Karl-Anthony Towns: NBA Is Different From When I First Came In

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Reliable. This episode is brought to you by FX's The Old Man, starring Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow. The hit show returns as the stakes get higher and more secrets are uncovered.

The former CIA agent sets off on his most important mission to date to recover his daughter after she's kidnapped. FX's The Old Man premieres September 12th on FX. Stream on Hulu. This is the Rich Eisen Show.

Okay. The news we've been waiting for. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles.

CD lab for year. $136 million extension. $100 million guaranteed. Earlier on the show, Jets defensive tackle Quinnen Williams. Super Bowl champion and prime video Thursday Night Football analyst Andrew Whitworth.

Coming up, Minnesota Timberwolves all-star Carl Anthony Towns. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Our number three of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air.

844204 Rich is the number to dial. Andrew Whitworth is leaving our studio. Carl Anthony Towns is here. Just so everyone understands, I love when this show has multiple in-studio guests and they cross paths. Because I just love bringing people together. I love when guests are fans of the other. And I love seeing them interact.

We call it guest gridlock here on the Rich Eisen Show. And I love it. It's awesome. It brings up the energy of the room.

It's great for us, too. No doubt. And we just, during the break, had Carl come out of the green room and take a photograph with Whit and me in the middle. And I honestly think I'm not tall enough to ride the ride. You know what I mean? Like, if this was Disneyland, I would be turned away from this roller coaster. Shoot, little boy. The kiddie rides are over there. That section of the park.

Yes. Mr. Toad's Wild Ride is that way. Next year when you're older, little fella.

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Maybe next year you'll be 42 inches. It was a small world after all. I know. For me. I mean.

Honestly, I can't wait to post that photo. Rich, you're tall. I'm six foot. Standing up straight.

I'm six foot. You know. Yes.

So Carl Anthony Towns is also wearing a particular jersey that I cannot wait for. I don't want to ruin it. Certainly if you're watching on the Roku Sports Channel, the radio audience, I will describe it and wait to see. No, you don't. We don't want you to describe it.

You won't be happy about it. 844-204 Rich is the number to dial. We'll take a phone call in a second as well. So to start the show, we were talking about the most, I guess, fearsome division, which is the toughest division in football. We had a play-in poll. Did the AFC East beat the South?

Because they were doing that all first hour. It did. I feel like Dolphins fans really kind of tilted the scale. But yeah, the AFC East won 65-35. All right, so then you popped up the new poll.

So then I put up the new poll about a half hour ago. Toughest division for this year. Both Western divisions? The North, both Norths.

Okay, both Norths. AFC East, NFC West. Okay, where we currently stand?

About 1,000 votes if you want to hit the scale there, Rich. Coming in at the last place, the NFC West at 11%. Wow. The AFC East at 15%. Okay. 31%. The NFC North, 43% AFC North.

Okay. I mean, again, that makes sense. Three made from last year and the team that did not gets Joe Burrow back. And as a matter of fact, Andrew Whitworth, when I asked him the team that could prevent the Chiefs from even making a third Super Bowl, he mentioned the Bengals. Quarterback by the only human in the league that's beaten Mahomes in Arrowhead. In the AFC championship game. In a playoff game. Not named Tom Brady. Well, he's not in the league anymore. I hate to tell you. Not technically.

Okay. He's not. He keeps thinking he's going to walk through that door. He's literally going to be at games on Sundays. He's in the league. No, I know. He's not in the league. He's not playing. Hey, emergency quarterback.

Hey, Tom, can you come down here real quick? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That doesn't work. Nope. No one's ever tried it.

Doesn't mean it doesn't work. Okay. So he's going to leave a little baby KK to call the games by himself? He'd take a pay cut.

He'd take a pay cut. Ooh. Well, I mean.

Yes, he's making 35 million. I don't know, maybe. Honestly. Yeah. Let's just say Brady leads the broadcasting industry in APY.

It's an important metric. Quite a bit. You know? Yeah.

Okay. I mean, you could put McAfee on top of Stephen A., and it doesn't even equal Brady's APY. Well, let's wait until Stephen A. signs his new deal. That's true? Yeah, let's wait. That's a good one?

That's a good one. All right. So it is time for us to predict the NFC North.

Oh! Every single day, we predict a division all the way up until our first show in Kansas City next week, next Wednesday. And the NFC East, we predicted yesterday. We're going to work our way all the way through the NFC. Now it's time for the NFC North.

Music, please. TJ Jefferson and I have been so informed you are going first this time around. Yeah, me too. Just found that out, but I'm ready to go.

Of course you are. You know, the NFC North, King of the North. This is a tough division, Chris, as we know.

Real tough. Let's just get into it, man. Coming in at last, number four, I've got the Vikings. I'm just not so sure about the Sam Darnold thing. I do like the receivers. Justin Jefferson's amazing. If Jordan Addison can get it all together, he can be special too.

But I've got them at four. I do like the Bears. I do think that Caleb Williams is set up for success. I just I can't see how that offense isn't exciting. I can't see how if you're a casual fan, you're not going out of your way to kind of check out the Bears a little bit this year, because I feel like there's some special things are going to happen with.

They're going to be a great red zone team, I believe so. And then we got the top two teams and this one was tough. But I keep thinking back to the NFC championship game last year. You kind of forget about it.

