to Sean Foster's making a way to our studio from Westwood campus.

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That's O'Reilly auto.com slash Eisen. Hey folks, it's time for the NFL draft, which means for me, I need a good night's sleep because if I don't have one, just not myself, you know, the deal, you know exactly how important it is to have quality sleep. It's a game changer for all of us. So sleep number helps me. My sleep number setting is 60.

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Call click Granger.com or just stop by love listening to this man call a game, whether it was the brewers back in the day or some basketball right now, certainly on TNT at the mic for a huge game in Madison square garden tonight between the nicks and the payers is Brian Anderson here on the rich eyes and show. Good to chat with you, Brian. Oh man. And great to be here. I'm finally on your show with you. I've been such an F list. No, no, no, no, no.

It's not true. Don't say that incredible jump up. You have to be careful. Brian, Brian, you have to be careful with that conversation because uh, the main or the, the person who does the most guest hosting on this program is my wife and she does not consider guests that she has F list guests. You know what I'm saying? She doesn't appreciate that commentary. Be careful.

Um, when you, you know, tread lightly. Um, I didn't hear anything about the host. I'm talking only about the guests. Very good. Thank you sir. You know who kisses the ring in there?

There's only one King. Good to see you Brian. Uh, what was the, what's the energy like in that building? What is it like?

Oh man, it's so good. There's nothing like Madison square garden and just a playoff games in Madison square garden. It's been crazy here. Um, in this area, particularly with the Rangers doing what they're doing and then the Knicks, uh, doing what they're doing and basically every night spent a game in Madison square garden. So it's just, uh, it's a great vibe. It's totally different vibe for Rangers games, but I was just texting with Sean McDonough actually, and he's called a number of these games and um, he's going to be here next week too. So it is interesting comparing and contrasting and are we going to get a, a Knicks and Celtics and Bruins and Rangers conference finals that could all shape out.

Um, uh, the, the opponents of those teams don't want to hear that, but that's still on the board. So it's really cool. It's really electric. It's loud from the start. People are in their seats from the beginning.

Um, nothing quite like it. You know, you got fat Joe running in your face arguing about calls that are made, wanting you to demand justice. And, uh, while we're on the air, not even when we're in commercial while we're on the air. So fat Joe is coming up to you and trying to avail himself of your replay monitor.

You know how we get the stats? Sure. Uh, every time out, you know, at the table, we, we make sure we pass them down to 50 cent and fat Joe and then still are like, those guys are into it, man. They're coaching the team right now. You're a factor, Brian.

You're a factor, man. You're, you're mixing it up and speaking of mixing it up. I mean, um, my goodness, uh, tonight, um, I head on a swivel cause Reggie Miller is part of tonight's broadcast. Correct?

Brian. That's correct. We're flying him in his, so he's been on the other series. He's been on Denver, Minnesota, and there, as far as TNT goes, they're dark for a few days.

So, uh, he had nothing better to do. So we flew him in. We're going to put them in like a Pope mobile kind of setting, maybe under the basket, or we're going to bring the Davis brothers then.

So if the Davis brothers can make it, they'll sit right behind us and then we'll be good. But I've worked a lot of games at MSG with Reggie, including stepping Curry three point record setting game. And he gets a lot of love there, except when the Pacers or in this setting. So there'll be no love for Reggie Miller tonight. It's going to be great pacer's playoff game in Madison square garden. Now this is, this is, uh, we're all, I guess, good tidings and Hey Reggie, great to see you that, that there's none of that tonight.

Um, I can't wait, man. It's, it's great. Brian Anderson here on the rich edge there. I don't know how much conversation you have with Jalen Brunson before a game or if it's anything like an NFL game where you, you do get a pre broadcast chit chat with a star or not.

I'd love to any interaction you've had with him to see what's going on with him as his ascent is through the roof right now. Yeah. Yeah. Not much interaction from my seat. You know, I try to leave those guys alone.

