Chris Mannix describes how the Celtics will handle Luka Doncic

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Find out how to bring your ideas to life at Dell.com. Welcome to now. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Daddy's hosting today kids. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. The conversation surrounding Kaitlyn Clark. Big time contact afterwards between Carter and Clark.

Let's not forget that she probably has arguably the most pressure. Today's gasps. Senior writer for Sports Illustrated, Chris Mannix. Thirteen-year NFL veteran cornerback, Patrick Peterson.

Actor, Kelly O'Koye. And now it's Rich Eisen. Hey everybody. Hope everybody had a great first weekend of June.

We sure did. We're here in our first week of June 2024 on the Roku Channel. This Rich Eisen Show terrestrial radio affiliate Sirius XM Odyssey and more. We say hello to our podcast listeners because we appreciate you taking in this show, how you see fit, and listening to us whenever you want for all three hours thanks to the Cumulus Podcast Network. All three hours are available for you to listen to whenever you want. We're on demand also on the Roku Channel. Our YouTube subscribers and followers, we greatly appreciate that.

YouTube.com slash Rich Eisen Show for all of that. Good to see you over there Chris Brockman. How are you brother?

Jay Felley is in today. Good to see you. What's up Rich? How are you? Good to see you.

I'm great. TJ Jefferson. The candle is lit over there, sir. I actually haven't lit it yet, but I will. Go ahead and light it.

All Jeffersons do today apparently. My cousin's getting better than you. I'm here to tell you. Just to let you know all that. Our fellow you is going to be lit.

Let's just jump into this right here to start our program. Listen, we saw Justin Jefferson last at the Super Bowl in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was on our first show there that day. Wednesday before the Super Bowl.

Between the Chiefs and the 49ers. And straight up asking the question. Straight up asking the question that everyone wanted to know and certainly he wanted to know. Hit it. Where is that bag? Where is that bag? Where is that bag?

I don't know, man. I'm looking for the bag just like you are. Hey, I'm looking for it just like you, dog. I'm waiting for the call. I'm waiting to experience that whole thing with my family.

It's life changing. So I'm waiting for it just like you are. Waiting for the bag. And as a matter of fact, unfortunately for Justin, the bag was there on that day. It was just our gift bag. Which, by the way, was filled with some great goodies. It was great.

It wasn't $110 million. He was about to say, well, I mean, you stole my line. It wasn't like he didn't appreciate that bag. I mean, it had a Roku stick in it. Sweatshirt. A mug.

Yeah, one of those tumblers. Wasn't worth $110 million, guaranteed. That's for sure. $140 million over four. Paid that man his money. That happened today.

That happened today. Justin Jefferson. Four years, $140 million. $110 million, guaranteed.

It is a record deal in terms of a few things. One, he is the highest paid player, not a quarterback, in the NFL. $140 million, the $110 guaranteed, is way more than A.J.

Brown and Ahmaud Arras, St. Brown and Jayden Waddle, those who have been paid at the position over the last month. Then you take a look at the $35 million per year. That is the most of anybody in the NFL who does not play quarterback. That beats Nick Bosa's $34 million in annual value by a million bucks. $3 million over A.J. Brown, Chris Jones and Aaron Donald. Yes, Aaron Donald. In terms of highest paid non-quarterbacks in NFL history, he is no longer active, although we will see what happens towards the end of the season.

His less need kind of dropped some breadcrumbs when he was on this program last month. Chris Jones is fourth best in terms of that all time. Justin Jefferson, if there's anybody out there who's wondering what this means in terms of getting paid like a quarterback, the $110 million guaranteed is $10 million more than the guy who threw the ball to him last year. Kirk Cousins making $100 million guaranteed in his new contract with the Atlanta Falcons. Same thing, by the way, as Derek Carr with the Saints. He is now being paid more guaranteed dollars than quarterbacks in the NFL, including one, again, who knows how good he is.

And if you are at all wondering if Justin Jefferson at age 24 is worth this amount of money, if for some reason you might be sitting here and you haven't played a single lick of fantasy football over the last four years, or you haven't paid much attention to Minnesota Vikings football and you might be sitting here wondering if this is in fact a worthy contract. This man, most receiving yards in the history of the NFL through his first two seasons broke Odell Beckham Jr.'s record. Most receiving yards through the first three seasons, he broke Randy Moss' record. And he now has the most receiving yards of anybody through the first four seasons of his career, broke Michael Thomas' record last year, even though he missed seven games due to injury. As a matter of fact, he set the record for most receiving yards ever by a player who played in 10 or fewer games of a season, coming up with 1,074 last year, despite missing seven games and also missing Kirk Cousins. Let's not forget, the Pastronaut threw him some passes, Josh Dobbs, big Nick Mullins threw him some passes.

Big Nick! That's right, last year. That's just two of the quarterbacks.

