Sam Amick: Think The Lakers Could Move Up In The Draft

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Blue Nile.com. Let's land here for a minute. This is the Rich Eisen Show.

What was it called? The Rich Eisen Show. Oh, man, am I really on? Yes, sir.

Yeah, buddy. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. 14 and 3. David in Oregon, I'm glad you pulled over, sir.

Raiders go 14 and 3. Earlier on the show, the second gentleman of the United States, Douglas Emhoff. Coming up, senior NBA writer for the athletics, Sam Amick. Formula E CEO, Jeff Dodds. Co-founder of Lava Media, Jason Flom. And now, it's Rich Eisen.

Oh, yeah. Hour number two of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air. Just had a very nice chat with the CEO of Formula E, which you can see right here exclusively on Roku. Jeff Dodds in our green room. Far fewer people here now, now that the second gentleman of the United States has left. He travels heavy, man.

No, he has to. It's like the first time we've we've had literally somebody standing in front of every door to our studio, every door, every exit. I feel very safe. We did. Yeah. Plus, I got to talk to some of the Secret Service and there was a 20 year question that I had that I think they answered for me.

What is that? Well, about 20 years ago, Kutcher Ashton and I had a party at our house. Oh, boy. And Jen and Barbara Bush happened to come. OK. Came back to the house. You know, it was just like a little after party. Looked outside the cul-de-sac was filled with Suburbans and they were they were dealing with Secret Service agents. So I asked them, I was like, let me give you this scenario.

I said they had like eight friends with them. And my thought was like, one of these kids has to be an agent because you really wouldn't let them come somewhere without full security with them at all times. And one of the agents was like, we're always with them. So I was like, oh, I knew.

And I would tell those guys, one of these people is an agent. And they were like, you think? And I was like, yeah, I think they have. So you asked them this?

They pretty much confirmed that it was probably, yeah, somebody in that group. Well, I got to tell you something. So, Jason, do you want to say it or should I? You go ahead. You're the agent here.

I don't even notice the tattoos. You've been this agent this entire time. Del Tufo brought you on for a reason. Anyway, Mike's not here, but you know who is, is Sam Amick. Our friend from the athletic is back here in the Rich Eisen Show. How are you doing, Sam? Good to see you, sir. You too, Rich. Thanks for having me. Well, I've been eager to chat with you since I read your latest work on Monday or Tuesday, I believe it was this week. They're all blending together for me right now about what the Lakers plans are for LeBron.

I'll give you the floor. What are the Lakers doing right now? Best you can tell. Well, honestly, I don't have total clarity there. It's more the case of what are the varying opinions of what the Lakers should be doing.

Quick backdrop that you're aware of, but I think the macro kind of matters quite a bit. You know, for these past couple of years, as the Lakers would approach either the February trade deadline or the summer, there was this idea that, hey, we're pretty restricted when it comes to draft picks and to take a big swing after the Russell Westbrook trade that obviously didn't pan out. And so there was kind of this like temperance and this request on the organization's part for their stars to be patient, because we're going to have to recoup some of those assets and eventually down the line take another big swing.

And that was seen partly as the reason you don't go after Kyrie Irving, you know, players of that kind of caliber. And the part that has surprised me in reporting out this latest story is that the Lakers appear to be shifting away from that stance, even though they can access three first round draft picks today. You know, last night, Rich, you see the Knicks go all in and try to get and not try to. They land Mikel Bridges and go for it in the kind of way that I think star players love to see it. The, you know, LeBron and A.D., my understanding is they would prefer that that is the type of thing the Lakers did this week. I do not anticipate that happening. I think they could move up in the draft. They certainly could make a move. But, you know, the idea of putting everything on the table for some of these different high level players who might be available, it seems like they're shifting away from that. Why? Why? Well, you saw a lot of it kind of laid bare in the press conference for J.J. Redick to introduce him the other day when Rob Palenka and J.J. both.

It's kind of one of my favorite parts. And you know, this as a reporter is these press conferences that are actually fairly revealing. If you know the context of this whole situation and then you hear Rob within a few minutes of the opening of the press conference, highlighting the second apron, which if your viewers don't know at all, is the new incredibly restrictive luxury tax threshold where when teams get above that apron, it's very hard to make trades damn near impossible, really. It takes away certain draft avenues that otherwise you'd be able to add young talent.

It is very restrictive. And so Rob highlighting the kind of dangers of the second apron and the idea that they wanted to stay below it was a real clear sign that that says we're not taking on another massive salary that would put us over the second apron. J.J. seconded a lot of that logic and even added to it, talking about the need to lean into player development, talked about the G-League component, you know, making the guys who they currently have better, you know, which there is an argument to be made like I understand the sense behind it. What I was trying to convey is that 39 year old LeBron James and 31 year old A.D. I think might see it differently.

Of course they would. I mean, and that's that's the that's the issue. How are they close to the second apron? I mean, and not to get too deep in the weeds here, but I mean, just as a fan looking at the roster, obviously they see two very decorated and no doubt highly expensive players, you know, and Russell being there last year.

