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That's the headline. The Rich Eisen Show with guest host, Dan Schwartzman. OMG. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles.
Oh my gosh. And now sitting in for Rich, it's Dan Schwartzman. All right, our number three here on the Rich Eisen Show. Dan Schwartzman in for Rich.
I will be back tomorrow as well. We got a lot to get into this hour. A little NBA talk yesterday. Five games on the NBA docket. I like the conversation people have had by the way, which is, was that the NFL intruding on the NBA's day?
And some people posting, a lot of the pro NBA people posting did not watch Netflix at all, which means they did not tune out of the NBA's five games to go watch themselves some NFL football. Now they were terrible games. Again, as good as Steelers Chiefs should be, it's considered a marquee matchup. It wasn't a good game and neither was the night game either. That was a awful atrocious game to say the least that we had to sit through and watch.
When you think about the Houston Texans not being competitive at all against the Baltimore Ravens. But in the NBA though, look, Luka Doncic got hurt. That's not a good thing there and for now what they're saying is he could be out an extended period of time due to a left calf strain that he got in Dallas's game in the loss against Minnesota 105 to 99. Mavs made it close. They came back from 28 points down to make it a contest, but you hate to see Luka go down like that. I mean, he's dribbling the ball top of the key and then kind of turns around passes and starts limping around and then there was obvious frustration when he was taken off the court.
He kind of screamed something before going into the tunnel and I completely understand that. Guys don't want to miss games and Luka Doncic is one of the best players in the league. Although, you know what, for his standards though this has kind of been a down year. You know, this has been a down year. He's down in every shooting category right now in terms of field goal percentage, three-point percentage, free throw percentage from last year to this year. Rebounds, he's down. Assists, he's down significantly. Points, he's down really significantly. I mean, Luka Doncic has averaged over 30 but well over 30 points a game the last couple years and he's at 28 points a game this year.
Not that that's bad. Again, he's still at 28 points a game but last year he's at 34 points a game from 9.8 assists to 7.8 assists. He's down one rebound per game. This guy was always right there on the cusp of a triple-double for a season. Last year he was very close.
This year a little different but now he's going to miss substantial time apparently and be out which is a shame. I like watching Luka Doncic play. He is obviously one of the best players in the league. He is a star player. Speaking of star players, it's amazing to me. I remember in... Art, I know you remember this being out in LA but you know when Kobe who came up as a 17-year-old and then start to play heavier minutes at 18, Kobe at 35-36 was pretty shot, right? He was not the same player. Then he had the Achilles and that you know ended things for him in terms of the career but by 36 years old there was, you know, Kobe Bryant obviously was not the same player. Meanwhile, we're watching LeBron James here who is going to be 40 years old in like four days. I think his birthday is December 30th, right? He's going to be 40 years old in four days and dude is not slowing down. Like how is this possible? Yeah, beat Golden State last night.
Really good. I mean big win for them over Golden State but LeBron James and I look I don't want to get into his politics. I don't want to get into what he posts. I know I'm just talking about LeBron James the basketball player, okay? LeBron James is putting up over 23 points, 8 rebounds, 9 assists, still shooting about 50% from the field, still a dominant player, still drives the lane, no problem. It's if you want to compare it to say soccer, he is Ronaldo. If you want to compare it to football, he is Tom Brady. If you want to compare it to baseball, it's hard to compare it to anybody in baseball in terms of who's really good that I guess bonds on steroids hitting a bunch of home runs at 42, right?
Yeah. I'm trying to find a guy who played well into his 40s at a high level who is not a steroid guy. It's hard to do in baseball but LeBron's been in this league like 21 years, 21 seasons, and yeah statistically he's down from last year but I think it's also his style of play potentially might be a little different but my goodness if this is down for LeBron he can play a couple more years as a quote down player because he's still a dominant force out there. The only problem with LeBron is and watching those that series the last couple years with Denver in the playoffs, LeBron gets fatigued in the third and the late in the fourth quarters. Yeah and that's why they have to really manage it and if you look the last few years LeBron James is not remotely playing close to a full season. Last year he played 71 games.
Prior to that, you know banged up also load management they like to call it 55, 56. You know the COVID year is a COVID year but he hasn't played an 82 game season since 2017-2018. His last season with Cleveland and that was the second stint with Cleveland. He has not played you know anywhere remotely close to that number of games since so they are managing the minutes but remember like just to get into the playoffs they may need them to play a lot down the stretch because the Lakers aren't a great team of course but it's mesmerizing to me and I know people like to have that conversation of is he the greatest of all time? Is Michael the greatest of all time? Michael Jordan of course how do you view it? I've always said I think in terms of pure basketball ability LeBron James is the greatest player of all time.
