Howard Beck: Celtics are in better shape to win a championship than they were two years ago

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Find out how to bring your ideas to life at dell.com. Welcome to Now. All that matters now is what happens next. The Stanley Cup playoffs.

Eastern Conference Final begins Wednesday. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Rich Eisen Show. And we thank you for sharing that with us.

With guest host, Suzy Schuster, live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Why does everyone hate Jason Tatum? Why does everybody from Boston think everybody hates him? Everybody hates everybody.

He is the most disrespected superstar. Earlier on the show, radio and sports talk icon Chris Mad Dog Russo. Still to come, senior NBA writer for The Ringer, Howard Beck, NFL Network reporter Stacey Dales. And now, sitting in for Rich, it's Suzy Schuster.

Well, hey, everybody. Suzy Schuster in for Rich Eisen while he's taking a well-deserved break and well-deserved, I really believe. One just missed a hole in one by this, by this much. And by the way, for a guy who doesn't play golf very much at all, it's kind of like the way he runs the 40-yard dash. He doesn't really warm up. He doesn't really practice. Drives me slightly insane. Hi, TJ Jefferson.

How are you? It's the second time you've said that. Do we have some type of visual? I have a picture.

I just have to get it to my caskins and remember to do that in between. I didn't take a picture and said I have a hole in one. Like, I don't know.

I need something more than just his work. What's more photoshopped, Rich? This alleged golf photo or Joe Burrow's hair? Wow.

Be more bitter about it and we will actually look at Joe Burrow's hair and try it on you shortly, maybe in the third hour. Like, Brockman had a CGI video of him on his Instagram of him golfing. Like, it wasn't real. Yeah, it's true. I think this is... And you're supposed to say, missed it by that much.

I missed it by that much. This is real and it's spectacular. Hey. Hey, Chris. Hey. Hi, Mikey.

How are you? Hey, Suze. And hi to my friend, Howard Beck, with whom I covered the Lakers back to back to back. I spent more time with you, easy guys, than I did with Rich for many, many years. Calm down, all of you. This is a family program.

Thank you very much. Yeah, Howard and I literally, we flew on planes together. We sat there and we did the dance. No, he never drove with me. You never drove with me, did you, Howard?

I don't think so. No, you probably had some like, you know, fancy limo service that... Yeah, there we go. There we go, Howard.

You know, I really did because Fox Sports and I really love paying the big bucks for all the fancy bells and whistles. I did have at one point a Saab 900 turbo convertible and I remember coming out of practice one day and Shaq saw the car and he tried to get in it and he couldn't sit in the front seat. He's like, well, if I had this car, I would take out the seat.

I was like, please don't ruin my car. Hi, Howard. Good to have you here. Susie, great to see you again. Good to be here.

Always fun to start an interview with you this way. All right, here's the question we have today. With all the ascending stars in the NBA, do you have to win a championship to be crowned a superstar? I'm going to say no.

I'm not in the ZZZZ rings culture sect. I don't really believe in that. We have seen plenty of superstars over the decades who are all time greats and we all know they're all time greats. And we all know that under different circumstances, especially if they didn't, you know, weren't blocked by Michael Jordan maybe in the 90s or blocked by Tim Duncan for parts of the 2000s or Shaq and Kobe or now blocked by LeBron and Steph Curry. There are other guys who could have broken through.

So I don't hold that as some like absolute standard. But it's interesting because we are in this moment where, you know, Steph Curry and LeBron, who have been the standard bearers in the face of the league, that kind of mythical title that we love to use, they're nearing their horizons whenever those may be. And so we're looking to Anthony Edwards and we're looking to Luka Doncic and we're looking at Jason Tatum. And, you know, let's even throw Tyrese Halliburton in there because, hey, he's got his team in the conference finals.

We are looking around and saying, who's next? And you don't have to win a championship right off the bat to clinch that status. You need to be an absolute stud athletically, of course. You need to win a lot of games. You need to be in a lot of postseasons. You need to have moments.

It helps if you have a lot of charisma, as some of them do. But the rings part of it, I feel like it's more part of the legacy discussion, Hall of Fame discussion. But it's again, I don't think you have to have it to clinch that status as one of the faces of the league.

But there is certainly an opportunity for some of the young players I just mentioned to go ahead and grab that in the next few weeks, which certainly helps the cause. We've had a great time watching the comedic stylings of Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns after their win. But as we look ahead at this series, how competitive can they be against Dallas?

How do you like this one? It's a really fascinating series, right? Because the Timberwolves haven't been this far in 20 years. And the current stars were, you know, probably in the proverbial diapers at the time or not very far beyond that, if anything. And the Mavericks, you know, they made a conference finals a couple of years ago against the Warriors. I don't think anybody thought they were really ready to break through then.

They might be ready to break through now. But this is one of those series where you look at it and you could talk yourself, you know, in circles as to who should be the favorite or how long this is going to go. This is an opportunity for Luca in particular, right? He finished third in the MVP voting. He's been a perennial MVP candidate for the last several years. And he's got a phenomenal co-star now in Kyrie Irving, who a lot of us, certainly I was skeptical that that pairing was going to work and it's worked fabulously.