We're out about that. Yep. Oh, and by the way, he has more receiving yards in his first four seasons than Calvin Johnson or Marvin Harrison Sr. had through their first five. They're both in the Hall of Fame, FYI.

He needs only 885 yards this season to break the record for most receiving yards through the first five years of a career that record currently belongs to. Anybody? Jerry Rice. No, Buehler? Randy Moss? No, that's best in six.

That's the one next after this season. Tory Holt? Oh, big game.

Who should be in the Hall of Fame? I was going to guess that. FYI?

Not at all. Justin Jefferson got the bag. Yes, he did. Nice. Finally. Now then. Found it. Let's talk about three people who are most happy about this.

I know two of them. Number one, number one, anybody who roots for the Minnesota Vikings, you should be happy about this because your team didn't trade him away. Your team didn't say, you know what?

You're great. All the stats that Rich just read, most receiving yards in the first two, three, four seasons of a career, and most likely five, barring anything completely unforeseen happening to Justin Jefferson, that despite all that and what he means to the team and the franchise, despite all of it, we're just not going to pay. We're not setting a new standard. We're not going to set a new market.

We're not going to blow out of the water the wide receiver dollars in terms of guaranteed. We're not going to do it. We just won't do it.

Sorry. We're not going to do that. Although Mike Florio did say they kicked a tire or two on Malik Nabors on the draft night. Yeah, I heard that. But they didn't do it. And they signed him and they got it done and they didn't wait all summer. They didn't let him show up to training camp and get all those questions. And they also set themselves up for success this year as they are making a transition from Kirk Cousins to two other guys.

One, his name is Sam Darnold. Congratulations, Sam. The football gods have been kicking you in the nards all the way from your time coming out of USC, being drafted by a Jets team that was in total complete flux, and then fluxed it all up for you. Fluxed it all up.

All right. And then finally gave you your exit visas to Carolina, where you had three, four MVP-type weeks in your first month there, and then that all went to you know what. And then you go to San Francisco and, yes, you were in a good system there. But now in your spot here in Minnesota, where again, again, I have been told, I have heard, I believe Daniel Jeremiah even said this here on this program, that Darnold was told prior to the draft, this season of 2024 is yours. If we do get a kid in the draft, we intend to not play him. And you can be this year's Baker Mayfield, by the way, who's not making as much guaranteed dollars as Justin Jefferson.

And this is your opportunity. And then there's J.J. McCarthy. If you think he's going to get the start this year, fine.

I still don't believe it. But guess what? They got a J.J. for this J.J. to throw to when it's time. And that's what you need to do. Look at what the Bears have done to set up their rookie quarterback in his first year. When J.J. McCarthy is ready, he will have his own J.J. to throw to.

That's exactly what you need to do. Good job. And then the other person who is doing absolute cartwheels today. I mean, wherever he is, give him a cigar and light it up. His name is C.D. Lamb, who had every possible right to stake a claim to that Offensive Player of the Year award this year. Has everything and the biscuit at this position. Has had, although not as many yards as Justin Jefferson in his first few years in the NFL.

But there are some other metrics that he is bested. Yes. Justin Jefferson. And there is no doubt who is the engine of this offense down the field, off the line of scrimmage, coming out of the huddle, who keeps defensive coordinators up at night prior to a game against the Dallas Cowboys. It is number 88, an 88 clubber of the first variety.

C.D. Lamb. Holler at your boy. And it does not appear to me, again, does not appear to me at all that he's a reason why the Dallas Cowboys can't break through in January. As a matter of fact, he is part of the solution as the day is long.

And as you know, in a few weeks, it's the longest day of the year coming up. And still, what do I love more than being right? The ability to come on this show and say, I told you so. Four words.

They're so much fun. And then the day before the draft in Detroit, Ahmaan Ra's St. Brown signed a contract that made him the highest paid, annually paid wide receiver in the NFL with $77 million guaranteed. And then, well, or at least the contract with the most guaranteed dollars at the position in the NFL, $77 million guaranteed. And then the next day, the Eagles, who are always early in signing their guys who are going to hit it, made it 84 million bucks. And the Dolphins signed Waddle just last week, and they slotted him just underneath Ahmaan Ra's St. Brown because Tyreek Hill is on this. Hill as well is being incredibly well paid.

So Waddle accepted that. Not a bad place to be slotted. Devante Smith also got slotted in this neighborhood just before A.J. Brown. And notice the Eagles signed him early and then got Brown done early, but they got Smith done before A.J. Brown. And then the Vikings decide to, again, just think about this, A.J.

Brown, $84 million guaranteed as a wide receiver. Did the Vikings go to 90? No, they went beyond it. Did they go to 100 million guaranteed? No, they went beyond it. They went to 110. 110. And the reason why I imagine is because they needed to get to some sort of annual value that's above Nick Bosa because that's what the kid wanted, and that's what he clearly, market, deserves. How do you like it now, Dallas?