I say Michael. I'm look again I'm saying pure ability okay 6-9 250 can shoot can pass can rebound he can do more than Michael Jordan did on a court because Michael was not 6-9 250. 6-6.
6-6 and a lot skinnier than 250. Both great defensive players both bring it on that side of the court which I admire because I think you know we have Carl Anthony Towns here in New York and he's a phenomenal offensive player and he is leading the NBA in rebounds right now but he's just not a very good defensive player and I'm thinking to myself yeah but he's a great athlete so how can he not be a great defensive player? To me it's about effort right or learning the skill of being a great defensive player and guys like Kobe who wanted to be the best understood that and they worked at it and they became great players Kobe Bryant was a great defensive player LeBron James great defensive player Michael great defensive player because they cared about that aspect of the game because they wanted to be the greatest of all time but I think LeBron James Michael may have the greatest killer instincts he may have the greatest killer instinct but I think physically speaking LeBron James is the greatest player now I'm not going to throw in Wilt Chamberlain in those generations I think it was a different class of basketball back then. James Harden very defensive player.
James Harden another one yeah plays plays plays defense I'm just kidding he does not but it just comes down to where I think to myself LeBron James to me is the greatest player physically I've ever watched in basketball but it was a big win over the Warriors yesterday here's LeBron afterwards. Give it right back. Well thank you very much Merry Christmas to you and thank you for another gift on Christmas. Oh absolutely Merry Christmas to my family back home I'm coming home and I love the NFL I love the NFL but Christmas is our day. There's LeBron afterwards that's Chrissy Vspn and he is correct Christmas to me is not anymore the NBA five games here's the thing though I wonder if there was a conversation I wonder if the commissioner of the NBA called up Roger Goodell and said what the heck you doing yeah I'm sure they had the conversation absolutely like what are you doing this is our day you have Thanksgiving like you can have that this is our day like shame on you for taking our Christmas day and I think to a point they'd be right to do that right because when you think about Christmas you think it's the NBA you don't think it's going to be of course you know there's no the NBA played no games on Thanksgiving Thursday November 28th kind of a respect thing right one you want your players to be able to enjoy the holiday with their family but two you know that when it comes to the NFL what do people do on Thanksgiving well the turkey's in the oven you go out to your backyard with your family because everybody gathers as a family and you throw the football around you play a little two-hand touch or flag football in the yard right that's a ritual no tackle or you can have a couple of beers and play tackle football and not feel the pain I get it but I just think that the NFL encroaching on Christmas day was not a good conversation between commissioners I would have to think and I'm sure they have this conversation every year because it's going to happen now every year yeah Adam Silver's going to be calling up and saying hey Roger really we can do this again he doesn't say yeah we made 150 million dollars from Netflix for for two games you're darn right we're doing it again and I wonder if Adam Silver says okay we're going to play like five games on Thanksgiving take that but here's the problem for the NBA the NBA can't do that because they don't get the ratings yeah none of that the NFL does they don't the ratings ratings are really bad right now for them they are in the toilet they are literally in the toilet and what's interesting about that is you know the ratings are literally tanking in the NBA right now and as of last week they're down 17% across ABC ESPN and TNT that's courtesy of CNBC Sports I mean 17% down and it's a big enough issue that Adam Silver has had to address it NFL meanwhile is killing it they're averaging like 17.3 million fans per game for the first 10 weeks of the season they were I mean isn't that insane there's a seven percent increase as well by the way on the Amazon Prime games but the NBA has a serious problem with ratings right now it's to me a the product is not very good I'm sick and tired of three pointers like I'm watching that Knicks game yesterday art because I'm flipping back and forth right and I'm curious to see Victor Wembanyama in action he's a tremendous talent but he's seven foot three for crying out loud and he's sitting there shooting three points shooting threes yeah absolutely he should be underneath the basket he's seven foot three and he is shooting three pointers literally that is that's the thing wrong with the NBA look he does shoot 37 from three point land I get it he's also averaging 10 three point shots a game this year come on like when you are seven foot three I don't care how how athletic you are the NBA the NBA I remember art is you're playing inside yeah yeah Shaq Kareem Moses Malone oh my gosh Charles Barkley Ewing I mean these were guys who played with their back to the basket now Ewing could shoot jumpers a lot more than say Hakim or Shaq or guys like that Ewing always had a very nice jump shot but then I just I can't here's the difference though those guys had bulk right Wembanyama is seven three 235 pounds he is a toothpick yeah a stiff breeze is going to knock him over and and guys his height you know who's to blame he's been in the year to the league a couple years now who's to blame for that well I don't know if there's blame I mean this is