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I'm living my best life. Yeah. Yeah. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Here's the other surprising part. With guest host Brian Weber.
Yeah, big shoes to fill. Eisen's a legend. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. The Rich Eisen Show. Do you know who I am? I'm a guy on television.
I have my own show. And now, sitting in for Rich, here's Brian Weber. Welcome to the program.
Always a delight to keep the chair warm. Try to maintain the momentum that Rich and the fellas generate every single day. And the guys not only enjoying today, tomorrow, Wednesday.
You see a pattern going on here. Thursday's a holiday. You think they're coming back Friday? Unfortunately, if you're not a fan, and you might be pausing to say, who is this guy about to talk into third person? I'm Brian Weber, and I'll be with you all week long.
A summer tradition I look forward to every year. And, even if I was Hacky Magoo, I might hack up my lungs later in the program. I'll explain coming up. Even if I had no talent, skill, or decided just to mail it in and did no prep work, and none of that is true.
Especially when it comes down to the all-encompassing T-word talent. There is a ton to get to. So this is not the silly season. We're not doing Mount Rushmore. We're not getting into hot dog eating forecasts.
Maybe on Thursday. We'll take it one show at a time. But, given everything happening across the NBA, gonna be virtually wall-to-wall basketball. It felt like it was going to be the summer of Paul George.
That lasted only a handful of hours while we were all sleeping. Paul George took his talents, metaphorically, to Philadelphia. We'll give you the implications of George getting the bag, as you kids say, from Daryl Morey. Not only for the Sixers and the balance of power throughout now a suddenly much more interesting Eastern Conference, but where the Clippers go from here and now that George has made his decision, the dominoes will start falling. Next up, Klay Thompson is on the clock. So, we're gonna run through scenarios.
We're gonna give you strong but reasonable opinions. The goal is to be interactive. I give out the phone number, not only because I'm a radio guy slash carnival barker, but I do want to hear from you. Phone lines open.
844-204-7424, the number to call. I will also be up front with you and the goal is to be transparent. My style of broadcasting is not that conducive to calls.
I don't give you a poll. I don't spoon feed it to you. Maybe that's why I am a fill-in host. Although, ironically, not coincidentally, ironically, I'm in the very same studio that used to host the now-defunct Brian Weber show. So, flashbacks of things I should have done better are running through my mind. Your best bet to chime in on any topic.
If you want to take it away from hoops, I am here for you. B.W. Weber on the X platform. That's B.W. Weber. Weber with two B's. I try not to bludgeon you with guests and we'll follow what I believe is a winning game plan.
Wide open in the first hour. In fact, we will not have another voice on this program unless you pick up the telephone until we get deep into hour number two. When I talk baseball, we do it concisely in entertaining fashion and I bring in people who really know what they're talking about. Namely today, Joe Sheehan. Check out his great work at JoeSheehan.com and the Joe Sheehan baseball newsletter. Joe, a long time baseball writer for prestigious outlets like Sports Illustrated. And then we wrap up the program with our second guest, 240 Eastern Time, in addition to what I hope will be complete coherent analysis of what's happening in the NBA and what will happen. We'll bring in Mike Vorkanov of The Athletic.
He covers professional basketball. So I mentioned I might have some lung challenges. I'm not on an iron lung. I'm not that old.
Although my references are all circa 1988-1995 when life was much more straightforward. But I'm of an age, and I don't mind talking about my age because I think people have listened to me in the past and say, wow, you have a lot of energy. You are a beat.
Given my age, I should be more beat up. But the next birthday is the double nickel. So I'm officially middle-aged.
And when you get to this station of life, occasionally you get up in the middle of the night, if you know what I mean. So 3.45 local time, as I come to you from our Regal Studios in Southern California, Nature was calling and Uncle B. Webb answered. And I was looking for confirmation of our second guest. So I did what you should never do, reached over, pick up the phone, and I saw it's official.