I mean, you're gonna have to beat this number for C.D. Lamb. And if you argue you're not as good as Justin Jefferson, how do you say that to this kid? How do you go in these negotiations?

They're tough. You know, the Joneses are used to putting on their brass knuckles. But if you had done this after the draft, you could have signed him to like, we'll give you the first $100 million guaranteed contract of a wide receiver. You think C.D. Lamb would have said no? In 90, he would have said yes to that. That I don't know.

That I don't know. I can't sit here and say that he would have. But 100 sounds like that's a new nice barrier. How about nine figures of guaranteed dollars? Could have saved yourself 10. One would think just with that alone.

But no. And you also got a kid in Parsons who will look at Nick Bosa's number and say, why not that for me, too? And then you got a quarterback who, by the way, after Justin Jefferson's signing today of $110 million guaranteed, $10 million guaranteed better than two quarterbacks closest to him, Kirk Cousins and Derek Carr. Do you know who the quarterback just above him on this list is now? His name is Dak Prescott at a buck twenty six.

And he's probably looking at this thinking. I don't know that it's going to have to be a hell of a lot higher than that. You take a look at the other guaranteed dollars, Jared Goff's guaranteed dollars, so on and so forth.

Wait till Trevor Lawrence into a sign. And they're going to. And they're going to. And you heard Tom Pelissero say on this show Friday that nobody at the quarterback spot is going to sign a contract for fewer annual guaranteed dollar or fewer dollars per year than 50. The price only goes up.

I don't understand it. And I feel so silly saying, well, listen, Jones family, this is the way you should be doing business because they're doing just fine. But I don't understand when you're running this business to just figure it out, get the cap room, get everyone signed before it goes even higher, because it will. It will.

And the reason why I know that is because it always does. Congratulations to the Vikings. They got their guy. And to all their fans and to Sam Darnold and J.J. McCarthy and to C.D. Lamb and name another receiver. Jamar Chase, college teammate.

How you doing? T. Higgins must be flipping out right now because he's under the franchise tag and there's no way the Bengals are going to let him out of that when Chase is going to get have to get paid what he's going to have to get paid. Name a receiver.

They're going to go. And if I'm if I'm the Cowboys, I don't want the Bengals setting a damn cent of my market. Why do you let the Vikings do it and the Eagles do it and the fill in the blank? It's common. I don't get it.

Eight, four, four, two or four rich number to dial on the program. Hey, though, I do have the best case scenarios of all teams in the NFC East coming to this NFL playing season. Wait to hear it.

I got cooked up for the Cowboys. Praying going to be nothing good. Why would you say that? It's best case scenario. It's only good, Chris.

He'll find some way to talk. I find that the Cowboys we know that I am only good. I am offended by that.

Well, I would be offended by your best case, I'm sure, but we'll see. That's coming up. Best case for the Eagles, Giants and commanders as well. Also on the show, Patrick Peterson. It's after June one, which means now there is different ways of doing business in the NFL, cap wise and what have you.

He is one of those post June one free agents looking for a club for year 14. He'll join us in the middle of this show. Kelly O'Coin is in here.

Dollar bill. A lot of folks remember him from Billions. He plays the longtime EVP and team president of the Los Angeles Clippers in Clipped.

FX is clipped on Hulu that premieres tomorrow and on tomorrow's show, the man who plays Donald Sterling in that program, Ed O'Neill will be here. So we're all over clipped winning time clipped. So I know, right.

So we've got him. Let's take a break. It's NBA finals week.

Something's up with the Lakers first overall first round draft choice this year. There's some news involving that. So to discuss this and the Tyson Jake Paul fight got called off over the weekend, postponed postponed. So to talk about all that, our friend from Sports Illustrated, Chris Mannix, is going to join us next.

That's how we're rolling into our first break on this first show of June on The Rich Eisen Show 2024. The home and car insurance to progressive save over seven hundred seventy five dollars on average. That's a whole lot of savings and protection for your favorite podcast listening activities like going on a road trip, cooking dinner, then even hitting the home gym. Yep. Your home and your car are even easier to protect when you bundle your insurance together.

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That's OReillyAuto.com slash Eisen. Back here on the show, you were about to say something and then I had to throw a break because Maddox is going to join us. What were you going to say about the Cowboys?

I was going to say about the Cowboys. I mean, is this really a surprise? Because my whole thought process during this was Jerry kind of wants that, right? He wants to be like the guy on my team is the highest pain in his position.

So I just kind of always thought that CD was going to come after just to see. But I don't understand. It doesn't make sense, Rich. It doesn't because you're costing yourself money. I completely understand.

But because kind of seems like that's the way they do things. But let's just say this, though. And here's my pushback on that sort of thing is, OK, let's just say you're the Eagles. You wanted A.J.

Brown to be the highest paid guy. It's done. A month later.