the league of course there's blame I mean I'm not blaming him I mean this is the style of basketball you know when you show up for your you know your workouts or the combine and things like that in the NBA and you're seven three they ask you to go to three-point range and start heaving them up let's see if you can shoot threes it's you know what's he supposed to say I'm not gonna do that I'm gonna add you know 40 pounds of bulk and I'm gonna be an inside force they'd be like nah you know what we don't want that because there's no more half court offense in the sense that we remember where you have these unselfish guard like a John Stockton guy like that who's going to wait for the center to establish himself and then he's gonna throw the ball into them bounce it into them and let the guy do his thing you don't have that anymore so a victor when manama in today's NBA where you don't have the time to set yourself up in in a post and and and do a turnaround J or whatever it might be or muscle your way in you got to be shooting yourself some three-pointers which is what he's doing it is outrageous it's pathetic because it's seven foot three you should be close to the basket and not be taking 10 three-pointers a game but that's exactly what he's doing right now he's a great shooter he shoots like 89 or something from the field I mean from the free throw line he's an unbelievable talent don't get me wrong he's a heck of a player and what's amazing to me is he's only getting better right like he is only getting better 42 and 18 yesterday that's an unbelievable stat line and four blocks the guy's averaging four blocks a game that's old school to me you don't get a lot of guys that are blocking four shots a game eight shots a game like you've seen with Wen Banyama it doesn't happen that much in today's NBA like you had back in the day we had guys like Mark Eaton and things like that where you know you have guys who are specifically shot blockers to Kembe to Kembe right no no no no no not in my house I remember that we missed him we missed him love to Kembe what a great ambassador for the game too it was great yeah what a great ambassador for the game sad when he passed away recently yeah rest in peace rest in peace to Kembe Mutombo that was unexpected I remember when Georgetown had what Patrick Ewing first then to Kembe Mutombo Alonzo Mourning Othello Harrington was a heck of a college player man they were like big man you I remember that they were big man you had so many great big men would go through Georgetown now it's all changed right the whole game is changed yeah the whole thing yeah I'm watching Wen Banyama just in yesterday's game literally just in yesterday's game against the Knicks he put up 16 three-pointers by the way 16 wow game before that on Monday he put up 13 three-pointers he's literally taking more three-pointers than regular shots within the arc literally taking more shots past the three-point land than inside the three-point land at seven foot three and that's I will never get used to that to me that is something I will never get used to that at all because I'm still old-school basketball I think that's one of the reasons why ratings are down in the league right now it's part of you have great players you have great players like your way again you need to to if you've never watched LeBron James play you gotta tune in to at least tell your grandkids one day yeah I saw LeBron play I went to a Knicks miss we call it Knicks miss because the Knicks play on Christmas right and I had gone man it must be 10 years ago I went and watched and a friend of mine invited me to a Christmas day Knicks game and it was against I guess it was Cleveland at the time now yeah it's Cleveland and I got to see LeBron James in person and that's something I'll never forget that you got to see maybe the greatest in person a couple months ago if buddy says hey I got an extra ticket to go see Messi you want to go see Messi I'm like of course I want to go see Messi I know it's not Messi at Barcelona but it's still Lionel Messi right one of the greatest and I went so I can tell my grandkids one day hey I saw Messi play live I saw LeBron play live I saw Jordan play live so if you have a chance go see the great ones but my goodness the style of play is boring an NBA game is boring because all they're doing is heaving up three point shots and thank you Steph Curry great player but Steph Curry to be ruined basketball by taking 40 foot jumpers 35 foot jumpers you're seeing in the women's game right now with Kaitlyn Clark heaving up 30 footers 35 footers to me that's not fun basketball that's it's not exciting basketball and that's exactly what the league has become now and I'm not a fan we're going to talk with Steve Ashburner senior writer for nba.com look at his thoughts on this seven foot three inch players firing up 16 three pointers 29 over the last two games out of 40 out of 50 50 free field goal attempts 29 of them have been three pointers all over the league it's all over the league Victor Wembaniyama ratings down 17 why and is that a thing that can change we'll get to that coming up next Dan Schwartzman on a Thursday day after Christmas that's right next milestone will be New Year's I'll be back tomorrow as well don't forget in for rich on the Rich Eisen Show let's talk O'Reilly Auto Parts people you love their jingle you're gonna love their friendly helpful service even better because they're in the business of keeping your car on the road and the parts knowledge they have it's all you need for your maintenance and repairs they've got thousands of parts and accessories in stock either in store or online so you never have to worry if you're in a jam the team at O'Reilly Auto Parts can test your battery for free in or out of your car if it needs to be