Chris Mannix: Championship window is closed on the Clippers

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Stop busting up my flow. Earlier on the show ESPN college football analyst Robert Griffin the third. Coming up senior writer for Sports Illustrated Chris Mannix.

Plus your phone calls, latest news and more. And now it's Rich Eisen. Now number three of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air back from our dark week with a vengeance and I don't know what that means. But we're back.

We had a great week of resting up and getting ready for the second half of our sports season. 844-204 Rich is the number to dial right here on the Roku channel. This Rich Eisen Show terrestrial radio affiliate. Sirius XM Odyssey. Tune in and more. We're all over the place. There's our podcast. We appreciate everybody. Check out our three hours of our show whenever you want to listen to it. And of course there's our YouTube channel for anything that you may miss.

Go ahead and please follow that. As well as all of our social media feeds. We put out a ton of good entertainment related material on our Instagram and TikTok feeds over our dark week and we can't thank everybody for taking that in enough. There was a quite a smash hit some of our stuff and we greatly appreciate it. 844-204 Rich number to dial. Joining us here to kick off hour number three in person with an outstanding NBA Jam t-shirt on is our friend from Sports Illustrated and Dizzone Chris Mannix. Good to see you Chris.

I've got at least 10 of these maybe more. And it's a Gasol versus Siakam. But it's it's not Paul Gasol. No it's Mark Gasol has been retired for a couple years and Pascal Siakam who is now a member of the Indiana Pacers. So it's a it's a vintage NBA. If NBA Jam is already vintage this is a vintage vintage NBA Jam t-shirt.

Vintage times two. Yes. All right last time we spoke with you we we knew LeBron was going to stay. We sensed it he is and Paul George is now a member of the 76ers. Let's take this one at a time. Why am I seeing LeBron's decision to stay being viewed as a pay cut?

Why am I seeing that? I mean technically it is. How so? By a couple of million bucks. Really it's a bookkeeping pay cut right? Like the Lakers because there are multiple tax aprons under this new collective bargaining agreement and when you cross a certain tax apron it becomes significantly more difficult to do deals. So not only does it cost you a little bit more money it you know shrinks your ability to reshape your roster. So LeBron in taking a couple of million bucks less on over the lifetime of this deal keeps that Laker Laker team under the first apron which allows them to potentially make deals during the season. So he is giving the Lakers a little bit of wiggle room by giving a little bit of money back. So he's giving a little bit of money back and the ability for some wiggle room.

What are they going to do with this wiggle room? It's hard to say because look the dust has largely settled on most of the deals in the NBA. When I talk to league executives now the name that comes up most often is Lowry Markinan in Utah. The Jazz may elect to move off him and there are several teams that are terrific player man. Terrific player and I think the Jazz knowing Danny Ainge when you have a property like Lowry Markinan and several teams anxious to get their hands on him to keep up with this arms race that's going on specifically in the Western Conference you're in an advantageous position. The Knicks got five first round picks in exchange for McHale Bridges. I would imagine that or right around that is the starting point for the Jazz with a trade for Lowry Markinan.

So people are talking about Markinan. Markinan has nothing to do with the Lakers. The Lakers are not getting a player of that caliber. What could happen is mid-season players break free circumstances change and the Lakers now have a little bit of flexibility in terms of what they can do according to the collective bargaining agreement with some of their draft capital and with some of their movable contracts that they could make a deal around mid-season. So the Laker team as currently constructed heading to the the thick of the summer season this is the Laker team we're going to see for J.J. Reddick in November. I think it is what it is Rich. I mean I think look they were clearly more determined than most thought to not trade their draft picks and if they were going to trade their draft picks it had better be for an elite player.

A guy that could fit their their mold long and short term. Like Dijante Amari was someone that a lot of people around the league expected the Lakers to make a run at. They really didn't do that. They didn't make a run to try to sign Klay Thompson in the off-season. Klay elected to go to a team that was more championship ready in the Mavericks. But the Lakers don't want to just deal away picks into the 2030s and that's what we're talking about. We're talking about picks the Lakers would trade into the next decade that will hamstring them and their ability to build the team moving forward. So the Lakers you know they decide to sit sit back you know a lot of people are high on you know Dalton Connects. You know rookies don't generally make a big impact in year one at least.

So the team we saw last year with the Lakers is probably going to be the team we see this year. Well I mean when Dalton Connect got drafted you want to go ahead and say what you were thinking when Connect got drafted? I thought I meant Reeves is out because isn't Reeves being asked for in trade offers? He's being asked for. The Lakers from what I've been told have been pretty resistant to dealing him.