Kind of left my thought process until I revisited it. But the Detroit Lions were that close, man. They were that close to go into the Super Bowl. Dan Campbell talked about trusting his guys.

Well, I've said this before. Special teams in the kicker. That's one of your guys. And had you trusted that kicker, you would have been going to the Super Bowl.

And so I think that that close. I think that they're going to build off of last year's success. I think Jameson Williams is low key going to be a stud this year. And I got the lines when in the NFC North Christopher. TJ, we're in lockstep except for the top two. We're going to flip them. I was one year early on Green Bay. I said they would win the North last year.

This is their time now. I'm going Green Bay number one. I love Jordan Love. I love that offense. One bad throw, one bad throw in the playoffs last year. I don't think he makes that. I think it was like he's one bad. It was like his one bad throw, the worst throw of the year.

And I think he hadn't had one like that in probably in weeks. So I think you learn from that. I think Green Bay has really set up new defensive coordinator. I think they're going to be a little stronger on defense.

I like that. I feel like a little bit of hangover from just missing out on the Super Bowl for Detroit. Everything you said about the Bears, I echo. I think this division does get three playoff teams. I think the Bears go 10 and seven and make it. And look, Sam Donald really want that dude to succeed. Seems like he's had a lot of bad luck in his NFL career. You get to play with Justin Jefferson.

That's really cool. Good luck to them. I just think they're the fourth best team in this division. Well, what do you got to do in order to win your division? You've got to have all three phases. You've also got to have momentum.

You've also got to have on top of it some young Turks that are going to lead the way. Packers have a ton of them. Lions, I think, are the real deal. And, you know, I know the Lions got through a lot of firsts last year.

I'm with you, TJ, the same the same breakdown of the NFC North with the Vikings finishing last. The Bears having a nice season, but I still don't believe, you know, I still just need to see. He's still a rookie, man.

He's still a rookie. And I just don't think they're better than the Packers and Lions because they haven't. Defensively, they played together. I just need to see the offense gel a little bit. I don't know if they're going to win any of these road games. The road games in division are Lions on Thanksgiving. And we all know the the Packers in Lambeau is just a tough order for them.

But with the Lions beating the Packers, I know the Packers punched them in the mouth on Thanksgiving last year. Terry and Arnold is really good at football. They added him on the back end of the defense in the draft.

I can't wait to see him and his style and his personality mesh with the rest of them. And I'm just going to say this. You mentioned Jamison Williams as a as an outlier or just stepping up.

Pardon me, not an outlier. I like that. I think that's a good one. Don't forget, he was top 10 coming off a blown out knee last year. All the stuff with his with the gambling suspension or whatever, all that business this year, he's healthy. He's going to be the full freight coming in. Him on Amman Ra is going to be very difficult to stop to the point I'm going to make here. I'm going to call a shot.

Oh, in New Orleans, in New Orleans, Louisiana, Louisiana. I'm not going to make my Super Bowl prediction yet. I will just say this, a name you will hear for offensive player of the year because he will be a finalist is Jamir Gibbs.

Interesting. Jamir Gibbs is going to be an offensive player of the year finalist. He's special. I just hope he stays healthy, man. And I just think he's going to get a ton of touches because he's that special. And we only were scratching the surface last year. That kid, Jamir Gibbs with Amman Ra and Jared Goff, it's time there.

And I don't even mention Aiden Hutchinson, who is just a beast of beasts. So I'm taking the lines to win this division. That's the way I'm breaking it down. And we can't forget David Montgomery is still there. He's still the hammer. I know that.

I just think that hammer is going to be staying in the toolbox a little bit more. Do they get three playoff teams? Did the Bears make it? There were seven and ten. They just got a plus up three.

Oh, man. I just think two are going to make it from the east and two are going to make it from the west. Okay. And one makes it from the south. So that means three could make it from there. Two in every division except the south. That's seven.

Right. So, yeah, the Bears could make it as the seven. They'll be in that mix. I think the Bucks will be in the mix for the seven. They'll be in the mix. I think in the NFC. I think Seattle will be in the mix for seven. I agree with you. I think nine and eight's not going to make it. Nine and eight made it last year. You've got to win ten games this year. I'm with you.

I'm with you on that front. Let's go to Brian in the great state of Indiana. What's up, Brian? You there, Brian? Rich, my man.

What's up? I'm a big fan. I watch every day on the Roku channel as much as I can. Haven't watched every win-loss game but the ones I have caught.

Your listeners have the Colts going 0-17 or 1-15. It's great. Brian's like the disrespect is real. That's amazing. Did you catch your coach on this show yesterday? I don't know if you caught him.

I did not. I can't watch every day. I'm sorry. No, it's all right, Brian. You've got to watch that interview, though, Brian. It's great.

I mean, I was... I'll go back and catch it on YouTube. You do it. You do it.

Or on our collection page to the Roku channel. Hey, brother. I like him. And that RPO game that he did with Hertz and that the Eagles clearly missed him last year, I mean, you want to talk about offense? Like Shane Steichen not being there last year was a million percent a top two reason why they didn't... They fell apart last year.

Yeah, big time. That RPO game with Richardson and Jonathan Taylor is going to be the proverbial bee-otch to stop, to be honest with you. My question to you, Rich, if your listeners and their infinite wisdom are correct, who does Ballard use for the number one overall pick of the 2025 NFL Draft? Or does he do his usual deal and trade that for a plethora of later round picks? Well, I don't know.

