Domantas Sabonis: No Bad Beef With Draymond Green

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Listen and use code listen at checkout. You're Terrell Davis. Boston College head coach, Bill O'Brien.

Still to come, Kings forward, DeMonte Sabonis. And now, sitting in for Rich, it's Tom Pelissero. Hour three of another Rich Eisen-less edition of the Rich Eisen Show, though with a twist. Right here, I'm Tom Pelissero, sitting in for Rich. Right now, live from London, and I do mean live, this is not pre-recorded. He's really there.

Rich Eisen joining his own show, Rich Show. Wonderful to see you. You want to say what's up to your boys in the studio here? Yeah, what's up to all the boys in the studio?

What's going on? Look at me. You know, I've got rapport with everybody.

I'm Tom Pelissero. You're not wearing a hoodie though, Rich. Where's the hoodie?

I don't know. How you guys doing? What's up, Rich? How you doing? I am jet-lagged out of my skull right now.

I'm in the stay-up as late as I possibly can, so I don't snap awake at one in the morning and stare at the ceiling, but that's where I'm at right now. Well, take us through that, Rich. Your schedule, you of course are over there for Sunday game, Viking Jets, starting off your week in London.

Just take me through. The travel, how far into the sleep deprivation are you? Where do we stand?

Oh, I'm deep into that mode right now. I'm deep into sleep deprivation, but we're seeing the Vikings tomorrow and the Jets Saturday as part of the broadcast meetings. And then on Sunday, Tom eats ball, 2.30 London time in Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and 9.30 a.m. Eastern, 6.30 right where you guys are in Los Angeles, California.

I'm fired up. We saw some Vikings fans on the plane coming from Los Angeles. There were some Vikings fans coming on that direct flight from L.A. I haven't seen too many Jets fans yet, but we're expecting to see a ton of them because usually New York teams, any Eastern seaboard teams, it's a quick flight, a little five-hour jaunt.

It's like flying to Seattle for some people on the East Coast, so expecting to see them. I'm excited. I'm excited that everybody seems to have got here healthy and ready to roll for week five. It also seems only fitting to have you on the call, Rich, for a Sam Darnold revenge game against the Jets. I want to play for a second here something that was a response from Sam Darnold to a question that was really framed because of what Kevin O'Connell said on this show last week.

Let's play it. More often than not, organizations fail young quarterbacks more than quarterbacks fail the organizations. Do you feel the Jets failed you in any way?

No, I think I had a lot of opportunities in New York, and I always felt like I could have played better there. That was Mark Craig from the Minneapolis Star Tribune paraphrasing what Kevin O'Connell said on this very program. You hear Sam Darnold say that. Rich, your reaction?

Oh, he's taking the high road. There's no question the Jets failed him in many different ways. Obviously, they gave him the opportunity right from jump. Interesting, if you recall, his first pass as a Jet was a pick-six, where his first drive ended in a pick-six in Detroit on a Monday night. He actually wound up winning that game. Listen, it just didn't work with the Jets, where Todd Bowles was on the way out, and then Adam Gase is the one that came in. And Darnold kind of fell apart, in a way, and saw ghosts. That was something we talked about on our show the other day, that Belichick on the set of... I guess we zoomed into the Manning cast and said that Darnold, everybody kind of believed in him, except the Jets. Nice little passive-aggressive broadside from Bill, and we were saying if you had to put a list together of people mostly responsible as to why things didn't work out for Darnold or the Jets, Belichick would be in the top five. Because the Patriots tormented him, and that's the team that caused him to see ghosts.

He's taking the high road, and I kind of dig what Kevin O'Connell said on our program, that organizations fail young quarterbacks more than the other way around. And you need to have everything working. You need to have the proper play caller. You need to have a coach that has a full tenure with your organization and has firm footing to continue his coaching tenure there. You need to have an offensive line that can protect the kid.

You need to have continuity everywhere. You need to have talent out wide. You need to have talent in the backfield. You need to have talent on defense. And that's part of the reason why things succeeded for Mark Sanchez in New York for the Jets, is they had the ground and pound. They had the defense. They had the running game, so he didn't have to win using his arm. He didn't have to come in like Jayden Daniels has come in or C.J.

Stroud entered in Houston last year. So, yeah, the Jets weren't set up for Sam. Everybody hoped he could have been Mahomes-like where he could overcome all of that, and not as if Mahomes overcame anything. He was set up perfectly. I guess I just use him as an example that people think could have succeeded anywhere.

And I'm curious if we get Mahomes soon to ask him these questions as well. I just think he's taking the high road. Clearly, his performance was, as he said, he could have played better, but things weren't set up for him very well with coaching changes and having to take on Belichick before it was time. Wouldn't you agree? I mean, I would certainly agree with that. And I think that one of the unique things about the Sam Darnold story to me is it's one thing to struggle. It's one thing to just not be good enough as a player. It's a totally other thing, especially as a quarterback, to come back from when you are a punchline, when you are a laughingstock.

