Dave McMenamin: The Pacers Did Everything They Could

Superchargers, headlights and more. With over 122 million parts, eBay Motors has everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to peak performance. And with eBay Guaranteed Fit, your part is guaranteed to fit your ride every time or your money back. Stay on your A-game with all the parts you need at the prices you want.

It's easy to bring home huge wins. Keep your ride or die alive at ebaymotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. See ebaymotors.com.

Seasons change. Why not your tech? Upgrade now during the Dell Technologies Summer Sale Event and save on select PCs like the XPS 16 powered by Intel Core processors.

You'll be able to bring your most intensive projects to life with built-in AI, minimalistic design, immersive visuals and cinematic audio. When you shop online at dell.com slash deals, you'll have access to exceptional tech and electronics plus free shipping on everything. Amazing prices await you for a limited time only at dell.com slash deals. That's dell.com slash deals. This is the Rich Eisen Show.

The one, the only, the Hall of Famer, Bill Walton. Yeah, here we go. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles.

I haven't broken any Tesla windshields today. Rich Eisen Show. What could be better?

It's a beautiful day in Southern California. I'm truly the luckiest guy in the world. Today's guest ESPN NBA reporter Dave McMenamin, Arizona Cardinals radio voice Dave Pash, author Harlan Coben. And now it's Rich Eisen.

Ah, yes. Welcome. This edition of the Rich Eisen Show. Everybody had a great three day weekend tanned and rested back at work or what have you. Hope everybody is all good in whatever hood you're in. 844-204-rich is the number to dial in our neighborhood here today to have a conversation with us. We're up for talking about whatever you'd like to talk about right here on the Roku channel. This Rich Eisen Show terrestrial radio affiliates smart enough to have a Sirius XM Odyssey and more our podcast listeners.

We always say hello to you because you're just as important to us even though you listen to us or take us in whenever you darn well please. And there's all sorts of podcasts, not just all three hours of this show. Overreaction Monday, Chris Brockman and I recorded that last week. What the football with Suzy Schuster and Amy Trask.

That's just a part of the content that we turn out right here from our factory in El Segundo, California. Good to see you over there, Christopher Brockman. How are you? I'm great, man. How are you?

I am doing fine. Jay Felley is sitting here for Mike Del Tufo. What's up, Rich? I think Del Tufo tuckered himself out from taking all of those photographs of Kaitlyn Clark on Friday night here in Los Angeles, California. I think who knows? Maybe did he travel to Vegas with the team to take on the Las Vegas Aces? Can't rule anything out.

I don't know. Good to see you over there, TJ Jefferson. How are you, sir? Hey, great, Rich. How are you guys doing? I am doing fine.

I got to be honest with you. Completely gutted by the news yesterday that Bill Walton died. I had no idea he was ill. I had no absolute earthly idea. And a lot of the show is going to be in his memory and commemoration.

And I think what we should do is have as great a day today as we possibly can, because that's the way Bill would want it. And Dave, Dave Patch, who called 12 years of games with Bill Walton. I think he was the one next to sitting next to him when he said that he was milked. Right. I have been milked. Don't we have that?

You need to get that drop ready later on. That one just popped in my head, you know, talking about milking a cow and I have been milked. All right, then. So the best seat in the house for some incredible.

Yeah. And I've got I've got a great story that I have told before here about Bill Walton years ago, and I'll retell it here today. We have a new audience in many different ways here on the Roku channel. So we're going to spend a good amount of time remembering Bill Walton. And I guess it's only fitting that we do begin with the show at the Boston Celtics, getting back to the NBA finals. And and here we are with the Celtics sweeping out the Indiana Pacers. And yes, the Pacers didn't have Tyrese Halliburton for the last two games of this series. And yes, you know, that's going to be part of the narrative we hear over the next nine days that the Celtics have off because they swept out the Pacers. And we'll talk about that narrative in just a matter of moments.

And then also with Dave McMenamin of ESPN, who's going to be joining us to start this program off. So listen, I don't care who's in front of you, you got to beat the team that's in front of you. Certainly if you have the weight of the world upon you, like the Celtics clearly placed on themselves with a remarkable regular season. And one of the guys one would think that would have a significant amount of pressure is the guy who won the MVP of the Eastern Conference Finals. Let me tell you something growing up in the Northeast as I have, as you did, TJ, I'll even get I'll even throw you that one.

Okay. And obviously you Chris being a New Englander, along with various parts of this great nation that you grew up in because your dad was in the Coast Guard. Anybody in the Northeast that signs the richest contract in the history of their sport must come through all year long and in the clutch. You can't have an off night.