I'll ask him the next time he comes on, which is whenever I damn well please, which is another reason why you should watch yesterday's interview, because he had a cameo in it, and I reminded him of that. We've only had two people pick the Colts record, so Brian, are you down? You want to do the win-loss, Brian? I'll do it if you want me to. Let's go. I mean, I don't want to twist your arm, Brian. Let's do it.

Then we'll bring Karl-Anthony Towns out here. Oh, yeah. All right, here we go. All right, I'll do it. Hey, listen, I mean, we don't want to... You don't want to twist your arm.

Since you're like calling everybody else out, you got to put your money where your mouth is, and only Dylan in Vancouver is the only Colts win-loss game we've had. All right, Brian, where in Indiana are you calling him from, Brian? Beautiful. Newburgh, Indiana. All right, sir. Newburgh, Indiana. Is there an H in that? Silent H?

There is. Attaboy. Home for the Texans. What happens? Colts never win. First game opener. That's a loss. And then at the Packers. Packers. That's a loss.

Oh, boy. 0-2. It doesn't really, you know, back your play here. Home for the Bears. I'll give them a win. Home for the Steelers.

Oh, the Steelers. That's a loss. 1-3 at the Jaguars. At Jacksonville.

That's a loss. 1-4 at the Titans. At the Titans.

Oh, we're two pretty good down there. That's a win. 2-4. Home for the Dolphins. Loss. 2-5 at the Texans.

At the Texans. That's a loss. 2-6 at the Dolphins. That's a loss. That's a loss. 2-6 at the Vikings.

Oh, darn it. I'll give them a win. 3-6.

Home for the Bills. Loss. 3-7 at the Jets.

Your defense looking good this year, Rich. That's a loss. 3-8. Home for the Lions. Home for the Lions. Lions are good. Loss. 3-9 at the Patriots. Oh, no.

Who is it? Patriots. No, that's a win. Just move on. Patriots. Oh.

Move on, Brian. That's tough. I'll give them both a win. 4-9 at the Broncos. At the Broncos. That's a loss.

Yeah, you're not too far off from what you were accusing everybody else to do it. 4-10, home for the Titans. Home for the Titans, that's a loss. At the Giants. At the Giants win. And then home for the Jaguars. That's a loss. Brian in Newburgh, Indiana, calling in to call out everybody who calls into this show to give the Colts a loss.

Just played the win-loss game for apparently his Colts and have them 5-12. Brian, are you really like a Texan fan in disguise in Newburgh? No. No, I'm just not. You know, hasn't been good since 2006.

Okay, man. Grigson set us back a good decade. Brian in Indiana right here on the Rich Eisen Show throwing Ryan Grigson. Somewhere Ryan Grigson's walking around saying, what's that burning sensation? My ears are ringing. Well, he started off the call wanting to know about the first draft pick, so he clearly doesn't want them to do well.

Again, the fans who call in for the win-loss game are just like, how dare these people question my Colts ability? And then, oh, really, do you want me to try it? All right, I will. 5-12. What? No, we did what? We did have two people call. We had Cody from Indianapolis who said 10 and 7, and then Dylan from Vancouver said 11 and 6. And now Brian at 5 and 12.

10 and 7, 9 and 8, they feel like, you know, 500. It just depends on Richardson. Can he stay healthy and can he develop? Dude, I mean. By the way, let's not forget, Jonathan Taylor only played 10 games last year.

We all know he's. They're banged up. They've gotten the injury bug the last couple of seasons, so. All right.

They have Flacco, though, so you know if Richardson goes down, I mean. Well, yeah. You need that, man. Steps right in. Bombs. Yeah. Come back player of the year.

Can anyone win Comeback Player of the Year two years in a row? I don't see why not. Nah, I don't think that's possible. That's not a bad idea.

I don't think that's possible, is it? I am I am you know, I got the the rundown for the NFL Game Day morning season preview show next Tuesday night, 8 to 10 Eastern. And they're asking us to predict every award, including Comeback Player of the Year.

And as you know, this year there is a ton of candidates. But how do you not like it's it's between Burrow and Aaron Rodgers, whoever plays better, right? Right. Yeah. Aaron Rodgers, since he's 40, coming off an Achilles. Or Kirk Cousins.

Or Kirk. Yeah. Yeah. Kind of a three man race.

You know, guys who are over 35 coming off of an Achilles. Yeah, totally. Right? Yep. Sam Darnold too. Well, he's got again, coming back from the bench.

Again, coming back from the bench. They're kind of telling voters not to do that. Is that what who's telling them that? That was kind of a report.

Just because I would I would try and give credence to that. But the Associated Press still in my 22nd season of being with NFL Network doesn't give me a vote because I am an employee of the NFL as if my three hours a day here. Every single day for five, well, not every day, but for every single five, five days a week here for on 10 years on top of 21 years of having my own voice on NFL Network does not give me a vote. There's a lot. Just looking at the odds, Rogers and Burrow have the same odds. Kirk Cousins, five to one. Anthony Richardson, Nick Chubb, Daniel Jones, Kyler Murray, JK Dobbins.

I mean, there's a ton, right? Yeah. Tank Dell, Deshaun Watson only played half the year last year. So there's a lot going on with the comeback player of the year. It'll be either Rogers, Cousins or Burrow, whichever quarterback plays better. Right.

