Vincent Goodwill: Monty Williams Was Blindsided By The News

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I'm gonna walk out of here a lean, mean, fighting machine. This is the Rich Eisen Show. True or false, Stripes was shot in a dry county in Kentucky. Somebody had to explain to Candy what a dry county was because he's from Canada.

And so when I first told him, you can't buy alcohol in this county, and he goes, yeah, right, here's not alcohol. Today's guest, Yahoo! Sports Senior NBA reporter Vincent Goodwill, legendary broadcaster Bob Costas, actor Kurtwood Smith, and now, it's Rich Eisen.

All right, everybody. It's that Thursday show here on the Rich Eisen Show. We're gonna talk about the 70s show and the 90s show. Kurtwood Smith plays the dad on that show. He's in studio on number three. We're gonna go down another wormhole of Celebrity True or False, just like yesterday with Judge Reinhold.

That was a lot of fun. If you missed that, go to our YouTube channel right away. By right away, I mean after this three-hour show. YouTube.com slash Rich Eisen Show, and we say hello to everybody out there who takes us in on a podcast through our podcast network, or right now on the Roku channel, or right now on this terrestrial radio affiliate Sirius XM and Odyssey.

We say hello to everyone here on this Thursday in June, the final day of spring. We've got Bob Costas on this program to discuss what we're going to see tonight in Alabama when the Giants and the Cardinals play a game in Rickwood Stadium. And remember Willie Mays, and Bob's going to join us in hour number two, and Trevor Lawrence has spoken today to the media about his big huge contract. And we've got a lot of fun in store. 844-204-RICH, number to dial on the program.

Yesterday we had a Panther fan call in and play the win-loss game and said the Panthers are going 11-6. That's gone viral. You never know when you're going to go viral if you call into this program or appear on it.

And we greatly appreciate anybody who takes us in. Good to see you, Chris Brockman. How are you, sir? Hey man, I'm great. What's up?

I already heard the laughter of Jason Feller. Good to see you, Jay Feller. How are you, buddy? Good to see you. Good to see you. TJ Jefferson, good to see you, sir. What's going on?

What's going on over there? Well, you know, in honor of Kurt Wood Smith, the best foreman from that 70s show coming in the studio, I had to re-break out my prop from that 70s show. This is the TV that lived in the foreman's basement for the entirety of the series. And when the last episode ended, it was like they called cut and hundreds of people just went and mobbed and rushed the set to do whatever they could.

And maybe not steal, I don't know if that's the right word, but anyway, I ended up with the TV from the basement. Nice. Five-finger discount, everybody. I'm still in hell. It was kind of like alluding, but not really. Whoa.

I don't know. It wasn't getting worse. Well, good to see you. Stop talking. Good to see you.

Whatever it is, the statute of limitations. When it's here and it's real and it's spectacular. Exactly right.

And that 90s show is what Kurt Wood Smith, who, by the way, was in Robocop and Dead Poets Society. And so it'll be a fun hour number three when we chat with him. And, you know, we're waiting for game six of the Stanley Cup final on Friday night. I love how you get that right every time. Well, I mean, you do this show long enough. We're coming up on 10 years this fall. You learn it's NBA finals, plural, and Stanley Cup final singular.

I don't know why, but that's the way it works. So happy about all that. And this is a conversation a lot of folks are having now that Willie Mays is passed on and referred to, rightfully so, as the greatest living player in baseball. And he is now passed on. And it caused us to sit here and wonder who now is the greatest living player in Major League Baseball. And we were also sitting here wondering, since this is sort of like, you know, the Mount Rushmore period of the sports talk calendar year, which means, you know, coming up with stuff because there's no live sports other than baseball. And I guess now the WNBA is of great significance. Kaitlyn Clark with a three game win streak now for her. So, you know, I figured let's let's chop this up and we'll ask Bob Costas later on. The greatest ballplayer alive today. Who is that? I have an idea. Who have you got?

I will have a I want to like say mine and go ahead. Well, it's the guy I think who, look, with all due respect, was almost your father, Sandy Koufax. Just because my mom went on, went on, was at one like probably sock hop at the same Brooklyn high school.

You know, it's the Rich Koufax show. We were this close folks. The underwater, the underwater, the underwater to see dance. Under the sea dance. You're right. Enchantment under the sea.

OK, the whatever enchantment under the sea dance in Brensonhurst, Brooklyn, they went to and probably stared at each other across a sock hop. Look, I guess so. How dare you? No disrespect by that. But I mean, Koufax, greatest baseball player. It might be him now. What about you, Chris?

Oh, the window for Sandy was smaller than it should have been. Well, it's not just that, too. Can you name a pitcher as such? When you're talking about Willie Mays is being Willie Mays being a five to Sandy Koufax. You can. OK. What about you, man?