You can't have an off night. And I know I'm mixing sports and also bringing up a town and a team that many of you New Englanders don't want to hear about right now. Juan Soto with the Yankees, for instance. No, I'm serious. When you come to a town and you're that highly touted and you, you know, want to cash in, you sometimes feel the weight of the world on your shoulders and you don't do what Juan Soto is doing right now.

Killing it right now. I think he should be a member of the Steinbrenner family. They should just adopt him.

It might be cheaper for them. So but I'm just using this to point out how tough it is in the Northeast to live up to expectations and a contract. Five years, three hundred four million dollars. Supermax contract is what Jalen Brown signed last summer. This is his first year in that five year contract.

This very year. And what did he do all season long was just play consistently excellent basketball for a 60 win team and for a team that had to go finals or bust. And that's the end of the story. If the Celtics did not wind up in the NBA finals this year, it would be a bust of a season. There's no other way to have the conversation. Yeah. Period.

End of story. They're in the finals. They've won 12 of their 14 playoff games and so doing their 12 and two since the playoffs began.

Twelve and two now. And last night, Jalen Brown down two. In Game four. Yeah, they're playing with house money.

Of course, they're up three. Oh, but listen, the Pacers want to do this to you. We saw it as a Nick fan.

I saw it as a Nick fan. Just keep on surviving and advancing. And then let the chips fall. Jalen Brown made an eight footer to tie the game at 102. Then Andrew Nembhard, after a bunch of turnovers, has a clear path to the basket.

And it looks like he's going to score there the first points for the Pacers in a couple of minutes time. And I don't know how Brown blocked that shot, but he did. Without fouling, like didn't touch the guy. The only thing he touched was the ball. It was a remarkable block coming from behind where everybody usually commits a foul. He blocks that shot. Then next possession has the ball, goes in the paint, draws a bunch of attention, finds arguably their most lethal three point shooter wide open in the corner. And Derek White buries it. Cash goes up three. End of game. Goes up.

I mean, eventually. But this was the go ahead series sweeping clincher. Jalen Brown. Let me just get his stat line.

I had it up here on my computer. There it is. Twenty nine point six rebounds, three steals, two assists, one block that we mentioned in forty four minutes of game four action. That is a guy who's living up to the billing and the contract in a city where if you don't, they will chew you up, spit you out. Amazing.

All the flowers. This is Jalen Brown's press conference afterwards with the trophy for being the MVP of the conference finals sitting there right in front of him. Yeah, I mean, we feel like we're a different team than we were last year and the year before that. I know everybody wants to continue to kind of pigeon hold us to what was happened in the past, but we've got a different team every single year, different coaches. We've had like three coaches in the last five years and still people want to, you know, just make it seem like it's the same. It's the same.

It's the same. Time has gone by. Experience has been gained and I think we are ready to put our best foot forward. That trophy is named after Larry Bird. Larry Bird. The Larry Bird trophy sitting in front of Jalen Brown as the Celtics go to a finals again on the day we learn of Bill Waltz passing.

That seems almost fixed. And the Eastern Conference team championship trophy is named the Bob Cousy trophy, also Celtics. So it's awesome for the Celtics to win. Well, no, no, no.

Hold on a second. And we'll talk about that over the next nine days. And we're assuming tonight the Mavericks will have an opportunity to close out the Timberwolves. And even if they don't, they've got to just win one more out of the next four.

And two of those four are at home. These seven games, the Celtics four wins, the Mavs three wins. It could easily be flipped. It could it could be 3-1 Pacers. It could be 2-1 Wolves. The way these games have gone, you know, just Dallas and Boston have been so good at the clutch minutes, the closing out the game for the win. It's been remarkable. Well, you just hit upon, gents, the conversation that we're going to be having over the next nine days because we're going to get bored with no basketball, certainly on the Eastern Conference side of things, which is how good are the Celtics?

I mean, believe it or not, this is this is going to be a conversation. No, because again, game one, the Pacers had them right where they wanted them and then blew it. Didn't foul Jalen Brown. Your Larry Bird trophy winner makes that three when Pascal Siakam would just prefer to just stand in front of him for fear of fouling him and making it a four point play or giving him three shots at the free throw line instead of just saying, take your three point shot over me without me putting my arms up, using my wingspan.

Listen, that's part of the conversation. And then game three, the Pacers without Tyrese Halliburton had him. Couldn't finish. Last night, the Pacers without Tyrese Halliburton were up. Didn't score a point in the last three and a half minutes of the game. Not a point in the last three and a half minutes of the game. And then the conversation will be, well, is that the Celtics defense or is that just the Pacers not being able to finish? They finally couldn't close.