That's an incredible and very lethal one-two punch. They've got some great role players and defenders around them. So that all said, the Mavericks are more, they're a little younger in their process, right? Like Kyrie just got there, you know, 14 months ago or whatever it was. This is their first full season together. Derek Lively, their starting center, is a rookie. Daniel Gafford and PJ Washington, who we've all raved about how great a contribution they've made since the trade deadline, got there at the trade deadline.

So they're still a little new. The Wolves on the other hand, this is two full seasons now with Rudy Gobert. This is multiple seasons with Towns and Anthony Edwards. That core has been together for a bit. Their coach has been there. Everybody's been in place. If I have to pick, and I hate picking, I lean toward the Wolves in this series only because I think there's a little more continuity and just time together.

The chemistry is established, but also they've got size, right? Like that Towns-Gobert front court is a beast. Just ask Nikola Jokic, who just had to wave goodbye a couple days ago. And I do think it's going to be really interesting to see Lively and Gafford, who have just feasted at the rim off of Luka Lobs in particular, are they going to get those same opportunities when you've got two seven-footers, you know, standing around the paint? Yeah, and Jaden McDaniels and Karl-Anthony Towns and Naz Reed. I mean, you're seeing that when Anthony Edwards talked about that, when he had a slow game offensively, he could trust his players around him to pick up where he left off.

I mean, we saw that happen effectively. So if we take that into consideration, how do you like their game versus the Dallas game? I think the first thing I'm really interested to see is I assume it's going to be Jaden McDaniels on Luka, but it's probably going to have to be a lot of people on Luka. Anthony Edwards in the wake of that Game 7 win was already talking about, and I love hearing this from a young star, right, who's like, here's this guy, he's got all this game, all these skills. Anthony Edwards is going to throw 20, 25, 30 points on the board and in creative ways, he's explosive, he's skilled, he's got great footwork. But the first thing he's telling the, I think it was the TNT crew on Sunday in the wake of that win was, and Kyrie's my assignment.

That's it. I can't wait to go check Kyrie. And he boasted about locking down Jamal Murray in the second half of Game 7. That's just awesome when you hear a young player just really enthused about the defensive assignment.

And I think Anthony Edwards, he's a great defender. If he can lock up Kyrie and the Mavericks can muster, excuse me, the Wolves can muster enough defense to throw at Luka, you know, it's going to be a really tough uphill battle for the Mavericks, right? Because all of their scoring is generated by those two stars. And the Timberwolves were, I think, number one or number two in defense all year.

And they have the personnel to stymie just about anybody. Again, ask the Denver Nuggets, the defending champs. And so this is going to be a really tough test for the Mavericks, but I don't rule them out. And it's funny, I just looked it up, Kyrie's 32, Anthony Edwards is 22, so he definitely grew up watching him and thinking to himself, you must have imagined that he's boxing with himself, trying to think about who he's going to match up against. And then it's probably Kyrie back then and it's Kyrie right now. You know, we talked to Christopher Russo in the first hour about Kyrie and who he's become here in Dallas. What do you think of this metamorphosis of Kyrie Irving as he continually seems to reinvent himself? It's really fascinating, Susie, because at the time that Kyrie forced his way out of Cleveland, I just like my jaw dropped. Like we were already firmly into this era of superstar empowerment and guys moving around more than we'd ever seen before. And I understood it and I support it, but I'd never seen a player decide, I don't want to be with the defining player of my generation who I've gone to three finals and won a championship with.

I want to be somewhere else. And he ends up in Boston and it doesn't go well. It goes pretty badly, in fact, for a couple of years. And then he lands in my backyard in Brooklyn with Kevin Durant.

And to all kinds of circumstances that we do not need to relive or relitigate, it does not go well here in Brooklyn either. By the time the Mavericks traded for Kyrie Irving last year, there were very, very few teams in the NBA who really wanted to take a chance on him. And it was viewed as a risk, for sure. All that talent notwithstanding, and everybody acknowledges his talent and everybody admires his talents.

But there was a risk because of his personality, because of things that had happened on court and off. And ever since getting to Dallas, Kyrie Irving has been, you know, damn near perfect as a player, as a teammate, as just a general citizen. There has been nothing really to complain about. There have been no red flags.

There have been no distractions. And unlike all those years ago when he forced his way out of Cleveland, where it seemed like maybe he wasn't comfortable having to play the co-star role with LeBron, with somebody who was a bigger, brighter star, he seems comfortable with that now. More than that. You've seen, even in this postseason run, there's times where it's like he's got 9 or 10 assists and he's not scoring much. Or he's got 12 assists and he's only scoring 9 points or whatever.

There was a game like that just a week ago, I think. And that he's comfortable being in more of an opportunistic score, not needing to dominate the ball, not worrying about numbers. His ego seems to have kind of been tamped down over this time.