How about this? You're the Lions. You wanted Ahmaud Arras to be the highest paid guy guaranteed dollars at the position. That's your prideful of that. That lasted a day. A day.

So you could put out the press release and puff your chest out. But at least you. But you do get to say to your guy, you get to say to your guys, it's happening. I'm your guy. You're my guy.

I'm your guy. That does matter. That's an important metric. But if you're doing that just to say that to the rest of the league and say it to the rest of the world, that gets that gets curb stomped within within a day sometimes. You know, Lamar Jackson's contract got done a day after Jalen hurts. You know, and so we're just trying to find reasons as to why I don't like get it.

I don't get this, especially when you got the pops in the mind, especially when you've got two incredibly expensive contracts also that need to be done. This takes a nice chunk out of the pot. Sure does. Right. You could have you could have told C.D. Lamb we're going to give you one hundred. Now he could have.

And C.D. Lamb's probably like, no, I'm waiting for Justin Jefferson to go. And I'm and the Joneses might be sitting here watching and saying, what are you talking about?

And I'd say, thanks for watching. There is less 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 click Grainger dot com or just stop by. Chris Maddox of Sports Illustrated is back here. It's NBA finals week, don't you know? Joining us here on the program. Good to see you, Chris.

That rich. Are you in the Boston area or the greater Boston area? I am. I just touched down from Saudi Arabia, of all places, this past weekend for the heavyweight boxing stuff out there and back and in finals mode once again. OK, so I was going to ask you what the general sense of things are in that town, but you'd know the general sense of what's going on in Riyadh more than Boston, Massachusetts.

That's basically what you're saying. Well, I mean, they've I mean, it's been it'll be about a week since the Celtics have played. And look, there's obviously excitement and certainly some cautious optimism right now about the status of Christas Porzingis, who is the big question mark for the Celtics to be about five weeks since the injury to Porzingis happened. And, you know, he's back, he's practicing.

And I think the Celtics are going to have at least one hard practice this week before they get into kind of the the finals motions at practice, if you will. And if he's ready to go, I mean, that's that's a game changer for the Celtics because he's so instrumental in what they do on both ends. So what's your what's the best guess here on on his readiness for Thursday night, Chris? I think he's going to be fine.

Like it's an educated guess. And I think he's going to be ready to go back into that starting lineup and be the Christas Porzingis that that he used to be. I mean, I don't know if he would have played in that Indiana series, if it had gotten a little bit more challenging, if it had gone deeper. But, you know, the Celtics privately have been optimistic about what they've seen from Porzingis over the last few days to a week. And, you know, I think Joe Missoula said just the other day that he went through all the Celtics went through in practice. And look, that's a significant injury, no question.

But five weeks is a good amount of time to have to rest an injury like that. So I think they're going to get the very best of Porzingis in the start of the series. So what's your opinion on the matchup? Like how are how are the Celtics going to handle Luka here? Well, look, you have to look back on how they played the Mavericks in the two games they played in the regular season, which went very well for Boston. They won one game by nine points.

They won another game by twenty eight points. I believe in the second game, Porzingis didn't play. The Celtics are equipped to be as good defensively as any team in the league is against Porzingis. I would imagine Jalen Brown gets a lot of the early reps on Porzingis.

Jalen obviously has good size. He's a very good defensive player. And at some point, I'm sure you're going to see Drew Holliday take a turn. We've seen Drew Holliday defend anyone for point guards to power forwards during this season.

So he will he will get some reps on on Luka. And you've got Derek White there as well, who can also take take turns. The Celtics, they've got two, you know, all defensive team guys in Holliday and White. And they've got a very good, very big wing defender in Jalen Brown. None of that guarantees are going to stop Luka Doncic. I think Joe Missoula said that this week. You're not going to stop Luka or Kyrie Irving.

But if they can make one or both of them inefficient, they're going to make they're going to give themselves a great chance to win these games. And I think we can all agree that anything non basketball with Kyrie Irving got left in Brooklyn. I mean, pretty much ever since he got to Dallas, it's been, you know, just only about basketball. Certainly when Kyrie talks or tweets or posts or has questions asked of him, it's been really just about hoops.

And now, obviously, here comes the past to be part of the present. And how do you think his return to Boston is going to be handled? Well, let's start with the player he is in Dallas, which you're right. He is a completely different player and off the court.

He is operating like a very different person. Now, some of that is kind of the natural maturity that you get when you're 32 years old. And having gone through the things that Kyrie has gone through, look, a lot of it was problems of his own making. But, you know, when he hits his early thirties and realizes there aren't a lot of teams out there that we're looking to sign him.

I think that kind of gave him a little bit of a jolt, a reality check, if you will. I also think the situation in Dallas has been picture perfect for Kyrie. He gets to play for a coach in Jason Kidd, who, look, he grew up a big fan of. I mean, Jason Kidd spent his formative years in New Jersey. Kyrie Irving grew up in New Jersey, went to a lot of those Nets games. And, you know, Jason's a Hall of Fame player.