We divide and conquer. So Chris Haynes is our reporter and he spends a lot of time with those guys. Um, and then our post game interviews, obviously we interact with them a little bit, but I covered Jalen and know him well and covered him a lot in college and I was doing Fox biggies basketball back in those days quite a bit. And, um, you know, he's, he was always kind of the same player for Villanova. Never dreamed he'd be this kind of player in the NBA for the New York Knicks. Um, but to his credit, he just, he continues to get better is, you know, his, uh, his mechanics, um, the, the way he plays stylistically playing off two feet is, you know, if you want to get deep in the weeds, that's something that all those Villanova guys do the shot fakes playing off two feet, that's a J Wright staple. And they've taken that to the NBA, all of those guys. And it's made a huge difference because they're not always the most athletic players, certainly Brunson isn't, but he is one of the strongest and he, he knows the game so well, he's grown up in the game with his dad, his dad's right there on the sidelines, part of coach Thibodeau staff.

So there's that dynamic to it as well. But man, what he's doing, like he's, he's marching up the next iconic ladder. I'm not going to give him Clyde Frazier yet or Patrick Ewing yet, but he's like, he's marching up that ladder now. And if they go on and they do something great, obviously if they win a finals, he will be on that, on that list. But even if they get to a conference finals or get to an NBA finals, I mean, he's starting to become that guy in New York and it's kind of been that way all year. And he's kept doing what he did all year in the playoffs. And so, man, there's a fever pitch for Jalen Brunson right now in this city. Yeah.

I grew up a ferry ride away from where you are, Brian, in Staten Island. And as a teenager loving Bernard King, I have the same feeling right now. Like I truly feel like a teenager watching Brunson as he matches Bernard King's records over and over again or surpasses them. And tonight, if he gets a 40 point game tonight, he would surpass Bernard King's franchise record for most 40 point games in a row in the playoffs.

The question is though, is, is it necessary for him to do it? Because the rotation for the Knicks, I mean, talk about tightening a rotation. They're hardly, you know, they're, you know, Precious Achiuwa got four minutes in game one. We know Mitchell Robinson was pressed into service because Hartenstein got into foul trouble.

I mean, Deuce McBride's not getting much time. Well, clearly Brunson's doing what he's doing and Josh Hart's turning into his, my colleague TJ Jefferson said, into Dennis Rodman with a three point shot. So I'm, I'm wondering what your, your sense is of Rick Carlisle sense of the Knicks rotation is and what, what the Pacers might affect tonight.

Yeah. Well, right off the bat, because of the Mitchell Robinson injury, Achiuwa is going to play more. I think that was a little bit of a canary in the cave moment for, for Tibbs last game.

Cause Achiuwa did play early, but I don't think the match-ups were necessarily working in his favor. He knew he had Robinson. He didn't know how compromised Robinson was going to be. Well, we know all that now and Robinson's going to be out six to eight weeks.

Poor guys had four surgeries in the last six years on that ankle. So he's not a factory. You're already without Randall. So you're and Bogdanovich is out too. So he's not coming back.

So that kind of sets the rotation as it is. I don't think Tibbs necessarily wants to play six, although he's always been a tight rotation coach, especially in the playoffs. But I think McBride's minutes will fluctuate based on match-ups. I think Achiuwa is going to play a little bit more, but really in the NBA playoffs, the, the breaks are longer, but because of us, the timeouts are longer.

You buy 30 seconds there and then you're playing basically every other day. And remember coming into game one, they had had three days off. So those would be the reasons Tibbs would give you on why he can afford to do that.

He would also remind you that every other coach has a pretty soft bench as well. Now the Pacers aren't that way, but to the end, to answer the question, do they have enough stamina? I think they do. I think they're trained for it. They play this way all year.

This is not different. So the minutes maybe slightly a tick up, especially for guys like Josh Hart, who don't have the ball in their hands all the time, but it's generally how they play. And they play a lot of close games. They've already had a, let's see, seven games right now. So there's six of their seven games have been clutch games. So meaning within five points, five minutes or less.