Paul George has agreed to terms with the Sixers. And because I do love the NBA as much as the NFL, and I know that's blasphemy, especially in the chair I'm keeping warm, Rich Eisen is the face of NFL Network. The only reason I have a career is that I used to work at NFL Network, if you call it what I have, a career. All the reason I'm here is because I knew Rich from a decade ago when we worked together, he was the face of the network.
I was doing my best not to destroy a morning show. So I am a football guy. And in fact, in 40 minutes, I'm going to find a way to talk some NFL. It seems appropriate today, and I'm not getting political, but I can't miss the opportunity to come up with a transition. On a day in which courts are at the forefront of our minds, collectively as a nation, there was a massive ruling late last week with major implications for the NFL, not only in terms of what you spend as a consumer, but the future of the league.
We'll get there in 40 minutes. But I'm a basketball purist at heart, not to pretend I'm hanging out with Dr. Naismith, but it was the one sport I could play a little bit. And as a broadcaster, I just enjoy the rhythms of basketball. You go to shoot around, you get to know the coaches. There's a lot of personalities.
There's a lot of hanging around. There's a lot of the ability to build relationships because it's a smaller team. So when you have a move like Paul George, for example, who in my mind at this stage of his career, he's 34, is I, I'm not going to do who were the 15 players more impactful than Paul George. I realized that he was an all-star, but what does that get you in this day and age in the NBA? Paul George is a accomplished player. He's a meaningful player, but has Paul George ever single-handedly tipped the balance of power towards one team, either on the Pacers, remember it was George and Roy Hibbert making those sustained runs in Indy, then all the speculation as a veteran of free agent talk. I was on the air in 2019 when the question was, Paul George is marooned in OKC. Where is he going? And for years, we've been talking about Paul George coming home to Southern California, going to the Lakers and he winds up on the Clippers. So with a five-year sample size now, who is Paul George pushing 35? Well, the good thing if you're a Sixer fan is you don't need him to be much more than a third complimentary talent with your merges this year of Tyrese Maxey, who also got paid today. And that was a foregone conclusion.
He was not going anywhere. And Daryl Morey, the GM of the Sixers, proving once more that intelligence matters. And I'm not that into data-driven analysis. I got into sports because it's fun.
I like to talk and math is not my friend. But Morey is next level in terms of seeing around corners, mapping things out in advance. And the whole point of the moves he has been making over the last 18 months was to get to today and throw a boatload of cash, over $200 million to the best available free agent. And undeniably, why I don't think he's a sensational player anymore and never was transcendent. And I'm not bashing Paul George. Very good player. Excellent career.
At the same time, has never even played in the NBA Finals. And maybe I have some location bias because as mentioned, I'm here in Los Angeles. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen. You can be a part of the show at 844-204-7424.
Hit me up on the X. B.W. Weber, Weber with two B's. If you are more interested in LeBron James talk. In fact, if I read the research, I should have found a way to talk about LeBron prior to nine minutes into the show.
We'll get there coming up in 15 minutes. There are more reports, quote unquote, let's just call it what it is, rumored innuendo that Klay Thompson may be willing to take less to come back to Southern California. Even casual fans should know the connection between Klay and Lakers. After all, father Michael, part of the Showtime dynasty and has been a long time radio broadcaster and part of the Laker family for decades. So I'll give you the details coming up about LeBron and Klay because George now established as a member of the Sixers going to set a lot more in motion.
Klay's next up after Klay, we get the slim pickets because it all candor. While I do get excited to talk about this stuff, this is not your typical marquee free agent class as reflected by the headliner being Paul George. As I was talking about, since I'm here in LA and I love hoops, I watch a lot of Clipper games. I think the Clippers are a better watch most nights than the Lakers because we know what the Lakers are. And even with LeBron and Anthony Davis, who for the majority of the year were both healthy, remember, go back and look. And to LeBron's credit, load management is not in his vocabulary.
They combined to play over 140 games. And what did that get the Lakers? A playing opportunity, and they got their behind kicked by the Nuggets.