Kyrie is on that track. So there's a kind of a kindred spirit there in the head coach in Jason Kidd. And Jason told me, you know, last week in Dallas, like one of the big reasons they're successful is because Kyrie has embraced that kind of secondary 1B type of option with the Mavericks. So it's worked out as well as it possibly could work out for Kyrie in Dallas.

All that being said, imagine the most hostile environment you can think of, Rich. That's what it's going to be for Game 1 for Kyrie Irving. Like these Boston fans, even though it's worked out great for them over the last few years, they're in their second finals in three years. They've got one of the best young teams in basketball. None of them have forgotten about that that 2018-19 season where they didn't live up to expectations and virtually all of them blame Kyrie Irving for it. So it is going to be a very charged atmosphere in Boston. And look, Kyrie has not always reacted well to that. You go back to the series he played, you know, against the Celtics when he was with Brooklyn. There were some situations with fans, you know, interactions.

All this was caught on social media. I think a recent game like he had that double middle finger throughout the fans that were behind him. But the Mavericks need a focused and locked in Kyrie Irving for this season. They need him to put up 25, 30 points per game.

Do it in an efficient way. Play solid defense on the other end of the floor. And I think that is going to be one of their biggest challenges because this Boston crowd is going to be amped up. Again, they have not kind of forgotten all that happened in that year and they blame it largely on Kyrie Irving. NBA Finals are throughout history filled with players who are unsung, coming out of nowhere, the proverbial X Factor. You got one on each team for this Finals?

Yeah, it's Derek Lively for Dallas. I mean, look at how well he played this season. And Rich, you know, championship teams are the foundation is star talent, right? Star players. But where would the Mavericks be right now without Derek Lively?

If they didn't get him in the back half of the lottery, they would not be in this position right now. Derek Lively has been a high level defensive player, shot blocker, and he has been an incredible rim runner and dunker. You know, come off playing off of Luka Doncic.

I think at one point, I forgot the numbers. He was like 16 for 16, you know, in field goal percentage at one point during that last series. So I think his ability to be that same guy in this type of environment, like he's come out and said, like it's a little overwhelming in a way, you know, to be playing in a Finals at what, 20 years old in your first year. He's got to be that same guy in this series against the team like Boston. Then with the Celtics, you're kind of looking for somebody on that bench outside of the top six to step up and play.

Maybe it's Peyton Pritchard having a good couple of games. Maybe it's Sam Houser shaking off the shooting slump he had during that conference Finals. One of those two guys who are going to flesh out the Celtics eight-man rotation. One of those two guys, I think, is going to have to play big.

Chris Mannix, Sports Illustrated, right here on the Rich Eisen Show, the crossover podcast as well. Over the weekend, while we were missing basketball, some news surfaced in regards to the final first round draft choice for the Lakers. That was part of the Anthony Davis trade and how the Pelicans told the Lakers, we'll take it next year. So the Lakers had a 17th overall pick, Chris, that maybe a lot of folks didn't think they would have, that they're going to have at their disposal. Do you think that could be possibly used on Bronny James?

What do you think? No, no, I do not. I want to say this without degrading Bronny James because the kid went through a lot last year. I mean, how many guys can overcome a cardiac incident to come back and play major college basketball?

And I went to about a half a dozen of those USC games, Rich. I think there's real potential in Bronny, especially defensively. He's got kind of that Davion Mitchell type of style where he can be a 6-1, 6-2 defensive menace. But right now, he is not a first round pick. You are not going to find an NBA executive that will tell you that spending a first round pick on him is a good idea. Now, a second round pick is a different story altogether because, look, let's be real, the vast majority of second round picks do not pan out.

A lot of them are overseas players that in some cases never come and play in the NBA. So if you are drafting in the middle of the second round, I think it's worth taking a flyer on Bronny James because, again, I do think he has defensive potential. And if you can turn him into a point guard, which he's not now, but if you can turn him into a point guard, I think there's the possibility he could have a pretty productive NBA career.

But as far as first round picks go, no, I don't think he will be taken in the first round. I think the Lakers are more likely to use that first round pick as part of a package to get another player, whether it's Trae Young in Atlanta, De'Jaunte Murray in Atlanta, somebody else that might be out there. I think that's the Lakers' priority right now, getting veteran established talent to try to maximize the last couple of years of LeBron James. So using that pick to get a bona fide veteran star player would be a better way to make sure LeBron signs that contract that's going to be sitting right there in front of him? I imagine extension for him to officially stay put as a Laker the rest of his playing days, more than drafting his son is what you're saying? Yeah, I agree.

I believe so. Look, LeBron has kind of backtracked some on the I want to play with Bronny before the end of my career. He's basically said I want to play on the same floor with him in some subsequent interviews, so that's kind of clear the path for them. And look, I also think there's a pretty good possibility that Bronny is sitting there when the Lakers draft in the second round with, I believe, the fifty fifth pick in that.