Whatever team makes the playoffs out of those three, they're going to win. And the crazy thing is it's possible that somebody can win MVP and comeback player of the year. That would be something. So let's take a break. Carl Anthony Towns is here coming on out here on the Rich Eisen show from the Minnesota Timberwolves repping his NFL team as well. That's next. Oh, look at us.

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Simple, affordable, reliable. Back here on the Roku channel. Look who's here. Rocking his Jalen Hurts gamer, Carl Anthony towns of the Minnesota, New Jersey's finest. So you were born there. Is that where you? Yes, I was born there. I was born there.

OK, look at you, man. It's great to see you. Great to see you. Well, while we were off the air, I was saying I'm just so happy to be off the Zooms now with Rich. So I know you're zooming together and now you're physically here.

Do you spend much time in Los Angeles or what? You know, in the off season I train here and actually we actually work out the same gym when he was playing. So I actually got to see him training for his seasons and stuff. OK. So it was pretty cool to be able to see him again. So how many.

So anyone else who works out with you has to adjust the seat? I imagine. There's a lot of cool dudes that work out of Proactive. Who else is there? You know, for another Eagles player, Cooper, who just got drafted. Cooper, did you? Yeah.

OK. So super happy to see him in his draft process. And who would have thought he would end up at the Eagles with us? So pretty cool.

Aaron Rodgers and a couple other guys to that. So Rodgers coming back from his Achilles, you would be working out alongside him at some point? Yeah. OK. For a couple of years now. So it's been cool. I was coming back from my knee for the playoffs, so we got to spend time together rehabbing, I guess you could say.

Well, that's cool. Trying to get right. What do you guys talk about? Anything? I mean, sports or just nothing?

Life. He's a very thoughtful guy. So definitely tapping into the wisdom in his thoughts. I love hearing people and the way they think and the way they comprehend things and be able to adjust to things and for him to be one of the best NFL players we've ever seen and see how he's recovering back from his surgery and everything. It was really cool to be able to watch a legend get back to being a legend.

Yeah, that's pretty cool. So look who's here. No zooms. Zooms are a thing of the past.

No, they're done. Right here. We're here on the Roku Sports Channel back on the Rich Eisen Show radio network. I'm sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry.

Grainger has the right product for you. Call clickgranger.com or just stop by the first overall pick of the 2015 NBA draft four time All-Star from the Minnesota Timberwolves. Carl Anthony Towns is here in the studio and it is great to see you. It's great.

And for the radio audience that just rejoined, he is rocking a Jalen Hurts Philadelphia Eagles jersey. Yes. Come on. So now you are from Edison, New Jersey. Yes.

Which I know being a Staten Islander. Okay. So you're pretty much like right across, you know, the way. Yeah, it's right. It's right there. Yeah, for sure. You go over probably the outer bridge and then you keep going a little west and you ride to Edison. Yeah. Normally that's Giants country or Jets country.

I already know where you're going with it. You normally got to go much further south in New Jersey to find an Eagles enclave. Why are you an Eagles fan? I mean, just like you said, I was the oddball in my neighborhood for wanting to be an Eagles fan.

Yeah, for sure. When I was younger, I had watched the Giants play, obviously the Jets play, but I was young and I was impressionable at the time and I think any young kid could speak to the same fact and any adult could speak to the same fact. For me, watching Torrell Owens, Donovan McNabb, Brian Dawkins, you know, Brian Westbrook, you know, play out there and do some amazing things and also to have one of my favorite players of all time, Torrell Owens, on the team, you know, it just made me a fan.

It made me a fan at the right time when I really was looking at football, I wanted to play football. They wouldn't allow me to play over there. What do you mean?

New Jersey. They wouldn't allow me. They said I was too young for peewee. I was too big for peewee, but then I was too young for Pop Warner football.

So I felt like this purgatory of not being able to play football. How tall were you as a peewee? Really?

Yeah. So you were tall really early in life. I was tall right out the gate. Worked out for you though.

It did well. Being tall worked out. Yeah. It still is actually working out for you.

You know, hit your head on the, you know, the door or something like that, but my job is pretty good. So you were falling in love with the Eagles right around when they were in that Super Bowl against Tom Brady and the Patriots. Absolutely. That's 21 years ago. I know. Don't mention it.

No. I feel old. Dude, that was my first year on NFL Network. Really? Or full year on NFL Network.

Yeah. Hey, I'm trying to get 20 years of service in NBA. You already got the past 20.

I'm a past 20 for the NFL. That's a blessing right there. Yes sir. No doubt about it. This season. Can we give him a clap for that?

You're a good giver. So yeah, I mean, that was, you know, the McNabb, T.O. and that's when we learned things were not very hunky dory between the two of them. You know, when I was young, I didn't really care. I know.

I know. But you love T.O. He was your guy? Oh, I love T.O. When I went to T.O. a couple of years ago, I watched him play basketball at a men's league.

I was just randomly coming through and I was like, oh, we'll watch. And it was like cool to see like someone as a child that he was such like an idol of mine. He was such a, he was bigger than life. And to be able to see him play basketball, the sport I play at this age now, it was pretty cool to like have a full circle moment. Well, cause his, his performance in that Super Bowl on that ankle.

Yes. He almost shouldn't have, he should have played really now that I'm in the situation. What he did in that Super Bowl is one of the greatest performances you can, you can see for a receiver. And that's, that's, that, that's not an exaggeration.

