Chris Mannix: Pacers played well and then they blew it

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See ebaymotors.com. Why does everyone hate Jason Tatum? This is the Rich Eisen Show. That is a hot take of hot takes. I like it. Tatum steps to his left, three in the air.

Got it! Big boy step up at the right time, man. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles, today's guests. Senior writer for Sports Illustrated, Chris Mannix. 2024 PGA Championship winner, Xander Shoffley. Michigan men's basketball head coach, Dusty May. And now, it's Rich Eisen.

Yes, it is. Welcome to this edition of the Rich Eisen Show. Back in the chair after a two-day walkabout. Thanks to Suze for sitting in so expertly in this chair and taking all your phone calls. And by all of them, I mean every last one of them.

844-204 Rich, no one at all. She's showing me up, that's all. But it's just not a problem. It's not a problem.

I like talking to people, too. So many win-loss games. And by the way, we're still ready to do it any day, every day that you want to do it.

844-204 Rich is your number to dial right here on this program. The Eastern Conference Finals of the NBA playoffs is underway. Western Conference Finals will go down tonight. The start of it between the Timberwolves and the Mavericks.

And they've got a very high bar in terms of entertaining basketball to cross. A big game last night in Boston. We'll discuss it. Chris Mannix was there. He's going to be joining us in about 18 minutes time to talk about that. Zandri Shauffele and his Wanamaker trophy I think is probably cleaned of all the Veuve Clicquot.

Is it, though? I don't know. We'll ask him when he joins us on this program. And then Dusty May, he's in town for the Big Ten.

I think the Big Ten basketball meetings that are going down in that Big Ten bastion of Palos Verdes, California. I still... He's an hour down the road. I still don't believe it.

It's so great. He's an hour down the road and he was supposed to be here in studio but we couldn't get the Rich Eisen show helicopter for him. There was no way in heck he was going to be able to make it.

But hey, that's the way it goes in Big Ten country. And so he's going to be joining us in hour number three. It's a What's More Likely Wednesday because we're off on Friday for the big time holiday weekend that's coming up. We're all excited about being here today and hopefully you're part of our program again at 844-204-RICH being the number to dial. Good to see you over there Christopher. How are you? Man, I'm exhausted. You are, huh?

I have like 14 heart attacks. Thankfully my hair is gone. That was from your four days at Sawgrass. I'm still exhausted from that too.

Good to see you DJ Mikey D's. So much for that easy sweep for the Celtics. Just want to say that to Brockman.

You thought they were like... Hey listen, it's the NBA playoffs. You never know what the heck is going to happen. It's usually one nothing man. I know.

It's still one. I get it. Hey listen, one second things can look like you're going to win it all. The next thing every single player on your team breaks down.

I mean that's entirely possible. Good to see you over there TJ Jefferson. How are you? I'm great.

You know it's awesome when your teams, and I say teams because there's multiple loosens in the playoffs. So therefore you don't have to go through that gut wrenching feeling that Brockman had last night. I'm really happy I didn't have that. It was terrible.

It was terrible. I shut it off. Get out of here man. I shut it off. 13 seconds left. You shut the basketball game off?

13 seconds left. I shut it off and I went outside to hit balls off the tee with Cage. Then we came back in. TV's still off.

Read books for a little bit. I walk out. Sarah goes, hey your game's in overtime. I go, excuse me?

Real fair right here Rich. I saw photographs of Celtics fans trying to get back into TD Garden. I saw that. I saw people trying to, because they had the same idea as you, this thing's a wrap. Yeah.

I don't understand that. So you didn't see, you didn't see the three pointer that we're all talking about? Nope. Didn't see it. Didn't see Tatum's three.

Didn't see Brown's three. Turn it back on. Turn it back on with 45 seconds left in overtime. This is, and you know what, this is all part and parcel. It's all part and parcel of your nonsensical stuff. Oh I'd rather get blown out.

Yes. I'd rather get blown out than a heartbreaking loss. Toughen up is what I'm saying to you. I can't believe I'm saying this to you. Get out of here.

I can't believe I could say this to you. This team makes me so angry. Everyone in Boston is infuriated.

Their coach stinks. Let me just tell you right now. What does that feel like? To have your team win game one of the Eastern Conference Finals and still be angry about it. What's that like?

It's a Boston sports fan. You're not happy. You're at your happiest when you're at your most unhappy.

I don't get it. There's a phrase in parenting is that you're only as happy as your least happy child. Okay. That's true. That's the thing. That's it.

Okay. That's the phrase in parenting. In Boston sports you're only happy, your happiest moment is when you're at your least happiest moment. It's kind of weird. It's ridiculous.

But it's also take that and then add on the layer of his nonsensical approach of I'd rather have my team blown out than have a really tight game and be in it and then have my heart broken at the end. That's when you turn it off. Yeah, I turned it off because I was mad. Well, man. You missed out, bro. You missed out. How does a Pacer fan feel today? What feeling like, hey, we had a shot. That anybody who thinks that we're not going to be in this series, well, guess what? We can be.

And that's what you're hanging your head on right now. Anybody else who thought like our seven game series with the Knicks was so grueling that we would be just running on fumes against the Celtics and we weren't. Well, they had a better coach in this series and that goes a long way.

