Kurt Helin: Pacers Offense Isn't The Same Without Tyrese Haliburton

That's life. Yeah, yeah. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Here's the other surprising part. With guest host Brian Weber.

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I have my own show. And now, sitting in for Rich, here's Brian Weber. It's another hour of the program and it's great to have you with us as we get you set for the long holiday weekend. But because Rich is in the customer service business, a lot of programs play tape. A lot of best of's you might hear on a holiday coming up on Monday.

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The goal is to be interactive and also have a balanced program. So we did a little Scotty Scheffler. A good chunk of the Cowboys. Coming up, this is going to be more basketball focused. Devoted the opening monologue to our takeaways from Boston's lopsided victory last night over the Pacers. If Tyrese Halliburton cannot go stick a fork in Indiana even though they've shown remarkable resolve already in this post-season. Still, there's a reason to not stick a fork. why the Celtics have the best record clearly in the regular season with the 64 wins 14 victories better than the two seed New York coming up in just a couple minutes we'll make the move to Dallas and Minnesota and then we'll back that up in 20 minutes back that thing up when we take you across the NBA postseason talk about the coaching openings that now include Washington Los Angeles and Cleveland after JB Bickerstaff got whacked yesterday when we check in with Curt Heelan lead NBA writer for NBC Sports in 40 minutes a massive and long overdue change has arrived in college sports we will give you analysis as to what revenue sharing for the players is going to mean beyond the fact that it is a century overdue but a preview is the rich not surprisingly or about to get richer that is coming up quick footnote to our thoughts on Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys and OTAs really are mostly now beyond what the players are doing and all these guys keep their bodies or money makers in exceptional conditioning as you know it's not like back in the day when they would sell tires in the offseason because they needed another source of income but as players are gathering for these voluntary workouts and then we got mandatory minicamps coming up really is about media access to the biggest names of football I mentioned Daniel Jones coming back from the torn ACL in passing and the Giants were the team of my youth a million years ago so perhaps I'm biased when I kick them when they're down because typically they have been down with the outliers of the Parcells era and then Eli playing out of his mind not once but twice as we reminded of many times during the Tom Brady roast Giants seemed to be in a dysfunctional cycle again and I know they made the playoffs just a couple years ago but you saw them fall off the cliff last year because Daniel Jones is just a guy and I realized the motivation to pay him because they thought internally Brian Dabble had coached him up so much that he had put together a new start in his career you saw what happened last year in addition to the knee injury Daniel Jones asked by the rugged New York media what his reaction to the speculation around the draft regarding the Giants that they were targeting a quarterback with their top ten pick Jones said quote today he wasn't fired up Danny times he's a competitor you have to rip that starting job out of his cold dead hands have you looked at the Giants depth chart do you know who's backing up Daniel Jones these days Drew Locke and the great Tommy DeVito is floating around there as well the Italian stallion 8 4 4 2 0 4 7 4 2 4 is the phone number let's talk Dallas and Minnesota Kyrie Irving has been a baffling puzzling and at times reprehensible person verbally and repost and I don't need to go through the full litany of some of the more objectionable content that he has been connected with and perhaps he has matured along the way now if we're just talking about goofy nonsense like the world is flat that's one thing if we're now venturing into territory of anti-semitic tropes that's very different however this is a sports program and I'm not just gonna stick to sports even though I'm the guest host and should be mindful of my role stay in your lane as a radio boss told me many years ago and thankfully I'm still working and he's in early retirement but you have to objectively at least acknowledge we have not spoken or as a consumer of sports media like you watching fine shows like this it is the Rich Eisen show I'm Brian Weber and I'm coming to you from the Rich Eisen show desk furnished by Granger here on the rich eyes and show radio network with supplies and solutions for every industry Granger has the right product for you call click Ranger calm or just stop by Kyrie Irving has not said one thing this year just back it up go back to the deal last year Dallas picks them up it doesn't work out he and Luca do not look in synchronicity at all now they missed the playoffs but remember context matters and I love the NBA I shouldn't say this too loudly but I love the NBA as much as the NFL and stylistically I prefer to watch basketball than football because quote-unquote I'm a basketball guy don't need to read my resume but go back to last year Dallas not only kind of tanked they completely tanked they wanted to operation shut down the last two games of regular season to protect their draft possibilities it worked out in