And maybe those are just the lessons you learn after bouncing around for a little bit and realizing that the bottom has fallen out for you. And like Kyrie himself, prior to his final season in Brooklyn on that media day, I remember him saying specifically that he didn't opt into free agency or pursue that route because he knew that there was really nothing out there for him. So he knew. He knew he needed to rehab himself and he's done a fantastic job. Howard Beck joining us here on the Rich Eisen Show. Susie Schuster in for Rich. Before we turn to the series for which Brockman will keep a pill between his legs, what do the Nuggets need to do to stay competitive in the West?

It's getting tougher and tougher, Susie. We are certainly living in an era of incredible parity in the NBA. You know, a few weeks from now, the NBA will crown its sixth different champion in a six year stretch that hasn't happened since the late 70s. And most teams that are winning the title are built around, you know, not multiple superstars. We are long past the superstar or the super team era. It's now, you know, usually one supreme star and a bunch of really well calibrated role players around him.

Right. The Giannis Bucks were like that. The Kawhi Leonard Raptors were like that. The Jokic Nuggets are like that, all due respect to Jamal Murray, but he hasn't even made an all star team yet. So your margin for error is a little bit thinner when it's one superstar plus a bunch of really good role players. And so, you know, we saw that with the Nuggets. There's obviously, you know, a little bit of attrition, too, when just you've had a long season and played into June last year.

There's all of that. The new CBA makes it really tough to retain talent and to keep paying or adding talent. And the Nuggets faced that last offseason when they lost Bruce Brown and Jeff Green to free agency. They didn't really have a bench to lean on. And Michael Malone mentioned that more than once, you know, over the last few days of the postseason and during the regular season even.

So what do they do? They're not going to have a lot of tools at their disposal to add in free agency this summer, unless guys want to come there for minimum contracts, which maybe, you know, playing with Jokic just is a lot of fun and gives you a chance to chase a title. So that could happen. The really interesting scenario would be, do you trade one of your core pieces? You know, Michael Porter Jr. is making a lot of money, 35 to 40 million over the next few years.

And, you know, could you trade him for two to three pieces to help replenish the rotation? But they also have, you know, another looming concern, which is that Contavious Caldwell-Pope, who was the critical last piece of that starting lineup that they acquired before they won the championship. He can opt out in the summer and almost certainly will.

And he's a great 3 and D player who's won championships with two different teams and who's going to be heavily pursued and recruited. So if they lose KCP, they're going to have an even tougher uphill battle than what you're alluding to right now. But it's going to be tough regardless because Dallas isn't going anywhere. Minnesota is not going anywhere. The Oklahoma City Thunder, who the Mavericks beat, they're very, very young and only getting better and with plenty of flexibility to keep building. So, yeah, it's going to be tough for the Nuggets.

The ringer is Howard Beck right here on the Rich Eisen Show. Boston hasn't won a championship in 15 years. And before that, the last time they won, I was a freshman in high school in Boston. Is this the year?

It very well could be. I think we've all had them pegged as the Eastern Conference champion since, you know, July. So if they falter now against a Pacers team that was a sixth seed and that is young and that was not even expected to be anywhere near this deep in the postseason, that would be a colossal failure. The question has always been, if the Celtics get to the finals, were they going to be good enough to beat the Denver Nuggets?

Well, that problem is solved. Are they going to be good enough to beat the Timberwolves or the Mavericks? I think they could match up well with both of them. And I think if Kristaps Porzingis gets healthy at some point during the course of the conference finals and is ready to play in the finals, I think the Celtics are going to be an incredibly tough opponent for either of the Western Conference teams.

But I don't know, Susie, I really don't know. The Celtics, this is their sixth conference finals in the last, I think, eight years, which is incredible. It is the most successful overall run of any team and the most consistent by far. And that Tatum and Brown tandem has been incredible at their best.

But they have these glitches at times, right? Sometimes it's a quarter, sometimes it's a game, sometimes it's a series. And they, you know, I think everybody kind of looks at them with admiration for their talent and everything that they've done, but with a little bit of skepticism or suspicion because they have these untimely pratfalls. They had more talent than the Warriors two years ago in the finals and by, you know, a lot of measures maybe should have won that series. And now they're a little bit older. They're a little more experienced.

They're a little bit, I think, deeper and better built. And especially if they have Porzingis, they will be in much better shape to try to win a championship in a couple of weeks than they were two years ago. Hey Howard, I'm a Celtics fan, so I watch these games with frustration and, you know, anticipation.

Like you said, they do a lot of dumb things. They give a lot of games away, kind of careless the way they play at times. Do you, what is the opinion of Joe Mazzulla? Do you think he's done a great job? Does he get enough credit because he's kind of coaching a quote unquote super team? What is your assessment of him in year two?

Mazzulla's in an interesting spot, right? Because, you know, as we know, you know, two summers ago, he's thrust into the spotlight into this job when Imeodoka had to step down. And he didn't have, you know, much in the way of experience at the NBA level or period. And it was a bumpy, I think, first year for him. And I'm sure you, like a lot of Celtics fans, were ready to throw him overboard at times. I think he's acquitted himself really well in year two. He's more comfortable. He has, I think, managed, you know, a rotation that is filled with talent, right?