It's so tough. Griffey Bonds, kind of the first two guys that jumped to mind for me. You would name Bonds? Really? Wait a minute. I'm sorry.

Did I read this wrong? Are we talking greatest living or oldest? No, greatest living. The oldest baseball player, the oldest Hall of Famer that is now alive. I should put it this way.

The current. Oldest living Hall of Famer was Willie Mays. It's now Luis Aparicio.

Correct. But we're talking about anybody who is currently alive. You could even name Shoei Otani as the best baseball player who's currently alive.

He's got a case. OK, my bad. I was thinking, like, who's the greatest? No, the greatest living baseball player.

And get ready, because we're also going to have to mention all the other sports. I like this. That's the way we're just going to start chopping up this program, because again, we'll ask Bob his opinion of this. Is Uncle Bob still alive? Bob Teller? No.

All right. Robinson? He just passed away. He just passed away.

I'll give you some. Does Mike Schmidt get any run? I don't believe he gets much run. No, but you can name him. Michael Jack should get some run. Very great player.

We'll obviously take phone calls on this as well at 844-204-rich number to dial throughout the program if you wish. I'll give you one. How about Pete Rose?

Wow. Why not? Just because he was banned from baseball doesn't mean he's banned from being great or alive. How about Peter Edward Rose as the greatest living baseball player right now? It's a good one.

It's a good one. Singles hitter. I don't want to parse through Pete's career.

I know, but just the overall nature of it. Rod Carew is thankfully alive. My guy Reggie Jackson is alive.

He's still alive. Johnny Bench for sure. This is now up for debate. Good debate now.

There was no debate for a long time. It was Willie and Hank, whichever one you preferred, and now both have unfortunately passed recently. What you said about Willie Mays yesterday was so awesome to me, and I'm glad that we all have the opportunity to talk in front of these mics about people. Because, you know, Grant Hill called in on Friday with Jim Jackson and Jim hyped up Grant Hill and let people know how great Grant was. And we're at a point now where, like, kids are so young, they're trying to erase Michael Jordan from the history books like he wasn't the greatest of all time. So I feel like guys like us, we have to be here to kind of trumpet these older players and let these younger kids know that if Willie Mays wasn't the greatest of all time, he's on a very short list of those who can claim it. So I just love the fact that we're able to kind of remind the younger kids who are watching that, like, there were some great, great, great athletes. Well, in terms of I say frequently now, and I said it again yesterday, that sports is a way to mark time.

And now that this is my last few days of being a 54 year old, my birthday's on Monday. And I am now finding myself in a position of just being blown away. I'm now that guy who's reminding younger people about people who played and were generationally brilliant when I was their age. And it's blowing me away and it's freaking me out to be straight up with you.

I understand. And in terms of necessary, bro, and in terms of Jordan, I would name him as the greatest living basketball player, with all due respect to Kareem and anyone else that from the 70s and 80s, I think that's your 60s there, Kareem and Mike, I would say you got, you know, Bird and Magic, but I would say Michael Jordan is the greatest if we're going to take if we're going to take high school, NBA player and pros and throw that all into one. I don't think there's any question it's Kareem. If we're just talking about professional, then it's my I'm a Mike guy, but yeah, I mean, those are the two for me.

I think those are those are your candidates currently. So I'm still thinking of people football. You have to have a conversation involving Jerry Rice. It was Jim Brown who passed away recently. There's still people who argue he is and Bill Belichick is probably one and Tom Brady greatest of all time.

You have to throw Tom Brady. Oh, yeah, obviously. In the mix, no doubt.

Those are, you know, those are some candidates for, you know, for a football player. The wild, you know, the one that you have to basically just place aside is hockey, right? I mean, his nickname is literally the great with all due respect to Mario Lemieux.

Sure, right. You have to give the with all due respect to Mario Lemieux. But see, Mario is my guy just from right for hockey. Right for watching him, right, not for hockey. There's no conversation, right? Although Connor McDavid's making a nice run.

So he's going to win four in a row. But yeah, like I said, man, I just love the fact we're able to do this. Sure. Because, you know, I grew up, you know, at the foot of one of the great storytellers ever, my grandfather. And he would tell me about Jackie Robinson and Willie Mays and the Negro League players and Mickey Mantle and, you know, from a position of watching them. And now we're generations removed now. And like, someone's got to keep these stories and these legends alive.

And I'm glad we kind of get the chance to do that every day. And that's well said and much appreciated and very nice of you to say. But time's up, sir. This is Sports Talk Radio, and it's now time to name your four greatest living ball players in each sport. Or you want to go three unless you want to say Lemieux instead of Gretzky. No, I mean, I love Lemieux, but I understand it's the great ones. All right.

So let's place it aside. And is Gordy House still alive? No, he is not. He did pass. So you want to go, Chris?