a major way because they held on to the pick and they flipped it into Duke Center Derek Lively and if you've been paying any attention to Dallas among the reasons why they're back in the Western Conference Finals for the second time in three years is their defense especially on the interior and Nico Harrison their fine GM made a couple of sneaky good deals prior to the deadline pick it up another big and Daniel Gafford and PJ Washington who for some reason devoured OKC at times in the last round the playoffs this is a very different roster for Dallas undeniably the best collection of talent that Luca has ever had around him and we know he's gonna win an MVP one of these years finished third in the balloting this year but the bet was not only training for Kyrie but then re upping with the contract extension the bet was it's gonna work between Kyrie and Luca which seemed like a long shot and we know these adages exist because there's a degree of truth there's only one basketball to go around two ball dominant guards how would it work didn't work that well last year small sample size and then Dallas decided to pull the plug to avoid losing their draft pick or at least having an enhanced possibility of blowing that scenario well this year hey we've not heard a single thing from Kyrie that's not basketball related and I'm not telling players they can't express their opinions as a sidebar and I am Roman Catholic I don't know why we still say Roman Catholic I'm Catholic I don't agree with anything Harrison but Kerr said not one single thing he said but I do at least understand his right to express those thoughts at the same time if you're going to share your views be prepared for forceful pushback especially if it's going to be controversial like what Harrison said Kyrie is allowed to express any thoughts he wants to the problem was it had become so defining of Kyrie in addition to a leveling off if not decline of his play on the court well fast forward to this year I cannot think of and perhaps I'm wrong I am NOT omniscient though that's a big word on a Friday I am NOT all-knowing and all-powerful like Oz tell me something I'm overlooking eight four four two oh four seven four two four or you can slide in on the X BW Weber Weber with two B's in 15 minutes we continue the NBA conversation with Curt Heelan of NBC Sports Kyrie just as a observer seems to have made it all about basketball life is a series of choices hadn't said anything this year secondarily he and Luca just as a guy who pays close attention and I watch a lot of NBA I'm not a huge sit through a game person anymore you tick-tock people have ruined me I have a even shorter attention span than I did growing up in the MTV generation but I'll put on NBA TV and ride that thing all night long baby during the regular season watching Kyrie and Luca play it's clear they both bought in and they both decided if this is gonna work we have to make it coalesce so props to Kyrie and Luca to an extent remember it's his team but he fully understands in the modern NBA you need at least two superstars and then a high-end role player so let's call it two and a third stars or two and a half stars the question for Dallas will be who's that third option and I'm not getting delusional to portray PJ Washington as anything close to a star but if you went back to the series against the Thunder another team well ahead of schedule that we're gonna be talking about for the next decade they did not have an answer at times for PJ Washington and Dallas if you're not paying attention is playing solid defense and that was certainly not the MO for Luca because of his amazing shot creativity abilities this guy not only can hit a shot from anywhere on the floor he comes up with angles that you would even think are possible that's how much of a unicorn he is Dallas is playing outstanding defense led by Kyrie who then decided perhaps feeling slighted or challenged by Anthony Edwards who basically said yeah I got Kyrie and I want Kyrie coming up in the next round after their game seven victory in Denver Kyrie certainly looked motivated had that explosive first half and when we got to the business and the game one Luca and Kyrie both finished with better than 30 points Dallas steals home court advantage so Dallas with the remnants of the team that made it to the Western Conference Finals a couple of years ago and also you got to give credit to Jason Kidd especially with a guard dominated roster who better to identify with those guys in a Hall of Fame point guard one of the best players of his generation going back to his comet like wanted done year at Cal as a Bay Area native contrast that to a Minnesota team that is making their first deep run in the playoffs for 20 years so we I think it caught up sometimes with simplistic descriptors of teams so when I said young OKC well that's fairy just look at the overall median age of the roster led by SGA and then Chad Holmgren coming back after last year was wiped out due to injury and everybody else they have on that team Minnesota is not that young when you factor in Karl Anthony towns has been around and a veteran like Rudy go bear Mike Conley is a hundred and forty years old and I'd say a hundred and forty as his net worth Bobby like Mike Conley throw that in your Google machine is the poster boy for why it is really good to be an NBA player and that's only gonna get even bigger with these new media deals and I'll get into I'll save it for Monday the early eulogies for the NBA on TNT and what a loss that's going to be while it