It's not a super team by traditional standards, but two stars, a bunch of other guys who have been stars or have star capability. And I think he's managed it all really well. I think he's grown into the role. I think that he could probably stand to be a little bit more, I don't know, loose, personable in his interactions with the media. Because I think part of the tension or the skepticism of him has been that the way he presents sometimes is a little uptight and very self-serious. And that doesn't necessarily matter for a head coach.

But, you know, public relations kind of matters to messaging matters. And I think people, when they see that, they wonder, well, my God, if you feel this uptight in your press conferences, what do you like in the locker room? And so, you know, but I think it also is a case where when you're young and in that job and in that role with all the pressure and all the expectations and spotlight that comes with that job in particular, it's also understandable.

And I think it takes time to get comfortable enough in yourself and in that role to maybe let your guard down a little bit. Well, and you're following up, Imei, who I always said he was the toughest player on the team and he was the head coach, you know, and he wasn't exactly Mr. Nice Guy. Suzie Schuster and I covered Imei Udonka in Laker Training Camp about 100 years ago.

So there's that. I mean, we covered a lot of crazy stories together. How many do we have that were like, we had some good J.G., we had some good J.R. Ryder stories.

We had a lot of weird stuff going on when we covered the team. Speaking of which, the headlines out here are the saying that LeBron is not involved in the Lakers head coaching search. Who are we kidding, right?

That's like ridiculous, right? Of course he is. You know, there's a lot of wiggle room in there. You know, what does not involved mean?

You know, all right. He's probably not in Rob Polinka's office, like putting names on the dry erase board. But he has a button that he presses and he probably shows up like a Jetsons like on the screen in Rob Polinka's office. Who are we kidding? I like the idea of like a hologram. LeBron just kind of pops in every so often.

One hundred percent. Rob, LeBron is on the hologram. I think it would be ludicrous to think in today's NBA with as much power as superstars have and have deserved most of the time that you're not at least making a call and consulting. Like before Rob Polinka makes his list of finalists, he's it would be foolish not to at least if not talk to LeBron directly, then at least to talk to the people who talk to LeBron and get a feel for somebody. Because you don't want to hire somebody who he's absolutely opposed to or absolutely has no respect for. You don't necessarily need to choose somebody at LeBron's request either. But the idea that he's not involved at all.

Yeah, certainly strains credulity. T.J. Hey, Howard, what's up? I'm a Sixers fan and I'm a Clippers fan.

So it's not always that great for me. So I don't want to talk about both of them right now. I'm going to specify the Sixers. They got almost fifty nine million dollars in cap space next year. Right.

What's the word, man? Can can you help me feel good about this offseason? Who can you see the Sixers signing to help Embiid and Maxey go to the next level? Admittedly, I have not dug that deep into it yet, but it's funny that your combination of teams, the Sixers and Clippers, who the Sixers might want to be poaching a star from.

Right. Outside of the Paul George scenario, it's a little difficult. You know, Contavious Caldwell Pope, who I mentioned earlier, would be a fantastic addition to the Sixers. He'd be a fantastic addition just about anywhere. And I think the one thing to keep an eye on, you know, you know, Daryl Morey is pretty shrewd about this stuff.

And he knows as well as anybody. We haven't seen a lot of superstars or even second tier stars change teams in free agency in recent years. Most of those changes have been via forced trades.

We are in an environment where, again, as I alluded to earlier, the new CBA that kicked in a year ago and more of those restrictions have kicked in since makes it really tough for the high spenders to keep spending. And so teams are going to have to probably shed salary. And when you have cap room, when you're one of the few teams below the cap and by a lot in the case of the Sixers, you can make unbalanced trades in terms of the salary cap.

You can acquire a lot of salary. So I suspect, and I have not asked, but I suspect that the Sixers are thinking, yeah, let's go chase Paul George or Contavious Caldwell Pope or whoever else, maybe a top tier or second tier free agent or a combination thereof. But we're also going to see an offseason here, I think, where teams are going to be forced to shed players that they would rather keep. And the Sixers will be in a great position to say, hey, we are your cap relief.

We've got a couple of smaller contracts to send you or some picks or whatever it may be. And I will say with some confidence, I don't like predictions, but I will predict with some confidence that by mid-July, the Sixers will have restocked pretty well around Embiid and Maxey. I don't know who it's going to be.

It's going to be somebody. So I should hold out hope then? You should hold out hope for the Sixers. I don't know what to think about your Clippers, especially if the Sixers get your Clippers second best player. We'll save that for the next time you call in Howard.

I got one last Lakers question. It's such a weird question. Do you think people even want that job the way they used to want that job? It comes with a little bit of a headache, don't you think?

I think it's a really complicated question. Susie, I think it goes back to the old cliche that you and I have heard eight billion times, which is that there's only 30 of these jobs and the Lakers among those jobs is even in the worst of times. And this is definitely not the worst of times, right? Like they've had some really rough periods, but even the worst of times, the Lakers job is the Lakers job.