Quick sidebar. What are the Nuggets doing? And I realize for many of you, and if I'm just going to throw out the initials, because we got SGA, I'll get to SGA and Paul George coming up, but Contavious Caldwell-Pope, while he may not move the needle that much, as we saw throughout the Celtic run, an example comes to mind of say, Derek White.
There are going to be games when your superstars are just not in their normal flow, and you're going to need somebody to emerge. KCP has been that kind of glue guy on two championship teams. Lakers, you can hand them an asterisk if you want, and we can have a separate conversation on a podcast about what happened at the bubble in Orlando. They won the championship, KCP part of that, and then he backed it up with a second title in Denver. And here are the Nuggets saying goodbye to complimentary players in recent years, like Bruce Brown and now KCP, who I think is a wonderful pickup by a young emerging Orlando team led by a superstar in the making, Apollo Bencaro, and good role players like Jalen Suggs. Denver standing pat for some reason, other than maybe they feel like we won the title. That is not that demanding of a fan base. I'm not bashing my friends in Denver, but it's not a cauldron like Philadelphia, who had to make a move, and that move proved to be Paul George. Now, if you want to push back on how meaningful the acquisition of Paul George is going to be in Philadelphia, you would point to the fact that the Clippers did virtually nothing with him.
I am aware they made the conference finals in 2021. I'm also aware we're not talking about arm wrestling. This is not tennis.
This is not me versus you. It's a team concept. Unfortunately for the Clippers, when you build a team around Kawhi Leonard, and I remember that George was the first acquisition, but when Kawhi came to Los Angeles, he became the centerpiece of still a star-crossed franchise. When you get into the Kawhi Leonard business, you have to factor in his availability is always going to be in question. Kawhi hasn't done anything wrong.
Unfortunately, he's just made of glass. He's always hurt, as we saw again this year, at the worst moment, heading into the matchup against Dallas. He had the cameo first round against the Mavs, but even as Kawhi stayed healthy for the majority of the year, the Clippers were still just the five seed. And I know you could say to me, hey radio guy, Dallas was the four seed. They made it all the way to the finals. Remember though, Dallas radically different with the moves Niko Harrison, their outstanding GM made just prior to the trade deadline, picking up PJ Washington, picking up Daniel Gafford and the emergence of the rookie Derek Lively.
That was a very different team March, April in the playoffs than they were for the first half of the regular year. But in my estimation, the Clippers felt like they had maxed out with this current core of talent. And it goes to show when Steve Ballmer, who has more money, we're just talking about net worth on paper, but it's a good piece of paper. Ballmer has more money than the other 29 owners in the NBA combined. And the Clippers obviously came to the organizational conclusion that they just were not going to go to a fourth year for Paul George because they've seen the results. Now, some of this comes down to a more draconian on a big word Monday, a more punitive salary cap.
I will not get into separate conversations about the second apron, but you're hearing really boring legalese just to boil it down. The NBA wanted a team like the Clippers who in the past could spend whatever they wanted to, as long as they're willing to write a slightly bigger check for the luxury tax, well, it became a lot more punitive with this new collective bargaining agreement. And the Clippers had to make, even with an owner, with unlimited resources and economic decision, and they decided to move on from Paul George. If they had given Paul George the fourth year and they could have given him more money because it still works that way, if you sign with your existing team, you get the kicker. If the Clippers wanted to remain partners with Paul George, he would still be on the roster if they had given him the fourth year. They also decided they didn't want to do business with the Warriors because we could have gone down the always exciting sign and trade route.
None of that happened. So the Clippers for once showed financial responsibility. They held firm at three years as their best and final offer, and Philadelphia stepped in.
So where is Philadelphia now? Well, if you're Paul George, here's the only problem with trading places from the Clippers to the Sixers. You've joined another team led by a brittle superstar, and I'm a massive fan of Joel Embiid. Love everything about him, enjoy what he does on social media.