They couldn't find any of the requisite amount of gas in their engine to use the Indianapolis 500 terms off of this weekend. That's going to be the conversation about the Celtics is no Jimmy Butler for Miami, no Jared Allen for Cleveland. And half the time, no Donovan Mitchell for Cleveland, which clearly was mixed up in their locker room because they bounced their coach over whatever the heck was going on in there. And then in the Eastern Conference Finals, arguably the best player for the Indiana Pacers gets hurt too. So have your head on a swivel whoever comes out of the Western Conference Finals because somebody is going to get hurt because that's the way things have been going for the Celtics or the Celtics have had a more open path to the Finals basket because they've played shadows of the teams that made the playoffs. That's the conversation. That's what's coming. And once we get bored of that, the conversation will turn to Kyrie's coming back to Boston because I think that's what's going to end up happening. And I think we always like to front load narratives on this program.

That's what I particularly feel like I am expert at narratives. How we'll pour Zingas his return or his revenge series. OK, that too.

Right. Well, he used to be on the Mavericks. I imagine him look at and get along reportedly. OK, I really think the Kyrie thing is I don't want to make too big a deal of it. It was five years and three teams ago for this guy. He's a different player now.

I imagine he's a different person now. And I've kind of really enjoyed as much as I dislike him as a player when he was with Boston and how he exited. I really, really enjoyed watching him play in the playoffs. He is he was a stone cold killer with Cleveland and he hit the biggest shot, as we know, in the 16 finals. And it's nice to kind of see that guy back as a pure basketball fan, taking whatever animosity I have towards him for his time in New England, taking that out.

It's been kind of cool. And I kind of hope I imagine he's going to get booed every time he touches the ball and all that stuff. But I kind of hope that, you know, the fans and new in Boston just kind of focus on the hoops. Two things.

One, I think you're right, too. Let's not talk about it anymore because we got to save something for the next eight days. Anyway, because I think they do close out the Timberwolves tonight.

You do. I kind of have that feeling because Luca looks totally just off the charts. The guy that was up and down in the first two series of this playoffs because he was hurt. Yeah, he's a little banged up, I think, still. He was questionable. I mean, how do Timberwolves fans hear about, feel about hearing he's questionable going into game three? And then he just keeps on raising his level of play. And I'm going to bring this up with McMenamin. There was a video I saw on on the Hellscape Twitter and and pointing out how the Timberwolves tried six different methods of defending Luca.

How'd those go? You know, blitzing the pick and roll, dropping off on the pick and roll, doubling before he got to the pick and roll. And he beat every one of the defenses, beat them all. So he's playing on a different plane. I mean, how do Hawks fans feel as they're sitting there at home, right?

I mean, that's another part of the conversation you're gonna be having. Certainly since, hey, hey, listen, you know, if he makes the finals, this is exactly the conversation. Certainly since here in Los Angeles, everybody's thinking Trae Young is going to come play with for LeBron and give him a trophy before he leaves. Also, until this season, Trae had gone further in the playoffs than Luca until this series. Trae had been to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Yeah. So these are these are all narratives that are common now that the Celtics have made half the NBA Finals a reality. And by the way, what's definitely a reality is this thing sticking to June 6th a week from Thursday. It doesn't matter if the Mavs finish things up tonight.

Everybody can just smoke them if they got them until next Thursday, game one of the NBA Finals. Dave McMenamin of ESPN will be joining us. Dave Tash, who is in Dallas to call the Western Conference Finals game four on ESPN radio. He spent the last 12 years calling games with Bill Walton. We figured it'd be great to have him on to go down memory lane. I've got a great story and this hour with it about Bill Walton, those fans of our program kind enough to have been around for the last several years.

I think we'll we'll know this story, but the retelling of it, I think will be a lot of fun. And then our number three, Harlan Coben is on the program. Here's his book. Think Twice, his newest book, his 36th novel.

What have you been doing with your life? OK. Rich, that's 34 more than you and I combined have. Oh, that's true. That's what she said. There we go. Ladies and gentlemen, four of us.

That's true. Don't leave us out twice. Harlan Coben's on on the show in our number three. When we come back, let's chop it up with Dave McMenamin 844204.

Rich number to dial here on this Tuesday post Memorial Day weekend edition of The Rich Eisen Show. Man, the hoops finals are right around the corner. How cool would it be to go to one of those games? You might even be thinking that right now.