It is still a glamour team in a glamour city. And yeah, it comes with a lot of pressure, a lot of scrutiny. And it comes with the knowledge that the last couple of coaches have not lasted very long. One of them, despite winning a championship, Frank Vogel.

So, you know, you go in eyes wide open if you're taking that job, of course, and you do whatever assurances you can. But I will say this. I have much more concern for the Lakers in terms of what they do with the roster than what they do at the head coaching spot. I think Darvin Ham, for any flaws that people will point to, and I know Laker fans will point to many, Darvin Ham was a perfectly capable coach. Frank Vogel was a clearly capable coach and won them a championship. That they both got fired is at least in large part due to the fact that the Lakers did not sustain the championship core that they had around LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

And so I have much more concern with the way the front office has operated over the last few years, both with regard to coaches and with regard to roster building than I do with who is going to ultimately sit in that seat and draw up plays. Yep. Yep.

I hear you. Howard, thank you again for your time. Love having you on as always. Susie, always a pleasure. Say hi to Rich for me. I will do that indeed. Doesn't Howard look like he's at a rave somewhere, by the way, in the background?

He's about to head out clubbing for the night. I assure you I'm not. I only wish you would. Let's take a break when we come back. We've got to do more win loss.

I mean, I've got all these great people holding on. Win loss. So win loss when you come back. Let's go to break.

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Grainger's got the right product for you. Call click wager dot com or just stop by win loss, people, because, you know, I love it so much. Mike in Florida, the Bucks, you got the Bucks win loss. You've been holding for an hour and a half. I love you. Hey, how are you doing, bud? Susie, how are you doing? I'm great.

How are you? I've called in a few times, but this is the first time I've been able to speak with you. So I feel I feel truly honored. Well, I'm so psyched that you waited to talk to us. So thanks again. You know how seriously I take the callers. So I appreciate your time. But actually, I want to do the Giants win loss, not the Bucks.

OK. All right, let's do it. Hold on. That's on Del Tufo. That's on Mike. Mike. There's two Mikes waiting. And they're both Florida, which kind of screwed me up.

Except one says Florida. Constantly has your back. All right, let's go. Rapid fire. Can I have music, please? Are we doing the Giants or that we want? Giants week one. Minnesota.

Let's go. That's a win. Home rookie court. They're going to be facing a rookie quarterback. That's a win at Washington. Week two loss at Cleveland. Week three loss. Dallas week four. I hate the Cowboys.

Sorry, TJ. But that's also a loss at Seattle. Week five.

Right. Lost Cincinnati on Peacock's in a football and sorry on NBC Cincinnati. Lost Philadelphia. Week seven. Lost at Pitt. Week six in a row. At Pitt.

That's a loss. Washington. Week nine. That's a win. Carolina. Week 10. Win.

That's in Germany. Rich might be there. Maybe I'll go to that one by week. And then Tampa Bay. Week 12 loss at Dallas. Week 13. Lost New Orleans. Week 14. That's a win at home. That's a win.

I hear you. Baltimore. Week 15. Lost at Atlanta. Week 16. Lost Indy. Week 17. Lost. Closing up at Philly. Week 18. What do you got? Four and 13.

Number one draft pick for the Giants. That's a loss. Wow. Fantastic. You played that beautifully. So number one pick is four and 13. I think you might be right about that.

I think so. I appreciate your honesty, Mike. Thank you, Mike.

One of the few people who was honest with yourself. That's for my brother who's a diehard Giants fan. God bless him. Hey, it's better than the Patriots are going to be.

All right. How about the other Mike? Mike in Florida for Bucks. Let's go, Mike. Mike in Florida, Bucks. Hi, Mike. What's up, brother?

Yeah, the second Mike in Florida. How are you, Mike? Good. How about yourself? So great. I love sitting in here. Are you kidding? It's better than a real world.

So, I mean, I kind of like it. Okay. The other Mike in Florida. You are you are up as the other Mike in Florida. I love it. Ready?

Let's go. Week one, Washington. Welcome to the NFL, Jayden Daniels. When? Wow, I like it. At Detroit.

It's a bold statement. I like it. You're here to play. Week two at Detroit. I think it's going to be redemption time for the two losses last year. I say when. Oh, I like the start. Denver, week three.

Confidence is king. What do they have for a roster now? Week four, Philadelphia. Wait a minute. Is that a that's a win against Denver?

I think we've seen Philly a lot lately, so I think that's a loss. Okay. But you're saying I'm joking, but you are saying Denver's a win, correct?

Oh, definitely. Okay. At Atlanta, week five.

We don't like Sean Payton anyway. I hear you. Week five at Atlanta. Oh, that's a tough one.

You've had an hour and a half to think about this, though. Cousins is playing. I say it's a loss. If he's not, I say it's a win. So I'll say a loss.

All right. I'll take it at New Orleans. Week six into. When week seven, Baltimore, Mikey, I think we need NFL Films music. I feel like let's get the guys. This is this is this is like Pink Panther cartoon capers, NFL Films. I don't know.

I like I like the whole autumn wind thing. All right. Week seven, Baltimore. Oh, God, we can never beat them. I don't know where we're at home on. What's that, a Sunday or Monday night? Monday night. That's it.