I mean, how how how are they so close to to the to the apron here where they're there? This is going to change their ability to potentially make LeBron and Anthony Davis happy in the immediate. Well, I mean, there's obviously a lot of moving parts on the board, but I am cheating here and looking at their cap sheet. When you got 51 million, well, that's LeBron's player option for next year. But let's say presumably that LeBron comes back. He's going to be in the 50s, you know, A.D.'s on the books for 43. D'Angelo Russell's free agency is what he's going to do with that option is obviously front and center this week. You know, Hatcher Murrah is 17.

Austin Reeves around 13. It's you know, and you don't know obviously which specific player that they are trying to bring in. So, you know, they're they are a fairly expensive team at this point.

And then the math is something that, you know, again, you can't nail that down without knowing all the parts. But again, I think the spirit of it, Rich, is just differing priorities. And LeBron in particular, he's the one with the leverage right now. Right. And even though to be clear and to be fair, all parties indicate that and certainly on the Lakers side, that the relationship is in a good place. You know what I mean?

There have been times when you sensed friction or tension. And and I don't think that's the case from a relationship standpoint. It's more a strategic standpoint. But because he now has all the cards in terms of his own free agency. And also, we know historically, even if, you know, everything was good with his current team, he he typically takes his time and tries to at least explore some of the other options. You know, do I think he'll be back with the Lakers? I do.

But I think this in-between discussion and the pressure that he is able to apply is pretty fascinating. Sam Amick from the Athletic here on the Rich Eisen Show, what's the general sense industry wide from your end of the, I guess, engagement farming business of J.J. Redick's hire? Sam.

Well played, well played. I just love that. I like J.J.

But man, the second you're on the other side, now we're we're taking shots. Yeah, J.J. did pretty well in engagement farming. He was very good at the media thing. And honestly, he showed that he's very good at, you know, kind of presenting himself the way he did in his press conference. I thought, by and large, that was a successful look for him on day one. I actually just got off the phone with a colleague from L.A. We were debating some of the nuance around his press conference.

And, you know, a little bit, I think, kind of split parties on the I don't give an F line that some thought was awesome and some thought was a little, you know, just a little much. But he sat there with Rob, clearly making a choice for him and also organizationally to to really give time to the media and to the fans. That was a 45 minute press conference where Rob at one point turns to Lakers PR man, Mitch Heckert, and says, you know, are there any more questions from people that haven't gotten a chance to ask?

We all know you came a long way. As you know, Rich, this is these are not the kind of niceties that happen at most press conferences. So you could tell not to be cynical that like they were attempting to sell this to a certain degree. And that obviously makes sense from here. A lot of questions, I think, to be answered. First and foremost, what is JJ staff going to look like, you know, for them to highlight the desire to have multiple former head coaches on staff?

I thought was a little risky if they don't already have, you know, have commitments from those types of guys. So that's one thing is that if you paint one picture saying, oh, we think this will work so long as his staff looks like this. And then the staff ultimately looks different.

You know, the optics on that might not be great. And then from there, you know, JJ made it really clear that that he's diving all in on all aspects of their roster building because he's not going to coach in the California Classic Summer League in Sacramento because he'll be entrenched in free agency. This team is going to be built, I think, in large part through his vision. And that is, again, that is what they should do if they're going to commit to a guy like JJ, who they hope is going to be there for a long time. And his vision is what? What's his vision?

Well, I mean, some of the specifics he did get into, and I think there's a lot of merit. The number one thing is Anthony Davis, and it'll be interesting to see if AD's skill set can really keep up with this. But AD as a hub, AD as, you know, in this day and age of Nikoli Jokic, Luka Doncic, you know, Giannis Adekunpo, you know, and Luka I know is a wing, but he's such a big guy. You know, these bigs who are the hubs of their offense. And so he wanted to run more through AD and not treat them like they often do as a more traditional post up player that you throw the ball down to. That is a pretty significant development. You know, LeBron led the team in usage rate last year, and as great as he was, you know, he's coming up on his 40th birthday.

I think it's probably wise to try to go this direction. You know, LeBron's three point shooting is something that if it continues, empowers JJ to do something like that because you can play him off the ball more and utilize the shooting that remarkably has gotten better at this late stage of his career, a lot better. From there, what gets my attention, this honestly, this goes back to the, you know, I think the divided camps when it comes to the trade landscape is that Austin Reeves is suddenly feels like his internal value and his place within their program has been elevated through the JJ Redick hire. I think Rob was already big on Austin. I think Jeannie Buss is big on Austin. And I think now JJ is talking about, you know, Austin as another ball handler and a guy who is going to be prominent. That's the one where trade wise, if you want to go get one of these high profile people, you're going to have to give up Austin Reeves. And so I think there's a debate within this entire group about, you know, what Austin ceiling is and whether it's best to continue growing with him and see where that takes you or, you know, try one of these other names that you might be able to land. Yeah. I mean, like he could be the guy that they're looking for. He's right in front of him, right? Like he's right in front of him as opposed to sending him out for a guy that has already established himself as with that ceiling.