The trolling, he gets it. I like the personality, and he is a generational talent when healthy. And unfortunately, you are what you consistently do for Embiid, as we saw again this year with the knee injury. And to his credit, he came back in time for the playoffs, but not nearly close to 100%. That's going to be the X factor always in any reasonable analysis of the Sixers. But let's play the hypothetical when healthy game, healthy Embiid plus the emergence of Maxie and George pushing 35, in my mind makes them the second best team in the East. Now that's not a sizzling hot take because remember the Knicks, and I love what the Knicks did, picking up Mikhail Bridges last week, locking up OG, not an OB, and I'm a Nick fan at heart.
I do my best with the over enunciation to disguise the New York accent, but occasionally the passion bleeds through. And maybe that's why I get negative talking about the Knicks because I've seen them lose consistently getting back to 1973 when I was four years old. The Knicks were a wonderful story this year and will certainly be better next year with another year of cohesion with that group. But my reaction to any team is show me your superstar and I'll show you the path forward. And Jalen Brunson has maximized his abilities, but he can't carry a team. And that's not a knock on him.
That's just the reality. So we're just looking at collection of talent. Yeah, Bridge is certainly an upgrade to the starting five, but Philadelphia now with George moves ahead of the Knicks. Remember the Knicks were 14 games back of the Celtics. If you're just looking at the differential top seed, the two seed in the East, widest margin we've seen the NBA since the merger with the ABA in 1976.
Boston clearly still the favorite. I think we're all overlooking Milwaukee. I know why they were one and done in the post season.
However, and I got issues with Doc Rivers like the rest of you. I remember watching Doc time after time after time after time with a playoff series on the line, even with a 3-2 lead, you know the rest of the story, but you give me Giannis and you give me Dame when healthy, that's been the problem for Milwaukee the last two post seasons. Giannis suddenly dealing with injuries at the worst possible time. I'm not going to bury Milwaukee. It would just be absurd and foolish that won the title a few years ago, but the East now suddenly has become a lot more interesting.
If you care about the view from Vegas, because I realize everything now is gambling driven, the Sixers jump up to be right there behind the Celtics with the Nuggets, who I think are being overvalued, but Philadelphia now has the second best odds to come out of the East behind the clear favorite Boston with the chance now in my mind to establish what would pass as a modern dynasty if they could at least go back to back remember with the finals couple years ago against the Warriors. So in no way am I minimizing the impact of what the Sixers have done. I'm just saying let's pump the brakes and have a realistic conversation about Paul George and where he's at now in his mid-30s. Now he's not going to be asked to carry a team and in many ways if we're just going to come up with central casting, he takes over the James Harden role without the baggage. The Clippers got what they were looking for out of Harden by having him have to deal with the incentive of being a model citizen this year. We did not mention Harden once, at least I didn't as a fill-in guy on a lot of national shows. He kept the weight off. Now I guess that he's signed the new deal and can put the meat suit back on, but as we continue I want to have a little bit more of an examination of what the Clippers are thinking now and where do they go from here because what is a team that is always going to have to deal with the fragility of Kawhi Leonard and potentially now a little bit more mercurial behavior from James Harden due in a western conference that legitimately has a dozen teams vying for the top eight seeds and we'll talk a little bit about LeBron coming up but first since I mentioned the second apron if I'm thinking aprons it's going to be a very contrived segue and I'm thinking barbecue on this holiday week I'm thinking about my friends at Weber no relation I wish if I had Weber grill money maybe I wouldn't be working as much so a reminder and by now you should know it is the perfect time to fill the grill and fire up the party get the Weber shear wood pellet grill smoke roast and sear all on the same grill go from low and slow on smoke boost mode at 180 degrees all the way to high heat sear at 600 degrees it's got a full great sear zone so you can put more food on the flame food will look as good as it tastes this grill is hot in just 15 minutes clean up super easy you'll cook on two levels at the same time so you can make enough for everyone you can add a heavy duty rotisserie or rust resistant griddle insert get fired up for your new Weber shear wood pellet grill I'm Ryan Weber looking for your phone calls at 844-204-7424 coming up now in 25 minutes we'll get to the NFL a major ruling by a jury handing down their verdict in a civil court matter late last week could impact the very fabric of the NFL and I'm not going over the top on this one final hour we'll talk about the dysfunctional cowboys