So they're playing a lot of close hard fought grind about kind of games. And they flourished in the fourth quarters of all these games. If you go into like second chance points and offensive rebounds, and you know, in the last four and a half minutes in game one, they didn't miss a shot or a free throw.

They were five for five from the field, five, five from the line. So that doesn't present itself as a, a tired team, even though all of those guys were logging huge minutes, especially the Villanova three. So I do think it's sustainable and the way they play possession oriented when it matters, you know, they're, they're the guy who's got the burden is Brunson because the ball's in his hands so much, but for the most part, they get to the foul line and they try to work clock offensively. So yeah, they're minimizing Boston's trips up and down the floor. I think it is sustainable.

I really do. I think it's a, and Boston's rotation's really tight right now too, except they're just blowing out everybody. All of their wins are 20 point wins. So I don't know who's got a better chance to win games. Those who are tested or those who are rested.

That's a big question right now. Brian Anderson here on the Rich Eisen show that did you get that line from Walt Frazier? That rhymed. I mean, have you been around Clyde?

I mean rested and tested. I've been hanging out with very famous rappers. I feel like I'm absorbing a lot of that.

It's rubbing off. You know how Stan and I roll. We're just kind of down there with Fat Joe. Do you have to tell Stan who they are? Does Stan, does Stan? Oh, he's in? Okay.

All right. Fat Joe has a line, a Stan Van Gundy line in one of his songs. You know, he, he gave Stan Van Gundy street cred. So we're trying to get Tracy Morgan's gold chain on Stan Van Gundy to the open, the big rope chain. That's our next goal.

I think all you have to do is ask. I think he'd be game for that Brian. Oh no, Tracy's in. He's already took it. He took it off. Stan just wouldn't wear it. It was like 10 pounds, I swear. It came straight from Fort Knox.

I go, I think there's an insurance issue with me holding this chain. I love it. Brian Anderson here on the, on the Rich Eisen show, getting set to call game two of Nick's Pacers tonight on TNT eight Eastern time with Stan Van Gundy, Reggie Miller and Chris Haines, part of the crew best team you've eyeballed though in person this year is, is which, which team I would have said, so it's still probably a true statement Denver cause I haven't eyeballed Denver in the playoffs and in this series with Minnesota. So I had Denver's kind of the team I'm really shocked at what what's happened to them. And I know they're banged up and Murray's injury is a big one. I'm not surprised by Minnesota and how great they've been. I just didn't think they'd go in and dominate Denver. So I will say Denver and I'll stick with that, even though it doesn't feel great right now, but in the East Boston for sure, Boston, we have Boston, Miami, and those games were a drag. I mean, Boston just, other than game two, when Miami shot the lights out and made 23 threes, which was a good game, but Boston in all of their wins, it was a no contest literally in the first half in most of those games. And they kind of did the same thing yesterday. So Celtics to me look formidable.

They can beat you in so many ways. Um, and we'll see if Denver can come off the mat. I think the Murray injury is going to be really interesting to see how he can play through this if he can be effective at all, probably needs a few days. He probably could have used the one game suspension.

Um, but I, I think he, I think he could probably use a window, but I don't know if they have time to give him a window, but I had Denver and Boston all year. Well, and in terms of Anthony Edwards, I mean, it's somebody who chooses words for a living live like you do. I think you'll appreciate. I think the only word to use appropriately with what Anthony Edwards is doing is what we are witnessing. I think that's the proper word because you get the sense of, we are witnessing something with him.

And I'm wondering what your thoughts are on that subject matter. Yeah. I feel like we, we, you know, obviously, you know, the Michael Jordan comps come, come to mind and there's a great debate offline about Michael Jordan or not, but what the things he's doing are Jordan like, and I think it's fair to, to talk about that. And you know, both sides of the ball too. Um, and MJ was such a great defender. So that's, what's so impressive about Anthony Edwards and how young he is. And he's got, it's just kind of the perfect NBA player for this modern game.

He's got all the swagger, but he's, he's got great respect for opponents and opposing players. And he says all the right things. He's hilarious. Um, and he's great.