Look he's what 25, 26 years old. He's a part of their long-term future as well. The Lakers just don't want to sacrifice that just to get you know maximize one or two more years of LeBron James. They'll do that if it means getting back an elite player but not a Zach Lavine.

Not a De'Jaunte Murray. They need more than what they would just consider I think a lateral move. So look Connect look it thought my what I love about the draft just in general is that we went into the draft most people saying it was garbage. Same with one of the worst drafts we've had years.

Now that it's over everybody's going to help. Everybody's going to be an impact player in this team. I think Connect is obviously he's obviously a shooter. The fact that he's what 22, 23 years old means he's more likely to be ready to play right away but when guys fall that far you start asking around people are going to point to his defense and saying you know yeah how much can you play him if he's not going to be a strong defender. That's where he's got to prove himself.

I think his offense is going to be pretty good right away but if he can't defend and you're putting him out there with D'Angelo Russell and some other guys that aren't elite defenders as a team you're going to run into problems. Chris Mannix Sports Illustrated here on the Rich Eisen Show. Let's move on to Paul George. Podcast P spilled some tea today that rhymes. That's great. I listened to that on the way in.

It was phenomenal. On his podcast right. So let's take it I guess a step at a time. He's not on the Clippers now. Why?

Why? You know look Paul George on his podcast gave one side of the story right. Like the Clippers have not confirmed anything that he said but there's reason to believe that Paul George is telling the truth.