That is a fascinating development. Who else is who's out there? Not just for the Lakers, but, you know, obviously Bridges was available for for even for the first Nick net trade since nineteen eighty three to go down. Who's out there as we hit the draft tonight and free agency this weekend? Sam, you know, the Hawks are front and our obvious folks are really in the dark about what they're going to do with the number one pick. And then within that, you've got the Trae Young Dejounte Murray situation. It does feel like the Lakers have come off the Trae Young possibility and that Dejounte is front and center as a as a person that I think they are looking at. But again, they know because they talked to Atlanta about Dejounte in February that they've got to give up Austin and that deal.

And again, as of yesterday, my understanding was they didn't want to do that. So Dejounte comes to mind and I think it's fair to to also highlight. It's not I keep intentionally not using the word star player because it's not this is not like before when LeBron and A.D. were trying to to go after a Kyrie or DeMar DeRozan or a Damian Lillard and all these different stars. And the Westbrook thing obviously was a disaster. This is more you could be talking about Jeremy Grant in Portland, two way players with my apologies.

The dog is chiming. No worries. I love it. And Jeremy Grant comes to mind, you know, Donovan Mitchell is, I think, the dream target, but it's just all indications are that he's going to sign that extension in Cleveland. And that, I think, created an issue for the Lakers, because I do think that there was an agreement that if you could get Donovan Mitchell, you then LeBron and A.D. are the only untouchables. And but that's just doesn't seem likely. And so from there, it became the untouchables when you're talking about names like Grant, like Murray. I mean, Murray is the one that I think is, again, I'm repeating myself front and center on the idea of what should the Lakers be willing to put on the table for him.

I think that's where there's some different views. All right. So before I let you go, because I don't know if you got to let the dogs out not to go full Baja Men on you.

But I love it. So so all comes down to it here with the draft tonight. And just like any other league or association, the NBA is kind of copycat. What's your sense of how the Celtics did and how they won, Sam, affecting any decisions that could be made tonight or this coming weekend?

Free agency, what are you what are you hearing on that front? Yeah, it even goes beyond the Celtics. I think it's the Celtics, the Mavs, the Timberwolves is the idea that and J.J. actually hit this in his press conference. The idea that depth in the group and length and two way play, you know, J.J. went out of his way to say that he's going to really focus on two way players. I think the Lakers are not the only team that are yet again realizing that that part was reaffirmed. That especially with the league changing the officiating the way they did halfway through last season and allowing for defense to be part of the game again to the degree that it was down the home stretch. You know, I think that is going to impact roster building. And I know we keep bringing it back to Lakers. That's where a guy like Austin, you've got to ask yourself, what's his ceiling as a defender? Because you need two way players.

That's going to be something, you know, that I think trend wise, we're going to see. As Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown were really good for a long time, they could not get it and they're very young, but couldn't get it over the finish line. And then you added a Drew Holliday, Kristaps Porzingis. These are defensive players and guys that got them over the top. I think certainly that is the theme of this offseason.

Well, and then I guess you could say then the Bridges trade is a perfect example of that, right? And and right that that's it right there and certainly the Knicks needing to get past the Celtics before they even see the Western Conference. That's an important move right there.

And I guess the last last one for you. Does that mean that none of the Suns were available? Because, you know, that was the hot rumors that the Suns are going to have to cough up somebody because of how expensive it is.

And Devin Booker was the hot name for Knicks fans to add. Does the Bridges trade mean that that was the the the top of the market for the Knicks to go add, Sam? It appears that way.

It does appear that way. Phoenix, you know, all the intel coming my way is that Phoenix does actually want to run it back. And if anything, I think out in the market, you know, and I think Stephen A said this yesterday, a team like Houston, for example, you know, there's a lot of chatter about Houston and Durant. You know, he indicated that he was here in Houston and Booker was actually the real interest. I just don't see Phoenix certainly trading. Devin, you know, if you put enough on the table for Durant, then who knows? But they appear to want to run it back. And so I think you're right that a guy like Bridges was at the top of the market, you know, with some of the other names that we've mentioned. But, you know, I think that is what we're looking at here.

Phoenix is going to if I had to guess, I think they're going to stand pat and we'll see what other fireworks we have tonight. Sam, you're the man. Thanks again. Always appreciate you taking the time to join. Thank you.

Hopefully I've never made this joke before. We have we have conflicting. Wow.

It's on now. We got beef. We got beef.

I don't know how we're going to solve this. Well, wouldn't that be funny if I now pulled an elliptical right from back here myself? Hold on a minute.

You're not the only one who works out either. You know, that'd be odd, but I don't have that. Thanks, Sam. All right. Thanks. You got Sam Amick, everybody with his elliptical in his office. Challenger to the throne. Oh, OK. You have an elliptical.

So do I. Wouldn't that be weird? Amen. He had a golden retriever.