And he's showing up when the lights are the brightest right now. So all in on Anthony Edwards, he looks like he's got a great career. I remember Tom Crean, who was his coach at Georgia. He used to tell us that I'm friendly with Tom and he raved about this guy when he was at the collegiate level briefly, but he just said, this guy's got it. He's, you know, he was referencing Dwayne Wade. He would coach it at Marquette and, and, you know, there's very few guys that have the, it factor and he certainly got it. And I think there've been a few guys the last few years, the joker comes to mind, you know, he kind of emerges a second rounder that became this, this great player and he still is a great player. Um, but it does feel like a little bit of a changing of the guard right now in the NBA.

And, um, these great young, talented players names that are, you know, haven't been, uh, on the register here in the last few years, um, are starting to stake their claim here, uh, to the NBA and what it's going to be in the next few seasons, maybe even the next decade. And Edwards is at the top of that list right now, in my opinion, Brian Anderson here on the rich has the show before I let you go with your, on your New York day there, Brian, I'm going to widen out this conversation and ask you from your years of calling Brewers games to lend us your favorite Bob Euchre story, please. Oh my gosh.

What do you have? I've sworn to the man. I wouldn't share his story, but I will say my, my favorite public facing story I can tell you is when I, when I first got to the Brewers, which was 2007, um, so Bob Euchre and I, we leave at the same time. So he's on the radio, I'm on television, go to the elevator, we go down and he parks his car inside the stadium. And if you know anything about Brewers culture, that's where there's only one car inside the stadium through the, you know, the garage door inside the stadium. That's where he parks.

And so I didn't park there and we'll never park there, but it was always a race for me to go get my car, which was, you know, outside that lot and try to get in my car, get down to that area as fast as I can. And here's why, because when Bob Euchre leaves and we go up through the stop light, and then we kind of get ready to get on the highway, there's the police officer there who is manually controlling the red and green light traffic lights, and he's a traffic flow cop. And so when Bob Euchre pulls up to that light, they will turn that light green for one car, his car.

And if you're close enough to him, they may let me go too. Right behind Bob's car. And I'm telling you, as soon as Bob goes by that light goes red again. And I've seen it a dozen times and I'm always trying to be in that little convoy with Bob Euchre. So I don't know if that's like Bob Euchre's story, but he's so funny.

He's a comedic genius. Those four o'clock bus rides back when he was traveling, I swear, man, it's some of the greatest moments of my life, you know, the 20 to 30 minutes to the ballpark on that bus. And it's usually just the broadcasters and the director of team travel. There's hardly anybody on that bus but us. There's the late bus and Bob Euchre just riffing off things he sees and people he sees. And one time he drove the bus. He literally backed a giant bus down backwards down a tunnel in Houston. I mean, he was 85 years old and he backed the bus. That's like, how does this guy back?

And there were multiple turns down this tight little tunnel. And he's got players on the bus back and everybody's got their cameras out and backs the bus down. I think the bus driver got fired at that point for giving up the teams, but there's so many men and he's a, it's an honor to have spent all these years with that guy. I love that man just about as much as anybody I've ever been around. He's so great. Jealous man. Jealous. What a treasure to have that. And I just love all those things drafting off of Bob Euchre to get out of the, to escape, to escape the traffic, the post game traffic. And I guess I'm mandated.

I'll, I'll do this. It's just, it's such a low hanging fruit. He parks inside and you park just a bit outside. He never hears that people shout lines at him all day long and he, you know, it's like just a bit outside as well. I'm sure it is. I am.

I'm sure it is. Hey man, I don't care. I'll, I'll share this on the air even though it may be somewhat you know, embarrassing, but I'll, I'll share it anyway. One of the many treasures I've been able to enjoy out here living in Los Angeles is getting to meet Al Michaels and know him and have him here on the set. And anybody who knows Al, he does not, he, he does not hold back opinions and he, he, he will sometimes throw compliments around like a manhole cover. So at one point over a dinner, I said, I'm like, who do you like that's out there right now in broadcasting?