I'm not sure why he would brazenly lie at this point. What he said was last October he was offered a two-year 60 million dollar extension that he deemed I forget the word he used insulting just not not the right right not the right kind of offer. When Kawhi Leonard signed his three-year 150 million dollar extension in I think it was January February. Paul George said I would have taken that deal that exact same deal if it was offered. The Clippers according to Paul George never offered it. When he got to the offseason and Paul came off a great season 74 games 20 something points per game his efficiency numbers were were terrific. He's was as valuable in you know this past week when he hit free agency as he's ever been in his career. He says the Clippers came and offered three years 150 but given that Paul George now had some leverage because he knew Philadelphia was sitting out there he said okay I'll take the three years 150 but you have to throw on no trade clause in the Clippers said no he said okay give me four years at 212 the same deal that the 76ers were offering Clippers said no so why did they say no well the Clippers have been we talked about the aprons just a moment ago with the Lakers the Clippers have been watching that as well and they have got some big contracts on their books Kawhi just signed a big deal and if they had signed Paul George in the coming years they would have been deep into that first or or second apron so they wanted to be able to increase their flexibility so they wanted to try to get Paul at something of a discount Paul wasn't having it and look sometimes you roll the dice in these situations Paul George by turning down the extension in October he could have gotten injured he could have had a bad year but he had a great year and he had one team out there in Philadelphia that he knew was always going to be out there with that type of deal so to me I it feels like the Clippers kind of blew this a little bit because now they're stuck with a team that as I look at the Western Conference it feels like the Clippers are a playing team right like and that might be best case scenario I mean Kawhi Leonard was having an MVP year last year before he got injured in the second half of the season right but he always gets injured James Harden another year older what can you expect from him and now the talent around those guys is kind of you know ish that's the thing I'm just stunned about that we're talking aprons for a team owned by a guy who could probably who's got the money if if the fifth apron was you know Saturn right I mean so so why would he with opening a new building and the Lakers are still the Lakers in this town and the Clippers having an opportunity to hang on to somebody who again you know we're waiting for Paul George to have that playoff moment where he just puts you on the back and he starts dominating in a way be honest with you like Luca we did at times this this playing playoff season Anthony Edwards I could go on and on Jalen Brown we haven't really seen that from Paul George now you could sit here and say well that's not his role that's not you know that's not the the team that he's been on or built but we just you know that's what somebody wants to command 50 million a year that said he's your guy who else is out there you're looking now into the abyss of being a playing team I'm stunned that they're like sitting here talking about well the apron would be this for bomber really aprons it's not the money right like Steve Ballmer is the richest owner in NBA history like the richest owner in all of American North American sports right credible but everybody in the mix it is a question of look the NBA in its last two collective bargaining agreements yeah has done a fantastic job of legislating these big spenders out you know the last six years there have been six different NBA champions and that is what and that is partly due to the fact that the NBA is not allowing teams just to spend their way to success and it's not just the Clippers that are facing this look at the Denver Nuggets the last couple of years how many veterans have the Denver Nuggets lost because they don't want to spend into these aprons you had two years ago you had Bruce Brown you had Jeff Green this past year Contavious Caldwell Pope he goes and signs with Orlando every team in the league is faced with these specific type of issues the Clippers they can obviously afford Paul George and you make a good point they want to have as talented a roster as possible going into this new building down the street but if you start spending all that money all of a sudden you start hamstringing your ability to make other deals that can build a kind of winner around your team now I'm saying that but I'm agreeing with you they should have spent the money they should have offered Paul George the exact same contract they offered Kawhi Leonard back in January and if it came to it this summer they should have said fine four years 212 we'll deal with the fallout later because by doing that at the very least you'd keep that window open for Paul George and Kawhi Leonard to win a championship now right it is closed and probably closed forever Chris Mannix here on the Rich Eisen Show what about the idea that the Warriors were gonna acquire Paul George what I mean he mentioned that on his podcast today what what reporting might you have on that front yeah this was something that was discussed at length over the last week or so once it became clear that Paul George and the Clippers were not gonna get on the same page the Warriors made a very aggressive push to get Paul George via sign and trade they couldn't sign him out right they don't have the cap flexibility they made some offers you know they've got Andrew Wiggins contract they could make it worth they got some good young players Jonathan Kaminga I think was the most appealing one he was offered to the Clippers I don't I don't know that he was offered I think that the he's the one guy in that Warriors mix that they won't hold on to understandably so yeah he's kind of got all-star star written all over but ultimately they couldn't come to an agreement you heard on Paul's podcast he was disappointed by that like Paul is a West Coast guy yeah he played in Indiana he played in Oklahoma City he resigned in Oklahoma City but he is a Palmdale California Southern California guy if at all possible he wanted to find a way to stay on the West Coast that's why the Warriors were his preferred destination but once it became clear that the Clippers just weren't going to accept any of the stuff that Golden State was offering again he knew Philadelphia was out there Philadelphia has one shot at spending all this money one chance to blow through that 50 million dollars they are the Brewster's millions of NBA teams just out there trying to spend what they had to spend and you know Paul George ultimately even though he probably you can say we're certain Philadelphia wasn't his first choice he ultimately wound up signing there huh all right so then let's talk about the Sixers how's this