suddenly now beefing over a podcast so a lot of football on the docket as well but straight ahead we'll maintain the NBA dialogue I mentioned a little bit of LeBron in passing so we'll dig deeper because after all he is the king so LeBron has already gotten his podcast co-host a job his son a job and according to reports he's actually willing to leave some money on the table we'll put it all together and pose the question what is next here in Los Angeles just getting warmed up on a very busy Monday always a delight to keep the chair warm for rich and the guys I'm brian weber in for rich this is the rich eisen show this rich eisen show podcast is sponsored by progressive insurance whether you're driving cooking or doing laundry progressive knows the podcasts you listen to go best when they're bundled with another activity much like how their progressive home and auto policies go best when they're bundled having these two policies together makes taking care of your insurance easier and could help you save two customers who save by switching their home and car insurance to progressive save over 775 on average that's a whole lot of savings and protection for your favorite podcast listening 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fit your ride every time or your money back because with ebay motors you're burning rubber not cash with all the parts you need at the prices you want it's easy to make your car the mvp and bring home huge wins keep your ride or die alive at ebaymotors.com eligible items only exclusions apply see ebaymotors.com welcome back to the rich eisen show radio network ryan weber back with you and i'm sitting at the rich eisen show desk furnished by granger with supplies and solutions for every industry granger has the right product for you call click ranger.com or just stop by 844-204-7424 the number to call the conversation never stops on x bw weber weber with two b's and my last name coming up in 15 minutes and i will have better clock management as i went super size with that monologue we lost morgan spurlock too soon that was my homage 15 minutes from now something happened in a courtroom in southern california late last week that increased the probability now i feel like it's a lock and also accelerated the timeline that we're going to get to an 18 game regular season much faster than many people forecasted that's coming up so nfl fans stay with us also getting into the cowboys continuing to put the fun and dysfunction coming up in the final hour of the program just over an hour from now let's call it 70 minutes because i know during a holiday week you want appointment audio we'll talk some baseball in entertaining fashion i am not reading box scores but we'll take you around the bigs as we get closer to the all-star break and the trade deadline at the end of the month remember folks it is july gotta pay the man he wants his rent even if you're heading to the beach later this week we'll cover it all with joe sheehan of the joe sheehan baseball newsletter i did not find a way to talk lebron extensively in the open although i probably should have i know how it works especially as a fill-in hack play the hits my man just go for the bright shiny objects but candidly there's not much to talk about with the lakers because they don't have much catch space now it is the time of the year when the mba insider army and there are now hundreds of people on the internet claiming to be in the loop but we know in hoops it comes down to two people it's woes and shams both are getting both are getting the same information from team lebron who perhaps i think is now having a degree of humility at least in terms of the spin that after getting the coach he wanted the gig almost primarily because lebron likes hanging out with jj reddick if you watch the podcast they enjoyed chopping it up drinking red wine and talking ball then he backed it up by getting his kid a job and look i have no problem with helping out family members to me it was just so unseemly the way team lebron choreographed and engineered this for years the lakers could have signed brawny james as a free agent because that's what he quote unquote deserved to be with the full knowledge that deserve is a loaded word and i live in the real world i get that nepotism and privilege matter hey i wish my late father had more juice in our industry and i could have been born on third base as opposed to hustling and i'm the luckiest guy in the world no complaints don't get me wrong here but the optics of brawny and let's also not forget this young man had cardiac arrest a year ago i am rooting for a success at the same time in part because i work for the now defunct pac-12 and we'll skip that ramp for a long time and i went to grad school at usc i saw him play a lot last year he's not even in the neighborhood of being ready to be an mba player best case as he continues to work and everyone says he works very hard and that is admirable he's not gravy training off his old man but he averaged five points on a terrible usc team but this was a tribute to lebron and one more accolade that is emblematic of a career unlike any other beyond that the lakers still have to round out the roster now i don't want to be a hater i don't want to be drinking the hater aid dalton connect is a very good