That would have been weird. Listen. He's saying the Lakers are sitting here wondering what the rest of the league is wondering. About what the Celtics have done and what the Minnesota Timberwolves have done. And that is putting a premium on two way players. They can fill it up on offense and defend when they're not trying to fill it up. And Mikel Bridges is a pretty damn big name for that. I mean, that's who the other guys that he threw out there that are available right now. Now, Paul George's offensive output right is far, far and away.

He's going to be a year tippy, tippy top. Right. But the defense is Bridges 27. Right. He's 27. Right. And he's played with these guys before.

And the chemistry is there and they like each other. And it's not going to be like, oh, he's coming in and it's going to mess with the chemistry of our of our team. That's a hell of a move. And they did it before the draft, before this weekend hits. And people start trading. Or they start signing players right from other teams.

I'm going to trade even more now that I hear what this is, what the premium is. They they they got a defensive player that you runner up. And a minutes hawk.

And a durable player to the tune of never missed a game. I'm wondering if he missed a game in high school. I don't believe he did, to be honest with you. I don't know that this man's ever.

I'm gonna have to go reset. Like AAU? You sat out an AAU game once? He had never missed a high school game. He missed. He technically missed a game in the NBA because he got traded.

I see what you're saying. But they ruled him ineligible for that game. Got it. Didn't count. So for when he got traded to the Nets. Yes, exactly.

From Phoenix. So, yeah, he's never. I'm liking the trade more and more. And that's the question they have right now with the Lakers is, can Austin Reeves be a two way player? Can his offensive game be juiced up by J.J. Redick's appearance system? We don't know what his system is yet, though. That's the thing. Well, they must know internally.

We don't. So they probably have these conversations about what about Austin? And then the question is, is can he be the two way player defensively that they need him to be? And if the answer to that is, well, we kind of don't know, but we do know of another two way player that we can get because they have established themselves as such. So we'll flip them, because everything you read and hear and has been confirmed by Sam Amick there is. The name that comes back from every team that the Lakers are dealing with to try and make a trade for a player of theirs is Austin Reeves. And they've said no. To date. Man, I like the bridges trade more after hearing that.

Interesting that I make it about myself. Listen, what are you going to do? And Rich Bridges, he's another one of those guys who checks those boxes of as the GM of the Knicks, you're not going to get a call at midnight that this guy's out doing correct. You know, he's that type of dude. So that's just another great thing.

And you gave up five future players. One of whom is let's just do this. The math right. Eight years old right now. Potentially true, true. Some eight year old could have been a Nick. Now they're going to be a net.

Unless, as Brockman says, they're a spur because all those draft choices will be traded for Victor Wambunyama, as if the Spurs aren't going to be able to develop him and make him happy like they did, say, for Tim Duncan, et cetera. So on and so forth. What a take, if I'm right. Eight four four two or four rich number to dial. We'll take your phone calls. But when we come back, Jeff Dodds, he is the CEO of Formula E, which you can watch right here on Roku. He's next in studio in advance of heading up to Portland, Oregon.

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That's greenlight.com slash rich to try Green Light for free greenlight.com slash rich. Well, as you guys know, I make it about me a lot, right? Yeah, that's OK. It's all right. It's all right. It's all right. It's all right. Guilty as charged. There is an eye in my first and last name. It's true. OK, but I'm a team player as well.

And so when Roku says we've got some live sports going on, I'm like, I'm in. And then I find out that the formula shares the same initial. It's my last name. Had me at hello. So that's the way I welcome in the CEO of Formula E racing right here on the Rich Eisen Show. Jeff, it's good to see you, sir. How are you? Yeah, good.

Sorry about making it about me to start. You've got a best dad ever. I do sign. And I'm now sitting here wondering why I don't have a best dad ever. Well, you have a desk of you know, if you did. I don't have a sign that says best dad ever. I think you need my children. I've got a serious conversation going on.

It's a few quid cost a few, I'm sure for them. It is good to see you. And it's certainly right here on Roku, on Roku Channel, streaming home of Formula E. Pretty cool, man.

We're streaming together right here. And you're heading to Portland this weekend, correct? Yeah. Rounds 13, 14. So the last or the penultimate rounds of Formula E's World Championship in Portland. Two rounds back to back on Saturday and Sunday on an amazing racetrack with a lot of racing history, a lot of IndyCar racing history.

Yes. So this will set us up for the final rounds in London. And then you can see that right here on Roku, June 28th through 30th. That's where you can watch the Portland race this very weekend, Friday through the end of this weekend. And you recently announced that Formula E is going to go to Miami, right? Miami, yeah, next year. So big sports loving city. We've raced in Miami once before in the history.

We were only 10 years old, Rich. So we've been in New York, in LA, Miami once before. But heading back to Miami, they had the Formula One there this year. That's right. And the crowd there, the fan base beginning to get into single-seater motor cars outside of just IndyCar. So we're going to take advantage of that.

The radio audience just rejoined in the middle of our conversation. Jeff Dodds, the CEO of Formula E racing, the world's first all-electric FIA world championship motorsport series. And you can catch it right here televised on Roku, the streaming home of Formula E. And I just know when I first heard from everybody in Roku sports and everybody with Roku and Roku channel that this deal had been struck. They were jacked up about it.

