NBA All-Star Weekend Recap

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Allstate Fire and Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates, Northbrook, Illinois. I'm living my best life. Yeah, yeah. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Here's the other surprising part. With guest host Brian Weber.

Yeah, big shoes to fill. Eisen's a legend. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. The Rich Eisen Show. Do you know who I am? I'm a guy on television.

I have my own show. And now, sitting in for Rich, here's Brian Weber. Welcome to the program. Always outstanding to have the opportunity to sit in for Rich and the guys. Great to be back on the Infinity Sports Network, which I've been proud to contribute to since 2017.

Just a preview. I am old and I love the NBA, so buckle up because while I'll never destroy the brand or the format that Rich has worked so hard to establish, if you're looking for the normal steady diet of NFL talk, we're going to deviate from that a bit. It is a holiday after all, and if you do not have the luxury of a three-day weekend, you're stuck at work, you have my permission to mail it in. That is the power of being a guest host here on the Rich Eisen Show. You can come up with any of your own decrees when you're in this chair. We won't do anything lame like, which sports star would you vote for president? No Mount Rushmore talk today, but as mentioned, based on my demographics and if you care about my background, which I'll get into momentarily, we're going to hit the NBA hard, which I don't think is a stretch today in terms of topic selection. Coming up as we spend the next three hours together with all the fallout from all star weekend, Mac McClung once more, saving the slam dunk competition and the new format we saw yesterday in San Francisco, a marginal improvement, but we still get back to the central premise. Why won't these guys simply play hard? And that'll get into generational talk as well.

Draymond Green versus Charles Barkley. It is all on the agenda. Brian Weber with you. If you've had to endure my act filling in for rich or other marquee names across your radio dial, you may have heard me spit out this phrase in the past. Phone calls taken selectively, you know, the iconic phone number 844-204-7424. Today, I'm at a undisclosed remote location, so phone calls will not be a big part of the show. And I know how it works.

I am the substitute teacher. If you're inclined to pick up the phone, you're going to wait for rich and the fellows who are back tomorrow. So, you know, the number use it tomorrow, but we do want to have the ability to get interactive. So since I don't work for Elon yet, I still call it Twitter. Hit me up on that platform. B.W.

Weber, Weber with two B's. I scan the account at every commercial break. While you're enjoying the commercials, because you've got to support our advertisers, your interaction coming up in 20 minutes.

And I do my best never to overwhelm you with outside voices, in part because I think I'm just that fascinating. Secondly, I want to maximize the opportunity to contribute to a show of this stature. Just one guest per hour coming up in 40 minutes, in addition to all the NBA I'm about to handle. We'll check in with one of those basketball journalists in the industry, old friend Curt Heelan. You can check out his outstanding work at NBCSports.com. With a reminder, NBC is about to get the NBA back. So if you were wondering why there was so much of a focus on Turner last night, that was part of the equation.

Although quick preview inside the NBA is not going away. And I love the homage to Ernie and the fellas. But it felt like it was a eulogy and one of those never ending intermissions last night, which we'll discuss in a moment as well.

That show is coming back in some fashion, so no need for the professional burial. But the general takeaway between games was they were just killing time because that was not a three hour content block. I know it was assigned that way. Speaking of being old, I still get the TV guide delivered to my studio apartment.

So as I scan through what was coming up in programming offerings, it was a three hour window, not enough content to fill it. So they were stretching, as we say in the business. NFL is always the king, not only on this program, but across North America. So we will not get too far away from the gridiron.

Coming up in 20 minutes, how did Matthew Stafford become the linchpin of the quarterback market? And we'll be joined in the next hour of the program with the combine straight ahead, starting in less than a week. Always a pleasure to check in with Eric Edholm of NFL Media. Final hour because we are 11 days away from March.