replaced they'll find you just the right battery for your vehicle need your windshield wipers replaced a brake light fixed or quick service they'll help you there and find the right 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business owners like you the tools and rewards to do more of what you love terms and points can't apply learn more americanexpress.com slash Amex Business let's talk game time people and the holiday season game time's all about togetherness and isn't the holiday season all about that too the answer is yes this means when you bring people together at live events the experience is that much better and it's the perfect gift and game time has this new feature called game time picks it makes getting tickets for live events even easier I love using game time picks because it filters out all the fluff shows you only the incredible deals you want on the great seats you need so you don't waste a single second searching through thousands of tickets and then there's that all-in pricing feature I love you see your total up front there's no surprise fees at checkout the price that they tell you is the price that you're going to buy it's unbelievable take the guesswork out of buying tickets with game time download the game time app create an account and use my code eisen for $20 off your first purchase terms apply visit game time.co for restrictions again create an account redeem my code eisen $20 off download game time today what time is it game time 22 past the hour it is hour three of the Rich Eisen Show Dan Schwartzman in for Rich 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 click Grainger.com or just stop by NBA season rolling along the Knicks win again LeBron and the Lakers a big win over the Warriors Sixers a big win at Boston yesterday that's a great rivalry Sixers and Celtics but ratings in the league right now are down and Jimmy Butler what's the latest with the star Miami Heat player today they're saying they're not going to trade them do we believe that or not Steve Ashburner senior writer for NBA.com joins us Steve first and foremost Merry Christmas happy Hanukkah to you and the family my friend how are you I'm doing well man Merry Christmas to you and the listeners thank you very much Steve let's get right to it the latest coming out today is that Miami says they have no plans that to trade Jimmy Butler you buying this or is this a tactic to try to get as much for him as you possibly can well I'm not surprised by that you know and I actually think it's it's appropriate that he stay in Miami and kind of fix what he's helped to break in my view Jimmy Butler has been an unreliable number one on that team I've never considered him the type of player that would lead a team to a championship if he's your best player you're not winning a title in my opinion now you know he's exacerbated that by picking and choosing when he's available during the regular season and you know that ultimately you know that that comes with a cost last season it in my view it came with the cost of them being in the plan and when you have to play your way out of the playing tournament you know they're just extra layers you have to um you know surpass and they weren't able to you know to maybe go as deep in the postseason as they could have had they gained you know a top berth so you know I I think Jimmy Butler has work undone in Miami and he's at the stage now where I mean unless he's willing to go to a team that you know is very middling and and attempt to carry them I think he'd be taking a shortcut it'd be a Rosie Ruiz for listeners of a certain vintage maneuver if he were to go to a contender because all of a sudden he got paid to carry and then he would be going to sort of ride coattails so I hope it's true I hope he remains part of that heat culture he hasn't exhibited a lot of that in my view uh recently by his unwillingness to to gut it out on on many nights but um if it's true great if he if he goes somewhere like I said I hope it's somewhere where you know they're not uh considered a uh championship uh favorite certainly and maybe even a contender but Steve based on what you said if he's 26 years old I'd be like yeah you know what shape up right like you need to help us here you got to change yourself but he's 35 you're not teaching an old dog new tricks aren't they better off just turning the page away from Jimmy Butler to tightly hero bam out of bio being the guys rather than saying hey Jimmy we hope you change again he's a 35 year old he's not going to change right well it's a good point um yeah I mean getting out from under is probably a good thing he has shown when he's not happy with his contract he can be he can be trouble on a team um you know I I heard rumors you know that well golden state might have been interested in Jimmy Butler well when Jimmy Butler played with Andrew Wiggins in Minnesota he didn't have uh any tolerance for Andrew Wiggins and Carl Anthony Towns up there he didn't like that they made more money than he made and you know he also cloaked it in you know things about their work ethic and and how serious they were about winning um so to to have golden state if they were to bring him out there and you know you wonder what sort of friction there might be with Wiggins no you're right and I think Miami would make a mistake if they committed big bucks to him you know long term I mean which to me is a new contract I mean he is getting older he he's logged a lot of miles and he's trying to manage those miles and that that's hurting in the here and now and I don't see that that that would improve on on you know his next deal at all so yeah right I think for the heat's sake um it'd be it'd be worth exploring deals you know I just I just think for an overall sort of a karmic situation that uh Jimmy