Sure. I think it's obviously it's Gretzky. It's Brady. It's Brady. It's Mike. And it's Barry Bonds. I think we need to all be honest with ourselves. It's Barry Bonds.

Okay. That guy was unbelievable. I don't care what he put in his body.

That guy was amazing. That guy hit a ball better than anyone I've ever seen. Well, again, I don't care what he put in his body. Did it affect his eyesight? No, but it may have affected how he hit a ball.

I mean, and guess what? He was one of the greats before that. No, I understand how great he was.

Just like Maguire was rail thin as a rookie. And just like Clemons was great as a Red Sox. And what he did in Boston up until his departure there.

And then who knows what happened in Toronto and New York. He was Hall of Fame great as well. But like greatest current living player in Major League Baseball is Barry Bonds. That's right.

He was pounding the guys who are doing it, too. Okay. What do you got for your list? Rich, just to piggyback on bonds, I saw a stat the other day that said if you took away his seven MVPs, if you took away all the stats from those seasons, Barry Bonds would still have 500 home runs and like 440 stolen bases. If you take away his seven MVPs. Okay. I'm someone who, you know, I work security at Three Rivers. I got to walk Barry Bonds to his car after games.

I mean, to me, it's him and baseball. I don't even know that. Okay.

There's a lot of stories I'm holding. All right. So but it's time. What do you want in baseball? You would choose Barry Bonds. I yeah, yeah, I think so.

Wow. I think he's he's the best baseball player I personally ever got to see. And like I said, I'll accept any pushback from anyone older than Bonds.

But for him, it's me. I would say. Jordan or Kareem again in basketball.

Same thing. Football. You got to choose one of them. I'll go with all time. I'll go Kareem. Okay.

Like Chris said, high school. The current living greatest player. Okay. As far as football goes. Like we said, it was Jim Brown. Tom Brady is obviously the the choice that comes to mind.

But I might go Lawrence Taylor. Okay. And, you know, Wayne Gretzky and hockey. All right. Well, and Ric Flair in professional wrestling. We got to go to break. I always got to throw that in there.

No, I'm just kidding. How about you, Richard Seth? I'm going to go Jordan in basketball. I will go Jerry Rice in football and. Baseball, man. It's so hard. And there's really, I don't think a wrong answer. Baseball, baseball, baseball. I'm sorry. I just and again, I lived it and I was part of the issue.

Standing, sitting on the Sports Center set and just talking about this stuff with people who look like trapezoids as if it was normal. So I just I just cannot put anybody who's played in that era. Even though they say that they saved the game of baseball, they may have done that, but that's you know, that wasn't their their.

You know, that wasn't the reason why they were playing. It was great that they did that because Bud Selig screwed it all up. Imagine if we didn't have the owner screwed it all up and all of that stuff. It's just terrible. So I'll you know what, man, I'll I'll do it.

I'll go I'll go Pete Rose. Yeah. It's the way he played, man.

And here I am saying, you know, it's interesting that it's a kind of interesting. Well, but when he was playing. We assume that nobody played harder. Nobody cared more about winning. That's true.

I played more winning games than anyone. I mean, that photograph. I'm glad you chose you chose this one, Hoskins. Look at that person for the radio audience. He is sliding headfirst in a home plate like he is flying. Looks like Superman. He's having a fun thought. Well, he's thinking, I am I hope I land into it into somebody's nuts.

Probably what he's thinking. Lifetime 300 hitter, three time batting champ, MVP in 73, rookie of the year in 63. And he definitely what Rich always likes to talk about, people who are red asses.

I mean, you open up the dictionary, I think his picture might be in there. You know. Reggie Reggie is up is up there, too. Absolutely. But I'll go Pete. Sandy Koufax isn't a bad one either. That one is the one that's completely up for debate. Rod Carew. True. Thank goodness is alive. Friend of the show. Sandy Koufax's window is so small, but yet he was so dominant.

So dominant in that short amount of time, like 844204 Rich number to dial. We're open for business today. I love it. We didn't discuss yesterday because we went down tons of pop culture wormholes and talking to both Adam Thielen and Rashawn Gary and and Mike Florio. We didn't talk about the fact that the Detroit Pistons won and done their head coach, Monty Williams, getting one and done.

And they're going to pay him 65 million bucks over five years because they hired Trajan Langton, former Dookie, who's now, you know, the president of their operations and hired a new front office and they want to hire their first their own. Guy Bronco, did you intrigue, you know, I did ride races in Alaska together. Trajan was my guy. So let's talk about that with Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports. And and he also had a vote for NBA Finals MVP.

Wondering who he voted for, if he's willing to share all that. Bob Costas, our number two, our three. The man who plays the dad, as you referred to it. You have his television right there. Red Red Foreman on that 70 show.