doesn't necessarily mean the end of inside because it's Charles Barkley foreshadowed the other day on the Dan Patrick show and obviously Dan and Rich have a great relationship personally and professionally in the modern media landscape who's to say Barkley Kenny and Shaq if they don't do a deal with another massive media conglomerate NBC or Amazon this case they will not go to ESPN I would think unless ESPN finally smartened up they could do their own thing on YouTube the Pat McAfee model has worked the rich Eisen model continues to work betting on yourself with this radio only show today and the phenomenal simulcast most days on the Roku channel so let's not say goodbye to that studio team just now although it looks like Ernie Johnson's probably going to stay with Turner as a lifer in Atlanta but as we think about how things could play out moving forward for Dallas and Minnesota I want to see tonight shot selection by the T wolves I realize the current landscape of the end of NBA is all about the three-point shot and I understand that the Warriors changed everything and analytics says keep chucking up the threes because if you make just enough of them you're gonna have a big numerical advantage based on the law of averages the T wolves took 49 three-pointers I looked it up because it seemed absurd watching the game in real time the other night 49 for three season-high eight more than they had taken in any other game all season long and it wasn't just that they were chucking up shots from beyond the arc it was where the shots were being thrown up from we're talking deep deep three Steph Curry threes and where they were in the shot clock so I'm not pretending to be a coach but they seemed out of sync maybe there was something truthful about what Anthony Edwards said postgame that they were tired after game seven because remember they have not been through as a collective the playoff Wars before and I realized they blew through the Suns that's what caused Frank Vogel his job one and done in the Valley of the Sun but there's a learning curve emotionally and physically in the NBA postseason that's why we rarely have a bolt out of the blue team emerge from nowhere and win it all you got to pay your dues you got to earn your bones and there's a process to deep and sustained runs in the NBA postseason so certainly expect Minnesota to bounce back tonight but if we're just talking about it from a general thematic standpoint Dallas is playing much better defense than people realize and I understand you got to make shots to win games think about the East two highest scoring teams in all the basketball matching up in Boston in Indiana Pacers with the best regular season scoring average for decades up tempo shoot six maybe eight seconds into the shot clock that's a big reason why they made the playoffs for the first time since 2020 but if we're thinking about the particulars of Dallas and Minnesota Dallas certainly can continue to play freely since they've already ripped home court advantage away from Minnesota you watch that game it could have gone either way but I do think it's worth repeating this is Minnesota's first playoff run for this group and they're gonna continue to learn along the way as much as I am enthralled with Anthony Edwards like everybody else's remember how young this guy is he's only 22 years old I love the fact that he's leaning in to being along with SGA one of the dominant young faces of this league we know so long as LeBron wants to play he's the alpha but the future is bright for this league if you just go from a general perspective and I understand the NBA is better with dynasties because casual fans at least can identify with these organizations without having to pay that much attention to the players the NBA has never had more parity and we'll talk about what Kurt Heelan coming up with Denver getting knocked out by Minnesota we're gonna have six consecutive years without a repeat champion that has not happened in this league since the late 1970s the league has never had more star power evenly distributed across the NBA and more competitive balance that's why Minnesota is a phenomenal story because when you got a guy who's about to turn 23 who is a transcendent talent if they can keep this team together think about what could be coming up in the next few years knowing that when you have these championship windows and we'll mix sports metaphors here we'll go back to Dan Campbell's postgame comments which I thought were extremely candid when Detroit blew a massive opportunity against the 49ers in the NFC title game Dan because he is as transparent as anybody in all of sports said we expect to be back here but we know how tough it is to get down to the Final Four so for Minnesota the present is what they have to focus on the future is now as George Allen once said want to see more from ant I just enjoy saying ant remember game 70 got bailed out by all people Rudy go Bears contributions after Barkley buried him at halftime but Edwards was only 624 from the floor in game 7 only 19 points in the game one loss to Dallas and where was the cat mad where was Carl Anthony towns he only had 16 Minnesota clearly has to be motivated by not wanting to fall behind to well go into Dallas I'm not telling anything you don't know with that observation even though they've demonstrated they can win on the road in this postseason run but if they looked at that tape there were a handful of moments had it gone their way they win that game despite horrible shot selection and two subpar performances