gonna work what do you think I think it's gonna work pretty well okay you still have to worry about Embiid's you know physical condition right he is the linchpin to all of it that being said I mean I've talked to enough people around Philadelphia to make me believe that next year I don't want to use I hate using the phrase load management but I think Joel Embiid's gonna be load managed right he won his MVP he's got his individual accolades his contract is not in question I think he's going to be load managed well so that he's healthy or try to keep him healthy going to the playoffs Tyrese Maxey we saw take a huge jump last year he'll probably take another jump this year and I think Paul George as a third option makes a lot of sense even if he's only getting the same looks that Tobias Harris got with that team he's gonna make more of them and I think Paul George as a playmaker is better than Harris and without the pressure of having to be the man without the pressure to give you 2025 have the ball in your hands down the stretch I think he's gonna thrive in that role and some of the deals the Sixers have made after that Caleb Martin that's a great pickup they've had a few other guys Eric Gordon around the fringes that they've been able to to add to that mix I think they've got a very very good team that should position them right now to be number two in the east behind Boston so when does Maury get P.J. Tucker when does that happen P.J. Tucker wants out so you know hey listen can't quit him no but but in all seriousness I mean you see Paul George going to the Sixers you see Bridges going to the Knicks obviously what I guess DeRozan going to the the Kings that's a that's a neat pickup right there right who am I missing here Murray goes to New Orleans another team that's not done yet they've got to deal with Brandon Ingram and like there's some contractual issues there I don't think they want to full max him out Ingram smartly is looking to get that full max contract but that's where they stand right so the reason why I'm kind of going down this list here is I'm trying to see where the celtics from their ivory tower got shaken over the last week I don't think they did um look the Knicks made a bunch of moves designed to compete with Boston they got a bunch of wing defenders Bridges might be if not the best one of the best wing defenders in the NBA that they did that but you know of all the guys they they signed they still have their starting lineup still only has four all-stars or four all-star bids on the team and Julius Randle's got three of them so like it's still a team that may lack some of the offensive firepower needed to succeed at that level love Philadelphia but want to see them play first celtics brought their top nine back and they're all they're all like we just talked about the problems Denver's had over the last couple of years right re-signing guys the celtics right now don't have that problem a couple years from now maybe that's going to come up but Jason Tatum back on a new extension Derek White back in the new extension all the core players under contract for at least the next couple of years this is the celtics window right now I mean I mentioned 16 and three in the postseason rolled through everybody in the eastern conference yeah there are probably western conference teams that could give Boston more of a fight than Dallas did I think Oklahoma City what they did Alex Caruso getting him uh via trade uh you know getting uh they just uh trade for the big man just uh getting someone to play alongside Chet Holmgren right I think is uh Isaiah Hartenstein sorry yeah so Josh Hart gave him a little bit of business on the uh on the old gram too those nicks they love to just talk to each other right over and over but like getting getting Hartenstein and getting Alex Caruso those are moves designed to keep up with Boston Caruso great wing defender Hartenstein great rebounder they were one of the worst rebounding teams in the league last year so they could probably give Boston more of a run but right now the celtics you made them favorites before the off season started their favorites again I think as the dust settles yeah and then you know with Grusbeck goes ahead and signs everybody and then puts the team up from for market that's fascinating how that played out here's here's the way I look at it though Chris is good for him as opposed to like you know what uh I don't want to you know make this franchise well you know I I don't want to um I want I want as much as I can get for this franchise and I don't want to put all this on the books so somebody will say I gotta pay you less for the franchise because look how much money you just jacked up the cost of owning the franchise instead he's just like screw it you know like I'm gonna make the right moves for this team I think how many how many businesses do you see that skim the fat if you will before selling because they can make more money you know I don't disagree with that though why this team is being sold is still I'm still not entirely clear because in the release it said in the first paragraph that the group that what Grusbeck is the face of yeah was selling for family and estate planning and Dan Shaughnessy the Boston Globe wrote something recently and he kind of reported on some of the stuff you've been hearing for the last couple of weeks the family ownership group Wick's father actually owns it seems like he actually owns a bigger chunk of the team H. Irvin Grusbeck and he's I believe in his 90s at this point so when they say family and estate planning it strikes me that maybe it's other family members that are more interested in selling the team now than Wick is look you have listened to Wick over the last you know year or so he on multiple occasions he has said the team is not for sale if you watched him during the parade like that does not look like a guy that's eager to get out right now so yeah everything you're saying is true like financially right now it makes the most sense to sell because the the value is probably going to be well north of five billion might even crack six billion I would I would think so too it's going to be a big number so you sell it at that level and you avoid paying the luxury tax in the years ahead but it my read on it now is that it's more about other family members about dad saying I'm 90 and I'm it's time that telling his son it's too bad we're cashing out family like that it's time to to sell the team uh because again I just don't never got the vibe off Wick that he was ready to get out of owning the Boston Celtics why can't Wick just buy out his dad it's a lot of money man this is why I got I say this all the time like people talk about everybody wants to be an NBA everybody wants to buy an NBA team how many individuals have that net worth right now or can even raise that type of money it's six billion dollars like that's a lot of cash to have to put up for these NBA teams that's why I brought up last week like the potential of a casino magnet coming in and buying the team you just saw the Dallas