Well, the coach that you say is better in this series, and you may be correct, okay, said it was his bad. While you were hitting balls with Cage, Jalen Brown is spotting up for three, down three with seconds to go, and Pascal Siakam is late on getting back on defense, getting to him in the corner on defense. And sure enough, he gets there in time for Brown to have to get a little hitch in his giddy up before he takes the three, and instead of reaching out and fouling, and he stands there with his arms behind his back and saying, I'm not touching him, ref. We're not going to have a four point play and lose. And it's just like the weirdest shot, like when we showing it on our screen, it's just like, he doesn't get up to contest it, he doesn't even like take the risk of getting underneath him where it's a flagrant foul, he doesn't even take the chance to try and block it.

He doesn't want to get, yeah. He's just standing there hoping that that will be enough to get Jalen Brown off his three point game, and you know, I mean, again, the Celtics weren't lighting it up from three, which is their problem. They at least saw the reverse happen to their opponent, which is they're the ones who had the turnover problems, 22 of them. Celtics had 11 steals last night. But that was just one of the weirdest moments, because when Brown didn't catch and fire, and like reset himself, I thought that's when Siakam could just reach out and grab him.

Reach out and grab him. But hey, that might happen in the act of shooting, so suddenly Jalen Brown's got three shots at the line. I'd rather have him take the, I'd rather take my shot at winning this game that way than just letting Brown shoot a three over a much taller man who's not using any height advantage or anything. He's putting his arms behind his back saying, I'm not fouling him.

I'm not winding up on a two minute report. So after the game, Rick Carlisle kind of raised his hand. You know how players want the scorers table to say, it's on me?

Which they rarely do anymore. So this is what Rick Carlisle ought to say about the game after. This loss is totally on me with 10 seconds in regulation. We should have just taken the time out, advanced the ball, and found a way to get it in and made a free throw or two and ended the game. But it didn't happen and we made some other mistakes, but our guys just need to concentrate on fighting the way they fought in this game from start to finish and we'll be back Thursday. So he's talking about their own offensive possession that didn't lead to more points on the boards. It wouldn't have mattered if Pascal Siakam just let Jalen Brown shoot the three. But that's the shot that everyone's talking about today.

They're not talking about the strategy right beforehand. Yeah, but if if he does call a time out in advance at the ball, which they should have, just that whole play was just a cluster like Siakam's running towards Boston's hoop full speed. He goes to catch the ball. It goes out of bounds. Even if he catches the ball there, his momentum is going to carry him out of bounds.

He's not going to be able to do anything. So that essentially to me is when the game was lost. I mean, but how do you not foul up three? How do you not do it? How much of a sober and dribbling off his knee and going out of 20, 22, yeah, last night.

I mean, you can't. I mean, and and there was no switch on the screen, which is how Siakam ended up on Jalen Brown. McConnell should have switched.

He had so much credit. They turn it over 22 times. They had an insane free throw disparage, like Boston got to the line so many times. They only had three free throws at one point in the game, Indiana, and they went shot lights out and they have great coaching. They have really tough, hard nosed players, and they gave the Celtics all kinds of problems last night when Boston had all the rest. I don't want to hear the excuses. They had the home court, Indiana needed to win that game. They should have won the game. And now you've got to win four out of the next six.

And that seems really, really difficult. Maybe if Porzingis is back for the lion's share of those six, you know. That, you know, they're expecting him back in four.

It's entirely possible. Well, see, Chris, like I asked you yesterday, because Boston hadn't really played a game of real relevance in so long. How do you think that that would affect them? And they it's tough. They pulled out a game, but all of their previous they've only had two to playoff games with clutch minutes, which is, you know, a couple of possessions late in the game.

Their games have either been 20 point wins at 20 point losses. How are they going to respond? They respond. They got super lucky. Yeah. But look, you've got to take luck in consideration, right, Rich? It's all part of it.

And certainly if the luck is allowing a clean look at three for one of the best shooters in the game. This is what Jalen Brown had to say afterwards. Welcome to the NBA playoffs. You just got to manage your emotions at a game.

Anything can happen. The game is not over until the final whistle, the final buzzer sounds. And that was a good example of that. We was able to turn them over a little bit towards the end, one with Halliburton on the sideline. And I was able to get the deflection off of Siakam that just extended the game. And it's not over till it's over. And we found a way to win this game at the very end.

Hey, man, listen, I know the 160 games. It's just not going to be easy. That's all.

It's not going to be easy. The Pacers proved that, you know, they can they're they're not going to just shrink because they got to this point. And that the reason why they won the seven games, I'm sure, again, a lot of my friends in New York City would say, well, if they had Julius Randle and if they had Ojian Inoue and if they had Bogdan Bogdanovic and if they had one of them and I'm not done yet, if they had Josh Hart without that abdominal strain and obviously the final unkind break, the final straw that broke the Knicks hand was Jalen Brunson suffering that injury.

That's be that as it may. The Pacers showed up and they almost came away with the win. They played great. Seven guys in double figures, dude, 60 wins just doesn't matter anymore. It just doesn't matter anymore.

And I think maybe this will be helpful in the cause, Chris, because. I mean, what they they got, but they got bloodied once in their previous two series, both at home and those games weren't close, you know. So again, again, like this is this is good to get the juices flowing. Battle tested grit. Check out Drew Holliday put 48 minutes, shut 10 of 16 was awesome last night. But look, got to have more bench production. Sam Houser can't just play nine minutes. Luke Cornette can't play 13. Al Horford is 800 years old.