And listen, everybody, you could go back. Rappaport and I broke that Sam Darnold was going to the Vikings at like 2 a.m. on the second day of free agency. If you go back and read the replies to that, everyone is laughing at the Vikings because it's Sam Darnold, because it's an easy target, because of seeing ghosts and all that.

There's something to be said for having the intestinal fortitude to be able to come from there. Baker Mayfield, I think, did it too. Baker Mayfield, by the end in Cleveland and then the Carolina stint, he obviously broke out with the Rams when he got there and had that remarkable performance on basically no training whatsoever.

But he came back and reestablished himself. Darnold, though, Darnold never even had the playoff appearance. Darnold never had the debut, the run that Baker did after taking over for Tyrod Taylor. So to come from the absolute nadir of everything around you is telling you you're a failure and this is a joke, your career, your life is a joke to come back and play at this level. I just think it's highly impressive what Sam Darnold has been able to do, albeit over four games in a season that's 17 games long and the Vikings hope more.

Yeah, two things off of that. Number one, Jared Goff's another one in this category here, and laughing stock is the word. When he was acquired by Detroit, he was acquired by Detroit and the Rams included first round picks with the quarterback.

You never hear that. Normally the first overall drafted quarterback who's taken a team, who's played in the Super Bowl with a team that is trading him away, that's sufficient enough of players involved in a trade, in a package that's sufficient enough in a package not to just include first round draft choices on top of it with the salary and everybody thought that he was a bust. And that he wouldn't last in Detroit. The Lions draft ended hooker and when that happened it was because they still didn't believe in Goff. Look at him now.

Look at him now. And he is a legit Super Bowl threat quarterback. He just had an 18 for 18 performance with 292 yards passing against the team that brought in a defense that did something that hadn't been done since the 1979 Steelers, which was go 3-0 in the first three games of the season.

Giving up 150 passing yards or fewer in each of the wins. And so yes, there is a point in time where so-called discarded quarterbacks, given another opportunity, now have the ability to navigate a crucible of a playing season, of a fourth quarter, of a defense that's confusing. They have more neck-up ability. They have more, I guess, fire in the belly, chips on the shoulder. And these are quarterbacks that Geno Smith is another one. It was kind of a battle of that on Monday night. So we're seeing that. That's point number one.

Point number two is I say Nader, not Nadir. That's the way I pronounce that word and I'm wondering if the rest of the guys in the room know what that word even means. No, no chance. See, we had a long, we had a long, would you take a shot to pronounce a name that you aren't 100% confident in or say? And I think that everybody in the room was at like 99% just don't say the name if you're not totally confident in it. This came off of Terrell Davis versus Terrell Owens. And whether, I did ask, I asked Terrell, did he ever confront Terrell over the name change that then confused the pronunciation of his name permanently, which he said he had no, he had no issue. He thinks it's a Southern thing.

He was, he was all right with it. But I took a shot with that word, which means, you know, the low point in essence, right? The lowest point. Yes.

The lowest point, the bottom. I would, I go Nadir. Rich, according to Oxford dictionary, both pronunciations are correct. Terrific.

But I don't understand, Chris, you're a former award winner, right? Of a wordsmith. Well, Rich, here's the deal. And I'm going to take a shot at the 207.

You have to write for your audience. So I got to figure a lot of my readers in the 207 would know that word. I don't want to appear highfalutin. That's a little disrespectful. Yeah. That's like, that's your, that's your 207 allergy right there. That's what you've got right there.

Take a shot at the people you grew up with. That's Stafford golf trade too, Rich. It's so fascinating to look back upon it because at the time, just to like go through the logic of how that came together, Stafford had met with the team right after they had hired, even before they hired Dan Campbell, right after that season and said like, okay, it's the right time for all parties to move on here. He was focused in, his wife was focused in on going to LA.

They had to figure out what's the fair price. Jared Goff ends up in that deal rather than just simply being released in part because, of course, Brad Holmes, who's the GM of the Lions, had scouted Jared Goff. He really believed you'd get back to that. Remember Jared Goff had been to a Super Bowl. Stafford never won a playoff game at this time. But the Lions had to take the Goff salary because it was guaranteed money. And absent that, if they had just had to release him, they would not have had the cap space to actually be able to pull off the Stafford trade. And now here you are, Stafford who, listen, he won the Super Bowl.

They absolutely got the most out of that trade. But Jared Goff is the quarterback of one of the best teams in football right now and got a contract extension on a guy who, if the cap circumstances, the contract circumstances were different, he might have gone to some other team, but it's the perfect fit with Dan Campbell and Ben Johnson calling the plays. So you've got the Jets-Vikings on Sunday morning, so you're going to be with the Vikings.

I am curious very quickly before we move on from Sam Darnold. We know that via our Mike Garofolo at the Broncos-Jets game last week that there was a fan who was yelling apologies to Zach Wilson from the stands during warm-ups. When you sit with Sam, do you intend to issue any type of an apology on behalf of the Jets organization? Absolutely not. I do not represent them. As you know, I'm going to be calling this game straight down the middle.