And if you are, I've got the solution for you. Game time makes getting finals tickets even faster and easier. Prices on the game time app actually go down. The closer it gets to tip off, you get killer last minute deals, all in prices, meaning no surprises on the final cost views from your seat, which means no surprises on your view of the court. The lowest price guarantees also there from game time, which takes the guesswork completely out of buying basketball tickets, certainly when it's the biggest event around for hoops.

The finals take the guesswork straight out. Download the game time app, create an account and use my code rich and you get twenty dollars off your first purchase. Terms apply. Visit game time dot co for restrictions. Again, create an account and redeem my code rich and you get twenty dollars off your first purchase. Download game time today.

Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. 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.

So you can choose what's right for each of you whenever you like. Need a bed that's firmer or softer on either side helps you sleep at a comfortable temperature, quiets your snores or your partner's sleep number does that. My sleep number setting is sixty. My wife's is seventy, ten numbers apart. But it truly is the world of difference. The sleep number sleep that you get is unbelievable.

You will love it. J.D. Power ranks sleep number number one in customer satisfaction with mattresses purchased in store. And now you could save 50 percent. That's 50 percent on the sleep number limited edition smart bed for a limited time for J.D.

Power. Twenty, twenty three award information. Visit J.D. Power dot com slash awards only at a sleep number store or sleep number dot com. 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 click range dot com or just stop by covering the Western Conference Finals game for joining us from the Metroplex. Our friend from ESPN, Dave McMenamin, is back on the air.

Dave, how are you, sir? I'm doing great, Rich, and I'm very curious to see what happens in this game for considering the wolves have been the better team in some stretches of the series, but they just can't get it done in late game situation. Well, you could say the same thing about the Pacers, right, who got closed out and swept by the Boston Celtics. We saw what happened in games one, three and four. They could easily be up three one instead of sitting at home right now.

Dave. Yeah, I mean, I think the one lesson any basketball fan can take away from the Eastern Conference Finals is you got to foul when you're up three. That's the last thing thing that I'll remember from that game one. Obviously, an amazing shot from Jalen Brown. Probably the reason he's walking into the finals with the Eastern Conference Finals MVP trophy, the Larry Bird trophy. But Indiana did just about everything they could, especially with Halliburton missing the final two games of the series.

But, you know, Boston marches on and can they kind of complete this run six out of the last eight years making to the Eastern Conference Finals now two of those years to make it to the finals, but will they have a championship to show for it? Yeah, I know Brown made that shot in game one. Also, in the closeout game on Monday night, Dave, an incredible block when the Pacers were trying to take the lead late. And then on the other end, he finds Derek White in the corner for the go ahead eventual series sweeping basket.

I mean, he really did it all. Jalen Brown has done it all and certainly in a spot in the Northeast when you're the highest paid player and pressure will be on. He's crushed it. He's absolutely crushed it. And the Celtics have won 10 of 14 in the playoffs.

And here we are. Yeah, and think back to the 22 finals. And I know Jason Tatum is kind of the face of that team. He was on my MVP ballot, even though Jalen Brown had a very good year as well. The 22 finals, Jalen Brown really played well against the Warriors. Jason Tatum did not. And so we will see if, you know, Tatum still had his moments in the Easter Conference Finals.

I'm not trying to suggest otherwise, particularly in games three and four. He was dynamite, not just scoring, which we all know what he can do, but he was hitting the boards and he was distributing the ball. But he has more to make up for in the finals than Jalen Brown does. So we'll see if they can both be on the same page while potentially reintegrating that seven foot two guy.

They've been missing for about a month now. I was about to say for them to be able to get through Indiana and have nine days off for the entire team and not play Porzingis and not have to feel they have to play Porzingis. What a massive W for the Celtics. Massive. Yeah. No move up date for the finals is going to start June 6th on ABC.

I'll be a company man here. But with that time, let's say the series went deeper and you get closer and closer to the start of the NBA finals. They would probably feel pressure to play Porzingis to give him a chance to kind of reintegrate himself. But now you're playing him in high leverage situations versus now they can have scrimmages and get ready group games over the next week or so and allow him to be able to play full court basketball without the consequences of the game being the decider of whether they advance to the NBA finals or not.

So really a great scenario for Joe Mazzola and that group. And the question mark is, though, their mark through the first three rounds. Sure. Twelve and four, I believe. Right. Or maybe even better that twelve and two. Yeah. Impressive. Sure.