Mavericks sold to the Adelson family and they bought the team in large part because whatever Texas legalizes gambling they want to build a resort casino somewhere in that Dallas area with the Mavericks as a as the centerpiece of it in Boston which is not a huge gambling you know area there is a stone's throw from the Boston Garden uh an encore casino right down the street in the town called Everett which is right next door could a casino magnet that it's owned by the win could a casino magnet like someone that owns the win or involved with the win step in and say we want to buy the team we're going to build an arena right there and all of a sudden we're going to drive business to our casino sports gambling in Massachusetts is open for business like it is it's a thriving industry so I I think that that's uh certainly a possibility keep an eye on Terry Benedict I think is love a good Terry Benedict reference very good before I let you go uh what is the story of summer league the what do you got is there one brawny is it really I saw the espn.com front page had brawny on it for the entire day basically that was amazing I'm I'm two points I think in there two shots I didn't I didn't bring it up I mean my my two cents is just like 55th overall pick on brawny who cares go ahead you know you're for marketing purposes for LeBron happy purposes for the kid is hearing his name called purposes you know who cares what what does it matter you know and and he winds up playing down the street here in El Segundo for for much of the year here's my only question I mean fine yeah why did he get so much guaranteed money I mean second round picks do get that if you you know they just don't get the fanfare often that the brawny's they get five million guaranteed yeah I mean look a few a several others signed it I can't remember their names on my head but they signed for around that it's like a three-year guarantee and then partials moving forward the question that I have about brawny and that I'll wonder as his career moves forward was it smart for him and his team to strategically place him in LA remember they only worked out for the Phoenix Suns and the LA Lakers Bob Meyers the former Warriors general manager was on television during the draft saying that rich paul the agent for brawny james was calling teams saying do not draft him if you do he's gonna go to Australia so they believed which I don't even know if that would even happen but they believed that the best place for him was in Los Angeles playing for the Lakers and playing with his father certainly there are reasons that would be a good thing but there are also reasons that getting the hell out of there and playing like Oklahoma City or Milwaukee or Orlando make just as much sense get out of the fish bowl that's going to exist in LA because even if if brawny spends his entire year playing for the South Bay Lakers the median scrutiny is still going to be intense still gonna be a lot of people watching and the second he every time he's in that Laker locker room people are going to be in there watching him when he's on the floor with his dad watching him I mean he can do whatever he wants and clearly they thought this was the right thing to do but I wonder if playing in a far-flung far away market would have been a better call I don't know I mean but and you may be right but my opinion is that's their family decision like they I don't know that did and and is it if even if it is our business to even wonder about it because what you know what do you think that LeBron's sitting down and saying Bronny this has been decided for you no you know what I mean so so the kid wants to play with his dad maybe and he's grown up LeBron's kid he's probably used to fish bowls he's probably used to all that and if he's sick and tired of it wouldn't he speak up and say dad I you know I it is a dream but you know hopefully maybe you play four or five more years yeah because I'd like to go start off on my own then rich paul would be telling teams you know outside rich paul would probably say to Bronny where do you want to go because we'll pull the Australia gambit to send you there too I don't know like what's wrong with with that there's nothing wrong with it right I'm only looking this specifically as as Bronny the basketball player what is the best situation for his development and you make a great point that he has been in a fish bowl his entire life and I thought LeBron said something really astute recently like how many kids that grew up with the advantages that Bronny did turned out to be like it had the kind of work ethic you needed to have to become an NBA player right like and he's looking he's not like blessed with the same kind of physique that his dad is he's six two right he is an average size for for a basketball player so he had to work to get to the level where he would be even considered to be an NBA draftee so I give him a ton of credit for that I just wonder as you're trying to just simply focus on basketball right can you do that in this type of environment that's my only question about this going in and and you're heading to the Salt Lake the under publicized Salt Lake City Summer League who's there Philadelphia Utah staying at home Memphis and Oklahoma City okay yes and so the four of them play there as opposed to play three days they go to Vegas too everybody goes to Vegas as well but this is kind of where it's a little quieter than Vegas still the same people there but very good yeah I will look for your reports from there sir okay thanks for coming in here good to see you and let me know when you're back in town you got it that's Chris Mannix everybody right here on the Rich Eisen show we'll come back your phone calls 844-204-rich number to dial Chris is going to the airport we all know about the speed of sound but have you ever thought about the sounds of speeding if you drive over the speed limit there are lots of different sounds that you might hear drive too fast and you could hear the sound of your vehicle crashing the sound of ambulances and first responders desperately trying to free you from the wreckage you could hear the beeps of a heart monitor you could hear doctors and nurses in an emergency room as you're being treated for your injuries you could hear the sound of worried family members in the hospital waiting room hoping to hear that you're okay you could even hear the sound of people crying at a funeral because if you drive over the speed limit whether by a lot or by a little you could do damage that's beyond repair you could seriously injure yourself or worse you could hurt and even kill someone else when you speed you put everyone on the road in danger one way or another speeding catches up with you paid for by NHTSA 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 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strictly what's called an ar assistant referee so i'm the guy who runs on the sideline with the flag i thought ar meant a whole rest well that's what the shorts are pretty short too i mean they're stocked in life right there