No, it was one of the best things I've ever seen it. And just because you knew New England was going to shut. That's the vaunted Belichick thing is taking away the one thing that you do best, you know, and he still killed it. How good is he as a coach?

I mean, come on. No doubt about it. He's really good as a coach. No question about it. Shout out to him in time, man. So, uh, so T.O., but T.O., you know, definitely considers himself a hooper.

That's for sure. He does. He does. He, he was hooping too. I, I will say I was at the game. I almost saw one of the craziest poster dunks I've ever seen in my life at that game. I wish it would have went in, but it didn't, but I can say, oh, it was kid jumped. He definitely had, he had it. He just missed it. He just dunked it too hard. Hit the back rim, popped right back out, went to half court. Rich, I'm telling you that may have been one of the craziest dunks I would have seen on person and, and the crazy part about all of this, T.O. was the one blocking it.

He went up for it. So he would have been posted. If it would have happened, I would have felt part of my childhood would have just disappeared. It would have just been like gone in the wind.

That would have been so bad. When was the first time you dunked on someone? Ooh, uh, third grade. Don't say third grade. I would probably say, I don't remember exactly, but I know that I first started dunking like seventh grade.

So I would probably say eighth, ninth, I probably had finally got something. Like middle school games. You're just dunking in games. When did, when did you, in a way he does, he wants to, he's too humble. When was the first time somebody from college showed up knocking on your door young right around then seventh grade? Yeah, it was younger. I just, I had younger, I had garnered national attention for playing basketball. I was part of a publication. I think we all know, you know, Scholastic Kids. Of course.

Of course. That's like the best thing when you're a kid. That was like the magazine. Oh, certainly while I was being scared out of my wits about what the dentist was going to find in my mouth, that was the, that was the periodical of children's dental plans. That was like the publication. If you were a kid, you were always looking for that publication. Locked in.

Yes. And I was, I had got cool to be on a, have a story done and a cover done for it. So I was cool to be in school and be able to show all my classmates like, oh, we're going to read this, this cover story about me. And I'm like young.

And that happened, I think at third grade. So I had some attention. I had some hype, but I think it's all shout out to my dad. I think my dad was selling me like a, like a blank CD with a deluxe version. He was telling everyone.

It had every song on it. So you're in middle school and colleges are knocking on the door. I was definitely getting interests. I definitely seen some AAU games.

I had saw some faces I was seeing on TV, so I didn't know if it was truly for me or not, but I knew that I was having some sort of attention to say the least. Carl Anthony Towns here on the Rich Eisen Show. Give me your favorite Anthony Edwards story. Come on now. Let's go. Recently or over time?

Any time. Because I mean, every day I feel there's a new story that comes up. That means there's multiple. Yeah. Every day from me.

Your favorite Anthony Edwards story. What do you have? I got a lot. That's the problem.

I know. Go through your mind. What's family is friendliest. I say, I'm going to go, yeah, right.

I got to be the family friendliest concert. I would say recently, I can't remember off the top of my head, but I say recently what was funny. Uh, I think we all saw about Ant with playing the ping pong game against Team USA ping pong. So we have our group chat and I texted our group chat. I said, look at this man always talking about confidence, talking about, he went from I'm a beat him to that I'm going to get a point. I was like, what happened? There's a huge discrepancy right here, beating them and getting a point. Yeah. And I was just laughing.

I was like for a man who's super confident in himself and I love every time that he exuberates his confidence, he damn sure took it back from winning the game to getting the point. Well, let me again, cause I'm, I'm just surfing into this story cause obviously I didn't know you were going to tell it. I will just guess this. He doesn't get a point.

No, no, no, no, no. I'll just guess this, that he definitely went to Paris thinking he could beat somebody that he must have, like you must have a ping pong table somewhere or where he feels like he's that good. Right. He's like the guy like on the road, he's, he's the type of guy who's like, come on, let's go find a pool table and let's play pool and he want to play pool for hours. Like just strictly just playing short. And I'm sure he's that way with ping pong or whatever. He's that with any, any type of sport, anything that has a competitive side to it, he wants to play.

So it makes sense. I bet he went to Paris thinking he could definitely beat one of these guys and then he went to Paris and laid eyes on them and goes, I'm going to downgrade this to a point. I think so.

I really think. I think that he went there with the confidence of like, man, I played ping pong just like these people. I can't say what he was, you know, I, Hey, I'm gonna go do this, man.

I could go get a beat them easily. And then I think he saw them, saw the, you know, the little polo, us a little attire and stuff. Saw him hit a couple of ping pongs was like, hell nah, they're serving with the, with, with the paddle. And they come to a ping pong table and does this with the ball.

I already know. I'm in trouble. That's like getting in a fight with someone. They start stretching. Like you already know you in trouble, you for show in trouble, pulling up the pants a little bit.

Like those pants come up. And you remember that show, Kevin Hart came on. He was like the short dude. He was getting out of the girl.

He goes, Oh man, it was a real husband to Hollywood. Yes. Yes. Oh man. Now, you know, you in trouble, man. It's like stretching. You know, it's over. You had a bad time.