I have a calendar and it works. We're going to talk college basketball with John Rothstein of CBS Sports, always has strong opinions. And even if you're not following the college game as closely as you used to, and that would put you in the majority of sports fans, even casuals would have to be aware we had number one versus number two, with the added twist of it being the iron ball basketball style Auburn taking care of Alabama, fitting the profile of a year that has been thoroughly dominated by the mighty SEC, which is now a basketball conference.

Last time I checked, the bracketology reveals that 13 teams from the SEC could be on their way to the NCAA tournament. We'll get there coming up in the final hour. So to circle back to the early stages of foreshadowing I tried to lay out, and I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen. Your opinion can be shared on Twitter. It's B.W.

Weber, Weber with two B's. My best days are behind me. Now, today is a great day.

Any day I get the opportunity to sit in for Rich is an outstanding day on my calendar. But I'm in my mid 50s, double nickel. So I realize, especially in this youth oriented culture, I'm obsolete. And to throw in one more thing that makes it a challenge for me to have a career at this point, I should whisper this.

I love basketball more than football. Don't tell anybody. Now, if you are one of the seven people actually know who I am, it's probably because I work with Rich at NFL Network. I did the morning show at three o'clock in the morning here in Southern California. As I come to you from our Regal Studios in Los Angeles, the NFL has paid the bills. If you follow me on the X platform right now, B.W.

Weber, Weber with two B's. I was in New Orleans on my own dime a couple of weeks ago just to be a part of the festivities. So I'm not doing a dime store version of Skip Bayless. I'm not zigging when the world is zagging, nor just trying to be a contrarian. But in terms of aesthetics, I think basketball is a better game. Not what we saw yesterday when we see legitimate hoops than football. And I was the luckiest broadcaster in the world, a Doogie Howser kind of figure that got a job straight out of college. And one of my early assignments was being the sideline reporter for the Golden State Warriors when they were dreadful.

We're talking the Victor Alexander era circa 1993. So last night was the confluence for yours truly. And while I would love to talk about Too Short and all the other great hip hop acts that make the Bay Area such a unique place. There was just way too much of all of that last night back to the central premise that they did not have more than I think the gimmick of what do we do to address the debacle that we all witnessed? Because it still garners a decent rating. And if you want to get back to football because we can never stray too far from the behemoth on a big word Monday, that is the National Football League. Pro Bowl was such a joke, they shut it down. Whatever that flag football competition thing is, it still gets a decent number. Why?

Because we're addicted to football. And for all the justifiable hand wringing and criticism of that train wreck of an all-star game in the NBA last year. It got so bad you could see the visceral reaction of Adam Silver at the podium postgame.

He just looked like he did not want to be there and he was flat out miffed. They had to do something to change the format. And what they did, and we'll get into it in more detail in a minute, I think was a step in the right direction at the same time. And maybe because this was the goodbye to Turner for now and a goodbye in terms of having the NBA as a package. And again, back to being a prisoner of the 80s, going to be very weird and I realize streaming runs the world when Rich and the guys are back tomorrow. This Emmy nominated simulcast available streaming for free on the Roku channel. I'm not trying to be a Luddite stuck 40 years in the past, but it's just going to be weird. Those of us who are used to flipping around and landing on TNT or TBS can playoff time to watch the NBA.

Suddenly they're going to have to go to Amazon. So I get some of the intent last night. But in terms of the radical shift from a game that was unwatchable a year ago solely because of a lack of effort. Because nobody could be bothered to give a damn. Nobody tried. So it was a layup line that was on primetime TV to make the modification to knock it down to the 40 point threshold, which I think was not a coincidence.

And I was trying to just run through the scenarios. How did they get the 40 points? Well, they wanted to have it so low that the players would have no excuse, even if they had my goodness, even if they had to play two games last night because it was the semifinals and the championship game. If you didn't watch in that mini four team tournament, plus because it was so obscene that we had what better than 200 points last year. The pendulum swung the other way in the league, picked a number that was far more appetizing. So guys like me wouldn't be barking on the radio about the orgy of offense.