Why did you hook up with Roku? So Formula E, founded 10 years ago, wanted to be the preeminent motor racing sport in the world, which is challenging when you've got so many sports like IndyCar over 100 years old, Formula One 75 years old. And there are two big markets. Two big markets you've got to crack. So one of those is North America.

The other one is China, fastest growing EV market in the world. And we wanted a home. We wanted a home for Formula E in North America.

And that means finding one outlet that we can go within on. And we started speaking with Roku, I think about 18 months ago, something like that. I got talking with David. The teams were gelling well together. They wanted to dip the toe into live sport. And I think personality-wise, we just fit very agile, flexible, quite young, quite disruptive.

So we gelled and we thought, let's give this a go. And I think we're a year in now and so far going brilliantly. Yeah, you're referring to Dave Eilenberg, whose last name also starts with an A.

It does. And David actually used to work at ITV, obviously a great traditional UK broadcast, although he was based over here in the US. Yeah. So how did you get involved with Formula E racing? So my history, half of my life in automotive. So I worked for Ford Motor Company when they owned Volvo many years ago. And then I worked for Honda. And then I left and thought I've left cars behind me, went into media, Media Telco. But the owner of the company I worked at was Liberty Global, who were also the largest shareholder in Formula E. And they persuaded me that this would be an exciting adventure to take with them.

And they'd been right. I'm a year in. And so far, other than spending most of my life on an airplane, other than that, they're right. It's just super cool. And it's just, again, obviously in this day and age where things are getting hotter and that's literal or wetter or more of a climate uncontrolled situation, the fact that this is carbon neutral is what is pretty sweet. Yeah. Net zero from day zero.

Net zero. Look at you. That kind of works. I should use that. Did you just... Hold on a second. You didn't just make that. You didn't just make that.

Of course, I've got an army of people sitting next to me. Net zero from day zero. Could you say that about our show as well? Are we net zero? We're trending on a lot of content. I don't know.

We're net infinity, really. Thank you. Oh, my bad. Yeah, I should have said that.

And so that's awesome. And so just explain to everybody for who may not know how fast these cars go. Well, so the cars are in their third generation.

So in a 10-year history of the sport. And when we started, I'm going to be honest, the performance of the cars wasn't great. This was more about testing the concept of can you race an electric vehicle, capped out about 140 miles an hour, got there, got to 60 miles an hour in about three and a bit seconds. So not incredible, not for a racing car.

So where we are now, we launched our next generation car in Monaco this year. That will get to 60 miles an hour in about 1.8 seconds. 30% faster than the Formula One car.

It goes over 200 miles an hour and does all of that net zero. And how competitive are the car companies right now to come up with a fourth generation right now and go ahead and do that? So it won't surprise you. Fourth generation is two years away for us.

So that car is pretty much baked. So we know what's coming in the fourth generation. You do know what's coming? Yeah.

Look, I won't talk about it because it's a little bit secretive at the moment. Understood. But as you can imagine, it gets faster, the power goes up, the batteries last longer. So that fourth generation car will be unbelievable in just two years' time.

It will be unbelievable. But the car manufacturers we work with, Porsche, Jaguar, Nissan, we work with Stellantis, huge global car manufacturer, Mahindra, the Indian brand. We got two racing royalty brands in the US as teams. We've got Penske, we've got Andretti.

So they're all inputting into this. And we work pretty closely with the FIA, who govern us. And the biggest and brightest brains on electric vehicles working on it.

I imagine so. Because my wife and I talk about all the time about getting off the grid and things of that nature. I've been driving an electric car for about six years now. So I've been off the grid for a while, but we're waiting to get more options just as somebody else, just as somebody driving around, going the speed limit, of course. Hands a tenon to all that good stuff, not looking at our phones. That we're eager to get electric vehicles in certain brands, in certain cars. And it's like, ah, it's not going to happen for two, three, four years. And I'm sitting here thinking about this, that this is what could potentially unlock the technology and the race, if you will, the speed race in the similar way that we've seen films like Ford versus Ferrari or anything like that back in the day, that car companies get real serious about being innovative to be first, you know?

Completely right. I talk about, we're a platform to talk about sustainability, but our racetrack is a laboratory. And that's where car manufacturers go out and they test next generation technology that will go into their road cars.

And there's 100 stories I could tell you, but one I love personally. So Jaguar learned something on the racetrack about how the power train, the motor, so the engine effectively, interacts with the battery. And that they worked out how they could make that more efficient with a coding change by changing some of the coding in the software, which they did and it worked. And then they did that coding change over the air to everybody who was driving an I-PACE on the road. And those cars got 30 kilometres more range, literally from a software change.

So they're learning things on the racetrack and going straight into the road car. And obviously there are markets that are leading the way in this. So in the Chinese markets, China, over 100 million fans of our sport in China.