He can't play 40 minutes. Brother, this is the scoop and this is the honest truth. And you know it, too. And we'll see how they handle it. There are 60 win team that everybody thought the entire season long. The problem for them would be in the form of the Bucks with Giannis and Lillard or in the form of the Sixers with MB. That doesn't matter. They should have dropped game one. I get it.

I'm just saying to you that in the it would be in the form of a problem coming out from the West, whether it's the defending champs or even the the young, studly thunder. All of them have been removed from the equation. Every last one of them.

So now now this is now that sort of sensibility. And those are external. Those are external conversations.

Those are external. And they can say that they don't hear it or not. But the bottom line is this is the Celtics championship to lose 1000 percent. And how do they handle that? It should all be blown up. And how do they handle that? And does it come to roost in a playoff game in a Crucible? And the answer last night was no. Jalen Brown did make the shot that he was afforded to give the Celtics to tie the game despite what the Pacers may as should have done with their offensive set, what they should have done defensively.

Jalen Brown, with all his money that he got instead of other players that you would consider potentially being worthy of being bestowed the richest contract in the NBA, he made the shot. It doesn't go off the iron. It's not long.

It's not an air ball. He stuck it. And then when overtime was graced upon you while you were what?

Reading books. Okay. When it was okay.

Father of the year. At least while it was good night moon, it wasn't good night Boston. All right. Because Tatum showed up in the overtime.

Okay. He showed up and the defense showed up. So they did what they were supposed to do. Why are you so upset in the way that it happened? That's why I'm so upset. And I've seen hundreds and hundreds of games with these guys and they just always blow it. They never do what they should do, bro.

That's the thing. The 60 win Celtic fan thinks they should take the Pacers who are fresh off a bruising series, the woodshed, got seven games, luckily. And again, this is the Northeast corridor way of saying it because the Knicks were the Ickerbockers, they weren't full strength at all.

And they're the ones who get through. They should be told, welcome to the NBA playoffs kids. We're a 60 win team. We're going to spank you. You have no shot, certainly when Porzingis is coming back in the game for, and instead they had to pull it out by the hair of their chinny chin chins. And it doesn't matter.

It's still one Oh. And the question is, is do they handle the pressure over the next necessary seven wins or not? Because I'll tell you one team that's definitely not going to wilt under any other pressure if you see them are the Timberwolves, right? And tonight it's going to be game one in Minnesota or as Anthony Edwards would say to Charles Barkley, get your ass here. That's where they bring your ass to Minnesota. Bring it.

And so that those asses are in Minnesota figuratively. And I can't wait to see that series start tonight, buddy. That's going to be a fun one. All right.

Chris Mannix is next. We'll take a break. I've got a great golf story. One that apparently you folks didn't believe.

Yeah, we're a little skeptical about that. Wait till you hear the story about my near ace at National Golf Links of America. Yeah, I had one too. Enough. Wait till you hear the full story.

You don't know the full story. You're about to hear it before Xander Shoffley joins and maybe I'll tell him that story while the Wanamaker trophy is potentially sitting next to him. That's how we're rolling. Oh, and Dusty May of the University of Michigan basketball program is here on a What's More Likely Wednesday.

Chris Mannix is next. Let's talk sleep number, people, because quality sleep is so essential. That's why the Sleep Number Smart Bed is dissolved for your ever evolving sleep needs. And the same thing for your partner.

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Go to your happy price Priceline. Back here on the Rich Eisen Show, Josh Allen has breathed new life into the NBA. Players can play in the NFL. Can NFL players playing the NBA stuff that Austin Rivers sparked and ESPN is fanning flames of?

This is what he had to say. There are 30 NFL players who can play in the NBA. In the NBA? You heard this discussion, right? I saw a little bit of it.

Um, I'll tell you what, no, no, no, no, no, no, I don't listen. I think there's guys on both sides that have the ability to sit at the end of the bench. I mean, play. I think I can give some good minutes. 3 and D guy, like I'm going to bust my tail on defense and chuck up a shot or two and pray that it goes in. But I'm going to box out and go get some rebounds. I think I have the tools to do that.

I can give you a good six, seven minutes off the bench. I think so. Listen, every NFL player is going to think I can give some minutes and every NBA player thinks they can give some snaps. I'm sure of it. But the bottom line is both are such highly difficult endeavors for the ones who focus on it professionally 24-7, 365 to just stay afloat.

Many of them in both sports and the conversation is infused with you say, I can do that of being disrespectful of the other team's sports and how difficult it is to be a lead pipe wielding professional successful, let alone potentially be an All-Star, an All-Pro or a Hall of Famer in it. It takes a certain dedication to the craft. And maybe we just leave it at that. What fun would that be? I know. That's not fun.

Nah, that's not exactly fun. I get it. I love this. Back on the Rich Eisen Show radio network, 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 as Chris Mannix is doing with us on Zoom right now. The senior writer from Sports Illustrated in front of the old SI step and repeat. Good to see you, Christopher. How are you, sir? I'm good, Rich.

How are you doing? What the hell happened at the end of that regulation last night, Chris? I thought Indiana played great for about 30 or 47 minutes. They were down 12 zip. They came back. They were down 13 points in the third quarter.