pickup that rob polinka stumbled into i couldn't believe he was there at 17. if you don't follow college basketball the way you used to i fully understand i know it's not 1993 and we're waiting for live look-ins of march madness from greg gumball but connect is a big time scorer led the sec in scoring and that's exactly what the lakers need because given the parameters of an aging lebron james who one of these years is going to be mortal and he's defied every other baseline of a career path in the history of professional basketball but at some point the cyborg in him is going to wind down and when your second best player unfortunately has a checkered pass filled with injuries there's a reason why derisively anthony davis is called street clothes you better have a third option now connects not ready to be that guy but he's a much better option than say austin reeves who was never projected to have the kind of impact he's had for the lakers but that just reflects how poorly constructed this roster is so everything you're hearing from woads and shams right now is by design it is a relationship driven sport so don't be surprised if you continue to hear the chatter that lebron is doing all he can to recruit clay thompson now would clay make the lakers that much better yes because they don't have a legitimate third option and i am not going to thoroughly bury clay just yet and i don't want to romanticize what he did in the past and what a remarkable big three that was and just from the standpoint of nostalgia it's a shame he's moving on from golden state but the fact that the warriors won't budge financially should tell you something that they realize it's time to start a new chapter and now it's up to clay to figure out what matters to him at this stage of his career does he want another ring to prove that he can do it without stephan draymont if so go to dallas dallas is in a terrific spot because i mentioned their outstanding gm nico harrison has done the work very quietly the deal to send tim hartaway jr who was mia and perhaps by design in the nba finals kid just wouldn't take him off the bench but the jettison him to detroit created the salary cap space necessary for dallas to give clay a offer that will not be insulting and you keep hearing two things lebron has picked up the phone and he called clay at 601 eastern not a second before because that would be tampering okay i'm sure clay felt gratified but lebron quote unquote taking lest is fantasy basketball right now because even if he wanted to he couldn't based on how the roster is currently assembled for that mid-level exception to open up and lebron leave 15 to 20 million dollars on the table to pay someone like clay thompson first the lakers have to make another move like the mavs did exiling poor tim hartaway jr to detroit the nba's new version of siberia based on that debacle of a season last year so let's slow things down in terms of okay well clay thompson is hopping on a bird heading to southern california to put on the purple and gold like his old man a lot has to happen and probably the first thing that would have to come together is the lakers trading d'angelo russell and i am not a big russell fan at all but at least you know what you have there and he is limited but if you're asking him purely to be a distributor and play just a little bit of defense you know based on his track record what he can do for you and he doesn't break down too much physically so is it worth now having to come up with new options at the point guard position i realize lebron has everything funneling through him but do you want to mess with the chemistry of an already broken team in my view to pick up clay thompson who is a shadow of himself physically who like paul george is 34 years old all of these guys this summer are old george clay the mortar rosen chris paul is 140 years old and somehow finagled another year in san antonio so for all of the spin room histrionics and all of the chatter out there let's just see what rob polinka does i think a lot of this is smoke we're going to find out more the substance behind it but now that paul george is on his way is on his way to philly we're officially on clay thompson watch watch watch i'm brian weber infra you can slide in at eight four four two oh four seven four two four hit me up on the xbw weber weber with two b's we'll get back to the mba to start our number two straight ahead i promise some football and i want to live up to my pledge since courts are in the news today if you know what i mean why did a ruling late last week from a civil court jury turn the notion of an 18-game regular season into virtually a done deal we'll tackle that next i'm brian weber in for rich monday edition of the rich eisenhower 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 and you should too you should go look forward to making new memories this year by going to a ball game using game time the authorized ticket marketplace of major league baseball which makes getting tickets faster and easier prices on the game time app actually go down the closer it gets to the first pitch so you can wait to buy your tickets with killer last minute deals the all in prices feature you get to see how much everything is before your purchase views from your seat you know exactly where