Twelve and two. But you faced depleted teams. And so are you going to be at your best beating Indiana team that didn't have Halliburton and beating a Cavs team that didn't have Donovan Mitchell and beating a Heat team that didn't have Jimmy Butler? Are you as battle tested as the likely Western Conference representative in the Dallas Mavericks who went on the road to beat the Clippers, who went on the road to beat the OKC Thunder, who went on the road to beat the Minnesota Timberwolves with all of those teams?

And the Clippers didn't have obviously Kawhi, but the last two rounds playing two teams at full strength. To me, that's kind of the question mark is, will that run by Dallas end up depleting them or actually forging them with kind of more strength and confidence as they head into the NBA final? Dave McManaman from ESPN here joining us from the Metroplex prior to the game for potential closeout game for the Mavericks tonight against the Minnesota Timberwolves right here on the Rich Eisen show. Just give the sense here that Luke is in a different plane right now for him, even for him. Like we're seeing another level for him right now.

I'm wondering what the eyeball test says for you, Dave. Well, I was speaking to to McMahon, who also covers the NBA for us, and he is based in Dallas and he covers a lot of Mavs games. And he pointed out to me, which it didn't I didn't register in the moment, but the game winner he hit over Gobert in game two. Normally he's taken that shot off his left foot.

That shot was off his right foot. And so if we are seeing the evolution of Luca Dutchess getting an even deeper bag in these high leverage situations, watch out, because the guy is a you know, he's a Mack truck out there on the floor. He's one of those guys that if you can go see in person, you're not just going to be impressed by the shooting ability and the passing wizardry, but he is just a massive human being. And it makes him a really tough one on one coverage, again, because he can spray out the shooters, but because it's hard to keep a body in front of him. And Jayden McDaniel has done a admirable job this series of having the motor to be able to stay attached to him and run through screens and go all over the 94 by 50 hardwood to stay near him. But Jayden McDaniel is a slight guy and Luca can, you know, kind of knock him off his anchor with the hip thrust or with, you know, a bit of a back down dribble. You're going to be hard pressed to find a guy who is built to stop Luca Dutchess. And the problem is, if you want to send a double, well, there's Kyrie Irving waiting.

And he is also one of the best guys, not just in today's game, but of all time, with the ball in his hands. And so it's a formidable Dallas group. We'll see what happens with Derek Lively II, the rookie center who had that scary, inadvertent injury from Karl-Anthony Towns knocking his knee in the back of his head.

He has neck sprain right now, questionable for game four. But speaking of people around Lively, there's not too much concern that should they get to the NBA finals that he wouldn't be ready for a game one scenario. There's just a ton of depth with this Dallas team and Nico Harrison, the general manager, deserves a lot of credit for changing the complexion of the group, adding a Daniel Gafford, adding a P.J.

Washington. You also already, of course, already had Derek Jones Jr. and Lively going into the trade deadline. They just have long, rangy defenders who can run the floor. And then, again, two of the best guys in the entire league with the ball in their hands finding those players.

It's a beautiful band of basketball. And their defense is a lot better in person than I think they get credit for. Well, I mean, I saw video, speaking of Luka's size, I saw video of him going up and dapping up Travis Kelce in the tunnels after the game three win. And they were eye to eye. And Travis Kelce is a massive human being.

You know, by the way, I'm not going Austin Rivers on here with the NBA and the NFL. I'm just kind of pointing that out and equating it for people who might just be wondering about Luka. But I also saw another video on the dreadful X site, Dave, over the weekend where somebody was pointing out the six different defenses that the Timberwolves were thrown at Luka. And he beat every one of them. He saw them coming. He beat every one of them.

And I know you mentioned Kyrie as an option. He was he was opening it up to Gafford and Lively before he was, you know, hurt, knocked out of the game. He just again, like I said, he just appears to be unstoppable. One of those unstoppable guys. And I know he used he's always been that way, but it just feels different right now. It just really does. Dave, you know.

Yeah. And obviously he's dealing with, you know, a bit of knee discomfort. He was listed as questionable going into game three. You could see him hobbled from it in the Western Conference semifinals against OKC.

I guess that's a bit of a question mark still on everyone's mind. Can his body hold up for another, you know, potentially five more wins they would need for a championship? But the mental strength that he has certainly in the will to win, you just you see it in this approach. He's a true competitor. McDaniel's asked him about the shot that Luka hit on him late in game three, because after game two, McDaniel said, hey, if Coach Finch calls for a switch again, I am not going to listen to the coach. I want to be guarding Luka in that late game situation on the right side of the floor.

Well, he got what he wished for. And McDaniel said actually that turnaround shot that Luka had to put them, I think, up six with about a minute to go. McDaniel said, I fouled him. The ref didn't call it, but I had nothing left I could do but to foul him. And Luka still made it. So he's at another level.