They came back. They pulled away with a five-point lead in the fourth. In that final minute, they had multiple chances to ice the game away, and then Halliburton committed a turnover.

There was a turnover on the inbounds pass, and then Jaylen Brown makes one of the best shots I'll ever see Jaylen Brown make to send that game into overtime. So if you're Indiana, I don't know what you think of this game afterwards. The positives are that you clawed your way back from double-digit deficits multiple times in this game.

The negatives are, man, you were right there. You had this game in hand with about 10 seconds to play, and you blew it. You blew the end of that game and cost yourself game one. And of course, drawing blood on the road, knowing that it's possible Porzingis is going to come back for the return trip that you're hoping to get to Boston, or potentially even before then, that's the tough part too, right?

Getting one now would be so huge, I mean, beyond huge, hanging the sort of, what would you say, moral victory banner right now, I don't know what that's going to do. And this was the game, Rich, that I think Indiana had its best chance to win on the road. The Celtics have been off for five days. They've had a relatively easy path through the first two rounds of the playoffs, whereas Indiana went six with Milwaukee, just had a seven-game series with New York.

And look, that'll fatigue them over time. But going into this game one, they were probably the sharper team in that moment, and they just blew it. But I give Brown a lot of credit for that shot. Drew Holliday had a fantastic game overall for the Celtics, forced one of those turnovers late in the game. And look, Jason Tatum, the Knives, I think, were going to be out, Rich, for Jason Tatum, if they had lost that game in regulation. He was two for 10 in the fourth quarter in the first three minutes of overtime before closing the game like a superstar is supposed to do. Had that and one going into TJ McConnell, had that three pointer at the top of the key that effectively iced it. I've never really understood a lot of the criticism that's been leveled at Jason Tatum over these last couple of months, but 36 points on this game, 12 rebounds, a plus 20 overall, and those final six points in the last minute 12 of regulation.

That's exactly how you want a superstar to play. Well, I mean, if we're talking about moral victories for the Pacers and how empty those calories are, Chris Mannix, how empty are the calories about style points with the Celtics, right? Like their 60-win team, the field has been cleared of the defending champs now out west. The field was cleared of Giannis in the east, Embiid got cleared by a Knicks team that then got cleared by the Pacers. So what about that conversation about the Celtics not doing it as emphatically as you would hope for them, Chris?

I mean, my response to that would be like, what do you want them to do? Like they beat Miami in five games. They beat Cleveland in five games. Like the best Celtics team, Rich, of this generation was probably that 0-7-0-8 team that, you know, won a championship in Garnett and Ray Allen's first year in Boston. You go back to that postseason and that team went, what, seven games, I think, with Atlanta in the first round, seven games with Milwaukee in the second round.

They were in some dogfights there. I mean, the Celtics get beat up because they have a couple of duds in first round matchups with Miami and Cleveland and then, you know, wipe the floor with those teams. Yeah, look, they struggled in this game against Indiana. They were sloppier than I think they know they need to be moving on in this series, but they still won. Again, I maintain, and we can talk about this a week from now, week and a half from now, that this was the game Indiana needed to get. I think Boston's going to be a lot stronger going into Game 2 and putting themselves in a position to win this series the exact same way they won the last round in five games.

Chris Mannix here on the Rich Eisen Show from Sports Illustrated. What are you hearing about Chris Taft's Porzingis' health? You know, he's definitely out for these first two games. And you know, look, I've seen some of the reporting that Game 4 was a possibility. I think the Celtics, from what I understand, are going to allow kind of the series in a way to dictate when Porzingis comes back.

Like if they're down 2-1 going into Game 4, I think that timeline that's been sort of publicly established, that may hold true to form. But if they're up 2-1 or up 3-zip going into Game 4, you're not going to see Porzingis back in that game. These injuries, Rich, are just far too risky to take any kind of chance with Porzingis. Not all calf injuries are created equal, but we all remember what happened in 2019 when Kevin Durant came back from that calf injury in the NBA Finals while tearing his achilles. Like the Celtics, in the back of their minds, I'm sure they're thinking, look, we bring him back too quickly. Not only might we lose him for the rest of this season, we could lose him for the rest of next season too, when this team's championship window is still open. So with this particular type of injury, just like we saw it with Giannis Tinticumpo, just like we saw it kind of with Damian Lillard, just like we saw it, to a certain degree with Mike Conley, teams are going to be cautious when it comes to this type of injury. Let's give the Pacers a little bit of flowers as they appear to be now completely consumed over the last two series. Oh, let's not be on ESPN. Well, I mean, because again, it does appear, Chris, that they have been consumed by the Amtrak corridor media bias, if you will, over the last few weeks.

What makes them so dangerous, do you think? Place of play. That's where it starts. And Halliburton is legit. I mean, Halliburton, he was fantastic at times during that game last night. He had the three pointer at the end of the second quarter that tied the game. Then he had the off balance three pointer at the end of the third quarter that cut the lead down to one. He just makes unorthodox shots. That step back that he makes is really a ridiculous shot where he just kind of leaps back beyond the three point line and lofts up this high arcing three that seems to go in more often than it doesn't. And look, he's a great free throw shooter. We saw, you know, towards the end of that overtime, made three free throws to put Indiana up ahead. He's a great distributor for that team.