Now that 90 show part two that premieres next week exclusively on Netflix. Kurtwood Smith is going to be here in studio in our number three. And against my better angels, going to have Chris Brockman give you his powerless rankings. Oh, we are going to do that. Yes, way too early.

Why are we doing this in June? Powerless rankings. Don't forget dumbass. The dumbass. You're going to rate the NFL teams 23 through 32. The bottom of the NFL, which is appropriate for Red Foreman to be here.

And it's dumbass because that was that was his thing to the kids. And with this being the final day of spring, I've got a top five list. Top five wildest sports stories of the spring.

And there were some wild ones. That's coming up. This is a Thursday edition of the Rich Eisen Show. Let's talk some hoops with the senior NBA reporter from Yahoo.

Vincent Goodwill when we return. 775 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 and 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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Slows full turns at mintmobile.com. Back here on the Roku channel and the radio audience returns. That's when we'll welcome in Vincent Goodwill to talk some NBA with him. Chris, this is for you.

All right. I saw this entered my Twitter timeline and you know, there's some memes that happen and they'll make you laugh. This one made me laugh. I don't know who did this, but somebody replaced Luca's beer that Michael Finley took away from him with the Larry O'Brien trophy and then put a Celtics logo on Michael Finley and took it from him. That's great. I mean, it was never his in the first place, but I like, Oh boy, here he goes.

Here we go. Now I regret doing this. Listen, man, this is not, you're not instilling confidence in me for, for the real estate you're going to have later on for your powerless rankings when you.

Oh, I'm going to crap all over 10 teams. Okay, God, this guy living his best life right now. I woke up a champ again for the, well, let's see it. Well, only really the second time.

Yeah, I wasn't alive for all the other ones. I wonder Vincent will know the backstory. Was that, was that Luca's, was Finley taking it from him because he, he was worried about Luca's conditioning or there's no reason to celebrate yet. I think it was just, or, or as, as somebody else.

Luca's dad was standing right next to him. Who said it? Who is the one who said it? That, that he might've been concerned about, you know, it's not a good look photograph. Who said that yesterday? Somebody said that yesterday. I don't know.

But I said that to start it's optics. He just, you know, in the back of those guys used to drink in the, no, I understand that it's different, different times. I don't know. He also used to smoke stogies at halftime, but Luca's European, man.

He's been drinking since he was like 12. I think you're probably, I'll take the under on that. 11. Back on the Rich Eisen Show Radio Network, 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 clickgrainger.com or just stop by. Let's talk some NBA now that we're 48 hours removed from Banner 18 in Boston. And the Detroit Pistons are, are just paying Monty Williams generational money to stop coaching them. It is, it is kind of crazy.

But let's make heads or tails of it. Vincent Goodwill back here on the Rich Eisen Show, the senior NBA writer for Yahoo Sports. Good to see you, Vincent. How are you, sir? I'm doing well. How about you, Rich?

I am doing just fine. Like all those shoes behind you, where, where is this your office? Is this your home office?

Yes, yes. This is my home office. I am a sneaker head.

So it works. What size, Vincent, what size, what size are those back there? Those shoes? You trying to get me robbed? No, I'm a size, I'm a size 12. You want me to give out my address? So wait a minute.

All those people on the wrong side of the law wearing size 12 are now trying a GPS you're aware about. Vincent, is that what you're concerned? He's got heat on that wall, Rich. I mean, I like the air raids.

He's got the Griffey's, you know, I see a couple threes back there. You know, I'm a 13. Rich, I live in Detroit.

You are trying to make me a target here. Hey, come on. I spent a great five days there, and it was very wonderful. And people were walking around in their own shoes, and it was outstanding. You think they were their own shoes? They could have been Vincent's.

They might have been. Anyway, at any rate, what's your now two days after the NBA Finals thoughts about what you witnessed between Boston and Dallas, Vincent? Well, the Celtics, their social media staff came out with this video making fun of everybody who made wrong predictions.

You know who was on that video? This guy. So clearly, I didn't know what the hell I was talking about when I thought the Dallas Mavericks were going to be the team that came out on top. I will say this. There is a value to the regular season and everything we saw from the Celtics, from the net rating to the 64 wins to just the sweat equity of losing. I feel like in this sort of microwave culture, we've forgotten about how much it hurts to lose and how much you learn from it. And the Celtics learn from losing. The Denver Nuggets learn from losing. The Golden State Warriors learn from losing. And of course, the Milwaukee Bucks with Giannis.

So I feel like the lineage, we're getting back to that. And I think you saw the Boston Celtics with Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown. Granted, it was the best possible matchup for them with two smaller guards and Luca and Kyrie.

Maybe not small in terms of Luca, but just being able to defend them. They didn't take a game off, really. They got blasted in Game 4, but you're up 3-0. I felt like the Celtics appreciated the opportunity that was in front of them. They learned from the mistakes of the past. And now they're the ghosts.