And that's what you love seeing. Because this is this is the best of the best. This is the best basketball in the world being played right now. Few minutes left with ESPN's Dave McManaman here on the Rich Eisen Show. We are one more Mavericks win away. And certainly it's a it's a long shot one would say for the Timberwolves to win four in a row. We're one double way from seeing Kyrie in TD Garden. I mean, how is that going to play?

Do you think, Dave, what's your best guess here on that front? I'm sure it's going to be a warm welcome from the New England crowd. I mean, no, but Kyrie has been trying to stay above all of his previous phrase this year. You know what I'm saying? Like since he's arrived in Dallas, it's just really been basketball and him talking about family life and going out and being the Kyrie of old. This is the past, though, that he's it's that's coming. I mean, there's no way that that's not going to be the main topic of conversation. You know, absolutely. Certainly if they close things out in Game four and we have a week to talk about the previous preview it.

Right. I think that conversation will come up more and more. I doubt that he will do anything to kind of stoke those embers. I imagine he will address it when the time is is right. But it doesn't seem like he's in a space right now to do other anything other than, again, as you mentioned, he's taking Kyrie's family off the court.

He's been a great teammate on it. I ran into him prior to Game two in Minneapolis the night before, and I covered him in Cleveland for those three years he had before he requested the trade. And we had a I wouldn't even say on again off again relationship. We had a respectful rapport, but I don't think I ever really broke down the walls of Kyrie Irving. But when I saw him the other night, he greeted me with warmth, made eye contact with my hand, gave me a hug and told me my spirit's in a great place. And it seems to be a genuine statement. And I've spoken to other people who have been covering him with this Mavs team and on this run.

And then they covered him back in the day and in Cleveland and Brooklyn and Boston. And they felt like there's been a kind of a tangible, palpable change. Maybe it's a growth process.

Maybe it's just kind of everything coming together at the right time in the right place. But I'm not expecting controversy to be following Kyrie at all through the rest of this finals run. Or, you know, should they take care of the wolves? I think he is a brilliant basketball player on full display. And that's what we'll continue to see until this Mavericks season is over. And a few minutes left here, Dave McMenamin. So listen, when you're covering a game, sometimes your phone rings, a text pops off, you're checking on other scores, you're checking on some other things and you're not looking at the floor. Please tell me that wasn't happening when Anthony Edwards launched on Daniel Gafford in game three. And Dave, you were seeing that. Did you see it?

I caught it. I'm going to out a colleague, you know, no cheering in the press box or whatever, but Mark Spears, Hall of Famer in the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield was sitting to my left. Mark got up out of his chair and did a full 360 to like grab all the other media members around him. It was unreal.

If you don't see something like that every day. And he followed it with another score and then another pull up jumper. And it was it was such a moment and it felt like the tide had turned in. And it did.

Obviously, they they tied it up. Eighty seven, eighty seven going into the fourth quarter. He scored, I believe, 10 points in the third, but then May ran out of gas.

He only took three shots in the fourth quarter. And that has been something that people have been talking about him around the team. And he's admitted himself that he's been exhausted at times during this playoff run. And, you know, ultimately, we may say that he's 22 years old and that's the next step that he needs to make in his development to get to the next level, whether it be strength training or whether it be cardio training, whatever to get through that next top, because the skills jump off the court through the air. Obviously, we saw with a dunk over Gafford and he has an infectious personality. There's charisma oozing out of every pore.

And I just observed him around teammates. And it seems like to a man, he has great relationships on that team. And so I think you'll be someone that can lead them. Let's say they do have this playoff disappointment where this meteoric rise ends with, you know, a clunker of a series in Western Conference Finals. I think he'll have the force of personality to keep this group together in the offseason and motivate them to take the next step as we go into next year. Last one for you, Dave McMenamin. An update on the Lakers coaching search. Are you currently working with the next coach of the Los Angeles Lakers?

Dave, what do you have? I'll say this. If JJ Redick gets the job as the next coach of the Lakers, and that's certainly a possibility, don't expect it to happen until after the NBA Finals have occurred. It's an important assignment for JJ personally, an important assignment for the company, obviously, to have him with the A team with Doris Burke and Mike Breen and Lisa Salters. And so don't expect that news to come down until the NBA Finals is over. But he remains one of the, you know, targeted candidates along with James Borrego and Sam Cassell. The Lakers have interviewed other candidates, the Wolves, Mike Inouye, David Adleman of the Denver Nuggets.