You know, great. Does a great job finding his teammates and look, they've just got a whole bunch of weapons there. I mean, think Siakam, you know, as we saw last night has been a big addition for them. The Celtics had no answer for Miles Turner, like one of the arguments to bring Porzingis back as quickly as possible so you don't have to see Luke Cornette playing, you know, significant minutes in this series because, you know, Miles Turner was just a force. Then, you know, the Pacers have the advantage with that bench. They had 30 points off their bench last night. The Celtics had about 13.

TJ McConnell is just a nightmare once again for opposing guards defensively. So they're they're a legit team. They're a complete team. The question is, you know, can they put it together enough to beat a team that's on the level of Boston? So now that we gave the flowers to the Pacers, let's be thoroughly disrespectful and say if the Celtics advance, who would be the better matchup for them? Is it Dallas? Yeah, it's it's probably Dallas. You know, Dallas has got some decent wing defenders, especially in the aftermath that P.J.

Washington trade. But, you know, the two games the Celtics played against Minnesota were absolute dogfights. I mean, they were just tough, tough matchups against the Timberwolves.

The Timberwolves have that kind of wing defense that can give those Celtics wings a lot of problems. You know, when you have, you know, Jayden McDaniels, Anthony Edwards, Nikhil Alexander Walker. I mean, those are guys that don't need a lot of help when you put them on Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown. And those two guys are the engine that drives the Celtics, whereas the Celtics, if you go up against Dallas, yeah, Luca and Kyrie are tough, no question about it. But just like against Indiana, you've got kind of a horse's there to match up one on one with Drew Holliday, Derek White, you all NBA defensive team players just named this week.

Jalen Brown is a very good defender as well. So I like the matchup with Dallas and look as a as someone that loves Web traffic. The idea of Kyrie Irving coming back to Boston is just mouthwatering, like just like bring Kyrie back to Boston, bring that storyline back to life, bring all the tales back of that 2019 season that went so awry, I mean that I understand the purists out there want to have a good Anthony Edwards versus Jason Tatum breakdown.

I'm all I'm all about that at some point. But, you know, bring Kyrie back into the TD Garden where he is, you know, probably the biggest villain they've seen there in a generation like he is, you know, villain number one among Celtics fans. That would be a really electric series, a pregame one smudging.

Would that happen? Do you think inside of where he would stroll around and smudge the place again? Remember that one, Chris? Well, we saw that.

We also saw him sage the place that's during the pandemic. That was, you know, he he also kind of like stepped on lucky, you know, when he was playing for the Nets there at center court. So now Kyrie's brought someone that's on himself and he knows that.

But I would just love to see it. And look, I I am more than impressed with what Kyrie has done during his time in Dallas. Like he has to own everything that happened at the end of his time in Cleveland, at the end of his time in Boston, at the end of his time in Brooklyn.

He has to own that. He kind of walked away from three championship level teams and kind of blew them up in the process. He's gone to Dallas. And when you talk to Mavericks coaches down there, they say he's been nothing but professional in the locker room. You saw, you know, after the last series, Luka Doncic, he loves playing with Kyrie every loves being alongside him. And, you know, you watch some of these postseason game, Rich and Kyrie is never going to be a great defender, but he's trying up there like he is giving his best on the defensive end.

And when he's playing like that and all the other stuff is not part of the conversation. He is still an elite NBA player. Few minutes left with Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated.

So twenty six association franchises are gone fishing, to use the phrase. Who's the who's the franchise to watch a player to move that all the other franchises out there that think they can make a big ad? Who are we looking at right now? Is it Booker? Is it Jimmy Butler? Is it somebody else?

Who is it right now? I don't think Miami is going to trade Jimmy Butler because it's not really in Miami's DNA to tear things down and do a complete rebuild like there. They're one of the rare teams that is happy to be kind of the eight seed, the nine seed while they try to build themselves back up.

Most teams tear the dirt all the way down. Miami just doesn't do that. So I don't get any sense that Jimmy Butler is going to be on the move this offseason. The team that most GMs that I talk to are watching is the Atlanta Hawks because the Hawks, they now have the number one overall pick in the draft. They've got some other draft capital that they can use. And they've got two players in Trae Young and De'Jounte Murray that are going to generate a lot of interest around the league. Trae Young is popular amongst every team that needs shooting, which is basically every team, the Lakers at the forefront of that. De'Jounte Murray, a better two way player than Trae Young and on a good contract as well.

So that's the team that I think has the best chance of distributing some of its top tier talent across the league. OK, before I let you go, you know, I'm going to go here. We always do this. Jake Paul, Mike Tyson have now stared down each other. That's now happened. So to speak. We've gone. They did. They laughed a little bit, too. But there we go.

There's can't can't deny this photograph that they are standing toe to toe. Now what? Now what do we got? We're close. We're getting closer. Any thoughts? I was I was there.

I was there in New York, Rich. I just two nights ago filed a magazine story on kind of Mike Tyson 2.0. The sort of reinvention of Mike Tyson. I'm coming around to the opinion that this event is going to be kind of goofy.