They're the boogeyman that everybody is going to be chasing. So I think it was a just final as far as five games and a just finish. I voted for Jalen Brown as MVP, and I feel pretty good about that.

I would agree with you. I thought he was the most valuable player if he had to choose one. But that is also not what makes the Celtics special.

That there's a big two or a big three, and everyone else is kind of like role players behind them. Certainly, if you consider, how do you call Jeru Holliday or Derrick White role players, right? Technically, who was a role player in the finals was Porzingis because of his injury, and that's wild to even have that concept. But that said, if I had to choose one, I would have chosen Brown.

Why did you do that? Well, I felt like when you look at the effect of the series, when I thought about the moments of the series, when the series was really in the balance, when I thought about game three in Dallas and Dallas is storming back with that 20-2 run, Jalen Brown is the guy that took and made the big shots. He's the guy that defended Luka Doncic for the majority of the series, hounding him full court. You don't really see that anymore.

Guys hounding someone full court, turning them around, and then also carrying a huge load on offense. That just takes a lot of bandwidth, and so for him to take on that responsibility openly and to not ask for help, of course, he got switched off a few times, but I felt like he was the catalyst in the moments that mattered in that series. I felt like it was pretty clear to me. I was surprised that it was a 7-4 vote.

I understood it, but I felt like when you took on the bulk of the responsibility on both ends of the floor, it was a clear answer for me. And I'm just sitting here wondering who's best equipped in the East to make sure this doesn't turn into a back-to-back or a dynastic run, right? I mean, Horford's coming back, and Brown's not going anywhere, obviously. Tatum's not walking out that door, and everybody else just appears to be in the fold, and there's no disease of me or anything like that. I'm just wondering where you think this goes in the East next year, Vincent.

Well, Rich, count me among the people that thought the Denver Nuggets were going to repeat, because you saw the formula. You saw the MVP in the peak of his prime. You see a top five, starting five. You see all these young pieces. You see a coach.

You see a hunger and a thirst to repeat. And they got knocked out in the second round, so anything can happen. With the Celtics, they have not only just the pain of losing, but like you said, they have all their key players locked up. Now, you're asking the question about Kristaps Porzingis and his long-term health and about Al Horford and his age. So with that, I would look at the Milwaukee Bucks because they have the next best player in Giannis Antetokounmpo assuming health.

He has missed significant playoff games the last two years. I don't believe in the Philadelphia 76ers, Rich, even though Joel Embiid won MVP last year, Tyrese Maxey emerged this year, and they have cap space. There's just something about the brew that doesn't make me believe quite in what they're doing. And honestly, everybody sees the New York Knicks and they say, man, the Knicks, they got the cap space. They've got sort of this energy. But I'm very curious what Jalen Brunson and Dante DiVincenzo and Josh Hart and all those heavy-minute, heavy-usage guys, I wonder what they're going to look like next year. Are you going to pay the bill for all the culture that you established this year?

Next year, at some point, the bill is going to be paid. Like, do you remember, Rich? I'm a little younger than you. OK. Do you remember the board game Operation? Of course.

Where it was the patient on the table? Yes, sir. And yeah, right?

Yeah. I feel like Tom Thibodeau has a chunk of some athlete at every body part. He's got Derrick Rose's knees. Now he's claimed Julius Randle's shoulders. At some point, it's going to be somebody else's like rib cage or something like this. That's what it's going to be. I feel like every part has been claimed by Tom Thibodeau.

And I wonder if the bill will be paid next season with some of these other players. Yeah. Like Jalen Brunson's bread basket. Is that where you're going? OK. Something like that. I was waiting to hear where you were going with that to see if you thought Thibodeau's nose lit up or anything like that. All right.

I'm done with my Operation references. But what do you think the Knicks are going to do? Is there a big fish out there in free agency or that they can trade for? You know, are the Suns sort of strapped where they got to get rid of somebody or something like that?

Vincent? It is like dependent on what they do with Oji Ananobi because he's a free agent, right? You have Paul George, who is an unrestricted free agent with the Clippers. And we've heard all this noise about teams who are lining up to sort of pitch to Paul George a maximum contract. And during this interim period, which started the night after the NBA finals ended, the Clippers basically have the right of first refusal. They could say, you know what, Paul, we know you want a max. We don't want to give you a max, but we don't want to lose you to someone else. And they haven't given him that max contract yet.

Maybe something could happen in the next couple of days and make this conversation totally obsolete. But if you're the Knicks and you're looking at the Celtics who have Tatum and Brown on the wings, you know, you have to have guys who can score and guys who can defend not necessarily traditional positions, but guys who can match up with them. If you can throw out Oji Ananobi and Paul George against those guys and have Jaylen Brunson out there still being this higher usage point guard, maybe not as high usage as he was this year, but having Paul George as a guy out there as a safety valve, as a guy who can create his own shot, there's, of course, the CAA connection that people don't like to necessarily talk about in these rooms. But the CAA connection with the New York Knicks is absolutely real. And Paul George is represented by CAA.