look at that ample thigh that's ready for that's ready for market so uh i want to smoke that for a couple days you guys want to slice put some hickory around it you know what i would genuinely love for you as a second career if you ever decided you want a second career finally be a broadcaster be like someone who's calling color right rich maybe you could give me a break i mean that would that would boost ratings for whatever sport you were talking about what if i took over the rich eisen show ron burgundy did help announce the national curling finals in ottawa canada and they had all these ads for tim horton's coffee which is a big coffee chain for our canadian listeners and i just kept saying all this signage i'm like who the hell is tim horton who does he think he is is there any possibility that we see a stepbrothers sequel we haven't never talked about this uh face to face in public no we haven't let's break some ground here uh are we gonna do stepbrothers too i don't think so yeah i don't think it's gonna happen either that's what i thought yeah put up the photoshop anyway you make sense in that world somehow rich yeah makes sense makes sense back here on the rich eisen show radio network 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 fun chat with uh with manix right there i like it yeah honestly let me just say it one more time because the brawny mania will take center stage over the next few weeks because it's summer league action absolutely no i the last year the nba summer league was when is when be playing let's see what it gets let's see what he looks like and scoot and the rest of the big name draftees and let's see what the kids look like when we can first see it this year there's really just not that much heat as a matter of fact the big college basketball story that with nba ties to it today is ucon announcing dan hurley has signed a contract extension six years 50 million bucks so that's 20 million fewer dollars on a six-year deal than the lakers offered and dan's going to stay put that's how much it was worth to stay in connecticut if you want to put a figure on it it's 20 million dollars he gets to stay put his family gets to stay on the east coast he keeps his options open for the future maybe for a better job in the nba that people say the lakers are not like the next okay or the celtics if that comes around maybe either or he gets to keep his options open and he gets to potentially etch his name which is what you have to say in the history books next to john wooden as a three-peat coach so that's the story so clearly it's lebron and brawny it's going to be brawny and lebron what is brawny doing in summer league play what is lebron doing in the olympics that's what we're going to hear about over the next few weeks in the world of men's basketball so let me just say this why do people get so upset that the lakers drafted brawny james if they did it for his dad who is clearly a very important employee fine nepotism let me tell you something about nepotism in los angeles california it never happens hold on a second i'm being told that's not the case this time it wouldn't exist are you kidding me in this town nepotism how do next thing you're going to be telling me there's gambling in casablanca i'm shocked in this town nepotism nepotism exists everywhere how many and sons businesses are there in this country in this country exactly who cares what what why does anybody care that lebron got his way again he's in charge of the lakers because lebron's so polarizing this sounds like so many people get it this thing on lebron who it cares i have like and it's just like well again chris manix just left here and it very well intention of him saying for his development as a basketball player it might be better for him to have gone someplace where there isn't this fishbowl there isn't this glaring spotlight on him because his dad is here well that place might not exist without this well let me just say this i mean do you think he sat down brawny and mapped it out with rich paul himself or do you think lebron mapped it out with rich paul and told brawny this is the way it is i'm playing with you uh i i i i mean you're you know i mean we don't know and i think what people the issue is is that we're not fools so to have both these guys come out and say oh we never talked about it we never thought about it and then rich paul is just telling people to not draft him because he's going to the lakers it's like dude we're not idiots so then so then i can stop lying to us all right so if if the if if that is the reason why there's pushback or gears grinding is that you know you're you're being rained on and being told it's a different liquid that you're being rained on by than the one that you can sense that you're being rained on now his son is doing it's like come on man so so i i i hear you but but the whole other concept of it like that he's taking up another roster spot for somebody it's the 55th overall pick we've already been down the road here who are the other 55th overall picks who cares and there will be a moment this fall where brawny steps on the court and either gets an assist from his dad or he assists his dad and that'll be pretty freaking cool it will be cool and and like people don't think brawny's good or he deserves it whatever guess what in a couple of years he'll be out of the league because he's not good enough then then and then we'll all go on with our lives yeah so be it who cares uh i i don't under that that is just the way i view this thing i don't care like i said so many people have this this lebron is so polarizing right no i get it and that's what it is half the people love them half the people dislike them for me personally no one's ever been under the microscope in sports like lebron james has and that dude's pretty much handled himself about as well as anyone could like chris i know you have issues with things he says and does but there was no blueprint for a 16 year old on the cover of sports illustrated being told you're the next great thing like one how could that not go to your head and two like he actually did it he's 16 we're saying this guy could be the greatest of all time and he did what was predicted of him that's pretty amazing and he did so without really a whole lot of you know right no midnight calls about where's lebron no no scandals about him for the most part the guy's under a microscope he can't do anything without someone having a to comment and an opinion on it and let's just put a button on it this way too the alternative would be lebron isn't as good as lebron currently is and the lakers are keeping him around and paying him a cap hamstringing amount of money just so he can play with his kid and the hopes that lebron could capture that fountain of youth again and be as good as lebron currently is and he's not worth the contract that they signed that would be now now i would understand why people are like oh god what are the lakers doing but it's just the kid was there he wanted to play with his dad we're assuming his dad wanted to play with