you're getting your seat and the view of the field from it their lowest price guarantee of course that's game time takes the guesswork completely out of buying mlb tickets download the game time app create an account and use my code eisen for twenty dollars off your first purchase terms apply visit game time.co for restrictions again create an account redeem my code eisen for twenty dollars off download game time today last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business Shopify is there to help you grow Shopify helps you sell everywhere from their all-in-one e-commerce platform to their in-person POS system Shopify's got you covered Shopify helps you turn browsers into buyers with the internet's best converting checkout thirty six percent better on average compared to other leading commerce platforms and sell more with less effort thanks to Shopify magic your AI-powered all-star what I love about Shopify is how no matter how big you want to grow Shopify gives you everything you need to take control and take your business to the next level Shopify powers ten percent of all e-commerce in the US and Shopify is the global force behind Allbirds Rothy's and Brooklinen and millions of other entrepreneurs of every size across 175 countries plus Shopify's award-winning help is there to support your success every step of the way because businesses that grow grow with Shopify sign up for a one dollar per month trial period at Shopify.com Westwood one all lowercase go to Shopify.com Westwood one now to grow your business no matter what stage you're in Shopify.com Westwood one I'm Bryan Weber in for Rich Eisen and the guys all week long I do want to hear from you phone calls available 844-204-7424 phone calls taken selectively so if you want to get through your best opportunity to be a part of the program is to head over to the X platform I don't work for Elon we can still call it Twitter tweet at me BW Weber Weber with two b's we're 15 minutes away from easing our way into our number two of the program we'll get back to the NBA talk now that Paul George is headed to Philadelphia what are the moves that will follow probably Klay Thompson coming up next feels like Klay also strategically would like an entire day in the news cycle to himself let's not forget we're dealing with alphas with massive egos and I think egos and self-esteem and some bruised relationships are part of what's going on with Klay and the Warriors we'll talk about that coming up hour from now we'll say hello to our first guest talking a little bit of baseball Aaron Judge continues to destroy the balls of the Yankees have been scuffling in the last couple weeks and now in a tie with a tremendous young team that won the division last year in Baltimore hanging tough despite the massive payroll disparity between the Orioles and the Yankees around the bases with Joe Sheehan JoeSheehan.com and the Joe Sheehan baseball newsletter and if you are a baseball fan you know on July 1st July 1 in the accounting world because we're going to talk about dollars and cents y'all it is Bobby Bonilla day yes the Mets as only the Mets can figured out well let's not give him all of his money now with the buyout let's structure the payments from 2011 to 2035 Bonilla every July 1st wakes up and smiles because about a million two hits his direct deposit 11 years left and just under 12 million dollars still to come although not to get too nerdy on you if you have a chance let's say you actually actually win the lottery take the money up front because a dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow with inflation and interest and now I've taken the show to a really boring place speaking of money we'll do this briefly because there are football consequences that are significant massive story late Thursday and I realize a lot of you check out heading into what feels like a holiday week so by the time you got to Friday if you have the summer is here mindset you were not following the news and this week I know will be even more challenging that's why I'm here to hopefully be entertaining but I know Rich hit on this briefly before he went on vacation a jury here in Southern California as I come to you from our lavish studios in LA found that the NFL has to pay 4.7 billion dollars in damages based on the distribution of out of market Sunday afternoon games on the old Sunday ticket that was DirecTV before the move happened to YouTube owned by Google 4.7 billion is a lot but what's not being discussed enough although friend of the program Mike Florio pointed this out and I did not rip this off from Mike if you're gonna follow me on Twitter or participate in the program BW Weber Weber with two B's I tweeted this now I'm getting self-important here minutes after the verdict was reached and I trust lawsuits have the added damage that if someone is found to have been violating the old Sherman antitrust act the damages are tripled treble if you want to get really nerdy so take that 4.7 billion times three right now unless the judge sets it aside or the NFL wins on appeal they're gonna fight this thing all the way down the line right now the bill the NFL is on the hook for is 14.39 billion billion and even for the robber barons that are the owners running the most profitable sports entity of all time that