would have to do the work right where he's at Steve Ashburner senior writer NBA NBA.com joining us here on the Rich Eisen show Dan Schwartzman in for rich on this Thursday you mentioned Carl Anthony Towns putting up big big numbers for the Knicks 25 and 14 leading the league in rebounds Knicks are rolling now they're 20 and 10 playing really good basketball when that deal went down I thought to myself great offensive player dude does know how to play defense now that there's a 30-game window to look at and analyze how much better of a team are the Knicks right now with him than if they had kept Julius Randall and Dante DiVincenzo and rolled with those guys well I mean they were in dire need of size and you know for Carl uh playing center again rather than just a pure power forward alongside Rudy Gobert it's been a little bit of an ask for him um you know he had enjoyed uh that freedom of movement but you know in this league you are what you can guard and I think that sometimes uh town struggled with the you know the fours they were particularly three inclined fours and and you know we're a little quicker than him so I think he's he's better off playing center he's has an advantage in drawing those type of players out to the perimeter with his shooting range um I wasn't sure how that that deal was going to work out I think it's worked out about as well as I thought or not as well you know for the Timberwolves I thought that they had labored for a full season uh to learn how to play with towns and Gobert in a twin tower setup and they had great success with it last year getting to the the conference finals and now here they were changing it up again I know that money in in towns contract is a concern but boy when you're Minnesota and you have a chance to keep a high achieving team together you almost have to accept that you know contract troubles are going to be a problem later but you can have a year out of it please um you know you can you know that that fan base has suffered for a long time as far as the Knicks I mean when you know if Mitchell Robinson can come back and provide defense you know when needed um you know I I think they are better off and and you know I'm I'm happy for Carl I've known him since he was a rookie and uh you know that he was able to come in there and start strong and there was there was none of the New York hand-wringing over wow should they have made this deal shouldn't they you know I think with with Randall I mean he had a pretty good start in Minnesota but yeah he was expendable for the Knicks because he really wasn't there when they were good down the stretch and in the spring and even Chenzo I'd want him on my team even though I think with New York he over achieved last season it it's starting to look like that was a bit of a fluke um season for him where he where he uh bubbled up a little bit beyond what what you could expect are we seeing though a maturation in Carl Anthony Towns we know the first go that he had with Tom Thibodeau as his coach did not go well and they didn't get along and that was a concern when this deal was made and he said no it's not going to be an issue what are you hearing in terms of their relationship so far through these 30 games I don't hear anything untoward so I'm going to take that as a good sign if uh if if uh Tibbs was on board with with bringing uh Carl to his team um as much as he stresses defense I know the Knicks don't have a great defensive ranking right now uh they're not playing that well at that end but you know I count on Thibodeau to be able to always sort of ring the match out of what a group is capable of um I haven't heard anything I think it might be onto something I think that Carl's been around long enough now after nine seasons in Minnesota that you know it's sort of time and and he's you know he's fully a grown man and um you know he sees I mean I think that that trade was a shock to his system maybe a little comfortable with Timber Wolves and um you know you get that I mean it's great if he's near his New Jersey roots but there's also extra pressure when you do that and it's the New York stage and it seems like he has you know he's approached it with the right frame of mind. It differed from Kyrie Irving who came back to the New Jersey area and of course it wasn't that successful in Brooklyn now I'm going to give you two teams here Steve tell me what's wrong with them right now both superstars they're superstars on the team yet they're not playing as well as they should Boston has struggled as of late now again they're still Boston they've still won 22 games but the last 10 games they've lost four times they lose it home to the Sixers what's going on with them and what's happening with Denver? All right well with Boston I'm not worried about Boston I I think maybe you hit this time of year uh having achieved what they did last season seeing how they started this year um having a sense they you know thinking well we will be able to do this and and take a long push through the playoffs again you know I would expect there'd be a point in this year where they would sag um you know I I don't think unless this is a protracted um you know slump of any kind or or if they actually lose multiple games in a row I don't think it's anything to worry about I think they've got everything they need I mean Porzingis went out again you know he's only played nine games my understanding is and so he had an ankle injury you know that's not good they were able to pretty much get through the postseason last year um with very little from him so it's not a crippling type of thing but yeah when you when you're trying to repeat you don't just come back with a pat hand you actually have to enhance your yourself in certain ways and having Porzingis you know healthy and available