I'm going to try and stripe this thing right down the fairway, 300 yards. And I do not represent the New York Jets organization or its fan base in any way this weekend, 0.0. And I'm actually excited to see him. The numbers he's put up are unprecedented, 4-0, two touchdowns in each of the wins.

That's never happened in the Super Bowl era. He leads the league in passing touchdowns. He's been terrific. And the Jets defense has been terrific as well. So that's an interesting matchup, and I can't wait to see him. What's the latest on Devante Adams? Because this is something that we're obviously going to talk about during the broadcast, for sure. As to the fact that you hear, what, the Jets are frontrunners. Everybody thinks they're going to get him. What's the timeline on this, Tom?

If I could turn the tables of being the Q and you back to the A here. Realistically, you've got a player who, listen, Devante Adams has a legitimate hamstring injury. It's a one- to two-week injury. He obviously missed last week's game. He's not going to play this week. But this is not Jalen Ramsey with the back injury that magically healed after he got traded to the Rams some years ago.

This is not Brandon Aiyuk, who technically, as Kyle Shanahan continued to say, and I appreciated his consistency. Well, he's got a sore back and a sore neck. That's why he's not practicing for all of training camp until he got a $30 million per year contract.

This is a real injury for Devante Adams. He's making a million dollars a week, basically, in base salary. So the idea that a new team is going to trade for him and pay him that million this week when they know he's not going to play, it's probably going into next week. Doesn't mean necessarily it will.

I would think that this resolves itself one way or another. I mean, certainly in the next 32 days or whatever we got to the trade deadline. But more than likely next week, simply because the price doesn't go up for the Raiders. If you don't trade him now, this is not an offseason trade where, hey, you can hold on to a guy and take it all the way to training camp. Every game that goes by without Devante Adams on the new team, the value to that new team goes down, particularly because Devante Adams' contract, he's got balloon numbers in 2025 and 2026. He's due over $36 million each year. You're going to have to redo this contract or else this is a 10, 11 game type of rental. In addition to that, Devante Adams can essentially scuttle any deal by refusing to sign a restructured contract to help out with the cap consequences for a new team. All of which is to say, Devante Adams, he hasn't played the card yet, Rich. But at some point, if they try to trade him someplace other than where he wants to go, which the Jets are the number one choice that he has, he can say, you know what, I really want to be a Jet instead. I'm not going to sign any type of a contract adjustment to facilitate this deal, even for cap purposes.

So at this point, we wait. The Raiders don't want to give them away. I don't sense that there's a great appetite for them even to eat a great deal of money to get a better pick. And that all leaves us in a situation here where, again, Devante Adams can pull certain levers here. The lever the Raiders can pull is, we're not getting offered enough. We're not going to trade you. I do believe if he's not traded, he'll come back and play for the Raiders.

He's not going to say for the next eight weeks that he's got a hamstring injury. But every day here right now, there's a lot of things going on behind the scenes. They're engaged with several different teams. And we'll see if it's not the Jets that end up having that offer that the Raiders want to take here, whether or not Devante Adams is willing to pull any other levers or accepts a trade to, let's say, New Orleans, which is another team he'd be willing to go to because of Derek Carr.

Well, so, but where did this come from, though? Guy has nine catches, 100 yards, and a touchdown, and a very exciting for the Vegas Raiders, rousing comeback win against Baltimore that few people expected. And then suddenly, after blowing up everybody's survivor pool, it looks like the Raiders are in a survivor pool with Devante. Like, what happened?

Do we know what happened for him to say he preferred to be traded? Well, they got blasted by Carolina the following week. So every time you have a loss like that, that's certainly part of the tapestry. The accidental liking of an Instagram post by Antonio Pierce on something that said loosely- It was accidental? It was accidental?

It was accidental is my understanding. Listen, I said this on the show earlier, Rich. I've done that. I've got certain friends who communicate solely through memes on Instagram, and they'll send me something, and whether it's something political or it's an NFL meme, whatever, and I try to scroll away- That's a heart button, though. When you take your thumb, when you take your thumb, so the scroll- If you tap it in the wrong spot, or you try it, where it gets me a lot is when you try to expand the picture.

So you go like this, and you put your two fingers, and you try to expand the picture, and your thumb gets the heart button in the corner. So I empathize on that point with Antonio Pierce, but that just puts it into the public eye, and then Adams is doing a TV interview and says various things, but he'd like to have answers on it as well. But this was always going to happen, Rich.

That's the bottom line. Whether this was, it was more likely that it was going to happen closer to the trade deadline, but think about how Aaron Rodgers has been working this. I believe that this all would have played out, not necessarily with Instagram, but this quite possibly would have played out last year if Aaron Rodgers doesn't get hurt four snaps into the season. Those two have a very close relationship, even though Devante Adams, once the Packers didn't do that deal for him back in 2021, basically said, you know what, I'm not going to take a deal to come back here. They could have done it in camp.