is more than a speeding ticket that is real money so how does that impact you well you might be getting a check if you were a subscriber to DirecTV and that's over two and a half million residential subscribers businesses like bars also could be getting a payday because as of now they were found to be overpaying based on the antitrust violation the NFL went through restraint of trade again we're getting really wonky here but what's this mean to you as a football fan well I think most of you would agree more football is better right I have reservations and I'm not trying to be a contrarian I'm not zigging when the world zags my life is fine without Thursday Night Football in fact I like Thursday Night Football as a hybrid product when it would roll around mid-season I don't need football Thursday all day Sunday and Monday and I know half of you saying hey fill-in guy you're out of your mind so I'm in the real small minority here my problem with Thursday Night Football is even when they goose the schedule the games are terrible because the body is not suited even with the remarkable training standards of today's NFL players they get in a car wreck every Sunday they need the rest and recovery time but to chase billions of dollars the NFL pushes them back out there on a Thursday think about the challenge for the road team why do you think these games are crappy so frequently but I realize I'm yelling to myself so if you want more football this jury just gave you a gift because if you've been paying attention Roger Goodell has not even been subtle in talking about his goal to get it to an 18-game regular season and he has spun it as only the face of the league could and I'm going to tread lightly because I know where rich works and where I used to work but we're not on NFL network today and this is my opinion I'm Brian Weber in for rich to say that it's better for the players to have an 18-game regular season because they don't have to waste their time on a meaningless now third preseason game remember the model quote unquote is 20 games currently three exhibitions 17 regular season games and somehow player safety is going to be okay even with an 18-game regular season because we'll expand the rosters and that's the only way this is going to have a chance to get not as much pushback from the NFL PA who has lost at every turn head-to-head against the owners but that's the carrot that the league's going to throw out there in addition to a Bobby Bonilla like payday everybody gets another game check not bad I'll take it but do not tell me in any logical world that adding another regular season game somehow has the same credibility as saying oh we're all about player safety because you're talking out of both sides of your mouth but given this massive hit for now might be knocked down as soon as later this month by the judge or could be found to be way over the top or just a wrongly decided opinion by the jury this could all go away on appeal but right now with the owners having to pay let's just call it 14.4 billion dollars where are they going to recoup that money expand the regular season so it was not a coincidence that Roger Goodell had been talking about this I'm not saying that they predicted this outcome I think the NFL is so arrogant in many ways and has been victorious in the courts so often they're probably blindsided by this decision they probably just thought we've won virtually every case that we have contested think about the old USFL trial in the mid-80s the NFL was found to be a monopoly breaking antitrust laws but the jury was so confused they set the damages at one dollar treble the three hoping the judge would get involved and figure out the right amount and the judge did nothing so the NFL has a reason to be this confident because all they do is win win win as you like to say in the club so even if they had forecasted for this rainy day scenario style the fact that they've already been driving the train for the 18-game regular season to get even more dough and start the season on Labor Day like they used to and wrap it up on a three-day weekend to own another holiday by going all the way to President's Day with the Super Bowl as the centerpiece while those plans have been in motion for a long time now from my amateur legal view I'm not pretending to be a legal scholar especially today all this does is turn what felt like a proposal that was heading in that direction now into basically a foregone conclusion so if you're jonesing for football I hear you I'm not a fool despite some of the words that come out of my mouth football is the heavyweight champion of content and I'm rooting for team content I don't care about the teams I grew up with I bashed the Knicks not just as a knee-jerk reaction because they've given me a lot of material even with their very shrewd moves as of late but if you can't wait for training camps to roll around I've only got three more weeks to get there and you want more football this jury just pointed you in the right direction I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen getting set for hour number two of the program we'll get back to the NBA and we'll talk some baseball with Joe Sheehan of the Joe Sheehan baseball newsletter you can slide in at 844-204-7424 Weber in Verizon on The Rich Eisen Show