seemed like that was going to be the easiest uh way for the Celtics to to improve I know certain guys have gotten better Peyton Prichard in particular as a six-man candidate um I'm not worried about Boston I mean if this was March maybe I would be but but here in December I think there's plenty of time for them to uh to just sort of feel themselves and and and you know get back to where they need to be what about Denver oh Denver yeah Denver well you know Denver Denver has taken steps backward to me each of the past two off seasons um you know and and so you lose Bruce Brown and at least the player he was for the Nuggets in that title year and then you lose contagious Caldwell Pope that to me is another step back and internal development is nice you know I mean um Brown and and uh Watson are good players on the rise but you you want those guys to be bonuses you don't want them to have to plug holes that that are opened up by losses of those guys I had mentioned I just think that they don't have enough Jamal Murray has not been that reliable you know Robin to to Batman kind of a thing he he's great in spurts in the in the postseason of their their championship run he was tremendous um but he's injury prone and he doesn't always produce at the level they need I think there's just too much of a load on uh Jokic um Michael Malone and his staff have never been able to um write the the numbers um you know writers in a correct way uh the numbers where they can sit him down and and you know not go totally underwater Michael Porter Jr. is a guy who I think has underperformed his contract and because he's paid as much as he is with Murray with Jokic um you know and and and even Aaron Gordon it's uh it's tough to to supplement that and and to cough you know some of the some of the leaks but um I I do think it's personnel for the for the Nuggets and I'm not sure how they go about fixing that if there's a you know unless there's a way in the um buyout market after the trade deadline that they might be able to pick up some experience help Steve Ashburner senior writer for nba.com joining us here on the Rich Eisen show Dan Schwartzman in for Rich last thing the ratings for the NBA have come out and they as of I think Thursday they were down 17 percent across the three major networks TNT ESPN and ABC some people obviously worried about that yet the TV deal numbers are massive what do you think Steven maybe this is a very long conversation but real quick what do you think you can attribute potentially to ratings just sinking for the NBA these days well first of all let me preface it by saying if you were going to have um so-called bad news about declined ratings better to do that after you you sign deals for 76 billion dollars in broadcast rights right if this was a year ago when those deals were being negotiated that might really pinch but um you know that's sad I mean the NBA obviously wants you know there's a prestige involved there's certainly a the partnership that your partners aren't going to be on the hook for for a lesser product so um I think there is something to be said for a case that the league often makes about technology I think you have a lot of streamers that maybe don't uh get counted in the uh in the Nielsen ratings you have a lot of uh illegal streaming that goes on as well I'm not sure the numbers uh behind that that it would it would make a big difference um but in terms of the product on the floor I think I think there are contributing factors and and I don't think there's any one thing uh to blame but but when you add up things like load management and the perception of that and even with the player participation policy you still have players who are out rightly or wrongly have you injured guys and then you have you know some resting guys still um the the um the length of games with the with the replay request the coaches challenges I think that can wear on people um you know at home even more so than the in the arena I think when you're in the arena you're all lathered up like the players you're watching the game you want to see what happens lulls but you know are people walking out early I don't think that's a problem for the NBA but at home yeah people might get a little antsy they flip away they don't flip back I mean who's to say um and then there's the three points um mania and that's my that's my number one um I think the the pendulum swing to over reliance on three-point shooting has hurt the entertainment value of of the NBA NBA product I think that um it's it's not as interesting I grew up sort of becoming a fan of the game when you had Dr J and Dominique Wilkins and Bernard King and Marcus Johnson and you know all of these sort of wing players and and you know who had interesting mid-range styles you could as a kid in the driveway or in a playground you would imitate certain guys shots well everybody looks the same to me shooting from three-point range the individuality of the game and the and the specificity of the teams they all start to look the same their players all start to look the same you know they've all but eradicated the low post banging of the you know the seven footers that was such a big part of the game in the 70s when it was you know uh Lanier and Abdul Jabbar and you know Moses Malone and Bill Walton and uh you know it's just just the big men thing and and now um you know I I think here's another thing the NBA bills itself as having the greatest athletes in sports right and I think that largely has been true and it probably still is true but you don't have to be a great athlete to hoist three-pointers you know that feels like you all of a sudden you're watching a game at the Y where there's some 45-year-old insurance salesmen going against the 20-year-olds and you know it's like oh okay well I don't