I mean, the development of electric vehicle technology in China is unbelievable. How about that? And on top of all of that, though, you've got to have the drivers, right? And so I'll give you the floor a little bit here on the personalities, because that's another way to get a sport. The team meets the driver, meets the racetrack is where the magic happens.

Nice. Obviously the broadcast is what shows that to the world. But you want a racetrack that can show off the potential of the car.

Now that could be big and open like Portland or Miami will be. It could be tight, shorter, a tougher test of the driver, something like London. Tokyo was like that. We raced in Tokyo for the first time. And then you're relying on the skill of the driver and the skill of the team. And I would argue, and I include Formula 1 in this, that as a collective, we have 22 drivers on the grid. They are the best 22 drivers in the world. You've got ex-Formula 1 drivers, drivers that will go to Formula 1. You've got Super Formula from Japan winners. You've got Le Mans winners on that grid. As a collective, you have the most unbelievably competitive group of drivers. And give me a couple of names of people that they should look to see this weekend. And I know you're the CEO and you're the CEO of all the drivers. I understand that.

I can't have favorites, but I can certainly point you in directions. So you've got the drivers who are leading the championship. So Nick Cassidy. Nick Cassidy is leading for Jaguar at the moment. Nick famously won the Triple Crown in Japan. So when we raced in Tokyo, he's like royalty when he steps off the plane in Japan. Absolutely one of the best racing drivers ever raced in Japan. And it's kind of been kind of the second place for driver for many years in Formula E. Nearly won it, not quite made it, but leading the championship by 25 points as we go to Portland. He's leading from Pascal Verline, the Porsche driver, German driver. Unbelievable driving talent. Started the season incredibly hot. Started last season incredibly hot.

Then it's gone through a period where it's got a bit tougher for him. But he's bang right there in second place, ready to take charge. And then you've got other drivers. Mitch Evans, again, very famous Jaguar driver. Oli Rowland, who's on a bit of a comeback tail, driving for Nissan this year. Very sharp elvode, very aggressive driver on the racetrack.

So they're the kind of top four, you see. And then we've got some of these wonderful, I'll say old stages, they'll hate me for it, but we've got some wonderful old stages. We've got Lucas di Grassi heading towards 40.

Been there from the very beginning. We've got Jean-Éric Vergne, ex-Formula One driver. Only driver to ever win the series twice. Racing for Diaz Penske. Sam Bird won in San Paolo this year. Races for McLaren racing.

Been around from the very start of the championship. So you've got this real mixture of the kind of the professors and the students all racing together. Incredibly competitive, close combat racing. We go into every race thinking we know who should do well on the particular racetrack and being surprised every race.

Well, again, I'm telling tales out of school here. Jeff Dodd, CEO of Formula E here. A couple more minutes on the Rich Eisen Show. And those who may not have seen it on Roku, we're talking on the radio to a lot of folks who might not have seen a Formula E event. So for that, does the range of a car, the charge of a car pre-race last an entire race?

So it's a great point. So the cars line up on that grid with roughly half the energy they need to finish the race. Purposely?

Absolutely. You do that on purpose? Yeah, because part of developing the tech and innovating the tech is learning how to recharge the battery. So those drivers will get half the energy they need for the race over the race by recharging the motor. The regenerative of braking and things of that nature. Braking, slowing, the motor spin in reverse.

Which is part of the skill to make sure that your charge lasts. So if you said, let's just take Max Verstappen, or let's take Lewis Hamilton, two of the best drivers the world's ever seen in Formula 1, and chuck him in a Formula E car, surely they'll win. It's like driving something completely different. Because they've got to drive that car really quickly, but they've got to know when to lift, when to brake, how to recharge the battery. Even this year, Ollie Rowland leading a race, I think in Italy, in Misano, ran out of energy with hundreds of meters to go in the race, because he'd got that bit slightly wrong.

The team had got that bit slightly wrong. So this is like playing chess in a 200 mile an hour plus racing car on a track. It's incredibly complicated.

It might, yeah, it certainly sounds it. And so, because you can't just pull off to the side and just charge up. Exactly right.

It takes some time. We've got the tech to do that. So we could do that.

Which is what? You immediately recharge a battery? We've got the technology whereby if we wanted to, we could launch it so that you pit stop, and you can get 10% of your battery charge, and you drive an EV, so you know how cool this would be, in 30 seconds. So in 30 seconds, you'd get 10% more energy. So we're working on that tech, but for now, they don't have it. And you can't simply go foot to the floor and win the race from the front, because you would run out of energy halfway around.

Yeah, you would. You have to figure out how to brake and how to regenerate. Highly strategic. So now, by the way, I have found what I'm now going to... I don't ask for much from Roku. I want that technology. Is it portable? Is it portable, where you'd be able to just have it in the trunk of your car or something like that?

One of those charging things. Yeah. We should talk about that for you. We should get you in a car, first of all, and let you have a go in a car.

When you say have a go, what do you mean by that? We could put you in a race. This is the other incredible thing about... We could put you in that racing car today.