Like this fight is not going to be the Rock'em Sock'em robot kind of fight that people are hoping for. First of all, Mike clearly likes Jake. Like he said some weird things during this press tour, but he clearly likes Jake Paul and respects kind of what he's doing out there in the sport. And, you know, watching Jake Paul try to drag Mike Tyson into one of those Tyson Lenox Lewis press conferences was comical. Like, you know, he's saying like, I'm going to knock Mike out. Mike just kind of giggles at him and and sort of points at him.

And I just look at the picture you're throwing up there. Mike is wearing a Las Vegas law firm T-shirt like he is using this platform to promote all his brands. He just sat down at the New York press conference and promoted his energy pouch that he's got a stake in. He's got a cannabis company out there. He's promoting a law firm. He's got a podcast like I was talking to people that know Mike, including Shelly Finkel, his former manager.

And look, they just think he's just a really smart guy that knows a good business opportunity when he gets it. So when we get to Fight Week, Rich, we're going to see, you know, every product that Mike Tyson could possibly be hawking on display in Arlington, Texas. And when they get in the ring, if you're expecting anything more than kind of them clinching each other for eight, two minute rounds, I think you're going to be disappointed. All right. So do you want to comment on the other Tyson, for lack of a better phrase, Fury, your two cents on what's going on with him?

Yeah, I just got back from from Saudi Arabia two nights ago. I was over there calling that fight for his own. That was electric, man. Like that was awesome to watch. I mean, that was when you hear people say, you know, you know, that was like a heavyweight fight.

That's exactly what they're talking about. That was as back and forth as you can get. First two rounds, I thought Usyk was doing some good things in control. The next five were dominated by Tyson Fury.

And then that ninth round comes along. And not since the days of Mike Tyson, Trevor Berbick, have I seen a fighter kind of stagger around the ring in the way that Tyson Fury did after absorbing shot after shot from Alex and Usyk. It's pretty rich that the referee didn't stop that fight in that moment, but he survived the round, had some good, you know, a couple of good moments later on the fight and winds up losing a split decision.

That was one of the best heavyweight fights that I've ever seen. And given that they have a rematch clause, which is supposed to happen sometime in October, I think if they do it again, we're probably going to get the exact same type of event. What's going on with the IBF belt? What's happening here, Chris?

Well, I mean, it's I mean, that's good. I mean, it's so it won't be for undisputed the next time. You know, when you're a champion, you have mandatory challengers and the IBF belt that Usyk has had for a long time, he hasn't defended it against a mandatory challenger. That guy's named Philip Perkovich, a former Olympian. So the IBF sometime this week, early next week, is going to strip Usyk of that belt and sanction a fight between Philip Perkovich and Daniel Dubois for the IBF title.

So it really doesn't matter all that much. I mean, these two guys are the best heavyweights in the world. But this fight this past Saturday was for the undisputed heavyweight championship.

The next time they fight, it will be for the unified heavyweight champion. So you went from Saudi Arabia to the TD Garden, Chris? Yes. Yes. I mean, Ambien is my friend. Ambien is my friend. Were you the only one in TD Garden that said I was in Saudi Arabia two nights ago?

I think so. I did not happen to catch my Dizzone colleagues making the trip with me. But look, I have to go back. Next Thursday, we're back for the Deontay Wilder fight in Riyadh. So that Boston to London to Riyadh leg, it was funny. I flew from Qatar to New York on this way back. And the very nice woman at the flight attendant at Qatari Airlines was like, oh, can we get you this spook?

Can we get you this at this time? I said, listen, I'm going to take this red pill right now and I'm going to go down. And if you see me like rolled over, do not wake me up for anything unless the plane is going down. Do not wake me up. I need to get as much of the sleep as I can get. I still want to stay asleep if the plane was going. Probably. And in that case, don't wake me up for anything.

Manic's going Matrix. There you go. Guy Fieri wasn't in Saudi Arabia. I guess not.

I guess not. You didn't see him there either. Guy Fieri, like huge, like I love the Boston celebrity row, right? It's like Guy Fieri, David Ortiz and like three Walberg's.

It's phenomenal. And Drake May was there last night. Oh, when Drake May looks like he's 11 years old, man, I wouldn't have recognized Drake May. Drake may look like one of my cousins. Look at him. That was there.

He is right there. Drake may look like, you know, he could have been one of my cousins from Dorchester hanging out and getting good tickets to a selfie. Exactly. He's like one of those guys that's in one of those Boston, what, Guy Ritchie, Boston type ideas like the town to the town to like, you know, he's going to eat it by making the wrong decision. You know what I mean? The Walberg brother. Oh, look at him.

I didn't see this photo. Yeah. Hey, man. Great stuff. It looks like I mean, you could do the town to and he could be like Jeremy Renner's brother that is pissed off at Ben Affleck coming down to Florida to get him.

And you know, it's going to make a bad move and eat it by like the third act of the movie. You just know it. Yeah. Chris, thanks for the time, brother. We'll chat with you soon. Appreciate it. You got it, Rich.

Chris Mannix, as always, making us smarter and a lot of fun right there talking about it. You didn't see that Drake May photo, huh? I did not.

He does look like a child. Yeah. He met Tatum before the game, got the Jersey sign.

They did that down to the swap and everything. Yeah. Yeah. And Tatum's like, let me tell you what it's like to be a star in this town town. Everyone hates you. Good luck.

Everyone loves you. Oh, but at least you won't be compared to the quarterback that was, you know, here. Well, I mean, he wants to be compared to the previous ten. Yeah, that's the guy. Yeah.