So you can get the best of both worlds in these situations. You can use those first round draft picks, some of the movable contracts that they have to get the veteran player that can play right away. And you also have the ability to use a second round pick to get Bronny James and potentially satisfy LeBron's desire to play with his son. So I don't think it's an either or rich for the Lakers when it comes to drafting Bronny James. OK. And so last one for you on this front of the hoops front is that is the next coach of the Los Angeles Lakers going to be in Boston with a headset on on Thursday night? Do you think every every indication that I have gotten both from people around the Lakers and people that have frankly interviewed for that job is that it's J.J. Redick's job to lose. And look, there's a reason why, you know, not hiring J.J. Redick right now is helpful to Redick. It's I don't know how it would work if he's the head coach, the Lakers working as a broadcaster during the NBA finals. I reported this last week that, you know, some of the coaches that the Lakers have brought in for interviews, some of the coaches have it's been discussed about them joining a staff that is run by J.J. Redick, because if the Lakers hire J.J., they're going to need to have an experienced staff around him. They're going to need at least one, probably two former head coaches working with him to kind of show him the ropes of being an NBA head coach.

So, yeah, I think J.J. Redick right now is I guess I call him an overwhelming favorite to land that Lakers job with a strong staff around him. So let's finish up this conversation by me asking you the question that based on your facial expression from five minutes ago, you thought I was going to ask. I thought you were going that I was winding up, but not for that pitch.

Now, here we go. While we were waiting for NBA action to return, we learned that Tyson Jake Paul match is going to be postponed. What happened, Chris? What gives?

What happened? Well, the official word is that Mike Tyson has been dealing with an ulcer problem and it flared up during a recent flight. And it's made him unable to train appropriately going into the scheduled flight against Jake Paul. Now, again, officially, they are saying they are going to reschedule this fight. I have been told that two dates are being explored in Arlington, Texas.

I think there's a mid-November date that is available to them and maybe even a mid-November date as well. This is something that the Cowboy Stadium folks have conveyed to to Jake Paul's team. I will also this, though, there is genuine concern from people that are also on the card. I mean, there are a number of other fights that are on the card about this specific card moving forward. I mean, again, Mike Tyson is 57 years old.

He's almost 58 years old. They're saying it's a minor ulcer issue, but I don't think anything's minor at that stage of your life, especially when it comes to putting yourself in the proper shape to fight a professional boxing match. So right now, the plan is to reschedule this fight for the fall of this year. But there is some concern amongst people involved with the fight that the Paul Tyson fight might not go through at all.

And some of the fighters on this card might be looking for kind of lifeboats to to to appear on other cards moving forward. Wow. How about them apples? I know it's bitterly disappointing for you, Rich. I know. No, I mean, obviously boxing fans everywhere are living, reliving, even just for a round or two would have been great. But obviously, we are we surprised here? I mean, are we shocked? He's 57.

All right. Things happen when you turn a certain age, especially when you're trying to kind of transform your body back into a professional fighter. I mean, look, Mike has always been in pretty good shape regardless. But if he's going through the kind of training regimen that his team says he's going through and believe me, I was following him around, you know, for a few days in New York. And every time I tried to get some time with him, I would get these messages from members of his team. He's always in intensive training mode right now.

If you believe his team, he was training like 16 hours a day for this fight against Jake Paul. And when when you put your body through stuff like that, things are going to happen. So, look, I don't think it's it's it's completely off. It's certainly not out of the question.

But again, there are people involved that are expressing skepticism that this specific fight is going to move forward. Well, as somebody who's 21 days removed from turning the double nickel, I appreciate you referring to mid to late 50s as certain age. Thank you, Chris. That was very gentle of you and greatly appreciate it.

Thank you very much. In the minute I have left, you wanted to tell us what happened in Saudi Arabia since that's the legitimate boxing conversation? Yeah, I mean, I think we saw the end of Beyonce Wilder, at least as a professional boxer. That's two losses in a row. This one, a bad knockout to J. Lee Jong.

And I wrote about this today on S.I.com. Like, Deontay Wilder kind of leaves behind a complicated legacy because he helped reinvigorate heavyweight boxing in the United States and held a world championship for five years. Was a former bronze medalist in the Olympics. But there's always going to be the questions about what Deontay Wilder left on the table. And would he have succeeded if he faced the very best in the prime of his career? Most of his prime was spent facing guys who were heavy underdogs. And when he went up against guys that were considered his peers, most of the time he didn't win. He had the draw against Tyson Fury, then back to back losses. He was completely blanked by Joseph Parker back in December. And now he was knocked out by a 41 year old J. Lee Jong.