We can dial the power up and down by software, changing the software. As I have done, we could put you in that racing car, and you could experience what it's like to drive a car that accelerates that quickly. By the way, we do that with a lot of celebs and people like Usain Bolt, who literally scared the life out of him.

He's the only time he'll admit something's faster than him. We could put you in that car and you could have a go. I'll do that for you.

You come to a race... I will do that. And in the meantime... How's your insurance by the way? It's locked, Sal. Impeccable. It's impeccable. Yes.

I pay my premiums and my rates and things of that nature. But listen, that technology of recharging, now that's the stuff. And so you're saying to try and come up with that for Formula E might lead to actually having something like that in someone's garage. We're a laboratory.

And here's the... I know we don't have much time, but combustion engine is 130 years old. The auto engine, I think it's 1896. We've been developing that tech for 130 years. The first time you saw an electric vehicle really on the road with any scale ambition was 2008. So we're in the infancy of the tech. So what we will see over the next 5, 10, 20, 25 years out of electric vehicle technology will be mind blowing for all of us. We had one of our former manufacturers, Mercedes Benz, they did a test on one charge where they drove a car. I think it was called the EQ20, EQXX.

They went from Stuttgart in Germany to Silverstone in the United Kingdom, 1200 kilometers on a single charge to show what battery is capable of doing. And this is all coming out in front of us, Rich. Fantastic. And everyone should check it out on Roku, the streaming home of Formula E. The Portland race that we were discussing is on Roku this very weekend, the 28th through the 30th. Season 11 Formula E is going to race in Miami.

17 races across 11 iconic venues, all right here on Roku. Jeff, absolutely a pleasure. And I will have a go. You let me know when that go can happen and I will have it. That'll be great. Thank you so much.

Jeff Dodds here on The Rich Eisen Show. Phone lines are lit. We'll take your calls when we come back. Hey, everybody, this just in. It's summertime. It's time to go and do all those summer things like going to a baseball game during the summer. I'm about to do exactly that. And I know exactly what to do.

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Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. How old were you when you were in Full Metal Jacket? I was 24. What in the world was it like being directed by Stanley Cooper? It was amazing.

Vincent D'Onofrio? It was amazing. Do you have a good story, something specific? I do. Please. The night before I did the big scene where I shoot the Sergeant and shoot myself, we're leaving and we all had our cars to go to and as we're walking, he's behind me and I can feel him behind me and he had this kind of thing, this kind of tick where he would go before he started to talk every time.

Stanley Cooper. Every time. Like that. All the time. So I hear that and I say, oh, he's going to say something to me. And I turn to him and he says, do you know what you're going to do tomorrow? And I'm like, I think I do.

Yes, I do. And he goes, okay. And I'm waiting and I'm waiting. And he says, it has to be big.

It has to be like Lon Chaney big. And I'm like, okay, good. And it was like, it was like Christmas. Like when you're little, I'll tell you why. Because as he's saying that to me, I'm thinking about my flat in London and I have about 30 monster movies, VHSs, that I've already rented and bought and had been watching.

And most of them were Lon Chaney. And I'd been studying for that scene. No kidding. And it was like, God came down and gave me the biggest Christmas gift ever. And so I called, I, you know, I called my best friend and I said, dude, you know, I'm so ready for this scene tomorrow. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it.

I couldn't believe it. And I went in there and we did three takes and we were done. Three takes. Three takes. And the special effect. Yeah.

Full Metal Jacket debuted in theaters near you 37 years ago today. Back here 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. You know, there are some people in our country that pronounce the Jacksonville team name as Jaguar. You'll hear that sometimes. The Jacksonville Jaguars. And I'm like, from New York City, I'm like, it's, it's called a Jaguar. Like I don't, how do you say... There's a W in the word. Jaguar. Like J-A-G-U-A-R-S. That's Jaguars. That's the way I pronounce it. And you'd call it Jaguars. That's weird.

And then there's the way the Brits say it. Jaguar. So good. I know. It's so good. I almost asked him to just say that three times for me.

Will you please? I used to have one and that's how I started pronouncing it when I drove. Well, when you have one, you, you, you, you know, I would look at you and say, how's your Jaguar? And then you would say, my, my, my Jaguar is terrific. Oh, it's like Porsche and Porsche. That's right. When you own it, it's Porsche.

And someone else has it. It's a Porsche. Jaguar. Oh my goodness. That's how it's said. That's the way it should be said.

I had an 85 sky blue Jaguar. Look at you. By the way, you moved your head when you said it too.

I feel like a different cat that was super T with my pinky out and XJS TJ. Yeah, buddy. Ooh, look at you. Yep.

Looking it up right now. Man. It had dual like gas tanks on either side. So it didn't matter where you pulled up. There was a little tank on there. That foot locker was paying well. No, that was out here. That was out here.

Oh, you know, Oh my God, Jackie convertible, TJ convertible. It was not, it was not in sport. Call me the way he moved his head. Jaguar.

I was fine. Say don't you know, pinky out. Speaking of which Steven Florida wants to talk about the, how do you pronounce it, Steve?

Uh, it is pretty. Jaguar. Jaguar. Jaguar.