Once that passed, I wasn't doing it. Rodgers comes back. I still want to go to the Raiders, and at that time reunite with Derek Carr. It's just, it's a, it was always going to happen because Aaron Rodgers has remained in Devante Adams' ear, and I'm sure in his phone, trying to get him there. He said it publicly.

There's a video from the golf tournament where he's saying, hey, I love Devante Adams, and I look forward to playing with him again. That's a pretty, and listen, it's not tampering. Players can't tamper. You're allowed to talk to other players, but it's a pretty strong voice to continue to plant that seed. It just happened to get accelerated a few weeks before it otherwise would have happened. He wasn't tampering, Tom.

He was just inadvertently scrolled past tampering, and he accidentally ticked the tamper button with his phrase. I would also say this, and I'm not speaking on behalf of Tom Telesco, but there are certain GMs in the league who, when this is going on, and when you clearly have Devante Adams being contacted by Aaron Rodgers, who would make a point to say, we'll trade you. We're not trading you there. You're not going to dictate. The other teams are not going to dictate.

I don't believe that's the direction this is going. Again, we're still, even though this seems very accelerated here, Rich, and in the coming days, absolutely a trade could come together, we're still in the early stages of there's those different pressure points that can still be pushed here by all parties involved in it. For the Raiders, though, the bottom line is this. They want to get significant capital for a really, really good player, and they don't want to pay, you know, they don't want to do what the Broncos did with Von Miller a couple of years ago, where you get a two and a three because you paid his whole salary other than the minimum. I don't really anticipate the Raiders doing that, at least not at this stage. And so if it ends up being a different team, if it's Buffalo or Pittsburgh or the 49ers, does Devante Adams want to go there to a place where he doesn't really know anybody? If not, does he scuttle the deal?

There's a lot of different tentacles to this that we've still got to see exactly how they unwind. Well, here's the deal. You know, T.J. may not get Devante Adams.

I keep moving off the Cowboys and he's getting madder and madder over there in the corner. No, I know that, but he's got the Mets in a game three. When's the first pitch of that one? When does that happen?

Later on? Yeah, the one that says 730. I think it's four Pacific. And there's only one person on the screen who is a co-host of a top 20 podcast on iTunes this morning. That would be T.J. Jefferson of No Contest Rest.

Hey, let's go. O.J. Jackson Jr., top 20 on iTunes.

Look at you, T.J. Jefferson. How about that? CM Punk was trending earlier today on Twitter. CM Punk, you're interviewing half of them. That's just half of the interview you did with him. You released a two-part interview?

Yeah, why not? People are getting upset in the comments. They're like, we want the second half.

I'm like, you'll get it next week, baby. You're reading the comments. No, the comments are great, Rich. These comments are excellent. You know he's reading the comments. That doesn't surprise him at all.

I mean, Rich, what do you think? Of course I'm going to read the comments when I know they're going to be overwhelmingly positive. They were. So congratulations on that first foray everybody should get, No Contest Wrestling. Legitimately thank you for helping, for making this happen, you know. Well, I mean, it's all good. It's all good. Last thing for you, and then we'll let you get back to, you know, caffeinating or staring at- No, I just know you've got to pre-tape the interview with me that you need to fit in.

That's true. I'd say, dude, this is great. You're keeping me awake.

This is great. Tom, by the way, I know Rich was up early because he texts me at 4.17 in the morning. Yeah, what are you doing, Rich?

Specific times. So there was dinner over there, right? Rich, what are you doing? What do you mean, what am I doing?

I'm in London, Mike. No, at 4 o'clock in the morning you're texting? You know what time other people are at.

That's not right. I'm assuming the phone is off. What are you talking about? Let's say he doesn't have sleep mode on. The thing is, I was strangely up at that moment, too.

He doesn't have any sleep mode. Money in podcasts never sleep. That's what I'm talking about, Rich. This is your wake-up call, pal. Where's the phone?

That's the weird thing about it, Tom. I was awake, but then I fell right back. I'm doing business. I've got an empire to run here. Yeah, you know what, you got it.

From both sides of the Atlantic, Mike. I get it, but it's like 4 o'clock in the morning? What are we doing? All right, Rich.

Even I don't do that. Godspeed. Stay healthy.

Eat some good food. Good luck with the sleeping. I'm sure the next sleep you have will be a glorious one. We'll chat tomorrow. Talk to you tomorrow. Absolutely. Yeah, I'll chime in.

What's more likely? Get you set for the London game, everything else. We'll chat soon. Thanks again.

Wing 5 in book, beginning very early with that guy right there, Rich Eisen. By the way, what is sleep mode? It's a joke. I can't turn my phone off. You can't.

You can't. That's true. It's true. As Rich teased right there, going to be joining the show. 10 o'clock. I'm gone. Set up our Vetus. Yeah, we're going to get to De Montes. Our Vetus Sebonis, very rare game.

10 o'clock. Let's talk LinkedIn people and small business owning. LinkedIn helps you hire professionals you can't find anywhere else.