the son we're assuming never been done okay it's never been done before it is not the first draft choice it's not like they passed on dalton connect to do this right who cares headline and what if he turns out to be patty mills and plays 15 years okay at that 50-50 there you go see those are two things one good point two tj keeps his notes from two weeks ago right there in front of him other 55th overall picks that's right well done tj it's not a game rick it's not a game it's not a game for fun well it's well actually it's not practice this is the game actually let's just this is the game i do this for fun actually yeah okay let's take a break 844-204 rich we'll sneak in some more phone calls and i got a top five list top five underrated difference makers of the nfl season coming up let's talk all riley auto parts people you love their jingle you're gonna love their friendly helpful service even better because they're in the business of keeping your car on the road and the parts knowledge they have it's all you need for your maintenance and repairs they've got thousands of parts and accessories in stock either in store or online so you never have to worry if you're in a jam the team at o'reilly auto parts can test your battery for free in or out of your car if it needs to be replaced they'll find you just the right battery for your vehicle need your windshield wipers replaced a brake light fixed or quick service they'll help you there and find the right part or point you to the nearest local repair shop for help the professional parts people at o'reilly auto parts are your one-stop shop for all things auto do it yourself and you can find what you need in store or online so stop by o'reilly auto parts today or visit us at o'reillyauto.com that's o'reillyauto.com e i s e n o o o riley auto parts it's kickoff time and believe podcasts are here to get you ready for the season he wanted to change the culture and he wanted me to be a part of that with believe you get immediate reactions game previews and expert analysis from all 32 teams plus all of your favorite college teams he's just rare in just about everything he does sideline to sideline end zone to end zone this was good for everybody just search believe that's b-l-e-a-v podcast wherever you listen again we didn't create ellie de la cruz mania we were just on it we were early as soon as it started early yeah all of us early hoppers on the bill absolutely if that's anything to be guilty about as charged love him okay uh another thing to love about him is he learned english this off season or began to because he wanted to make sure he could converse in our native language here in the united states um and apparently though this is how great he is you want to talk about multiple tools apparently he's now learning japanese as well and here's the reason why i'm learning japanese today to to talk to joy really yeah i don't know if i'm gonna learn but i'm trying yeah a little japanese there you go it's amazing so dr show he wants to talk to showing when they're at the all-star game together pretty cool right of course a little too late to have headed the old interpreter thing off the pass for show a you know it would have been very nice if he had been nice gotten up to speed a little sooner like he usually gets up to speed but other than that i just love this guy man everything everything about him he's striking out a little too much right now for my taste it happens i know i think he leads the majors but then he gets on base he's like ricky henderson out see ya boom see ya he will honestly he gets on he will steal right does he have 40 something right now it's awesome he will steal the bigger bases baby i told you don't think it matters absolutely does pitch clock and i don't think it matters a bigger basis did you see ellie went out i can't remember which one of his teammates it was i want to say maybe fernando cruz i'm not sure but he went and did a post-game interview with him just to make sure he was his english was okay back with uh the rich isin show right here we're talking about ellie de la cruz in our commercial break um eight four four two oh four rich is the number to dial right here on the program uh all right uh where we're gonna go here what do you want to what do you want to do here chris i know which one i'm gonna choose which one do you want to do let's do the pats let's do it buccaneer mike in tampa florida what's up buccaneer mike i love it go for it what's up buccaneer mike oh where are you oh no buccaneer mike you've been hanging on for an hour and a half you there buccaneer mike doesn't sound like a pats fan i know which is why i wanted to take him i put him back on hold put him back on hold i'm so sorry i don't like uh let's go to mitchell in new orleans let's go to new orleans louisiana what's up mitchell how are you hey rich how you doing what's going on with you today mitchell oh man i'm doing all right you know just trying to beat the heat how how bad is it there oh man it's 95 every day around here okay crazy humidity now mitchell mitchell in new orleans um i don't know if anybody did this while i was out of the chair with susie because i don't have anybody here in my win-loss booklet wanting to play the win-loss game for the saints is mitchell the first christopher he would be the first all right let's see if the saints are going to be as hot as the weather currently in new orleans louisiana mitchell let's go in new orleans islands opening up in the super dome against the carolina panthers what happens that's going to be a win okay and then you're at the dallas cowboys all right all reference to tj they're going to lose that game all right let me stop the one and one home for the eagles now you know this is going to be the turning point of this season rich early in the year if they beat philadelphia they can do something but i don't think they are that's going to be a law oh bad turning points one and two against the falcons at home you're gonna win oh they're at atlanta okay the two and two at the chiefs on a monday night that's a loss home for the buccaneers they always lose the damper at home four they're two and four home for the broncos with sean paton coming back into the house he's gonna lose his homecoming all right three and four at the chargers that's a loss three and five at the panthers we're going to win them again four and five home for the falcons that's another win yeah no matter how bad a season they may have you're going to sweep the falcons mitchell you are a die-hard man uh five and five home for the browns that's going to be a win all right six and five off the buy with a three-game win streak home for the rams that's a loss six and six at the giants that's a that's a win seven and six home for the commanders that's a win eight and six at the packers on a monday night yeah that's a loss eight and seven home for the raiders that's a that's a win yeah derek carr's not losing that one right right all right um and now uh at the tampa bay buccaneers we always we're gonna we're gonna beat them there and lose