You might as well go get the ice packs ready for that. Oh my God. Yeah. But it does seem like he has just confidence. He did an interview his rookie year and he was saying how, whatever it is, he's the best. And the interviewer was like hockey. He goes the best at daddy goes throwing trash into the, you know, throwing paper into the trash. He was like, he would be like the best baseball player and A-Rod was right there.

And they said, what? So you're better at A-Rod? He says, who's A-Rod? It's just a guy who's, you know, in the Timberwolves front office or attempting. We'll see that.

Right. Rich, I do remember there was a video of Ant, uh, he was with his friends and he was throwing a football and he was, I mean, he can, he can, he chucked the ball and Tom Brady left a comment on it and he was like, look, I know that other sport plays well, but you should be playing football. Well, you know, Brady said that to Ant on the TV 12. I love TV 12 GOAT. TV 12 man, stop playing with him, man, you know that and coming through definitely these days, man.

He did it right for his family, he did it right for the A. Oh man. So, cause that was a whole conversation, right? Was that Austin Rivers who started that thing about the football players, football players. And then I remember telling you, I, you ain't going to see me getting no medicine ball going down the middle on the post.

You ain't going to see me doing that at all. Someone today told me, uh, my trainer was like, uh, you could be wide receiver three. I said, shh, I could possibly give you tight end two, maybe tight end three. Yeah. There ain't no way I'm going to be doing that little medicine balls, a red zone. That's it. Heck no.

I'm not going, nah. That's why when we was talking, I was like, man, he's like, there's NBA players who could do NFL. I just don't know if the mentality can transfer over for the NFL. I mean, it's just two different sports, man. And of course, but you know, but it's also absurd to say, well, the NBA is not that physical compared to the NFL because it's not a foul in the NFL to hit somebody. I mean, I mean, imagine the first five yards for NBA player as a wide receiver, hell, honestly, in the NBA, it is a foul to connect with somebody physically more often than not, at least in theory it is, you know, your breath too high. It's a foul. There's a lot of different types of NBA. That's what's going on right now.

No, I don't know. This is fouls, fouls, man, NBA. So it's different. It's different than when I first came into the NBA too.

How is it different? I feel like there was more leeway with the physicality. I think that, you know, they definitely tightened up on the rules and making sure things are handled rightly. I just think when I first came in, you know, I'm with KG and stuff and you're with all these vets, Tim Duncan, Kobe, and you're just seeing the way they approach the foul game and everything.

It was pretty cool. It was different. It's just different. The game has evolved though. So it's not even different in a bad way.

It's just evolved in a different way. Just like when I first came in, we were talking about how awesome the mid range three, the long two was. Now we just getting rid of the mid range shot. It's kind of just threes or layups or free throws.

Those are like the golden shots to take an NBA now. Did you have a welcome to the NBA moment with Kobe or anything like that or KG or any of those guys? It's weird because I didn't have a welcome moment, like you said, with Kobe.

Happy birthday to him too. I didn't have that welcome moment with Kobe because I had played Kobe already in high school when I played against the Dream Team V2 back in high school when it was him, Bronn, Kevin Love, Tyson Chandler. I had played against someone in Dominican Republic national team, Vegas. So I kind of had that moment already was like, wow, I'm on the court with Kobe Bryant and stuff and you get to play and guard him. And I think when I first came into the NBA, I had such a mindset of like, I wanted to impact the league and show my worth and, you know, earn my spot and my respect. So I was so focused on that. I didn't really have that welcome to the NBA moment until later in the season when I finally slowed down a little bit and I'm looking at my jersey in Target Center and I'm like, wow, this really says Wolves 32 towns.

Like I was finally understanding that. I'm a real NBA player and this is not like a summer thing. You know, you play 25 games, let's just say that's a good summer of playing high level hoops.

Right. This is a job. Like you come here every day, you play 82 games.

I'll be honest with you, man, because again, you know, my job is interviewing is to ask questions that I'm curious about and then listen to the answers. And when you said I played against Kobe in high school, I thought to myself, well, wait a minute, Kobe wasn't in high school when you were in high school. And then I thought to myself, oh, God, you played against Kobe when you were in high school. And he was Kobe effing Bryant. Yeah.

No, for sure. With LeBron too and everybody. And you remember in that Olympic trial when they actually went to the Olympics that we were exhibition game. He went to the Olympics. You remember Kobe hit the big shots.

He's doing this to everyone. And it was really cool. It was cool to be able to like watch art be done by the artists in person, you know, like to be able to be on the court having to study, you know, what they do and then, you know, wait for my moment to get in if I ever did. But it was it was a surreal moment to be able to be on the court with these legends and to be able to be on the court with guys that I've spent hours and hours studying and especially took time out of my day and then made the sacrifice to ride bike to John F. Kennedy Library in Piscataway, New Jersey, use the computer access there, get the VHS's, rent them, get the books and just watch their moves and watch how they play the game of basketball and try to implement their style into my style and also keep some of my own flavor there. So you know, you're young and just to be in that aspect, that was the first time I felt like I could make the NBA. And if I had played these guys already now as a freshman in high school, if you gave me more time to mature, work on my game, work on my craft, I thought I had a good chance. So wait a minute.

So you're a ninth grader playing against Kobe Bryant? Yeah, I was. I had no facial hair, Rich. I had the short haircut.

I got my hair cut at Supercuts right before the game. It was crazy, crazy times. Let's take a break and finish up the show with Carl Anthony Towns. Fantastic.