So in terms of the game itself, I thought it was a watchable product. My issue was, and again, this is me screaming at the clouds, whoever I am, I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen. If you want to share an opinion about hoops or anything else, it's B.W. Weber, Weber with two B's in 30 minutes.

We'll get the expert opinion of Curt Heelan, who covers the association, as you kids say, for NBCSports.com. Took him a half hour to get through the player introductions. I realized there were more players because of the gimmicky format and we'll get to Draymond Green here. And I want to preface my remarks by saying, if you care, my father went to Michigan State and I have great respect for anybody who played hoops at East Lansing.

We go all the way back to Magic in seventy nine and everything Tom Izzo has done now to pass Bobby Knight as the all time winningest coach in Big Ten history. I fully understand, especially with my Bay Area roots, Draymond's appeal to that fan base and what he has meant to the Warriors dynastic run, which is over as much as adding Jimmy Butler makes them relevant. And you could get the sense from Steph Curry, not only small sample size, the couple games he played with Butler, but his remarks over the weekend. Steph is energized because the team did something to address their obvious needs. Remember, the Warriors had that remarkable start and then that proved to be a mirage. But this team is not going anywhere unless Kaminga comes back and becomes a rim protector of the kind of caliber play we've not necessarily seen earlier in his career. But we know big men are largely irrelevant in this league because it's all threes all the time, which is something that Draymond weighed in on that I agree with, which we'll get to coming up in the next hour of the program. Draymond Green is in many ways the heartbeat of that team.

But two things can be equally true. I just don't think he's a great dude. And you could tell me he gets caught up in emotion.

He needs the motor, as basketball parlance describes it, because he's got a limited skill set and he's got to leave it all on the floor for his team to play at their best. I fully get that. But that does not in any way justify walking up to Jordan Poole and punching him in the face at practice. And some of you might think I'm getting caught up in ancient history.

That was not too long ago. And I would also push back those of you who are on Team Draymond. We don't have to pick sides here. Maybe there'll be another team next year.

They'll expand the tournament to a fifth team and come up with even stranger gimmicks. Why do you think that tape leaked? Because it came from someone within the Warrior organization.

Now, as always, when you have any doubts, follow the money. That person or persons got paid, presumably. But also they did it to embarrass Draymond to point out this guy is freaking out of control. So maybe I am blending my lack of tolerance for Draymond on court at this stage of his career. A repeat offender with dirty play. It's not even borderline. That's why we've had the suspensions to Draymond, the television personality.

And look, I'm a fill in guy desperately looking for attention. I understand the power of the hot take. But for Draymond to take down the entire format yesterday was just rich. And I realize he's trying to stand out.

I realize he's auditioning for NBC, ESPN or Amazon, in addition to the money he's already making on the podcast. But when you go outside to the B team that Turner had to offer because Chuck and the fellows had the coaching responsibilities. And Draymond won't even play along, in fact, just buries the whole format on a scale of one to ten, gives it a zero and chases it by saying it sucks.

Very in-depth analysis, Draymond. Back to you. It just struck me as bitter and highly contradictory. Now, look, I can concede the point. We didn't need to see the rising stars. I was not clamoring to have Zack Eady on my TV last night, although I know who he is because I still follow college basketball.

But you get the point I'm making. How about poor Dalton Knecht? So he never played in Charlotte. He looks lost on the Laker bench.

Now he's on this thing. I understand the logic of the argument, but they needed another team. So how else were we going to carve up these rosters?

And I don't have the answer, but they don't pay me to have the answers. I'm there to enjoy it like you as a sports consumer. But for Draymond to go on national TV, absolutely obliterate his current employer understanding Turner's about to get out of the live hoops business. So it was calculated, I believe, on Draymond's part, but it just lacked intellectual consistency. And look, Charles Barkley says a lot of hyperbolic things, but Charles also typically is the voice of wisdom in basketball. And his counter was spot on. If Draymond's generation of stars hadn't destroyed this game by simply not trying, we would not have been in the predicament that the league faced having to blow up the format.