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That's 50% off at O-M-A-H-A steaks dot com and an extra $30 off with my code E-I-S-E-N. Starting Five is a new sports series on Netflix starting October 9th following five stars of the association through their season. LeBron, Jason Tatum, Anthony Edwards, Jimmy Butler and our guest right here on The Rich Eisen Show from the Sacramento Kings, Demontas Sabonis. Good to see you sir, how are you? Good, how are you? I'm great. Thanks for having me.

You bet. When did they first approach you? Did they follow you around all year long?

I know I'm asking two questions at once here but what is that? It actually happened really quickly. It was probably the end of summer last year and it happened really quickly. We were contacted and it was something I wanted to jump on it straight away. And yeah, cameras following us all year long, everywhere.

It felt like you were in a reality TV show. Is that so? Yeah. So they were following you training camp and everything? Yeah, they got granted access, training camp, behind the scenes, at home, locker room. Every team had a different philosophy. The Kings were very welcoming and letting them use whatever they wanted. Right.

And the other teams, not so much? I'm not sure. I'm not sure how I heard that but for us it went smooth. Full access. Full access. It was great for the Sacramento Kings and everyone's going to get to see more of this organization. What are we going to see? You got a little preview of what we might be seeing behind the scenes here? Yeah, it's just basically a lot of stuff that goes on behind in a locker room where you don't really see daily I would say and practices, coaches, how they act in certain scenarios. So I think it's going to be really interesting for the fan.

Certainly for lighting the beam up, right? Exactly. So have we seen you stroll around Sacramento too in just your life and everything else? Yeah, you see everything day to day. I'm at home with my wife, my kids, what I do on off days.

They really wanted to get us basically what we do during off days and how we take care of our body and all this kind of stuff. How many kids do you have? I have two kids. How long have you been married?

Three years. By the way, I'm the same way too. You got to make sure you get it right. That's the problem with those questions. You got to make sure you get it right. It's not that you forgot. It was a quick dinner. I got to answer. How old are your kids?

Two and a half and one in three months. Okay. Wow.

Boys, girls, what do you have? First one's a boy, second one's a girl. Okay.

Very good. And so do we see Grandpa Arvidas at all? Yes, you do see Grandpa Arvidas. You see the kids. They're a big part of the show.

Okay, very good. And you know they're not your kids. I know what he's going to say. He's not your Vedas. He's not your Vedas.

They are kids. That's from my Sports Center era. You know that, right? Yeah, I do know that. That's awesome. The great Kilborn line, man.

He's not your Vedas, he's our Vedas. Oh my gosh. Did you grow up and watch all of that stuff? Yeah, I grew up. It predates you?

No. I remember I was super young, but I remember going to the arena and going to the practice facility, watching him. There's some core memories that kind of stick in my head that I remember from those times. What's your first memory? What's your first basketball memory? I remember being at the practice facility.

He would take us all the time, and I remember me and my older brothers would go always with my dad to practice. Is this Portland? Yeah, Portland.

Yeah. So you grew up in Oregon? Yeah, I was born in Portland. Grew up in Portland for three, four years, and then once he retired, we moved back to Europe. You moved back to Europe? Yeah. Is that why I'm picking up a little bit of an accent from you, right?

Yes, probably. So where did you grow up? My parents are Lithuanian, but I grew up in Spain, Málaga.

They decided to raise us there. I basically spent there my whole life until I was 18, until I went to college in Gonzaga University. So you have a three-year-old or a four-year-old Domas memory, right? Yes, yes, a couple memories. Of walking around the Portland Trailblazer facility in the locker room? Yeah. We had a locker room, a couple memories from our house, but memories like interacting with the players like Rasheed Wallace, Scotty Pippen, Bonzi Wells, all that, you know, they call them the Jailblazers back then. Yeah.

I don't know how to say it. Growing up around the Jailblazers. And I remember we would go into the plasma city and like try every single Gatorade and like the players would get mad, who's out here taking sips of every single color Gatorade? And it's just three little blonde kids running around.

The Jailblazers. That's it. That's why dad couldn't move you to Spain fast enough, huh? Pretty much. So that's your childhood memory. Yeah. Were you dreaming always of following in your dad's footsteps? Yes.

Yes. I always since a kid, you know, wanted to play basketball. That's all I cared about. That's been the only sport I grew up playing.

No kidding, right? Okay. So and now what is it like for you to be living out your childhood dream like that? It's amazing. You know, having my dad too, to go back and forth and he's been through it all so I can ask him these questions, so it helps a lot. And then, yeah, you see someone that you look up to so much going through it and now I can follow in those footsteps. It's really cool. How much does your dad, so when do you reach out to your dad?

Like give me a for instance. He likes to watch most of all our games. So he's game passing it?

Yeah. He stays up late. Where does he live?