Now I'm excited. I got to say loss. All right. Week eight, Atlanta. I think panic is in at that point, and it's a win. Oh, fantastic. At Casey.

Oh, that's tough. Week nine, five and three. I think we shot Casey and we beat him there because we're going to lose against San Francisco. I don't know when the last time we beat San Fran is.

Oh, wow. Then by at New York Giants, week 12, six and four. Do I really have to answer that? Week 13 at Carolina. I don't think I have to answer that one either.

All right. Raiders week 14. Who's week 14? That's the Raiders. Oh, Raiders. Yeah, it's a win at the Chargers with Harbaugh. Week 15. I think, yeah, they'll hit their groove at that point.

I just don't know if they have enough wide receivers to throw to at this point. I'll say it's a win. All right. I like it. Your confidence is king at TJ's Cowboys week 16.

Now, that's a loss. All right. We already know what you're going to say for week 17, correct?

Yes. All right. I like it. Week 18, New Orleans. It's always a split with New Orleans, so it's going to be a split again this year. All right.

I hear you. What's the math on this, Christopher? That's a loss? 11 and six.

A loss is 11 and six. Playoffs, obviously, right? We have playoffs and I'll go a step further. I think it's us against Philly at home. We win. Like last year. Then we go to Detroit in a divisional round and upset them and win. And then our nemesis, we go to San Francisco and we stop the world and win. So you're going to the Super Bowl? Play the Bengals in the Super Bowl and win.

More on Joe Burrow later. Wow. You're winning the Super Bowl? Yeah.

What are you smoking, bro? Give me something. Winning. They said the bad about us in, what was that, 2020-21 season. And what do we do to the Chiefs? No, you had Tom Brady. Everyone thought you were winning the Super Bowl. Oh, you don't think Baker can get the job done, Chris?

Baker cannot win a Super Bowl. I'm sorry. And as much as I appreciate you staying on for an hour and a half, no, I don't think so. All right, Mike, that was good. But if they do call back, I will send you a lovely parting package gift for you, because I was wrong. Because if I'm wrong, I always say I was wrong.

Except to my kids, because I'm always right. You're the smartest person that ever was in that captain's chair. I know. I know.

It's like out of the old movie, like what's it like, what is it, broadcast news, what's it like being the smartest person in the room? And she says, it's terrible. I know. All right, let's go. I want to play us some more of these. If you don't, Mike, thanks for your time. How about, let's see, how about Jason in Fresno with the Rams. Jason.

Jason. Hey, how are you doing? Awesome. How are you? What's up, dude? Doing great. Doing great. All right. You ready to go?

Music please, Mikey. Wait, are you doing win-loss or which games Mike and I are selling our tickets to? Oh my God, you guys are so lame. I think we already figured those ones out.

Lame. Week one at Detroit. Week three for sure. Week one at Detroit rematch of last year's best wildcard game.

That is probably going to be close, but I think Detroit wins it. All right. Week two at Arizona.

Uh, seeing over from that first game, I think we lose that one too. All right. Week three, San Francisco. Come on. Let's go. You can start.

This is a game that, you know, it's actually a home game for San Francisco because a few people sell their tickets. All right. We're going to, we're going to get this win.

Okay. Let's start. At Chicago, Caleb Bowl. Week four.

We are lucky to get Caleb this early in his career. I think we get a win. All right. Green Bay week five. They cannot beat the Packers.

Wow. By week, then week seven, Las Vegas. Who's their quarterback? Tom Brady. I mean, it is an owner's meeting, owner's meeting week and it could be Tom. Ken Stabler. Owner quarterback.

No, that's not going to happen. Analyst, quarterback, owner. It's a lot of stuff going on. All right. Are we winner? Winner loss on week seven. That's going to be a lot. All right. Week eight, Minnesota.

Two and four. You know what? That is going to be a win. Week nine at Seattle. Seattle has a win. Week 10, Miami.

I think that's going to be a loss. Week 11 is a loss. Week 12, Philadelphia.

Let's see. You know, I think we get Philadelphia this year. Week 13 at New Orleans. That's a win.

This is tough. Week 14, Buffalo. I don't think the Rams have beat Buffalo since they've been back in L.A.

So I don't see them doing it again. So that'll be another L. All right. Week 15.

That's at San Francisco. We split it with the Niners this year. That's a loss.

At the New York Jets. That is definitely a win. Arizona, week 17.

That's a win. All right. Week 18, Seattle. And we close that with a win against the Seahawks. All right. Nicely done.

Thank you so much for your time. Did he predict a win or a loss against the Patriots? Did I miss a week? I just said we expect the Patriots to lose, right? What week was that?

But Jason didn't answer. That was, hold on. Week 11. I can't take my pen off this.

I'm so afraid to get lost. Yeah, week 11. Is he still on the phone? No. No, we dumped him. I'm so sorry. I just assumed you were going to say that you were going to beat the Patriots.

But what else is new? All right. Can we take Nick? Nick in Portland, Oregon.