Like who, who do you like calling a game? And he mentioned you, he mentioned you man. So, you know, and he's, you talk, you used to be his runner. Is that right? I didn't know that.

He didn't know that either. I was this runner on Monday night football. And part of my job was to go fetch his newspapers and I would bring him, you know, like eight newspapers, uh, back in the days before the worldwide web.

Yes. And I would knock on his door and his hand would come out of the door and I would hand him his newspapers and his hand would go back in the door. He was, he was great man. And they, those guys at ABC back in those days, I was still in college and they knew I wanted to be a play-by-play announcer and I was moving in that direction, you know? And so they kind of placed me in his close enough to him in his orbit anyway. And so, uh, I learned a lot from him. I studied him and then really got to know him, um, later got to know him better because we played a lot of golf and then we obviously the Euchre connection and then we had a lot of mutual friends. And then, so over the years, you know, he's just been a really valued, uh, mentor to me and you know, I appreciate him saying that and you're right. He doesn't really, uh, offer many compliments, but when you get one, wow, it's just like a manna from heaven. No, no doubt, man. No doubt. He, he, but if he likes you, he likes you and he certainly likes you.

I can, I can attest to that. And just to wrap this whole thing up, if he sees this, um, you may get a text rating the hotel room behind you to tell you what, uh, what you need to do. You know, this would be no go for him. It's a two season for now. It's a two season, no blackout curtains. Oh, Brian, enjoy tonight's game. Enjoy tonight's atmosphere.

I'll be tuned in with the, with my kids and we'll be watching, looking forward to it. Awesome. Okay. Rich, great to be with you right back at team, man. You do a great job. Thank you.

Right back at you. That's Brian Anderson, everybody. And by the way, send him his best, all of our best as you walk into Madison square garden with Reggie Miller tonight, got to get Stan to put the chain on like, come on. That's funny. That'd be amazing.

Oh, Tracy Morgan. Oh, he's ready to give it up, but a lot of laughs in that chat, which I loved. 8 4 4 2 0 4 rich number to dial here on the rich eyes and show, uh, why the Madison square garden operations crew was working overnight. We'll talk playoff hockey.

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Listen to the deal on Spotify 844-204-rich back on the Rich Eisen show is the number to dial 844-204-rich. So Madison square garden, um, anybody who's been there, it's, it's unlike any spot. It truly is unlike any spot. It sounds different.

It's not just the New York voice. I don't know if it's that ceiling that comes sort of, it comes down very close, kind of like forms a point at the, over the arena. Yeah. You know, it, it doesn't go up as a point.

It comes down as a point. I don't know what it is. I grew up there. It sounds amazing. And it's, it's above ground.

Yes. Where the, the court, when you go, you have to go up like escalators to get to the court. It's wild.

I don't know how the hell they do it. And the folks at Madison square garden are switching from the ice to the hard wood every other night right now. Cause the Knicks and the Rangers are Knicks are the two seed in the Eastern conference playoffs. And the Rangers are the top seed in the Eastern conference playoffs in the NHL. And last night double overtime when forum over the Carolina Panthers, I'm part of the Panthers. I just, the Carolina hurricanes, my bad.

They've got football on the brain. Albert Breer, our three, the Carolina hurricanes lighten the lamp. Second overtime coming out with the wind and the Rangers have not lost a game in the playoffs. They're six and O like the Timberwolves where it's, I never thought I've ever said in my entire life, you know, Panthers had been, I mean, I just did what you did.

The hurricanes have been the favorites, uh, in Vegas to, to win the cup for the last couple of weeks. And now that's totally shifted. Vincent trocheck lighten the lamp. Do you have that photograph? What incredible picture that says, look at this, the ranges sent this out. Just the absolute human pig pile up against the glass after he scored. And one of the only faces you see is the goal score. That's Vincent trocheck. Look at that picture. It reminds me of the photograph. Uh, if you remember after Dame Lillard scored a game winner for the blazers in the playoffs and kind of found the camera as everyone was around him, there it is.