And I believe I may have mentioned this last time we spoke, this name last time we spoke. Until Ty Lue of the Clippers has a contract extension, don't consider him out of the running for the Lakers next head coaching job. It would seem unlikely considering the reporting that we've already had from Adrian Wojnarowski, the Clippers intention to have Ty Lue signed to an extension. But, you know, it's been a month and there's still no extension for Ty Lue. So until that deal is inked, I wouldn't consider him out of the running as well. Well, the fact that the Lakers haven't named anybody yet and the opening has been around for a few weeks, you know, the Suns have already, you know, fired a former Laker coach and hired a former Bucks coach that's already happened makes you think that they're waiting for J.J. Redick.

Like that's what that's how it feels. But obviously anything can happen, you know, anything can happen. But I mean, there's a reason we are talking about J.J. Redick's name here.

I wouldn't say as strong as an inevitability, but certainly a leading candidate. I feel comfortable calling him that. I appreciate all the time you've given us. If you got another minute and you have a Bill Walton story you want to pass along, Dave, ever?

I just I have crossed past them. I was fortunate enough just to spend time at various NBA events, NBA All-Star, NBA Finals, and you just see him around. I wish I had like that ultimate Bill Walton story. I think maybe the best compliment I could pay Bill Walton is Richard Jefferson, who, you know, I consider a friend, a colleague, someone I covered with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He's a sarcastic jerk a lot of the time, the way he shows his love.

But to see him kind of turn into a like almost a doting son around Bill and lose a bit of his edge and to have more of the warm and cuddly side of Richard Jefferson come out when he was around Bill, to me, that I always that struck me and it just showed the kind of influence that Bill Walton could have. Dave, really appreciate the time. We'll chat with you in maybe a week or so, if you don't mind again.

Getting ready for the finals. Nine days or so. We'll chat with you in nine days. Thanks again, Dave. Thanks, Rich.

That's Dave McMenamin, everybody. Catch all of his reporting on ESPN and if certainly in advance of game four where he is in Dallas tonight. Let's get to break quick. When we come back, my Bill Walton story, if you haven't heard it before, stay tuned. It involves Katy Perry in a crack windshield.

That's next. This is 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. I would meet wonderful people that were struggling with a budget that was super tight.

It was 100%. You need to make more money, make smarter choices and build a better life. Afford anything wherever you listen. What's up, everyone? It's reality Steve, your number one source for all things bachelor nation and reality TV. Every day, I'm giving you the behind the scenes juice and your info on all your bachelor nation stories and also interviewing some of your favorite reality stars.

My name has been synonymous with spoilers, but I'm so much more than that. Give me a listen. The reality Steve podcast, part of the believe network.

Just search BLEAV on YouTube or wherever you listen. Okay, so let me get to this story here. It's a great story people. And I'm telling it because of who we lost on Monday.

It was the summer of 2017. I get a call from one of my representatives, Team Eisen, to say, Hey, there's a Katy Perry video shooting in town. I'm like, Okay, go go on. Go on. I'm intrigued.

And it's a sports theme and they're looking for a sportscaster to appear in it. Would you want to do it? I thought that you were gonna say they asked you if you knew anybody? No, no.

What do you want to do it? And I'm like, Where is it? They're like, it's here in town. They're shooting it at the Galen Center, which is the home of USC basketball.

And it's just an afternoon. I'm like, Okay. And they say there's somebody else who's going to be as the color commentator. You're the announcer.

There's a color commentary. I said, Who is it? And they said Bill Walton.

And there we are on the screen and the video of Swish Swish. And this is really tall guy. Bill Walton is kind of this really tall guy.

I'm kind of not as tall as Bill Walton, which is can confirm, can confirm. Had you known Bill before this? I'd known of him. He'd been on this program.

We'd never really met before. And I just fell in love with the guy. I was such a huge fan of his listening to him with Marv calling games and, you know, just imitating him and just talking about life and Grateful Dead and the sun, the sun in the sky and just everything about him and all of his essence. And he's exactly who you thought he would be. He was great to everybody.

Everybody wanted a piece of him. He was just chatting up. Here's a photograph of him chatting up. I believe one of the directors of this video and, and it was unbelievable.

And it was just a wild day as well. The mountain from Game of Thrones was in this video as well. There's a photograph. I'm standing in between the two of them.

I honestly look like they're, they're roll on. They used for Dior in between these two huge people. And yes, Bill has a couple inches on the mountain fire on the mountain. And so it was just in a wild day. Now then you could take a look at, if you wouldn't mind putting up one of the shots of the two of us courtside, you could see behind him, there's a folding chair.