Broncos. Nick is up. All right, Nick. Oh my gosh. Thank you for calling in.

I really appreciate your time. Let's go. Hold on.

I've got to find it. Denver. Here we go. Mikey. Unlike the other Mike in Florida, I'm ready. Hour and a half. I'm good.

I mean, right? You're ready. You're not going to stumble on this one, right? Mikey, you ready? Week 1 at Seattle. Win. Week 2, Pittsburgh. Lost. Week 3 at Tampa Bay.

Lost. Week 4 at the Jets. Win. Week 5, Raiders. Win. Week 6, Harbaugh.

Win. Week 7 at New Orleans. Lost. Week 8, Carolina. Lost. Week 9 at Baltimore. Lost. Week 10 at KC.

Lost. Week 11, Atlanta. I'm going to go with another loss. Week 12 at the Raiders. Win. Week 13, Cleveland.

Lost. Then a bye week. Week 15, Indy. Win. Week 16 at the Chargers. Win. Week 17 at Cincy.

Lost. Finishing up at KC. Week 18. I'm going to go with a win because I think Kansas City is already going to be resting guys.

So, you know, this is just an asterisk win. But I've really got them as a loss at 7 and 10. But I'm going to go with an 8 and 9.

8 and 9. Optimistic. Excellent. And great job on the rapid fire as well. Well done, Nick. Perfectly done. Well done, Nick. That was great. Boy, they cut the music out so fast. I was ready.

You threw me. Do we have time for one more? Do we have time for one more before break? Or take a break? Let's break. Let's break. Come back.

We'll do a couple more. Let me come back, though. We've got a lot more ahead of us here on the Rich Eisen Show. Don't go anywhere.

Back on the Rich Eisen Show, Suze Shuster in for Rich. I am excited to go see Kaitlin Clark this week. Nice. We're going to go see her on Friday with Taylor and some of her friends. Where are we sitting?

I don't know. We were actually invited, which is really exciting. Oh, so you didn't get your tickets off the app because you would have known we were going to use them. To bring you? Do you want to come to my house?

You can watch it on the TV. While you're gone? Yeah. So you'll be at the game, and I'll just be at your house. You can just put Cage on the floor in front of us with a lot of toys. Just me and the dogs?

Just you and the dogs would be really great. That said, I'm usually the one who buys all the tickets for the family because let's face it, who are we kidding, right? Right.

Who are we kidding? That's why I'm saying you didn't get them off the game time app, or else you'd know where you were sitting. I live on the game time app, and I'll tell you why. Because I can see where I'm going to sit, because I'm really picky about where I'm going to sit. Understandably. Do you still, Chris? Oh, good. I'm in the passenger seat, not the driver's seat. Look at you.

You like what I did there? Adapting. I like game time, you guys, because I want to see where I'm going to sit. I've got three kids with three different needs. I've got to go to a lot of tickets, a lot of games, a lot of events. I've got to buy a lot of tickets. So I go on game time, because I know I'm going to get the best prices. I'm going to see where I'm going to sit in advance. Because when you have a little kid, the worst thing you can do is buy three expensive seats, or even inexpensive seats, and you get there and you can't see. It stinks. So on game time, I can see where I'm going to sit. There's all these last minute deals, lowest prices guaranteed.

It's fantastic. And it's for real. So take the guesswork out of buying these tickets on game time. Download the app, create an account, use the code RICH, R-I-C-H, for $20 off of your first purchase.

Terms apply. Visit gametime.co for restrictions. Again, create the account, redeem the code, R-I-C-H, for $20 off. Download game time today.

Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. We looked at Joe Burrow in an old video while everybody was at break, those of us on Roke who were looking at Joe Burrow. There's a questionable picture floating around, boys, of Joe Burrow possibly sporting a new do. Could this be a real picture, or is this photoshopped Chris Brockman?

I saw this floating around last night, and I saw it and I'm like, TJ, the spidey sense went up. This can't be real. So I tried to see if anyone official posted it. Was it on the Bengals account? Yeah, it was on his account. Did Joe himself post it? Did his- Did Jamar Chase post it? Did his lady friend? Did his Jamar Chase? Did T. Higgins?

He's still his teammate, right? Did anybody- Did Coach O post it? Did anybody actually post this who we believe?

Or is he in a vampire movie? I don't know. I couldn't find it. I saw the photo and everyone was commenting on the same photo, you know, making the same Star Wars and Rob Lowe jokes. I want it to be real, TJ, you know what I mean? It's real to me, dammit. I see. Fake.

Fake. It's really good. Whoever did this, if this is Photoshop, which I guess we're leaning that way, right?

It's really good. But it looks a little bit like some kind of teen movie, correct? 80s movie for sure. Do we have some other- Is Jon Cryer in this movie? He looks like the a-hole kid in every 80s movie that played a sport, so Johnny B. Goode or anything where there was a football scene. Just one of the guys.

Just one of the guys. Or is he in a Star Wars movie? Or he could have a lightsaber in his hand. Definitely looks like Hayden Christensen.