We, we decided to split screen it. Remember that one over OKC, really cool where he's just like, yep, I just want it. Dame time has hit and everyone's around him. We were actually, that happened while we were at Santa's pub doing karaoke in Nashville during the draft. That's right. That moment happened. I think we had him on the next day. Didn't we?

Yeah. Del Tufo was cursing and getting thrown out. He eliminated OKC with like a 40 footer. That was right over Paul George. I mean, and a double overtime game in the NHL playoffs. And then there was a, an overtime victory last night for the abs in Dallas, which was up three, nothing after the first period and then lost four, three in overtime. And you know, so not a great night for Dallas overall as Miles wood comes up with the game winner in overtime last night for the abs and that Western Conference playoff series, Colorado winning the first of that seven game series four, three on the road. So Dallas loses in overtime of a playoff hockey game.

They led three, nothing and the Mavs get blown out in the second half in Oklahoma City for that one. But there really is, there really is nothing like overtime playoff hockey. Well, every shot on goal, every rush, every, every broken up pass, every penalty, every opportunity is similar. It's, there's nothing like it, but playoff baseball, when, when you feel like every ball is the end of your season, it's over, right?

Like you have a certain sense of, of dread for the littlest things. Magnify that by a hundred when it's playoff hockey. Yeah, man, it's the finality of it. This could be over instantly. Hey, can we, can we put that Rangers picture back up? Sure.

Tron checks. We could do it. You know what? That reminds me, remember Game of Thrones, the battle of the bastards when Jon Snow is trapped beneath all the bodies and you could just see his face popped up. That's incredible. That's what that looks like. And then as soon as it's over, you get, you take the ice up and you put the basketball floor down in New York City.

And that's why people are saying it feels like 1994 all over again. Nick's lost Rangers won, but feels like it where they're, they're, they're both marching their way through the playoffs right now. Cup odds, it's wide open. Rangers, Oilers, Avalanche all have the same odds. Panthers are fourth, Bruins, Stars, Hurricanes and Canucks kind of long shots, but anybody's cup right now.

And Brian Anderson mentioned it could be Knicks, Celtics, Rangers, Bruins for the right to go to the finals or final in their respective sports. Fun stuff. Play off overtime hockey last night.

Going down to Sean Foster, UCLA football coach in studio hour two. Still here, everybody. A little I-95 conference finals for both sides.

That'd be fun. We're not driving. You're taking the train. Yeah, of course you're taking the train. More people are driving than taking the train. Why wouldn't you take the train? I'm just saying more people drive. I'm going to get to a train station.

What's that drive? I've never lost Boston to New York. Boston to New York? It's five hours.

What are you talking about? Boston to New York is not five hours. Excuse me. I lived in Connecticut. It took two hours to get from Hartford to Boston. And that's the midway point. Wait, wait, I don't think it's five though.

I would say, I don't know what you are. It's five hours from my house to New York. Brother, if you went from Boston to New York in two and a half hours, you took a helicopter. Part of the way.

I lived in Bristol for seven years. Exactly. It takes you four hours. You're not good.

They've also never been on the merit. You kidding me? It takes two hours to get out of here. Invariably, there was some construction in New Haven that would you just be cursing your head off. Learn how to drive. Four hours, learn how to drive. You're blaming the other drivers. How about blaming your sense of distance?

Just take the L and move on. I think we're going to learn how to drive. You lived there more recently, you or me? Me? I lived in Connecticut in 2002.

I moved out here in 09. All right. Well, I know better still than I guess. Welcome to Talkville, the Ultimate Smallville Rewatch Podcast guest star Sarah Carter as Alicia Baker. Although I didn't really work with her a lot, but Tom did and they had some real big smoochy scenes. Yeah. Should we talk about that? Could there be any more sex? What was three page make out scene that just kept going? Good Lord. We get it. They have chemistry. Jump in now or catch up on any of the past seasons of Talkville on YouTube or wherever you listen.