Just don't get compared to the previous twelve. Well, you saw that photo, right? Which one is that? Oh, yeah. Drake May with Brady. I know. It looked like a Kohl's ad.

Dude. JJ McCarthy with Brady, too. The two Michigan guys. And then Brock Bowers looked like their father. I know, right? Because he's so bald. What's happening with him? I don't know. All right.

Mannix is right there, Rich. Hey. That boxing match was unbelievable. Well, I'm glad that's the way it comes on. We touch on so many different things. Right. My near hole in one story. Yes.

Yes. This happened. It's like a fish tale. It's not a fish tale.

What is this? This is not a fish tale. Wait till you hear my tale. Am I playing a game of telephone? It is a full-on story.

Ace of Fables. That's next before Xander Schauffele joins us on The Rich Eisen Show. 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. Right. 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? I'm 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.

Search B-L-E-A-V on YouTube or wherever you listen. Then I went to Frederick, Maryland. Okay. Frederick Keys.

Frederick Keys, Maryland. And they made these bobbleheads, of which this is one of... Oh my God, a Shooter McGavin bobblehead? Shooter McGavin bobblehead. Yes. So... Guys, awesome. Here it is. There it is. We'll have to place this in a very special spot here. It's pretty funny.

He's got the guns out, the double barrels, leaning on his putter. It's pretty funny. Isn't this amazing? Did you realize when you were doing that, Happy Gilmore, that that would be something that would stick with you for the rest of your career?

No idea. I don't think anybody knows when they make a movie if it's going to have legs like this. When it first came out, it was a moderate hit, but now people love it and quote it. It's funny. But it's neat that you own this Shooter McGavin thing. Some other actors, I think, might not do that. Well, yeah. I enjoyed the movie. I enjoyed working with Adam and Dennis Dugan, these wonderful writers. It's just Judd Apatow is a co-writer, and these guys, they're comedy gold.

To be with them and to have this movie last as long as it has, it's opened a lot of doors up for me personally and professionally, so it's just been a gas. Did you come up with the shooting? Yeah. I had no idea why they called him Shooter. Nobody told me anything, so I just started making putts and going, Shoot up. That was your call.

That was my call. And the very funny thing about this movie, I told this story, but forgive me if I've told you before. It's okay. You know how I hate in a golf movie where they cut to the hole and the ball rolls in?

I want to say, Could you please let me make it? It's about a 32-footer. And it's not on a golf green.

It's on a botanical garden. So he told me he'd give me seven tries, and that's try five, and I lifted it out twice. But people were betting. The crew was going, Damn it.

Can I do this? And so you see who your friend is? And when I put that baby in there and I did, Chunk on that baby, and I just did that whole Shooter shimmy thing at the end. That's the one they left in the movie.

And it's so freaking wrong. Fantastic. I love that story.

And now, you know, Happy Gilmore 2 is coming along. Let's go. Back here on The Rich Eisen Show. Okay. You know how you've got friends hopefully out there and something great almost happens to you and you can't wait to tell them that story, but it filters back to them beforehand. So you're not there when that story is told to them.

And you find out that upon the telling of the story, they don't believe you through the proxy. You know, it stinks. It's not great.

It's not great. We didn't have all the info. Well, here's the info. Yes, you did.

No, no, no, no, no. Susie said yesterday, because I texted her, you know, in the middle of my round at National Golf Links of America, one of the top courses in the United States of America. So fortunate. Dude, I'm just telling you what I did yesterday, or the day before this was, Monday. And I said, just texted her real quick, you know, hey, I almost aced a hole here, almost hole in one. She's like, get out of here. Or actually it was STFU is what she texted me from this very chair.

And so I didn't think anything of it. She then yesterday hits me up to say, hey, do you have photographs of this? Did you ask for photographic evidence? Okay. She just provided it? She just provided it.

Okay. And here's the picture. That's how close it was. It is about what would say about a foot and a half beyond the stick. Hole six, you know, in these beautiful courses that have been around since the early 1900s, they all have names. The hole was called short.

And it is a short par three, a buck 23. And there was a breeze. You could see there's a breeze from right to left. You could see with the stick. And so these shots I'm not very good at. And I stepped straight up.

And I took my nine iron and I took a little bit off it and just said, I'm going to swing easy when it's breezy, breezy, swing easy. And it's going straight to the cup. And I damn near hold it out on the fly because you can zoom in on this photograph and you could see the ball mark to the right about a quarter of an inch to the right, well, backspin on it. Dude, it was that close. And then I find out.

You guys didn't believe it. Well, where are you in the photo? What do you mean? Where am I in the photo? What am I going to take? A selfie?

I'm going to ask my guys. You got Lady Gaga? Get this. You got Lisa. What do you think?

It's somebody else's shot? Like, do you think I really. I mean, look, you can tell us anything, Rick. We are in the age of A.I.

and they're using Scarlett Johansson's voice on an ad. I don't know what's real and what isn't. I'm talking about something on Twitter that he never even said the A.I. is real.

I am offended that you think I would set this up and say I almost did this and and not be telling the truth. And just to tell you how way off you guys are. Joe Burrell's got long hair now. On that. Nice. Long hair on the picture. Here's how little I care about what it looks like and how much I care that I'm to be believed that this almost happened, that the full story of this is you stepped up to the T. And here I am at a par three beautiful day and I'm like, maybe I can just do something special here.