see you really yeah you got to jump to get up your three-pointer but it's not the same and you know so that's not great uh athleticism to watch guys shoot threes and I think that they've lost some sizzle that way in terms of what they sell it's um it's just too much I would like to see them extend the the the length of the uh three-point arc and clip it off don't don't allow the corner threes they're the easiest threes and uh you know that would be my suggestion um if you're determined to have quarter corner threes widen the court and people say well wait a minute those VIP seats you know they're really pricey that that real estate is valuable well there's almost going to be front row seats all you're losing is the top row seats right you can have one fewer row on each side all the way up to the top and the top rows are gone then because you lost one per side you still have a front row so you know if I would widen the court because of the you know the size of these players and the mobility um if you want to keep the corner threes do that otherwise just just clip the corner threes and uh and make it a tougher shot um to try to encourage more inside that uh that line I'll tell you what it is for me I agree the three-point when I'm watching Victor Wenbanyama at seven three shooting ten three-pointers a game 16 yesterday by the way I'm bothered by that I grew up watching Ewing and Hakeem and Shaq and guys like that what really gets me Steve is take the whistles away from referees where anytime any action starts to develop where it's oh back and forth here the guy drives the lane you know that whistle's getting blown like ticky tack foul calls to me have gotten out of control in this league where it just kind of kills the flow of any game to where it's like oh there you go stop the clock get the guy at the line they have to stop that let the it's like hockey in the postseason it's more physical it's understood you don't blow the whistle as much unless it's egregious I think the NBA needs to adopt that because I'm sick and tired of the stoppages in play more so than probably anything else when it comes to watching so there's my two cents into the conversation Steve Ashburner senior writer nba.com are you tired of the whistles too my friend uh you know what I think the referees adjust pretty quickly and the players adjust to the referees adjusting so to me if they start swallowing whistles it's going to get out of hand rather quickly and then the referees are going to have to snap it back by probably blowing the whistle more often so I'd be careful about that one you can't win can you it's hard to do Steve appreciate again Merry Christmas Happy Hanukkah to you and the family my friend appreciate the time same to you Dan fairly welcome great stuff there senior writer nba.com Steve Ashburner yeah I can't stand the whistles all right we have a Thursday night football game it's kind of funny that today is Thursday right it doesn't feel like a Thursday it feels like a Friday because whenever it's a holiday you think okay no we're back to the work week today it's a Thursday Seattle hosting Chicago while Chicago is terrible guess what though kind of a important game uh for Seattle if they want to keep their flickering playoff hopes alive yeah and the win I need some takes too fantasy-wise thanks oh well guess what I'm not the person to help you but I'll give you a best shot scenario we're gonna break down Thursday night football that is next here Dan Schwartzman in for rich isin it's the rich isin show this episode is brought to you by bleacher report how do you follow sports from college football to the nba bleacher report brings you the latest news live scores and epic highlights from your favorite leagues teams and athletes all in one app dive into exclusive shows hosted by your favorite athletes and original bleacher report series with breaking news rumors and predictions all season long download bleacher report to personalize your coverage this episode is brought to you by lifelock the holidays mean more travel more shopping more time online and more personal info in places that could expose you to identity theft that's why lifelock monitors millions of data points every second if your identity is stolen their us-based restoration specialist will fix it guaranteed or your money back get more holiday fun and less holiday worry with lifelock save up to 40 in your first year visit lifelock.com podcast terms apply wrapping things up on a thursday edition of the rich isin show dan schwartzman in for rich there is a thursday night football game tonight on prime video you had netflix yesterday for the christmas day doubleheader you are continuing on the streaming services with prime video tonight it is the seahawks on the road at the bears last thursday night game last thursday night game that's right and the seahawks need the win they do not control their own playoff and i have questions for you i have questions i'm sure they're fantasy related right oh yeah i'm sure though we got money on so right on the line chicago has lost what is it nine straight games so they're they're pretty bad all right and caleb's been sacked the most time in the nfl yeah it's not a good situation chicago right now that's going to be an interesting off season there but they can play spoiler absolutely they can they can absolutely play spoiler seattle right now is second in the nfc west all right they are trailing as of right now the rams who are nine and six they needed a little help from the jets seattle did not get that last week i'll tell you what that nfc west is terrible horrible bad i mean it is really bad it's it's the worst divisions are i mean afc east at least has buffalo right but the south is no good there's a lot of bad football out there the afc south is