from two of their core talents on the team I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen coming up in 20 minutes we'll talk about a monumental development in college sports it's almost official players are about to get paid what's that going to mean for an already increasingly divided college setup with the SEC and the Big Ten running everything that is coming up but straight ahead we'll keep the NBA momentum going just talked about the West in detail so we'll expand our focus with Boston grabbing a 2-0 series lead over Indy last night how much separation is there between the Celtics and everyone else left we will take you across the NBA postseason when we check in with Curt Heelan NBA writer for NBC Sports that's coming up I'm Brian Weber always having a good time with you especially when I'm in for rich this is the Rich Eisen show what's up everyone it's reality Steve your number one source for all things bachelor nation and reality TV every day I'm giving you the behind-the-scenes juice and your info on all your bachelor nation stories and also interviewing some of your favorite reality stars my name has been synonymous with spoilers but I'm so much more than that give me a listen the reality Steve podcast part of the believe network just search BL EAV on YouTube or wherever you listen afford anything talks about how to avoid common pitfalls how to refine your mental models and how to think about how to think Paula well 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 a hundred percent you need to make more money make smarter choices and build a better life afford anything wherever you listen Brian Weber back with you appreciate you spending part of your Friday as we ramp things up heading into the long holiday weekend in for rich and the guys 8 4 4 2 0 4 7 4 2 4 2 number to call you can access the program on social media hit me up on the X BW Weber Weber with two B's let's talk more MBA with an old friend Curt Hill and lead NBA writer for NBC Sports Kurt it feels like if we're holiday adjacent I am speaking with you and I believe the last time we spoke was Christmas week so how are you my friend I'm doing well I'm doing well man this is the fun time of year to be a basketball writer because the games matter plus there's just a ton of silly rumors yes and we love to traffic and silly rumors but let's start with the games and unfortunately injuries continue to be a huge element in this postseason I don't have to go through the whole list if Tyrese Halliburton went down with something that's gonna prevent him from playing game three we know it's the same hamstring that sidelines him in December is Indiana effectively done as of now yeah I mean let's be honest they might be done anyway this was a tough matchup for them but any hope they had of going home and flipping this series around remember they were down o2 you know to the Knicks and then came back and and won the series any hope they had of that he goes away their offense I mean just last game in that second quarter when you know the the Celtics went on that we would I think it ended up being a 17-0 yeah 20 to nothing officially 20 oh yeah the first 12 of that in the second quarter we're with Halliburton on the bench mm-hmm like their offense just isn't the same without him out there as much as the Occam's got a bit of problem and played really well they just don't have enough shot creation he makes their his passing and his pace push everything they do and they're toast without him did you have any problem with Rick Carla resting his starters midway through the third that was just weird wasn't it well I just it's the playoffs man like I maybe you pull them a little early like you get to see Occam a little rest but you're only down in a year of like massive comebacks right like all season long and through these playoffs we've seen these huge double-digit come back how do you with six minutes to go in the game not give it one more shot not put see Occam out there it's a long shot right but put your guys out there put your best players out there try to make it happen for a couple minutes if it doesn't come together pull them with a few minutes to go because you're you're gonna have to throw everything in game three they have to win game three but I just don't I don't get not taking swing this isn't and this isn't the first night of a back-to-back in February I thought it was puzzling as well although as you described and Carlisle alluded to it postgame felt like he realized especially if Halliburton can't go his guys gonna have to play Knicks like minutes 45 46 48 maybe get them a little bit of rest but I agree it felt odd in the moment talking NBA with our good friend Kurt Heelan of NBC Sports am I being a little bit too much of a nitpicker to point out that on a night in which Jalen Brown looked like Larry Bird exploding for 40 with 24 in the first half Jason Tatum only had four points in the first half Kurt I am NOT trying to create a false narrative here I watch a lot of regular season NBA there's a reason why Tatum earned first team all NBA honors for the third straight year but to me if you're gonna be a transcendent superstar you can't have four points in any first half it's the weird thing about their dynamic it's not I don't know I'll use LeBron and ad as an example Anthony Davis is an example where their games mesh and they play off each other and they lift each other up and they're both better because they're out there and you can name a whole bunch of duos across the NBA where that's the case doesn't it feel