I'm thinking that which is the wrong idea to have. And I stepped up and I topped my T-ball. That was 40 yards. And I said to myself and I said out loud to my playing partners, I cannot show up at National Golf Links of America and do this here. I put another one down and just didn't think about it and swung easy when it was breezy. And that happened. I almost had a hole in three hole in par. Rich, I got a hole in par.

I respect you. And I got a bogey on this hole. You know what?

A bogey. Now I believe it. On this hole. And I respect it. Now we believe it. Now we believe it. Now we believe it. And I respect it. Now we believe it. A true honorable golf is a gentleman's game.

As Zander Shafway is going to attest to in a few minutes. A gentleman's game and it takes a gentleman to admit to that. Bless you, sir, for saying that because what we were all talking about, we were all talking about in the foursome of like, so this would have been your first hole in one?

Yes. Like what would you know? Would you have said it?

You're not going to get the trophy from the clubhouse? And would we have kept your secret? You know, it really put people in a bind.

It put me in a bind. And this is all, by the way, verifiable. One of the gentlemen in the foursome, Chase Utley, who, by the way, I give you two choices. One is he's really let himself go after being retired, that he's really let himself go being retired, or he looks like he can give you nine right now and go four for five. You can't say that name to a Mets fan. Dude, I'm telling you though, man. Oh, by the way, what a great human he is too. That's not what people want to hear because they have a certain opinion of Chase Utley.

I know they do. Now, that just ruined the story for you, bro. Sorry. I got to say, I had something similar happen, so I totally understand. So what do you do? Like what do you do if your first ace of your life is actually a second shot that you said, screw it.

Because nothing... You can't. Listen, you know how we talk all the time here, how lucky we are to be here every day. And obviously, here I am at National Golf Links of America.

You guys are having a great show. Susie's sitting in my chair. I'm a lucky guy, right? I'm a lucky guy in so many different ways, but nothing makes me loathe myself more than golf.

I'm just self-loathing, I hate myself, and I hate everything about what I do when I top a ball on the hole called short at National Golf Links. Again, if you take a look at the photograph of where the ball is, what a beautiful day it is too. Look at that sky. Oh, man. Wow.

I'm in New York, and I'm thinking to myself, I cannot believe I just topped it. You are a horrible person. You're a total idiot. And I just put the ball down. And you're like, I'm not going out like this.

And I hit it, and it almost went in. Was I not paying attention? I didn't know you were in New York. Yeah. Oh, okay. I didn't know that. Yes. That's Long Island right there.

That's a beautiful Long Island sky. Well, Rich, I'm glad you came clean. You feel the guilt and the shame if you're like, oh, I got a hole in one. You aced? You aced?

I'm like, well, I kind of, there's my second ball. Which means I will never do this again, because I never want to put myself in a position of what if I ace, do I now tell her, hey, you got a hole in one? No, Rich, you never, never, like Jamie McDaniel just said, you never come clean on that one, bro. You have to come clean. No, you have to come clean. Yeah.

TJ, that's you just not being a golfer. You have to. You have to come clean.

Yeah. Because I respect you for doing that. Because later on, one of the guys that was part of this whole outing did in fact ace a hole and everybody went nuts. And I'm like, how many, is this the first of your life? He goes, no, sixth. I'm like, geez. I'm like, he went, I'm like, you're on a second hand now, huh? And I thought to myself, what would I have done if I walked in?

Hey, you aced? Well, kind of. A hole in three. A hole in par.

A hole in par. And now you know the rest of the story. Indeed, the rest of the story.

Right here on The Rich House. That's tremendous. All right, because you'd have to, you'd have to, you'd have to get rid of, hey man, great, you know, drinks on you. Well, kind of not actually on me. I bogeyed the hole. I bogeyed the hole. I was one over on that hole where I almost two hand flushed it like Dominique Wilkins on a fast break on the fly right in the cup and it would have been for par. OK. And to the credit of my playing partners too, none of them were like, you know what, we didn't see the first one. Don't worry about it.

Because this was a competition, you know, and they weren't like, you know, whatever. No mulligan. You know, give it mulligan. You could just take it.

None of them said that. Oh, man. OK. That's so funny. That's a good story. Yep. Good story. Rich. Because what do you tell everybody?

And Xander Shoffley, as you said, we would totally agree. Like that's sorry, bro. That's not your first shot. Yeah. That's a three.

Man. Player B. I'm so much better. Player B is so good. That's the phrase that golfers use when you're when you take a second shot. You're always better. That was terrible. Let me hit another one. Player B. That was perfect.

I know because you don't have the same pressures. It's such an awful game. It's a stupid game. I hate it.

It's very dumb. I hate myself more than anything else. It causes me to hate myself. I always say to myself, self, you know, treat yourself right. Cut yourself a break. You're so hard on yourself sometimes, except in golf. Call myself the dumbest M.F. for of all time. But you know why?

Because I am. Xander Shoffley coming up. 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 Callaway and on and on and on. 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 and you pay me more? Jeff Smith teaches on a sliding scale. Those weekend golf guys. The podcast. Part of the Believe Network. Search BLEAV on YouTube or wherever you listen.