Okay. That we would be sitting in. The issue for Bill was he had major back problems. So that's why he loved, he needed to stand a lot. Sitting in that chair wasn't great for him. He had off to the side and upstairs as well where we were in our, or the green room was placed a, a metal chair. He brought his own chair, a very high chair so he could sit on it and it was made of metal and that was for his back. And they brought it downstairs and it was off to the side. Whenever he wasn't shooting, he would sit down in that chair. Now then part of him sitting in that chair and having some issues, I wanted to make sure that we, when it was time to nail our lines, we were nailing our lines so he could get out because he had to get back down to San Diego and he wanted to beat the traffic.

This was early afternoon on a, I think on like a Thursday or Friday. Good, good luck getting back there. You needed a helicopter really. And his car to take him to the hotel in downtown LA, which as the crows fly, crow might fly less than a mile, but it was like a 20, 30 minute ride because of the traffic.

I'm not, I'm not kidding you. And the car that was supposed to come for him was late and we were shot out. I said, Bill, I'll take you. I'll take you. Please let me take you. It's going to be a half hour, Richard, are you sure it's going to, I'm like, please, bill, I got, I'm, I'd be honored to take you, but we have to fit my chair. I've got to bring my chair. I'm like, fine, we'll do that.

No problem. And I'm thinking to myself as we're walking down the street on flower street in Los Angeles, watching bill Walton total along with this massive chair in front of him, it's made of metal. I'm like, bill, we're only a half a block from my car.

Don't worry about it. But as we're doing that, I'm thinking to myself, I had this Tesla model S with a hatchback in the back and I'm thinking to myself, there may be an issue in fitting this chair in the car. And sure enough, again, this was 2017 Taylor.

Now 10, my daughter, we had a car seat in the car and as you know, getting the car seat in and out. So I had to basically push as much as I possibly could the back of that seat up with the car seat on it just to fit the chair in. And bill's like, are you sure? Because it's not going to fit. It's just not going to work. I don't want to be too much of a burden. And I'm like, don't worry bill. We're going to make this work. We got to get you to your hotel.

It will be my honor to do this. Get you in a car to on back to San Diego. And sure enough, we jam the chair in and the corner of the metal part of the chair is up against the glass as it finally closes. We jam it down and I'm like, okay, we did it bill. Get in the front seat.

We'll push it all the way back. As we begin to walk to the front of the car, we hear crack. It broke the windshield and the entire half hour ride of bill Walton in the front seat, sitting shotgun in my car.

It was him apologizing. I cannot believe this happened, whatever I will pay for it. And I'm like, bill, I will not take a dollar of your money. And I saved the windshield when they replaced it. I said, give me the broken windshield.

I want it back so I could save it. Had no idea, giant crack, no idea there would be something to go along with this cracked windshield as a keepsake. About two weeks later I received at home an envelope that I have right here to my home address and you could see the scroll on it to my name. And the return address was bill Walton in San Diego, California. And I saved the note that he sent me and there's a photograph of it. I will read it to you. We blurt out his address.

You could see it's on his stationary, which is like X's and O's drawn up a play at half court, right? Okay. Of Elaine is not the pyramid of success. He wrote, this is on July 21st of 2017. I can't, I get an emotional, please, rich, sorry to ruin your life, career and your car all in such a brief period of time. Thank you for your kindness, patience, sense of honor and my life.

Thanks for your moral clarity, ethics and humanity. Shine the light, be the light bill Walton with a check for $1,000 that I immediately contacted to tell him I am not cashing. And sure enough, here it is in my hands today uncashed. I will never cash this check. I will always keep this note. I will always remember the cracked windshield and my day with bill Walton on the set of a Katy Perry video that remarkably is the most watched thing I've ever done.

685 million views of this video. And I will never forget that day with bill Walton, ironically enough, in the home of USC basketball, which he even kind of had a comment about, I can't believe I'm sitting here, you know, like Mr. UCLA, Mr. Bruin, everything he stood for and what he fought for veterans rights as well, certainly in protesting the Vietnam War on this on the campus of UCLA back in the 70s for him to pass away on Memorial Day on a day of the Celtics getting back to the NBA finals. I had no idea he was ill, none at all. His last broadcast was on February 10th on the PAC 12 network in Oregon. You couldn't tell this man was sick, let alone within three and a half months of no longer being with us taken away from us.

An absolute gut punch that somebody who would just live his life to the fullest live for today. 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. How many yards you think you're gonna pick up with that extra? I think I get an extra five to 10. What if I give you 15 to 20?

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