Back home in Lithuania. So there's a time difference. I would say so. So my gosh, what is it about what, nine, 10 hours, 11, nine hours. So you're finished, you're finishing up a game, you know, in Sacramento and technically he's having breakfast watching. He wakes up early. Okay. He likes to go to bed and then wake up, even though that's sometimes tricky then to finally get up. Right.

Yeah. He tries to watch as many as he can. So then what do you, what do you reach out to him about, like specifically?

Oh, after the game, he'll obviously have some comments, you know, or like good win or whatever. Like what? The game, like posting somebody up or posting somebody else, anything that happened or like can you believe this? Or like, how did you guys end up losing this game? Right. All this kind of stuff.

Draymond Green stomping you on your stomach. Stuff like that. I'm just plucking things out of the air. But seriously, do you lean on him for moments like that? Yeah. You know, it's always nice, you know, to get his point of view, you know, he sees the game in a whole different way.

So it's good to go and ask because I might not be even looking at that direction, what he's looking at, you know. Right. Starting five is a new sports show on Netflix. You got to check it out.

New series starting October 9th exclusively on Netflix follows Jimmy Butler, Anthony Edwards, LeBron and Jason Tatum and Domantas Sabonis for an entire season. Let's jump into it. Are you and Draymond cool at all? I think so. I think we're cool.

You are? Yeah. There's no bad beef.

It's not what the media thinks. You know, we're just two competitors and we're fighting for a playoff win. OK.

So there's. OK. Are you like not Christmas card list type thing or you're just fine or. Probably not. No, we're cool. I mean, we both respect each other and on the court, you know, I mean, we're just trying to win.

Do you think he respects you? I think so. OK. All right. And so when you see the Warriors, there's there's no issue. I'm fine dropping the subject matter.

No, no, there's no issue. You know, I mean, we're both we're both players in the same position that want to win. And yeah, OK. Both aggressive, loud players out there. Are you loud?

I think so. What do you mean people say? I mean, I don't know. Like we're vocal. We show a lot of emotion. You always seem to have a black eye. Like seriously, like I'm like when you walked in, I'm like, is this really the bonus that's supposed to be here?

Because your face looks un-bruised. You always do seem to have. For the last couple of years in the postseason, it's been a thing where I'm going into the postseason or first game of the postseason to have a black eye. So it's not just me that's not just it happened last year. At last game, we played Portland and it was one of those games where, you know, we're just trying to get over with. Season's over.

And yes, that's the one I saw. Now is this the moment you received the black eye or there? No, this already happened, actually.

No one knew until after the game and then after I took a shower, I started to swell up and get some color. Well, then now you say it's time for the playoffs. Exactly. Right.

You can't you now can't go into the playoffs without a black eye. I hope I hope that tradition ends. So then what do you say to would your father agree? Do you have this conversation with your dad that his era was tougher to play in than yours? He always said it's different. It's a different basketball. How so?

He says you can't compare. Like everyone is great in their own era because everyone's adapting to that type of that type of basketball. So. Right. I mean, if you had those players back then and put them here, they're going to adapt to these new rules and everything.

They're just that smart. They're just whatever may be, you know, so same thing back in the day, if we went back there, people are going to adjust to that style of physical or whatever may be. Well, I mean, there is dealing with Shaq right there. Yeah. You know, and so he's playing in an era fresh off of the bad boys.

Right. I mean, he was playing in the era of the bad boys where where anything kind of go like you would you could see some some moments from the late 80s, early 90s, and it's just like that would never go down in the NBA right now. And that's the way it's extrapolates out to, well, just a bunch of guys shooting threes and then there's folks like you few and far between. You know what I mean? You would push back on that or how would you push back on that notion?

I don't know. I'm just I kind of think like my dad, like, which is what I would in terms of how we play the game. Yeah. I think it's just a trend in the NBA and that's how it goes. And now, like the three is the biggest thing and teams are focusing on that.

Right. So we work for a lot of for a lot of teams and it's the coaches, it's the coaches. So who's who's the guy that you you get up for playing against the most in your league? I like playing against the best bigs in the league.

So whoever they are, the top five, I don't know, it's always Jokic, Embiid, Anthony Davis, Bam, like there's a lot of big bigs. And you know, you as a competitor, you always want to play against the best and that kind of gets you going. OK. And then when you wake up that day, there's a little bit more pep in your in your step for sure. Even the night before, you know, like, OK, if I'm not ready, he's going to go at me. So you have a responsibility for your team to show up and get the win.

So you kind of think different. Tell me your favorite D'Aaron Fox story, D'Aaron Fox story where he where where either you connect in a certain way or I don't know who he is. You know what I mean? He's I love watching him play. I love watching the two of you play. I love when the two of you are cooking, you know.

So I'm wondering if there's a good story that you can just tell me. Great, great guy. Great player. Super confident. What I love about him is his confidence.

We all know he's one just a clutch player of the year, you know, and he's just the confidence he instills in us. Like, we know if we're struggling in the fourth quarter, he's got this. I'm always like, you got this. It's your time to shine. He's like, don't worry. I got you.