So you can't have it both ways. So in terms of the game, I thought it was OK. I thought it was much more watchable, which isn't saying much than the last five NBA All-Star games.

But it doesn't get any clarity to the central point. Why won't these guys try? And if you're just looking for effort or intensity, and here's again where Draymond was dead wrong and his larger observation that these young dudes have not earned the right to play on All-Star Sunday night when the game is watched by all of us, presumably, it'll still do a decent number. And remember, any time we talk about ratings, quick sidebar, I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen.

You want to hop aboard, do it on social media. B.W. Weber, Weber with two B's on Twitter. Any time you hear a talking head like yours truly give you a rating analysis, you have to put in context.

It's all blown up. If I threw out to you what the top rated shows on network television currently are taking the NFL off the table, you would not have heard of the majority of them unless you're a shut in or have no life. So, yes, when people want to kick the NBA coming up in the next 48 hours, when the numbers aren't scintillating, they will conveniently overlook the reality of the current sports entertainment landscape. But to see those young guys actually try was refreshing.

And that was a compelling game, dare I say, between the rising stars and the OGs, because you could see the motivation of the young dudes. They wanted to pull off the upset and they wanted their moment in the spotlight against the biggest names in all of basketball, save one. Where was LeBron James? Now, look, I'd be a fool in any way to bash LeBron after his amazing run of consistency and longevity. And the fact that he was a late scratch heading into the game is just one of those things.

Remember, back to my observation that context matters, he had played and started in 20 consecutive All-Star games before he tapped out last night. But if the whole point of this exercise is to have the biggest names in basketball playing at a decent rate, nobody expects it to be 1975 with Kermit Washington punching Rudy Tomjanovich in the face. There's a current reference for you or the Knicks and the Heat fighting every night or the Jordan rules and the bad boy Pistons locking down the Bulls. There's a reason we have arrived at the current product in the NBA. Some of it is due to rule changes.

Most of it is due to pace and a barrage of three pointers. And I'll address what's happening in the regular season coming up in the next hour of the program. But I'm just looking to be entertained on a Sunday night. Many of you, I guess, waited out the Daytona 500 second rain delay. That was it for me.

I pulled LeBron. I just couldn't hang in even further. But I'm not saying this was a radical step towards redefining what basketball is going to be in the future. I am telling you, I thought it was semi interesting. And that's all I'm looking for.

So I'll throw it out to you. Did you think it was an improvement? It had to be improvement, right?

I mean, that's rhetorical. What'd you like? What didn't you like? If you want to get under the hood and tweak what you saw last night as Steph won another MVP. It is B.W. Weber. Weber with two B's. You want to go back to All-Stars Saturday night.

What do you know? Chris Paul involved in pushing the envelope when it comes to the rules of the skills competition. Great to see him get shut down.

I felt bad for Wim Bonjata as much as Wimby. So no, no. It was my idea. We came up with the cheat code. I just have an inkling CP3 was involved there and we'll spin it forward. I realize that we get into these tropes that the All-Star break is typically the midway mark of any regular season. We're well beyond that. We're now into the dead heat towards the playoffs coming up in April. So we'll put the playoff picture into focus. How many teams have a legitimate chance to win it all?

I think the number is smaller than you think. Plus, and we'll try to do this efficiently. Beyond my conversation with Curt Heelan of NBCSports.com coming up in 20 minutes. I'll talk basketball once per hour. How did we arrive at a point in which, and the answer is, I think a little bit more nuanced than you might be thinking about.

How did we arrive at a point where the NBA had to blow up the entire All-Star game format just to get to what was, I think, a decent compromise last night? We will take a step back and try to give you the 30,000 foot view coming up. I'm Brian Weber, in for Rich Eisen.