I don't have a problem with that, you know, subsequently. So I wouldn't be surprised if, you know, the rumors of Paul George to the New York Knicks, like it seems to make sense if the Knicks will be interested in him and if he would be interested in them. I just don't know how Steve Ballmer lets Paul George walk when he's opening up his new dome about five miles from here.

I just don't see that. I just see him wanting to get the best possible Clippers team and get everybody all excited to go to his new building. Certainly, if the Lakers are potentially in flux, I've got Vincent Goodwill here on the Rich Eisen show. What what what what the heck happened with the Pistons and Monty Williams? Vincent, what happened? Well, on Juneteenth, a black man got his freedom the way I thought yesterday. He got a $60 million check to go away. Rich, I know you can't say that, but I can.

That's fine, right? I just think it was a bad fit. Realistically, it was a bad fit at a bad time. But Monty Williams is a head coach for a veteran team. This was a young team that needed a younger coach and young patients, and they needed more guidance there. And although the talent wasn't up to par, like you have so many players under the age of 25, K Cunningham is the one bonafide player on that roster. It just didn't seem to fit.

And when you have a 28 game losing streak that starts on the third game of the regular season and doesn't end until like late December or January, whenever it was, it was like a national nightmare. Clearly, there was a disconnect between Monty in the front office and the front office with itself. Like I wrote for Yahoo Sports yesterday that there's four factions inside that Pistons building, which is not uncommon in NBA circles. It's just a matter of, can you all get on the same page?

They clearly were not on the same page. The Pistons offered Monty Williams a boatload of money to come there after he said no. Now, Rich, you're married.

I'm not. My mother told me, if you ask a woman on a date once and she says no, don't come back and ask her a second and a third time. She's going to say no again. The Pistons kept coming to Monty Williams with more and more money until he said yes. That should have been the sign for both parties that this was not going to be a fruitful marriage. But for Monty Williams, you probably have coaches around the league telling him, you got to take this job because it benefits the rest of us. You saw after Monty signed that deal, Popovitch got a big deal. Tyloo got a big deal. Steve Kerr got a big deal.

All these coaches benefited from the Monty Williams stimulus package. So it was almost like he had to take the deal, except it didn't seem like his heart was all the way in it. I didn't think he was a good coach this year for this type of team. I still think he is a good coach. He was just a good coach who had a bad year at the worst possible time and good on Pistons ownership.

Tom Gore said, you know what? I made a very expensive mistake. I'm not going to tether my new Pistons president with a 60 million dollar coach that he may not want.

I'll cut the check and we can start fresh. It's just wild to see how that played out. And I'm wondering what the Lakers having a job opening. And I understand JJ Redick's name is as top of the list again after the Dan Hurley dalliance wound up with a no from him.

Could that affect? Because I mean, you want to talk about a veteran team. How does LeBron and Anthony Davis at the top of the flowchart sound right? What about Anthony Davis? Well, Anthony Davis and Monty Williams have a history going back to New Orleans when Monty was the coach there and they had a strong relationship. The problem here is you got to ask Monty Williams, do you want to coach like this leaves a bad taste in your mouth?

Like by all reports and all accounts, he was blindsided by this yesterday. So although it's easy for us to turn the page and to wash experiences down, I feel like for him, remember last year, he planned on taking a year off after the Phoenix Suns situation, his wife was dealing with a real serious health situation. And the Pistons came in and offered him not just a lot of money, but a lot of access to things so he can go back and forth if she needed treatment. So I'm wondering if Monty has the stomach and the bandwidth to want to coach and just run hastily into another situation.

And then that's a high pressure, high stress situation where a two game losing streak means that you're the topic, you know, a block for like the next two days. I don't know if he has the stomach for that right now compared to maybe you go sit out a year, you recalibrate, you figure out some things and you see these coaching things. This thing turns over and plus he's got $65 million in his back pocket. He don't have to work again if he don't feel like it. No, I understand that.

I hear you. And if the Lakers' MO is that they don't pay coaches pop money, Spolstra money, I mean, this would kind of help offset, you know, he's getting his money from the Pistons. And, and he'll just, he'll just kind of take a contract with the Lakers for a hometown discount.

And they're a married couple to use the phrase that you used before. I don't know. I'm just kind of throwing it out there because this whole Lakers coaching search, I'm searching for the answer. And it's got to come because the draft is next week.

It's got to hit. It's a little weird, isn't it? It's, it's a little weird.