I got you. And like, we can always count on him. And as a team, that's awesome. Well, we got Demar too, so it's going to be interesting.

Yeah. So what do you say about the upcoming season in the Western Conference and how, you know, the champs came from the conference two years ago and obviously, you know, you had a deeper playoff run a couple years ago and Minnesota came close this year. The Mavs ascended to the conference championship. How do you view the Western Conference coming into the season?

Very talented, very tough. I mean, we all saw last year how everyone basically almost had the same record from three down and all the standings changed. It's going to be very, very tough. I think it all comes down to what team is going to be more healthy throughout the season, you know, and that's just going to decide to be honest. And so the fans there, what do you give me a good sense of what is it like to play as a Sacramento fan? I know they're probably the best fans in the league.

You know, I love them. They've been more than, they've been welcoming with open arms since I got traded and every game sold out. Like, it doesn't matter who you play, we can play it back to back against a bad team. We just beat them by 30 the next day, it's sold out again. So I mean, in the NBA, it's sometimes tough to find that everywhere you go on the road for the crowd to be like that and they just bring it every day. They're crazy, they're loud, they're going at it, they got your back.

So it definitely lifts you up to play better. Okay. And is there a moment in this series that you're connecting with any of these four guys or is it just the five of you individually in this series? We're definitely more separate. We're focusing on everyone's personal journey, but games we played against each other, there's obviously some more connection going on.

Okay. And what was, do you remember the first time you ever, have you rejected LeBron? Has he tried to bring something in your area and you sent it in a different direction? Do you ever block him?

Like on the court? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

And what's her like? I mean, he's driving and you reject him. Oh, like a block? Yeah, yeah. Have you blocked him?

I think I've had maybe a block or two on LeBron, you know? Nothing crazy or amazing. Well, it couldn't be crazy, otherwise you wouldn't be part of the series right now. Yeah. You know?

Otherwise you wouldn't be allowed in. Okay. Well, I'm just excited to meet you, man. And you know, I know you've had an interesting journey to the NBA and to see what you're becoming is just a, it's a lot of fun.

And I feel old, I'll be honest, because I used to do highlights with Craig Kilborn. It wasn't, you know, I-Vetus, it wasn't, it's our-Vetus. And now I'm meeting the son of our-Vetus right now.

So tell your dad hi next time you have FaceTime with him in Lithuania. Yeah. Fantastic. And congratulations on everything going on with you. Thank you. Thank you. You got it. And throughout the season, you know, look for more of my calls.

We'll have you zoom in and we'll check in on you now that we get to know each other. Exactly. When I came out with Karl-Anthony Towns, I started playing golf with him and he started, you know, sending videos in TJ's direction, you know, because of the Dallas Cowboys. He's an Eagles fan.

Yeah. Do you watch, are you a fan of any NFL team? No, I'm trying to, I'm international, so it's hard and I'm more of a football, soccer. What's your soccer team?

Real Madrid. Okay. Yeah. You must have grown up going to those matches, right? No, I actually wasn't born yet. My brothers were. Okay.

He played in Madrid before he got to Portland. Okay. So it's kind of like a family. All right.

So, so you were in, you're an NFL free agent. Basically. Yeah. Pretty much. Yeah.

Pretty much. There's no wait. There's no fantasy league.

There's no Sacramento Kings fantasy football league. Fox is really into it. He is. Wow.

That's the number one topic. So, but you're not in it. I have no idea what I'm doing. I don't even know what to do.

It's too late now though. I know. I know they've been talking about it already.

Like the group chats going on. Here's what's happening from now on. Now that you know us, let us help you win the Sacramento Kings fantasy football league. I know we're consultants. You reach out to us, please.

It's up to you whether you want to let them know we're doing it or not. I guess we're, we're now, we're going to cut this part out. So is De'Aaron Fox the commissioner of this league? I think he is.

Yeah, for sure. That's how much he's into it. Yeah, he won last year.

I think he won. I mean, I think he's back to back. Oh, wow. He's like the Chiefs.

He's like the Kansas City Chiefs. Right. And what's the, uh, is there a prize for first place or something? Probably something. I didn't get into that. But we don't know. Okay. Here's what we got to do.

I just don't know anything about it. That's great. That's the best thing.

That's the thing that infuriates fantasy football people the most, is when you're just like, you win. I don't know. I don't know. I know. I just thought, let me just take this guy. Turns out to score four touchdowns. What do I know?

It infuriates them. You will be the scourge of your locker room, but in the best way possible, though. We're in. This is great.

I'm so happy. You want this to be great? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Like a baby deer, we can just like nurse up and head out to the fruit.

This is great. You know? And what do we call the team? Like our... Well, we got a whole year to think about it. Yeah, there's an end to it.

You know, until next August. Please take us up on this. Will you please do that for next year?

Yes, I will. And I know Fox will be so mad. That's that point. See, you're getting it. You say you don't know, but you're getting it. You're getting it.