So, look, I'm happy for Deontay in the sense that he made a pile of money and is going to get to go back to Alabama and enjoy his life. But, you know, there's always going to be the what ifs with him. What would have happened if he faced Wladimir Klitschko? What would have happened if he faced David Haye? What would have happened if he had faced the very best of the best after he won his title in 2015? What would have happened if he faced Anthony Joshua when he was supposed to face him or, you know, offered a lot of money to face him back in 2019?

These are some of the great what ifs in recent heavyweight boxing memory. You're the man, Chris. Thanks for the time. Get some rest. Get back on the time zone. Enjoy the tip off to the NBA Finals and look for my call for next week. Thanks again, Chris. You got it, Rich. You're the best.

At SI, Chris Maddox, right here from the Rich Eisen Show. While you mentioned that, I just looked up the Cowboys schedule here. They have a bye week, week seven, which is October 20th. So October 19th would be the Saturday night of that.

And you mentioned a November date. Man, I mean, they're at the Falcons on November 3rd. So that could be November 2nd because they're home for the Eagles, home for the Texans on a Monday night. They're at the commanders the Sunday before Thanksgiving. So there's the 23rd. If you want to reschedule that in November. Those are the possible dates there. Seems like it's a long shot that this happens now. I agree with you.

Such a bummer. Well, we'll take a break and it's possible if Jake Paul's looking for somebody to fight, Tommy Pham will be available and we'll discuss that. Because as you know what he does in the offseason, he's looking to, you know, get ready to, you know. We'll be right back. 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.

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What do you mean by that? I'm not saying. There's no one saying, oh, Tom Brady won the Super Bowl, I'm going to name my baby Tom.

That's not how, Tom is too simple. Shaquille, Alsan, these are unique names that people will name their kids, I promise you. Steve, am I right? Steve is not laughing, he's not looking at you, and he's leaning as far from the line as possible. Steve is a regular name. Steve is a regular name. Steve is the name that folks can pronounce. Oh, see, now Steve has another name.

Wow. Steve, what's your other name? My real name, which is three people called me, my mom and my grandma, and my wife, is actually Stevone. Now, S-T-E-V-O-N-N-E. Now, Stevone, Stevone, had you used that name, had you used that name, right?

You're the legend, you're the legend you are. Had you used that name, do you know what would have happened in any city you played in? Everybody who had a baby would have named their baby Stevone. You know what would have happened, you know what's up? I don't care what city you played in, Carolina, Baltimore, whatever city you played in, that city would have had babies with that name.

Santa Monica. Every time you score a touchdown, they'd be like, I'm naming my baby Stevone. Right, you doing right? Well, Stevone, thanks for coming on, Stevone. Thanks for coming on, Stevone. Hey, even mentioning that name right now, a few light bulbs went off. This baby through the morrow is perfect. This baby through the morrow is perfect. Y'all some dirt, bro.

More stuff on our YouTube page and history. Fire up the party and fill that grill. Get the Weber Sear Wood Pellet Grill. Smoke, roast, and sear on the same grill, everybody. Go from low and slow on smoke boost mode at 180 degrees all the way to high heat sear at 600 degrees. This grill, I'm telling you about, it's got a full, great sear zone so you can put more food on the flame. Food's going to look as good as it tastes. This grill is hot in 15 minutes and cleanup is simple. You'll cook on two levels at the same time so you can make enough for everyone and you can add a heavy duty rotisserie or rust resistant griddle insert.

Get fired up for your new Weber Sear Wood Pellet Grill. Let's talk baseball. 41 and 19, baby. New York Yankees. I'm telling you, man, this Juan Soto is, I said last month, the Yankees should just make him part of the Steinbrenner Family Trust. Just adopt him. And then I went another step further and said, just adopt him. Just adopt him. Can you adopt a 23-year-old man? Juan Soto Steinbrenner. I was about to say, have the papers been put together?

I don't know. I'm sure he loves his family. He doesn't want to turn his back on them and say, I'll just become a full-fledged Steinbrenner.

What about a full-fledged Eisen? He won't get as much. That's for sure. Home run in the first yesterday, a two-run shot in the ninth off of Doval who had given up only seven earned runs all year and gave up four in the ninth yesterday. The Yankees swept the Giants. They went 7-2 on their West Coast swing.

They are just on fire. But this is the so-called part of Major League Baseball. Again, the Phillies have over 40 wins. The Orioles are right behind the Yankees. The Brewers are terrific.

The Guardians are terrific. The Dodgers, everybody's fascinated. But the Brewers in particular, everybody's talking about the Brewers today. Not because of their baseball, but because of what happened with Tommy Pham.

Tommy Pham became, I guess, nationally famous mostly for getting into a scuffle with the former Dodger Joc Pederson. A dust-up? A dust-up over fantasy football. Remember Mike Trout was the commissioner and he got a whole big to-do in the dugout in New York City when he was playing the Yankees. Everyone's asking him, what happened in your fantasy league? What the hell is going on in your fantasy league?