The whole Dan Hurley thing seemed to pop up at the last second and it seemed very public and all of that type of stuff. And meanwhile, you have JJ Reddick, you know, at the NBA finals sort of sitting. So it's JJ thinking that he's the second choice.

And is this, here's the other question that I have for you guys. Is this Lakers job a good job? You have LeBron James who was going to turn 40 years old in December and 40 year olds don't get better at this.

They get worse and they get hurt. And we've seen LeBron have injury problems over the last couple of years. Like you have the Bronny James thing hanging over the Lakers head. Are they going to take him? You got Anthony Davis, who's probably playing the best possible basketball that he's going to play. But if that's the case and you couldn't get out of the first round, how good are you going to be?

How good is this job? I just feel like there's a lot of lack of clarity rather about the Lakers future, especially if they don't wind up getting a third star to supplement LeBron and AD. You know, you look at this Western Conference, man, it is a gauntlet. We talked about the East being a little cloudy.

The West has all the powers. Oklahoma City is going to get better. We assume Minnesota is going to get better. Dallas isn't going anywhere. Denver is going to be back.

So you have to ask yourself, if you come into the Lakers organization as the pressure cooker, where's the upside? Because I don't see a whole lot of it. Vincent, appreciate the time here. And I hope I didn't, again, spotlight something on your wall that you didn't want spotlighted to the scene, to the detail, down to the size. I saw a sign over your right shoulder as well that's in your background.

You want to explain to me what that is, Vincent, please? It's a score, Rich. It says 117 to 74. That is not the score of the last game of the NBA Finals, believe it or not.

It just felt like it was. That was the score of Michigan-Ohio State since Ryan Day said that they were going to hang 100 on Michigan. Since then, Michigan is 3-0 against Ohio State.

Some victories at the shoe, a national championship. So yeah, it's a new day, as we like to say. Yes, so you're saying the last three Michigan-Ohio State contests have a combined score of Michigan 117, the Ohio State University 74. That's what you're saying to me, Vincent?

If my math is correct. Well, you know what, I don't care if it is correct. I just appreciate the head nod in my direction and your kindness to take my call today. And I appreciate, Vincent.

Rich, can I ask you something? I appreciate you. I'm petty. I'm a petty Michigan fan. Good for you.

So after two decades, I'm flexing. Yeah, you know, and I'm trying to listen for that sound. Yeah, I don't hear anything back.

I don't hear anything back. You want to say something, TJ, before you? Quick question for you, Vince.

How you doing, bro? I'm talking about JJ Reddick, right? And first of all, I want to flex on you a little bit, too.

You know, I got wearing those threes today. You know, light work, light work. Question about JJ, right? People talk about taking the Lakers job.

And I was just thinking this morning, if coaching is something that he wanted to get into, how do you feel that that Pistons job will look to him? Because it's a bad team, obviously, but they're young. A lot of young cats on there that he can mold.

The Dookie hires a Dookie. Well, instead of, you know, going with the vets who, you know, JJ, maybe the way his teachings might kind of rub some bets off. But now you've got these young cats out there, right?

They're very impressionable and he can really get in there and kind of work with them and teach them and mold them. Do you think that that is something that could be in the cards? It's just something that popped into my head this morning. But what do you think?

You're a very smart man. I'll just say that. Like, I think JJ was also represented by Aaron Tellum, who was the Pistons vice chairman. Aaron is a big fan of JJ. And there's, of course, this Duke connection.

New Orleans was the place that JJ and Pistons president Trajan Langdon spent a year together. And if JJ is an acquired taste, maybe Trajan is one of those guys who can absorb him. The question I would have in that spot is if you're new to coaching as a whole and you have a team that's going to experience this third coach in three years, is that where you want to be? Is that what this team wants to be? Do you want that coach to have a little more practical experience? Now, Rich, I'll say this, y'all. I have no idea who the hell is a good coach or who isn't until they actually go out there. Like this is not one of those situations where we can look and say, oh, if you just move 12 inches to the left, you will be a good coach because your X's and O's.

We don't know anything until I'm going to be willing to fall on the sword and admit we don't know good coaches until good coaches show who they are. Interesting, Vincent. Appreciate it. Thanks for the time.

Appreciate you guys. You got Vincent Goodwill right here on the Rich Eisen show from Yahoo Sports. Then here I am asking, you know, the Monty Williams firing. How does that affect the Lakers coaching search? Because Monty is now available.

You're saying that might affect the Lakers coaching search because J.J. Redick could be an option for Detroit. And I don't even know. No, I know that's what there's thought.

Well, you just pointed out the connective tissue right there. I'm just going to, you know, let's take a break and then we'll come back. We'll discuss that in 844204 Rich number dollar right here on the Rich Eisen show. It's an interesting question. Pistons job or Lakers job?

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It's kind of crazy. You're sitting here wondering what's a better job that's open. Cavs job is still open right now.