horrendous nfc south is horrendous the nfc west is pretty horrendous as well some bad football teams so the rams you know the arizona cardinals are the only team that has a plus point differential right now in the entire nfc west and they're plus two and they're seven and eight yeah rams are nine and six and they're minus 18 but they've won four in a row so they've played good football or good enough let's put it that way they've played good enough to win games to where they potentially could be making the po you know they most likely should win the nfc west you look at the remaining games on their schedule they are home for arizona that is sunday night or saturday night excuse me saturday night and then they are home for seattle that's gonna be a tough game that is seattle wins tonight yeah yeah they could win if seattle wins tonight if seattle wins tonight they could win next week and win the division yeah it's it's an interesting it's an interesting scenario that's playing out here so if seattle wants to keep its flickering playoff hopes alive they have got to win tonight and for chicago it's a pride issue right like you literally have just been so bad you're losing games left and right i mean nine straight losses is the giants have lost what 11 straight or 10 i mean i think they're at 11 11 but you know this is a team the bears at one time were three and you know four and two on the season can you imagine that they were actually four and two at one time you're thinking to yourself wow caleb williams looks good they're four and two and then the bottom fell out they lost to the to washington and from that point on they have not won a single game and they may not they may lose 11 straight games their schedule is not easy okay it's home for seattle and then at green bay week 18 they legitimately could go four and 13 having lost 11 straight games so you got to believe seattle with all that's riding on them this year and i'm hoping that because i had seattle's defense and i've got a couple players on offense well i was going to ask you about that so what exactly are the questions you have i'm going to tell you right now i don't know a lot about fantasy football i don't play a lot of fantasy well how do you feel about chicago's defense can they stop seattle and they're well probably not probably not you know i mean i'm in pretty good shape then chicago's defense is nothing special it's not terrible it's nothing special their offense just doesn't score any points uh they're no honestly though if you look at chicago's defense compared to seattle's defense they're practically the same yeah the same yeah the bears have given up two more points this season than seattle's defense so maybe you could say the only bright spot for chicago is their defense i mean would that be fair to say i guess oh i hope not i hope not but for your sake yeah seattle's offense by the way isn't exactly anything to write home about yeah gino gets sacked a lot too yeah gino is you know gino is thrown for a lot of yards this year he has put up a lot of yards one of the league leaders in yards he's going to break 4 000 yards passing with this game but he's thrown 17 touchdowns 15 interceptions gino smith has not been very good and get sacked get sacked a lot he's been sacked 45 times this year i don't i listen i remember gino at the jets i'm glad that gino has lengthened his career he's made some money now and has established himself a bit i don't think he's that good of a quarterback he had that career year though with seattle which is such a shock back in 2022 when he threw 30 touchdowns 11 interceptions i mean that was literally out of nowhere right no one expected that the guy had been no career backup after being a failure at the jets as a start of the first couple of years after being a high second round pick goes to giants he's back up there he's at the charge the back up there he goes to seattle he's back up the first couple years gets an opportunity in 2022 and just shocks the world since then he's kind of reverted reverberated back to being the geno mediocre that you kind of expect yeah i mean he said he said i think the word is decent right like a decent quarterback nothing special to where it's you're gonna build around the guy and i think this is the word people have for sam darnold is it going to be like a gino smith where he has you look at his career you say wow that was a heck of a year not wow that's a heck of a career with sam darnold it's the same thing right where has this sam darnold been in other stops we've never seen it he was a failure with the jets a failure with carolina gets an opportunity just because jj mccarthy goes out with a injury in the preseason and sam darnold is thrust into the starting role of the minnesota vikings and look kudos to sam he's run with it he's going to throw 35 touchdowns and 4 000 yards good for him but is that the geno smith 2020 tour say is he now legitimately turned the page seattle is going to win tonight because a lot is right there you go i like to hear this game bears will lose their 10th straight game no question about it guess what i am back tomorrow sitting in the big boy chair again for rich eisen it's always a pleasure so tune on in tomorrow i'm dan schwartzman in for rich right here it's the rich eisen show my world with jeff jared takes wrestling fans behind the scenes along with king of the mountain conrad thompson i wanted to ask you about what you know if anything on the new wwe id program where they're apparently going to be working with some independent wrestlers my encouragement to any independent wrestler out there build your value and then understand your value and then you create your own leverage there's no substitute for hard work and getting over my world with jeff jared wherever you listen