That kind of irritates me every time I hear it. Jaguar. Is that how you pronounce it, Steve? Jaguar.

Okay. What's on your mind, Steve? Uh, I've been watching most of the media today, but nobody brings it up. Especially after everyone for years saying, Oh, Jacksonville is going to London. They're going to be the London jazz stadium deal got approved last night. I heard that 30 more years in Duvall. Yeah. And also you Chris Brockman warned you about talking bad about Trevor Lawrence and the Jacksonville Jaguars.

He warned you about it, about getting your comeuppance. What is that? I guarantee. I almost say it right now.

Jacksonville either 11 to 12 wins this year. Oh, you don't want to do this. Do you, Steve? Do you want to do this?

Cause now hold on a second. No, no, no, no, no, no. Steve.

You could say that just right off the top of your head, but then when you go in the win-loss chamber, it can come out completely different. Are you ready? Are you willing to, are you willing to enter the chamber? Steve, are you ready to get in? All right.

Give it, give it to him. Let's see. Here we go. At the Miami dolphins.

What happens to you? That one, I admit it's a coin flip, but I'm going to say the W just because our upgraded defensive line, Eric Armstead, Josh Allen, Trayvon Walker, they're going to give to it some trouble. So I'm going to call a win, but a close game. Okay. So you said ultimately win.

Is that what you're saying? Yes. Okay.

Here we go. Home for the Browns then. Win. Deshaun Lawson has to prove that he can actually play.

At the Buffalo Bills on a Monday night. We've had their number for years. So win. 3-0 start at the Texans. The first one I'm going to say loss, but I think we split with them this year.

All right. So we'll put a pin in that. 3-1 home for the Colts. They haven't won in Jacksonville since 2014. So win. 4-1 home for the Bears if you will. Although it's in Tottenham.

So they're in London. I'm going to call that a win. Josh Allen is going to introduce himself to Caleb Williams. 5-1 in Wembley, the true home of the Jaguars outside of Jacksonville. Against the Patriots.

That's a win. 6-1 home for the Packers. I'm going to say loss. 6-2 at the Eagles.

Oh boy. That's going to be a close one. I'll say loss, but I'm kind of up in the air about that one.

All right. Home for the Vikings. Win. At the Lions.

I'm going to say loss, but I will say Trayvon Walker played better than Aiden Hutchinson in that game. Okay. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 and 4. Home for the Texans. It's 8-4.

You said you'd split. At the Titans. 8-4. Win. 9-4 home for the Jets. Win.

Sorry. 10-4 at the Raiders. I'm going to say a win. 11-4 home for the Titans. I'm going to say win. And then 12-4 at the Colts. I'm going to say win. That's 13-4, Steve.

See, you say 11 or 12, then you go in the win-loss chamber and out comes 13 Ws. Steve, I'll take the under. All right. Well, you'll hear a call for me when it turns out different. Let's go. Steve in Florida.

We will hear from him again when it turns out different. We've had three people play the game for the Jaguars and the results have been 13-4, 12-5, and 13-4. I love it. Yeah. So there's that.

You get caught up in the win-loss vortex. He's also not wrong. He's also not wrong, although it wasn't put to a vote. It was just the local government saying, we have a deal with the Jaguars. And the same thing happened in Carolina. It went to a vote in Kansas City and the folks in Kansas City were like, no, to paying for using public funds for a new stadium. That said, Steve's point is everybody thought Sean Conn was going to move to London. And now they're going to build this beautiful new stadium in Jacksonville.

I'll be interested to see if they still play two games in London still with that new stadium. We will find out. We will see, as Steve in Florida had said, 844-204-rich number to dial. Phone lines are all at hour three of the blast.

Still here on Roku. A helicopter. You think Doug is flying over somewhere? I have no idea. Is there a helicopter here?

I don't know. It could just be... It's not a regular helicopter sound either. It could just be the international press following our exploits. That could be too. Could be that.

So Ukraine and Belgium just played to a nil-nil draw in the Euro Cup and that sounded amazing, I'm sure, on FS1. So there's that. I'm sure Del Tufo really rode the boards for no goals. I don't have everything ready. There you go. Has he posted lately? Has he checked in?

Has he given us a selfie from the Fox boards? Nope, nope, nothing. I got a thumbs up yesterday.

There was no contact. About what? Normally I'll say good show or something.

Just middle of the day, I just got a thumbs up. Oh, he's too busy. Two days ago he was doing the Copa America.

Oh, cool. Tonight he'll be riding the boards tonight. No idea what... 405 likes for a picture he's not in.

Slovakia and Romania just played to a one-one draw and I'm sure that sounded great. By the way, his last three photos are all of the board. Yeah, 420, 415, 405.

I added up my last 25 posts and it doesn't equal up to 400 likes. I guess I stink. Listen, I'm just wondering. It's amazing. It's amazing how consistent it is.

Yeah. Hour three coming up. 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. Bi-weekly episodes every Monday and Thursday. The Candy Valentino Show, wherever you listen.