Pistons, Cavs, Lakers. Which would you choose? I know what I would choose.

I know what I know. Joe Kim Noah would choose Cavs, not the Cleveland. You choose the Cavs? Yeah. As long as am I keeping it out of a Mitchell?

Hey, listen, I don't know. Pistons gig, man. You got a lot of young players. That's true. And an owner that's willing to cut you a $65 million check to go away if it doesn't work out.

Although that does give you an implication of some instability. I don't know, man. I keep coming back to this fact. What's that? The Lakers coach is a one of one gig. It really is. I mean, that's it, right? Not recently. No, it's always going to be one. It's like being the coach, the manager of the Yankees, the coach of the Cowboys.

It really is. And you could sit here and say, yeah, but the brand is is tarnished because they haven't done very much. And their one championship in recent days was the COVID year. They've been cycling through coaches since Phil left.

No, I know that. Yeah, but think about that, Chris. If you're the one who makes it, I can't even say make it hit because Vogel won the title and got fired.

But it's not just them. Think about it. But the 2022 NBA coach of the year in a runaway vote has now been fired twice since winning that award. And is it his fault that he's been fired twice?

No, there was an ownership change in Phoenix and then a front office change in Detroit. And how is that Monty Williams' fault? And that's the whole point too. Goodwill's like, you know, it's a high pressure job at that. Every coaching gig in the NBA is a high pressure job. Every last one of them. Certainly in this day and age where there's shows like this one and shows like the ones that I'm looking on all the, you know, sports mix screens here in front of me.

And honestly, but there's only one where you win. You won a Lakers gig. The Celtics are the same damn thing. But also, guys, you know, yesterday I was taking a walk on Venice Beach with a friend of mine, Eric, who just moved here from the East Coast, literally like Jersey. And he's just he was amazed at the ocean and the beach and everything. I'm like, yeah, man, like if you can come out here and you can make make it for yourself. That's another story, bro. Like that's it.

There's no where I'd rather be. That's a big if it's a big effort. But the Lakers will pay you a living wage, living wage, you know, that we're half of it.

Goes to the feds in the state, you know, but the problem that that is the ultimate. And I know LeBron might be moving on and Anthony Davis this and the roster that. But I think if the Lakers offered Dan Hurley more cash, he'd be here right now.

What do I know, though? I mean, I'm I that's just my own belief that if you offer if you offer enough seems seems like it's not just about money, it made a decision outside of money. But he made it seem like there was a price and it was not met. Well, I mean, it did appear to be that I just think, again, being the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers is a one of one job. The thing is, the Lakers have not offered that job to somebody who's kind of one of one since, you know, Phil, with the exception of the Lakers.

Of Dan Hurley. Yeah, you're right on the list of coaches. It's Mike. It's Mike Brown. It's Mark. Mike D'Antoni. It's Byron Scott, Luke Walton, Frank Vogel, Darvin Ham. Here's a question.

No name just jumps off the page at you. Which is a question I posed last week. I think you were out.

I think Jimmy Jackson was there. Do you think that this was kind of like a smokescreen by the Lakers knowing they wanted Redick? No, they want to, like, make it seem like no. Apparently, Woj said that they were after him for some time.

Yeah, but they really lowballed him with the deal, though. If there's anybody that's been accused of a smokescreen, it's Dan Hurley. Really?

Okay. You know, if I'm not mistaken, the individual who wrote the book on his dad literally was Woj. A lot of people are drawing that connection. Maybe Hurley's looking for more money in UConn. I don't know, but I don't understand why they need any leverage play. Hour two is coming up when you're the Los Angeles Lakers. I mean, Dan Hurley has every reason to tell them no, and he did from the fact that Los Angeles isn't the East Coast. Los Angeles also, you know, has a much iffier situation than his current situation. Los Angeles can't offer him the opportunity to join John Wooden in a category that's one of one.

So I don't know if leverage play means anything that it got out. I don't know how it got out to Woj. A lot of people were drawing the parallel from Hurley to Woj, whether that's fair or not. But the bottom line is the Lakers job is still the Lakers job. And if you're a head coach, you can fix anybody. If you're a coach, you feel that your powers are so damn special and good.

You can fix anybody, you know, and in terms of J.J. Rettig being the second choice that can be wiped away right away by LeBron saying, you are my first choice. I'm just I'm just a worker bee here. I'm just I'm just a I'm just a caveman. Unfrozen caveman lawyer, you know. So LeBron's more like the queen bee, though, which is again another reason why you have an opportunity to coach him.

How do you say no to that? I know Dan Hurley did. That's why I don't know, I know a lot of people are carping on the Lakers job, but they're still the L.A. Lakers, man. And this is still Los Angeles, California. Bob Costas coming up. Clay now, wherever you listen.