Or you know, he could be holding a boombox over his head and trying to get Ione Skye to come out of her bedroom. I think St. Elmo's fire sounds about right to me, but here he is five days ago. This is a real photograph. This is a real photo.

Released by the Bengals. There's no chance he threw that hair in five days. That could be in the picture.

Unless he visited the hair club for men. Exactly. He's not. That's fake. That's Mr.

Still Your Girl on the left, though. I'm telling you that much. He ain't throwing that much hair five days.

I don't care what your hair is like. So Mike, you're on Team Fake? Team Fake. Let's take a look at him from today. I mean, do we have a video of him from today? I think we do. Here it is from today.

Yeah, exactly. Here it comes. And my eyes see- A normal hair length confirms.

A normal hair length Joe Burrow. All right. Kind of a bummer. Do you think if he did have that 80s Revenge of the Sith look, would that have been a red flag? Should Bengals fans have been concerned? Like is he having like a breakdown?

Yeah, or just like, what are we doing? No, if I was a Bengals fan, I would be like, yo, my man is so committed to working out and rehabbing and getting in his playbook here, he doesn't have time to go see Benny Blades. Benny Blades!

There's no time for Benny Blades to put that mop, bro, he is committed and he's grinding and he's in his playbook. TJ, I'd like to see you with that hairdo. What do you think? A little bit of the Sith hairdo? Perhaps- He's got long hair. Come on.

For some reason when we taught... Oh my God. There he is. Our color commentator here on The Rich Eyes and Show. Oh my God, Benny Blades just, he just said, TJ, let's get to Benny Blades right now. I can't unsee that.

That is fantastic. I'm a brother with locks, I've got long hair already, you know what I'm saying? You can let your soul glow, you can let your soul glow there. Oh, Chris. Keep it tight, brother. That's an actor.

Keep it tight, brother. He could, he could. That's an 80s actor right there, Brock.

That's a smug shot. Again, we talked about this yesterday with Tom. If I looked like that, I wouldn't be friends with any of you jokers.

I'd have a big house somewhere in the hills. So you're saying that your lack of hair is keeping you back. Oh, Mikey. You look like you're in Frozen. Mike looks like the guy who sells underage kids beer in Days of Caduceus. You look like you're anime.

No, I should be in the sphere with the Grateful Dead playing drums. Hey, go ahead, caveman. Oh my God. You look like Anna's new boyfriend in Frozen 3.

Brock might look like- Oh, wow. Good Lord. Oh, Susie.

That is... I gotta, he looks like somebody though. Susie looks like somebody. He does look like somebody. Who does he look like? Andrew Shue.

No, he does look like Andrew Shue. No. We've got somebody else.

Gotcha. Susie, let me ask you something. Does that hair make you think about number four? Paging Laura Wasser.

Laura Wasser of Line 3. So, boy, one more. So no baby number four?

Can't be me. No. Hold on. Oh.

Oh. That's a rough look and someone's going to pay for that one. And wipe.

And wipe. Is that you? What picture is that? Where is that from? I was eight months pregnant with- Which kid?

Taylor. Eight months pregnant in that picture, by the way. By the way, sun's out, gun's out. Let's go. Jeez, let's go. Yeah. All right.

I'm just saying- Get your triceps in. Someone's going to be paying for that, Sean Mitchell. I know where you live. I know your address. And guess what? I know I'm coming for you next.

All right. Hour three is up ahead of us here on the Rich Dies and Show. Rich is coming back tonight, but I may just lock him in the bedroom tonight and come back tomorrow.

Still on Roku. And guys, let me tell you, Sean Mitchell, you just opened this up for business. When you put up pictures of a woman, people, you got to get it off and wipe.

And wipe. When you put up a picture of a... I was eight months pregnant in that picture. She went on tour with Kylie Minogue in that picture.

I should be so lucky. At least give me some kind of like Kardashian, like give me some kind of Game of Thrones mop if you're going to do that. At least let me see what I look like as Khaleesi.

Like every woman kind of looks like Khaleesi. I look like a deaf leopard groupie in that picture. Hey, you know?

You're cool. Deaf leopard groupie. You're lucky you were on the album cover of Slippery When Wet for Bon Jovi, but then they decided to go with the other- Can I tell you something? Felly yesterday was playing a Jon Bon Jovi song. I don't even think it was Bon Jovi yet, but literally I had to say to him, like, can you not put that on? Because I love that song so much that I can't prep for the show. I went through a hardcore...

I mean, Rich had Jon Bon Jovi on a couple weeks ago. I know. We were surprised you didn't show up. And I was like screaming inside.

Screaming inside. Look, that's cool. I kept waiting for you to walk around the corner, but you didn't. I thought about it. Not really, because I'm going to say this on TV, and I love Jon Bon Jovi more than life itself, but some men shouldn't wear a baseball hat. I just think I can't see Jon Bon Jovi in a baseball hat.

All right. And in three, two, one, and wipe, because Rich looks like he's got like a fake hairpiece on there. Like you can see the headband.

It's such a rough look. Welcome to Talkville. I know 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 a 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.