Pass along your thoughts on Twitter, B.W. Weber, Weber with two B's, and we're brought to you by Hyundai. Don't let the urge to sing along to that catchy tune distract you from the truck drifting towards your lane or that lane-splitting biker creeping up beside you. Fortunately, every Hyundai offers advanced safety features that can alert you to potential dangers around you. And Hyundai has over 120 IIHS Top Safety Awards since 2006.

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Is Matthew Stafford, of all people, really the wild card in the upcoming quarterback market? Want to hear from you, hit me up on Twitter, B.W. Weber, Weber with two B's.

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Hey, Rich Eisen here. I hear from a lot of business owners like you about the work it takes to pursue your passions. So I know how important it is to have the tools that can help keep you moving forward. And with access to world-class business and travel benefits, the American Express Business Platinum Card helps you take your business to the next level. It offers a flexible spending limit that adapts with your business. Plus, you'll have complimentary access to more than 1,400 airport lounges worldwide, including the Centurion Lounge, so you can keep running your business while you're on the go. See how the Amex Business Platinum Card gives business owners like you the tools and rewards to do more of what you love. Not all purchases will be approved. Terms apply.

Learn more at AmericanExpress.com slash Amex Business. Welcome back to the Rich Eisen Show Radio Network. I'm Brian Weber, and I'm proudly sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk, brought to you by Grainger. With supplies and solutions for every industry, Grainger has the right product for you.

Call, click Grainger.com, or just stop by. Hit me up on the X platform. I'll play along. B.W.

Weber, Weber with two B's. We'll keep this concise because we supersized the monologue, although a lot more NBA to get to. And we will get that done in 15 minutes when we check in with our first guest, Kurt Ehlen, lead NBA writer for NBCSports.com, as I was perusing what's going on on Twitter during the break.

I saw this interesting nugget and it verifies what I think we all were thinking about in real time. If you sat through the three hour window surrounding the revamped NBA All-Star game, just 42 minutes of actual basketball in that three hour extravaganza. So clearly that could have been a two hour show.

Yes, they kept it three hours just to keep the commercial inventory consistent with years past. I thought as much as I enjoy Kevin Hart, way too much of him. I didn't need Mr. Beast, although it was nice to see the kid hit the shot from the logo, win the hundred grand, but it was painful watching the build up with all the misses and even Dame was mortal. If you don't know the gimmick, Dame had to hit three from long range. A quote unquote random spectator who actually looked like he had a decent shot.

I'm not saying it's WWE, but it is the NBA and Tim Donaghy is on line two, if you know what I mean. Dame couldn't knock him down the way he was supposed to. Final opportunity with the clock winding down. The spectator banked it in and it was euphoria in the San Francisco Bay Area. So we'll get back to the NBA coming up and as we ease into our number two of the program, the larger conversation is, if you didn't like what you saw last night, what's the fix?

And I think like in most instances in life, if there's ever doubt, money is the answer to all your questions. Do we just have to bribe these guys? Like was the case in the don't call it the in-season tournament. Now the NBA Cup dudes actually played hard, not only for a meaningless championship, although Laker fans have to love that batter hanging up in downtown Los Angeles here in Southern California.

But the money obviously was an incentive. More NBA talk coming up in 15 minutes. So dare I say, as the fill in host, you're handed a handbook filled with cliches. There is no offseason in the National Football League, especially with the man who hosts this show leading the way. Rich Eisen, the face of NFL Network, first employee since day one.

So I know for whom I am working and I would never be that self-destructive as to just do an hour of straight hoops observations. We are a week away from the combine. We will get into that coming up in the next hour of the program, 120 Eastern Time, when we check in with Eric Edholm of NFL Media. He works with Rich on NFL Network and NFL.com and spends a lot of time year round on the draft.

So we'll get into the pros and cons of Cam Ward versus Chidora Sanders. What the Titans, there are T's in there, what Tennessee should do. Give it all the needs they have with the number one overall pick. And the combine, and I can tell you because I was lucky enough to cover three of them on the ground in Indy. In addition to what's going on of significance, not the drills on the field, it is the Underwear Olympics after all.