Where are they starting to throw down over waiver wire disputes? Really? We've all been there, Rich. We've all wanted to smack somebody in our fantasy league before. I mean, to actually hit somebody? Yeah, you know. Come on. So, William Contreras is part of the reason why the Brewers are so good this year. Beast. He's going to have some MVP chatter already, doesn't he? Yeah, he does.

And he plays a good catcher. And yesterday, White Sox, who are, what's their record? 15- Oh my goodness, I got it up.

They are really bad. 15-45. They're down by one. Tommy Pham on a fly ball, this shallow fly ball, comes home.

And he's out by a mile. Contreras, once he applies the tag and Pham bounces off him, says something to him. I mean, I don't know what he said, but Pham didn't like it, and he's starting to get angry about it.

The White Sox announcer just goes totally insane in the booth, talking about, you know, we got a lot of L's, but we're not standing for this, Milwaukee Brewers. Like, okay. Okay. Take that from them. All right.

I mean, like, he acted like Hawk Harrelson in about a hundred cups of coffee. Put that on the board. Well, put this on the board. Tommy Pham had this to say about the exchange that led to some people needing to separate the two, or at least Pham from Contreras. Contreras is already back in the dugout. Yeah.

This is an all-timer. Hit it. One run ball game. Close play at the plate.

Actually, it wasn't even fucking close. It was a shallow fly ball to left field. You would expect the left fielder to throw the base runner out on that play. But the situation of the game, you know, third base coach sends you, you got to go.

I'm nailed out at home by a mile. I'm going to the dugout and, you know, I hear the tough guy with all the hoorah, you know, so I'll never start anything, but I'll be prepared to finish it. There's a reason why, you know, I do all kinds of fighting in the off-season because I'm prepared to fuck somebody up.

So you can take it as what it is. Just amazing. I believe him, yo. I do too. I don't know why, but I do.

Did you see his eyes? I believe him. He's not kidding. No. By the way, when you lose 15 of your first 60, it's going to mess you with your brain, I think. No doubt about that.

And so you got to take that in consideration. You know who's probably sitting around going, what was that? Eddie Rodriguez. You know who he is? No.

Third base coach of the Chicago Indians. Yeah, he cut some descents straight. You got to go. Wasn't even close.

I don't know why he sent me, essentially. How he's supposed to throw you out. I mean, he threw the third base coach directly under the bus. By the way, also, if you look at the replay, Pham is on the infield grass. I mean, Contreras is not blocking the plate. And the reason why they collide is because Pham is close to the first base.

I don't know where he was running. He was on the infield grass in Contreras. Which is why Contreras wasn't, you know, why Pham wasn't called safe. Because Contreras was blocking the plate. He wasn't blocking the plate. He was blocking the left-handed hitting batter's box. Which is where Pham, if Contreras wasn't there, would have slid over.

Oh, my goodness gracious. Baseball. He's like Al Capone out there talking about baseball. Contreras is like five feet close to the pitcher's mound.

He's on the inside of the dugout on the mound side. It was wild. Yeah, it was wild.

The wild play. But that's what everyone's talking about today out of baseball. You know? There's a lot of other good stuff to talk about. Which is nuts.

But we're, obviously, we're part of that train here. Well, I mean, because when a guy's like, you know, afterwards. Did you see Pham? He was like going back out to his position. He was like shadow boxing. Did you see that? I did not. He was, yeah. Watched a full video.

I watched it multiple times yesterday. He was shadow boxing and then you watch it again. It's like he's not even close to home plate. Also, this tiny umpire is like trying to get between him and Contreras. He's trying to hold him back. He's trying. You know? It's great.

One last thing while I'm on something. It's the reason why he fights. God, do I hate the City Connect jerseys. With a passion. With a fury. Whenever any team wears one, Cooper's like, Dad, look what they're wearing.

City Connect jerseys. He wants to send me in like a tizzy. I hate it.

I mean, I agree with you. And he goes, why do you hate him so much? I'm like, I don't know.

I'm a traditionalist. And he goes, I like them. I'm like, yeah, they're for you. You're 13.

I'm 54. They're for you. They're for you. But I'm not buying you one.

I didn't have one. Wait a minute. Why not?

I'm not. But he likes them. But he likes the Yankees and we don't have one. Oh, that's true. I guess.

In the house. Because the Yankees don't have yet. That's what Hoskins said. Then it's called away grays and home pinstripes. This guy knows what it's about.

Patrick Peterson next. Hey, guys, welcome to the Candy Valentino show. I'm Candy Valentino. I was a founder before I could legally order a drink. And for more than two and a half decades, I've built, scaled, acquired and exited multiple businesses in diverse industries.

Now my goal is to help you by sharing the knowledge that I've learned, the mistakes that I've made and the wisdom that I've developed over my journey. Biweekly episodes every Monday and Thursday. The Candy Valentino Show, wherever you listen.