Unbelievable. Don't go anywhere. Carl Anthony Towns to wrap up our Tuesday show in a sec. This episode is brought to you by FX's The Old Man, starring Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow. The hit show returns as the stakes get higher and more secrets are uncovered. The former CIA agent sets off on his most important mission to date, to recover his daughter after she's kidnapped.

FX's The Old Man premieres September 12th on FX, stream on Hulu. The Rich Eisen Show is sponsored by Grainger. Does this sound familiar? You're a maintenance specialist and you've been squaring off with a leaky radiator at your facility for hours.

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Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click grainger.com, or just stop by one of their local branches. So you said Rich has got a lot of four for, right? Back here on The Rich Eisen Show. Here we go, everybody.

We're back here live. Carl Anthony Towns, tell me about the Covenant House in New Jersey and what you're doing with them and the straight clothing brand. Yeah, it was, it's an amazing thing to be able to partner up with Michael Strahan.

Shout out to him too, great suits. Get it done. To be able to partner up with them and give, you know, 15 people there at Covenant House the opportunity to have these amazing Michael Strahan suits and Covenant House does so much and wanted to give them something where they could feel swag, they could feel they could make an impression on people and improve their lives with that suit.

So it was a huge honor to be able to do that. Okay. And yeah, so you're giving, it's donated 15 young men some suits in Covenant House in New Jersey from Stray. Yes.

And what about the dual language documentary workshop? What's that? Real Works?

Yeah, Real Works. It's really cool. So to be able to, you know, for me, I think we all, yeah, I explained I'm Dominican at this point.

So there we go. I've been able to partner up with Real Works to be able to provide the resources and especially the connections needed for these kids who are young, the next great filmmakers of our country and in the world and be able to give them the resources and then the connections they need to make these movies to the best of their ability. And I mean, I've, one of them already won an award. So to be able to have, yeah, to be able to have fellow students of Real Works and come back and teach the next generation. And also while they're making their own work and to see the next generation make some amazing, amazing movies coming out.

I can't wait for everyone to watch it. Over 20 million viewers worldwide of Real Works since 2001 to check out all the works. It's a Brooklyn based organization, realworks.org for all of that and the Covenant House in New Jersey. That's pretty cool, man. And then of course, your commitment to social justice is second and uncertainly.

And in life, forget about just an association and in sports as well. Karl-Anthony Towns here on the program, back on the Rich Eisen Show who was still with Karl-Anthony Towns. I'm going to wrap up the show in about eight, nine minutes time. We just talked on the Roku Sports Channel Only segment that you've donated some Michael Strahan clothing brand suits to 15 young men of Covenant House in New Jersey. Is Michael Strahan aware that you are a Philadelphia Eagles fan, Karl-Anthony Towns?

I think the world's aware. I'm pretty sure. Okay, but that's fine. I will say I am the guy who wore Eagles shoes playing for the Timberwolves in a Timberwolves game and got booed every time I touched the ball in Minnesota. That's hard to do. Wow.

That's a lot of hatred for the Eagles. Well, I also thought maybe, you know, they might've been booing you in Philadelphia because you were wearing Minnesota. No, I was in Minnesota. Okay. I was in Target. Okay.

That's what you're saying. Home game. Home game. You're wearing Eagles shoes and you're booed.

They sell your jersey at the team store. We won the Super Bowl that year. It was worth it at the end of the day.

It was worth it at the end of the day. So I imagine you were, let me just put this together, you were at the Super Bowl in Minnesota watching the Philadelphia Eagles win. I was. I was.

I was with my father, took my mother with me. She got to watch my team win a Super Bowl, get to experience that. I've never had so much excitement. I don't get to be a fan much. You know, I'm always the player.

So it was really cool to take a step back and be completely just the fan. And I never got that experience. Even to this day.

I'm a big Eagles fan, but I've still never been to an Eagles game in Philly. I've always had to watch from far because I'm always working. I'm always, you know, playing basketball. Things don't work out. The schedules don't work out.

Don't align. Correct. Yeah. So for me to actually be at my first Eagles game in the Super Bowl in Minnesota against the greatest of all time and to find a way to come out with a win with our backup quarterback. Come on, man. When I saw Nick Foles retired, I had to put a tweet up. By the way, we had a whole segment on him because of what a career, what a career he had. I know. Amazing career. Super Bowl MVP. And just being a fan, Karl-Anthony Towns, we're going to give you that opportunity.

Oh, God. Because here on the Rich Eisen Show, we play a game called the Win-Loss Game, where we give a fan an opportunity to go game by game, break it down, whether it's going to be a win or a loss. And that's how we find out what their final record is going to be. Are we saying we're all staying healthy the rest of the whole year? This is all, yes, of course. This is all things being, if you will, equal.

God is good. Philadelphia Eagles, Win-Loss Game with Karl-Anthony Towns. No Kelsey this year. Shout out to a legend. That's, of course, and Fletcher Cox as well. Yes. And we're using NFL Films Music, speaking of another New Jersey finest. Oh, God. Here we go. Here we go.

Just to get you in the mood. Oh. Karl-Anthony Towns. OK. The opener against the Green Bay Packers in Brazil. What happens with your Eagles? I think we could find a way to win that game.

All right. I think we'll all be healthy and we'll have a good this week to rest up. I think we'll be all right. And in week two, home for the Falcons on a Monday night. I love our chances at home. So that's 2-0. I would like to believe.