like sometimes with Boston I don't I think they've gotten better at this but it's still a little to your turn my turn mm-hmm but it's more they play a similar game and if Tatum's off Brown steps off steps up and if Brown struggling a little it's Tatum who steps up and it tends to be more that balancing than it does them lifting each other up you rarely you don't get that many games where they're both brilliant and that's my thought as well although I certainly am getting a little critical and we're talking about a team that at 64 victories in the regular season and is rolling through everybody and is knocked down every challenge and doing it without porzingis so when porzingis comes back if he does come back and remember you know better than I do but I'm just letting the casuals know the NBA Finals can't start until June 6th that is already locked in when he comes back and let's say he's close to 75% somewhere in that range is he going to give them a bigger lift offensively or defensively oh that's a good question I think it's still defensively it as much as al Horford and is doing his best porzingis just by nature he's a good defender but much by nature of being 7-3 and long creates all sorts of rim protection strengths that just having him behind we've already got Drew Holliday and and and Derek White the best defensive backcourt in the NBA now you've got a 7-3 guy behind them if you get past them it just creates real problems but there would need him whichever team comes out of the West whether it's it's Dallas or Minnesota they're gonna need porzingis and they're gonna need a lot of porzingis I I think even with this injury you've got it if he can play it all in game four you've got to get him out there for 20 25 minutes just to start getting his legs under him because you and I and every fan out there knows practice isn't the same man all about basketball conditioning I'm Brian Weber aim for rich eyes and we're talking oops with Curt Hill and check out his outstanding work NBC Sports calm let's make the move to the West and you and I are in the content business Kyrie has been good for business in the past for many of the wrong reasons that said and you're in it every day I can't recall talking about Kyrie once this year related to anything off the court do you think he made a conscious decision somewhere along the way to make this season solely about basketball that's a good question I don't know that he would see it that way but maybe a this is a really good fit and situation for him be maybe it's a maturity thing where he is really just happy in the situation he's in happy playing move decision he's just he's comfortable he's in a good space so there's no waves to be made there's not you know I don't want to say the Dallas media is soft but it's you know it's different than the New York media he was dealing with in Brooklyn in a lot of ways I think he's just in in a spot but you're right he has been according to everybody I've ever talked to around out he's not a model citizen even fantastic this year and that's you know you can decide how much you want to bet on that last thing but it's huge for them yeah and to me if we're just gonna focus on what's happening on the floor what a testament to the buy-in for both Kyrie and Luca that it's working as magnificently as it has this year after the struggles they had small sample size last year Brian Weber in for rich this is the rich eyes and show we're taking across the NBA with Curt Heelan of NBC Sports Kurt there is so much to appreciate about Anthony Edwards but he is still just 22 years old and this is Minnesota's first playoff run as a team what did you make of him saying after the game one loss to Dallas that the wolves were tired after seven games against Denver and what do you expect tonight well they've got about back I think you're gonna get more energy from them but I mean honestly he was clearly tired and he was I mean 12 of his 16 shots in game ones were in game one were three he's not getting downhill and getting to the rim in that game which is just a sign of tired legs because he's his game is getting downhill he is the he plays with I think when taught people use the I don't love the comparison with Jordan but I think what you get out of why you go with that is that he plays with that kind of force right like he just wills his way to the spots on the floor and in a different way than Luca does or someone else yeah easy they've got to bounce back with a better all-around game I think pounds was the only guy who really seemed there but I think there is something to the level of conditioning that comes with this and it wasn't just seven games you know seven games against a physical Denver team and the weight Ryan the NBA is calling games you know frankly since mid-february but like February but the more physicality that's allowed and now a more physical playoff on top of that that just takes more out of you it takes more out of you and I think this is catching up with some of the guys wait a minute are we saying that NBA officiating impacts how games are played Kurt shocking Tim Donaghy online too I love that the NBA for a long time just be transparent let's wrap it up with a big picture nuggets and I got this from your writing at nbcsports.com losing to Minnesota means we're gonna have a new champion for the sixth consecutive season that hasn't happened as you wrote since the late 1970s is parody good for the NBA it works in the NFL but we seem to love our dynasty in basketball yeah that's a really great question because