Starting five available starting October 9th exclusively on Netflix. What a series this is going to be with Jimmy Butler, Anthony Edwards, LeBron James, Jason Tatum, and our new friend, the future champion of the Sacramento Kings Fantasy Football League, bonus, a bonus right here on The Rich Eisenstein. Listeners, please welcome a real finance nerd from our sponsor, NerdWallet. Hey, Sean. Hey, Rich.

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One discount per household. I don't know if you're aware, but you going to Yale was brought up on game two of the NBA finals. No way. Yes, because... Was it the part where the Cavs were really losing at the end? No, it's not that.

It's not that. No. It's that Jeff Van Gundy, who is on the broadcast, said he went to school with you in a class. Do you... Sorry, Jeff. Don't remember you. You weren't that memorable.

Oops. You don't remember Jeff Van Gundy in class? I'm afraid I don't.

I'm afraid I don't. Because the reverse is true. Oh, that's great. Yeah.

Yeah, I know. So your phone wasn't lighting up from friends saying... No, I wish I'd seen it. I wish I'd seen him.

I would have been able to see his face and maybe, you know, but I was... I mean, I think we could... Can we bring up a picture of Jeff Van Gundy? I don't know. So just stroll down memory lane here. The one in the middle is Jeff Van Gundy. Does that ring a bell to you? That rings no bell whatsoever. I'm so sorry, Jeff.

No class reunions at all with the Jodie Foster and Jeff Van Gundy. Okay. We noticed you mentioned on the air that you were classmates with Jodie Foster at Yale. Yeah. And then you cheap-shotted me afterwards.

No, I don't know. I don't know about cheap... Like you brought her on and just saying total indifference to my existence in the world. It was a setup. Our freshman year, there was 12 guys on the floor. We all threw in a hundred dollars and said, hey, the first guy that gets a date with Jodie Foster, you win the money.

I'm coming back from the gym in the early fall and there's a candy shop right outside the big quad for freshmen. The popcorn is popping. It smells great. And from behind me, someone goes, man, that popcorn smells good. And I turn around and it hurts and I totally choke. And I say, yeah, yeah. And I run to my dorm.

I was intimidated by her. There is not much that I enjoy more than watching a football game live. A lot of times in the press box up there, but it does not get better than sitting in the stands, maybe having a cold one, maybe having something good to eat. Being a part of the fans. And that's where let me introduce you to game time and download the app game time.co. There are so many cool types of features in this app. You got curated deals to make it easier, to find the best price on great seats. You got the super deal. You get seat views before you buy. Plus the lowest price guarantee event cancellation protection, job loss protection.

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Correct me guys, if I'm wrong on my time zone calculation about five and a half hours, right to week five in the NFL, kicking off Thursday night football tonight, the subtraction problem there. Yeah, and just kind of running down some of the big injuries because there are some, as we head into week five, Tom, what do you know about Rishi rice? Cause that looks like pretty nasty play collision with Patrick Holmes on Sunday. I guess we all just assumed ACL, but the chiefs haven't said anything. Nothing is official.

What do you know on Rishi rice? I would say based on the conversations I've had, there's a Ray of hope. I'll be at a faint Ray of hope that maybe this is not a season ending injury. He's got to continue to get more evaluations if it were just an ACL, they would have diagnosed it by now.

You can usually do that initially here. This potentially is something that's a little bit more complicated, more nuanced and you read said today, they got to get the swelling out of the knee. So he'll over the next week here, continue to get additional tests.

He's sought second opinions. Nothing's done on that front just yet fair to say though, he's not going to be out there anytime soon. More wide receiver news. Malik Nabors, arguably the best wide receiver in the NFL so far through four weeks. I think he got a nasty fall at the end of the game, diagnosed with a concussion. What are you latest on him? He was not out there in practice Wednesday.

I haven't seen what Brian Dabble said about it today. There's a five step concussion protocol that you need to clear. Again, a lot of things are possible by and large though, if you're not practicing at least on a limited basis, six days after the injury, which Nabors wasn't out there in practice on Wednesday coming off the Thursday night game. Did not practice today either.

Okay. So then pretty strong indication that he's running out of time. They're also not going to take chances with a, I mean, you don't take chances with any player. He has to be cleared by an independent neurologist, but it would make sense to be conservative in terms of your timeline here with a bright young player. Colt's huge game this weekend in Jacksonville, Jonathan Taylor did not practice again Thursday. What's the latest with him? I would not anticipate Jonathan Taylor going in this game. It's a high ankle. He had tests.

It's considered to be on the milder side of a high ankle, but still with a running back and that injury, probably tough, uh, Trey McBride, his status, Trevor brides working his way through return to practice on Wednesday again, cause he's in the concussion protocol. It's been a couple of weeks, seems like steps in the right direction. You got all day tomorrow, just keeping an eye on some of the fancy questions coming here.

So great guests on the show today for watching on back all the way through Tuesday, so much more me, Tom Felicero in for rich. This is a mini meditation guided by Bombas repeat after me. I'm comfy.

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