here so that's a win all right that's a 10 and 7 season that that might be a wild card mitchell it might be yeah either that or uh that coach is gonna lose his job i can tell you that i hope so anyway um you know it's kind of like a little gumbo right there a mixture of excitement and optimism and pessimism and uh bitterness it's kind of that's a nice little gumbo you got there mitchell that's the cycle we go through down here you know mitchell don't lose this number please call back thanks again thank you that's mitchell in new orleans did i get that right 10 and 7 yep all right one two three four five six seven eight nine ten and seven i like mitchell he had a little steven dorf vibe but a little cajun dorf yeah okay cajun dorf you wanna write that down ready to roll on the rich eisenhower steven dorf agent took a guess on that one that's a good one by the way what was that one's a label but it's ready to roll but i couldn't see all right very good cajun dorf do you want to do my top five out the door let's go all right hit it top five hit it high five one two three four five richest top five you know what i'm gonna do a top five on nfl top five every day this week i'm just you know what i'm making this stuff up as we go along a great idea why not football season's right around the corner top five underrated difference makers of 2024 we're not talking about these guys we should be a little bit more number five is the running back got a couple running backs on this list green bay packers josh jacobs can make a big difference folks and that's what they said with all due respect to aaron jones what if this guy who who led the league in rushing two years ago and um obviously got hurt last year but maybe just wasn't rushing to come back knowing that he wasn't rushing for the raiders anymore i don't know what if that josh jacobs from two years ago winds up right next to jordan love and the offense becomes that much more potent and he stays healthy you know what i'm saying you're picking up what i'm putting down i feel you josh jacobs number five on this list number four you know what i was thinking of staying away from rookie quarterbacks because you know um who knows how many you're going to start and who knows you know i'm not going to use any of the top picks here so i'm going bow nix i'm going bow nix right now what if he is sean payton's breeze point o what if this guy who's played i think i wrote it down here he played 3 000 games in college i think that would be a record or something to use a kenny main phrase what if bow nix shows up and is efficient and plays neck up really well and neck down really well super accurate no mistakes and and the sean payton offense comes alive a little bit really possible i don't know why this guy's sneaky i think he's gonna start week one i think he's gonna be a starting quarterback for this team this year and i think he's gonna get 17 games in and i think this is gonna be a nice a nice marriage i don't know why i got that feeling right now could be way off number three we're forgetting about this guy running a football forgetting about it because we're all focused on i guess josh jacobs and saquon i was gonna even throw gus edwards in there too right what if zeke shows up like oh what if zeke shows up like old school seriously and we're all like all in this all in that boy they messed up on derek henry and it doesn't matter because zeke shows back up and you're feeding him and he's 21 of old what about that he changed his number though right is everywhere in 15 whatever i don't i didn't notice it oh is he going back to college i think i think whatever i hope not well by the way he wanted his only championship was in that building someone might already had 21 too you know dude what if what if rich we're not talking about wow we're not making a major difference if he shows up like the zek of old pal all i need is goal line zek right i don't score like 10 12 like jamel williams goal line right i mean who cares franco harris school what if it's between the 20s too oh baby someone's talking about him he's back to 15 number two staying in that state this guy is one of the top sack makers in the national football league and the houston texans added him who's talking about daniel hunter being a difference maker good call how about this guy chasing everyone down for the texans with will anderson in the mix and the rest of that defense the way that they played last year we're all focused on cj stroud second year while this guy showed up no one's talking about daniel hunter in terms of a difference maker he's number two and here's number one on the list nobody's talking about him because nobody thinks this team could do a damn thing in the nfl this year i'm i'm i'm channeling my inner b-man stop chris brockman number one on this list is kylar murray hey i like this kylar murray i like how the hell are they going to play marvin harrison jr how good of a difference maker is he going to be yep we get that we get that but what about this guy having a full off season he's fully healthy if there's any chip on this guy's shoulder i right like where your head's at man and maybe he's looking over the steering wheel and i don't know what his contract is and when the cardinals might be able to cut bait if they're even thinking about that they stuck with this guy you know they stuck with this guy so what if he shows up and he plays like kylar has never played before and he takes a step up how good can the cardinals be they were in every damn game last year but won pretty much we underrated difference maker we're picking on pew pew pew but he's a good coach dude they've they're buying look so that's my name all right sure all right we'll get one and i'll throw this out there because even though he's rated right where he is not talking about him enough he's going to plus this team up oh gosh he's a neighbor across the street jim harbaugh what do you mean talking about him underrated no overrated no wrong wrong wrong wrong everybody's talking about it that's still not enough look at that smile look at him coming back into the national football league he's going to plus the charges up six or seven and yes everybody thinks he's nuts he's crazy he's waking up crazy yes he's staring at the ceiling saying you know what today is it's today we get it jim not talking about him enough he's my one more underrated difference maker are they three and oh home for casey bro bro i might play the charger win loss game tomorrow just because i'm already in i'm drinking the kool-aid yes that's tuesday's show welcome to talkville the ultimate small little rewatch podcast season four i'm glad that it's over i'm glad that it's over um as as we know now that season five is supposed to be one of our better seasons obviously the tattoo storyline you know how i feel about that you were hating that storyline probably a lot of joy because i kept waiting to see how it was going to keep going and then how they would somehow settle it binge seasons one through four of talkville before season five begins wherever you listen