I'm more with you I am I'm a fan of that in kind of all sports I like it when you know Alabama and Clemson are great in football and everybody's got to aspire to be that or you know the Warriors with their run or you know on back through the dynasties in the NBA then the NBA has certainly been that way but this is what Adam Silver wanted this is what obviously small market owners have been pushing for which is a more flattened talent pool and we'll see how that impacts everything it's still a star driven league and while LeBron and Curry and Durant are kind of on the downsides of their careers and you know nearing the end there is a crop of the Anthony Edwards of the world coming up and that Victor Wambayama guy who's you know he's pretty good like coming up so they've got the crop of stars I'm not sure that who wins the title is ultimately going to decide the fate of NBA how many people are watching NBA and just let me say as an employee of NBC I'm hoping those numbers continue to be high for a long time so well especially if it's a Celtics to write we can't talk about hey it's a new-look NBA when they raise another banner at the garden Kurt always a pleasure whip out your calendar just do it mentally we're approaching summer fill-in season that's when guys like me talk a lot of NBA free agency so hope we can do it again in about a month from now I would love to Brian anytime thanks Kurt always a pleasure Kurt Helen Helen long time NBA writer doing a phenomenal job for NBC Sports and Kurt has been kind enough to join me on the radio now for the better part of a decade I appreciate him taking the time when he is extraordinarily busy I'm Brian Webber it's Kurt Healy of course and four I've only been talking to guy for 11 years and for Rich Eisen 8 4 4 2 0 4 7 4 2 4 hit me up on Twitter BW Weber Weber with two B's coming up gonna talk about an extraordinary change happening on campus college sports will never be the same based on this development who are the winners who are the losers that's coming up I believe my name is Weber could be Weber I have two B's thanks to Kurt Healy my old close personal friend we continue on a Friday installment of the rich eyes and show back with more after this we continue on this very busy Friday and we appreciate the company I'm Brian Weber in for rich and the crew 8 4 4 2 0 4 7 4 2 4 you can be interactive on the X platform it's BW Weber Weber with two B's and I'm back with you on Monday as the fellas enjoy a well-deserved four-day holiday weekend and then they're back with you on Tuesday with the fallout from everything that's gonna happen across a variety of sports but as we think about Memorial Day without question it's the gateway to summer and summer in my world means grilling fire up the grill and get that party going because we're focusing on the Weber shear wood pellet grill smoke roast and sear all on the same grill you can go from low and slow on smoke boost mode at just 180 degrees all the way to high heat sear at 600 degrees it's got a full great sear zone so you can put more food on the flame food will look as good as a taste this grill is hot in just 15 minutes cleanup could not be easier you'll cook on two levels at the same time so you can make enough for everybody and you can add a heavy-duty rotisserie or rust resistant griddle insert get fired up on your new Weber shear wood pellet grill full disclosure that's Weber with one B I'm Weber with two B's and if I had the grill money I might not be working throughout a holiday weekend although we've been a Weber household for decades I can close my eyes now don't do it if you're driving but I can think of the old man out there with the Weber grill steak was his go-to when you could actually afford a steak without getting a second mortgage on your home speaking of straight cash homie transition almost like I wrote it out and I will be thoroughly upfront with you I am a college sports lifer I am a byproduct of the college sports industrial complex I went to a fairly good academic school in which nobody wanted to be on the radio so unlike say Syracuse Missouri Northwestern Arizona State where you have legions of aspiring Rich Isons I went to a school where people were inventing Google I was the only one dumb enough to want to be at the campus radio station and that was my entree into the industry so I am extraordinarily passionate about college sports I am going through the stages of grief because my beloved PAC 12 conference will be moving forward in name only good luck to our friends in Corvallis and Pullman as the PAC 2 does its best to survive and reconstitute moving forward fact the PAC 12 baseball tournament will culminate this weekend and that's the end of the conference on a playing field as we know it so perhaps I am projecting a bit when I give you my analysis of college sports but I'm also the guy over the last 11 years for PAC 12 networks have called soccer volleyball gymnastics hoops softball baseball water polo tennis and I did wrestling on Super Bowl Day by myself because I'm a sports courtesan what I'm about to read to you is about 75 years too late we're finally officially going to have pay for play in college sports now we effectively moved into this area when name image and likeness deals became permissible but this is different because NIL is a reflection in large part due to popularity if you're the quarterback if you're the point guard if you're the cleanup hitter for a college baseball program you can get paid as you should have been all along and not to be the fill-in guy on