At the New Orleans Saints, you might, you know, measure for drapes. Everybody's going to be a wrong person because I may go 17-0. That's fine. That's fine. That's fine.

That's fine. New Orleans is where the Super Bowl takes place. So maybe you could, Matt, you know, measure for drapes. You know.

So you could move in. At the Saints, what happens? I think it would be a tough game.

I think any time you get to play over there at Mercedes-Benz, I think it's a tough, tough game. I think we're a tough team, though. OK. We got a right quarterback.

We got Saquon too. Ooh. Come on. Shout out to my homie.

So. At Tampa, what happens next at Tampa? Baker Mayfield and it depends if we can stop the aerial assault with Mike Evans. I think we got a good chance.

Godwin too. So I think that if we could find a way to cap that kind of passing attack, I think we'll have a chance to win. Over at home.

Wow. Into the bye. Out of the bye. Home for the Cleveland Browns.

What happens Carl Anthony? I think the Browns are going to be good this year. But.

Or yes. You think the Browns. Again, I'm going to always go with my Eagles, but I just think that the Browns are going to be really good this year. I think that Deshaun Watson is going to actually have time now with this team.

So I feel like they should make a step forward. I still like us, especially at home. OK. Five and O. Yep. Saquon back at the Giants. Saquon may go for 500 yards. So that's a win. If you lose getting 500 yards, that's that's tough. All right. So the Eagles are 6 and 0 at the Bengals at Joe Burrows Bengals.

What happens there? Joe Burrow healthy is a scary thing. So I think it's a close one. I think we win by field goal. OK. Home for the Jaguars. Doug Peterson back in the house. Shut up, man. Shout out to them. Skip.

What do you got? What do you think? I got us, of course.

No, no, no, no. Just go to week 11. No one to win at the Dallas Cowboys. Someone just someone had a whole argument. My barber had a whole argument with me about the Cowboys. He was talking about how many Super Bowls he said, you know, someone's the next time you're going to win another one. I said, so you're going to bring up something your daddy won't solve. You win.

Why not? They still they still count no matter how many years ago. But like, you know, you didn't get to watch it. You know, I was four of them. I saw you are back home against the Washington commanders. Five to one. That's five to one. Five to one. General Patton said, I got to see it.

I didn't see the way you saw Super Bowls and they had happened in front of you. Nine and all home for the commanders. I'm very excited to see Jaden Daniel's play.

So but I think we got that one. And that's a minute away from my birthday, too. So I'll be a great birthday present.

Oh, happy birthday in advance. Ten and all here at the Rams. I may not be able to come back to L.A., but we're going to go with the Eagles again.

All right. 11 and 0 at the Ravens. I'm sorry, man. I got to go with the Eagles. At the Ravens, though. This may hurt you, Mark. I may have to say that who at Baltimore?

Yeah. Derek Henry in that. Ooh, I'm a big fan, Lamar Jackson.

I'm telling you, my my biggest thing, I probably say my greatest strength and my worst trait is my loyalty. I'm going to go with the Eagles again. Panthers, I'm going to go with the Eagles home for the Steelers.

Hey, just mark it down. Even the Super Bowl. I'm going to say they're going to win it, too, while we are all right. So Pittsburgh, hey, Washington, there's one man I know who refuses to lose is Mike Tomlin.

So I that's a tough one, but I'm still go with us at the commanders. You see where we're going with this right home for the Cowboys. Come on, Cappy Pearl.

Dak is nine and four against the Eagles as I started to get nothing wrong with that. So so to sweep us, I don't know, you know, this is you pick and this ain't me. You already know my answer. I just want to know what your answer is to my answer and then home for the Giants.

Hey, that's another word. Seventeen and all jailer hurts may have the most sponsorships in NFL history by the end of the season. This way, Anthony Townes, you know, 17 and I will say that because the last team I've seen goes 17 and oh, they didn't win it. I would like to have a different outcome than that. There you go. OK, there you go. Am I wrong? Am I right?

No, no, it's true. And you know, I saw them go 17 and oh, a word. Yeah.

But they didn't. You know, like, you know, the Cowboys want you didn't see that. Oh, wow. I don't know if that's what it's like to be like NBA League correctly, correct? I came to talk football. I'm saying I've seen three Super Bowls, so I'm good. NBA level smoke. Hey, fantastic. I just know that I was able to see in Minnesota them win the Super Bowl.

That's true. You did go on the field, lose my car keys, went back to the car, had no car keys. Mom's freezing, freezing out in Minnesota. We were there, it was so cold. My dad walked back to the stadium, went on the field, said, I can't find him. Hey, hey, I didn't even drink. I thought I was drunk, he was in the car keys. I don't want an affair here on the Rich Johnson Show. Just fantastic.

Back to wrap it up on the Roku Channel in a sec. Former Navy SEAL Sean Ryan shares real stories from real people from all walks of life on The Sean Ryan Show. Tucker Carlson, what is it that you think that people gravitate towards? I'm not self-aware. I refuse to be self-aware.

I don't even like mirrors at all, which you can probably tell from my appearance. I don't have a crazy high IQ or I really don't have that many skills. I would say my main skill is I believe my instincts. I don't hesitate to follow my instincts ever. The extent that I have, I've gotten in trouble. The Sean Ryan Show on YouTube or wherever you listen.