my pedestal nobody I think is squandered more education than I have I'm a great believer in academia that's why I throw out these big words to feel better about myself after cooking a lot of highfalutin degrees I understand that the opportunity for student-athletes to get a degree not only is life changing it's also substantial in terms of the financial investment from the school that said it has been a completely one-sided arrangement ever since we went from hey college football is fun let's watch a couple games on a Saturday and then it became a billion dollar enterprise and I argued as a student in the late 80s players should be getting paid in the revenue sports because show me other walk of life in which those responsible for revenue creation don't participate but of course we had the sham of amateurism that all has changed thankfully and now it's going next level I won't get into the weeds with how this happened on the legal front but there are a handful of lawsuits that have been working their way through the courts going back to 2016 effectively saying that the NCAA has been violating antitrust laws for the better part of a century and the NCAA along with its member conferences has decided to settle now why because if they didn't and they're gonna pay out more than 2.7 billion in damages over 10 years as part of this proposed settlement because if they didn't and they lost all these lawsuits they could be on the hook for 10 15 20 billion dollars so like any rational entity the NCAA is doing what's in their best interest along with the conferences so the money is going to start flowing soon no firm timetable as of yet here's where unfortunately the negative trends we've already seen over the last 10 years or so are only going to become reinforced because it's going to be revenue sharing moving forward about 20% of the money coming from media rights will be available to the players and we still need the formula and how it's going to be doled out but just think about that overall metric 20% of media rights well you don't have to be somebody with a sports media blog or a certified public accountant to be aware that the SEC and the Big Ten are printing money there was already a massive disparity between those two super conferences and the Big 12 and the ACC who are hanging on think about the ACC as of August the all coast conference and I'll throw away my alma mater's name here so I went to Stanford a million years ago I'm the least successful and influential alum from Palo Alto my school is joining the ACC because they thought they had no better option because the Big Ten didn't want them and when I say the Big Ten I'll be more direct the Fox Network did not want them Fox wanted the LA schools they got it they wanted Oregon and Washington they got it and for now they're okay with the total where we're gonna be 18 schools in the Big Ten but don't call it the Big 18 because nothing makes sense in college sports Stanford and Cal along with SMU are going to be playing schools at least for now with Clemson and Florida State and everybody else in the conference that was originally formed as the Atlantic Coast Conference how does that make any freaking sense and most of us I think can have a more direct connection to sports like volleyball soccer because more people play those sports than big-time college football or basketball well if you're not producing revenue moving forward in this new model you're gonna be in trouble now title 9 will mitigate some of that and again I'm getting a little bit too into the legal easier but the overall takeaway is this thank goodness after way too long of radical inequity the players are going to get a bigger chunk of the revenue cannot endorse that more strongly should have been done a long time ago but my fear is if we're talking about revenue sharing of media rights and you're a top-notch running back although we've devalued the position so much let's say you're playmaking wide receiver in this year of the wideouts in the NFL draft so in addition to your NIL deal multi millions potentially available for you you're gonna get a piece of revenue sharing wouldn't you go to a school in the Big Ten or the SEC to get more money because it's 20% of the media rights then you would have available down a tier at the ACC and Big 12 level that's just basic math so the gulf between the haves and have-nots is only going to get bigger and we know where this is all going and there's already been talk of this and this thing gets down to the Wall Street guys and private equity boring stuff on a Friday we're gonna get to you pick the number 40 50 teams that are part of one super conference they'll play each other and they'll keep all the money for themselves that's it that's where we're going and we've already seen foreshadowing of what this looks like because the PAC-12 existed for over a century and the whole thing blew up just to make more money and I'm a capitalist that's why I'm gonna be working on Memorial Day but at some point how much more do you need and traditions gotta mean something I'll get off my soapbox now because we have another hour of the program coming up we'll get back to the NBA does Indy have any chance of Halliburton can't go I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen it's a Friday on the Rich Eisen show welcome to talk about all the ultimate small though we watch 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 about that could there be any more sex what was a three-page makeout 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