It comes down to the medicals and the in-person visits between marquee prospects and the teams. In addition to that, it is a giant football convention. If I was there, you know they let anybody on the grounds of Lucas Oil Stadium, all player personnel executives, all agents, a lot of broadcasters, in addition to carousing at night and going to St. Elmo's for the shrimp cocktail, there's a lot of gossip, a lot of rumor, a lot of innuendo. In advance of that, we keep hearing more and more about Matthew Stafford. In fact, when I put together the detailed rundown last night, and the goal is to bring you four and a half hours of content in our three hours together, I had Stafford in the mix and I was pleased to have that choice confirm when I logged on to Pro Football Talk this morning. And a good friend of the program, Mike Florio, had the story and Mike's in charge of everything, including a lot of the headlines. The weird vibe lingers between the Rams and Matthew Stafford. So if you don't know what I'm talking about, and I can understand having a degree of what are you saying, Mr. Overenunciator guy, I'm Brian Weber and for Rich Eisen, the best way to get a hold of me during or after the program is on Twitter, B.W.

Weber, Weber with two B's. Matthew Stafford should be irrelevant. He's 37 years old.

And let me give you full disclosure. I am not a giant fan of Matthew Stafford. This has nothing to do with a personal beef, although I do think his wife, Kelly, occasionally can be, quote unquote, a distraction with her podcast. And there are reports that the Rams are tired of her going public with things like, well, when Matthew shows up at training camp, he's so much older than the young guys they call him, sir, which would lead to potentially a disconnect within the locker room. That's not a big deal.

How about Kelly going public with the fact that allegedly Matthew had broken ribs going back to week 15 that never showed up on the injury report? That's more substantial. But that's not my issue. My observation with Stafford when I hear analysts drooling over him watching NFL games is, yes, he's a Super Bowl champion.

I could not yada, yada, yada my way past that. But I did the research again last night. Only two Pro Bowls, which are relevant.

They always have been. Never an All-Pro, not even a second team All-Pro. Obviously not the Super Bowl MVP. That was Cooper Cup, where the Rams are kicking to the curb. And he's never sniffed a league MVP. Maybe he gets in the Hall of Fame as a stat compiler, although all these numbers now are completely out of whack because the entire league other than the Eagles and Saquon Barkley's brilliance is built around the passing game.

Still, a frontline starter. And I would be a fool to bash Stafford and the Rams coming off all of the pushback they gave the Eagles. If you think about the postseason, L.A. gave them the sternest test. And if that game had been played in Southern California instead of the snow in Philly, probably a different outcome or potentially. But if you paid attention, Stafford ball security issues once more because when he's not throwing grizzly interceptions, he's coughing it up with hideous fumbles, as was the case towards the business end of that divisional round playoff game. Stafford's in play because and this is so fascinating. And again, I actually looked up the number because I wanted to confirm how obscenely rich he's gotten in professional football.

Go back to the old collective bargaining agreement before the owners imposed the rookie wage scale. We're talking Sam Bradford and Matthew Stafford. Stafford got that payday and he's gotten paid repeatedly since then. Three hundred sixty four million dollars in on the field earnings.

Second only to Aaron Rodgers, who we'll talk about coming up in the next hour of the program. Stafford was able to shake the Rams down for another five million guaranteed last year as they played the hokey pokey. Would he retire?

Would he come back? And I think that led to some bad feelings on both sides at Stafford's feeling like I delivered the Super Bowl that Jared Goff could not. And you're not willing to give me more money as I get deeper into my career in the Rams. Obvious counter would be. Can I see your birth certificate?

You're now 37 years old. And I realize that Tom Brady's changed everything in terms of the runway for quarterbacks. And while Stafford has never been someone you're going to look at his physique and say that's a dude who's going to compete in the Ironman triathlon.

He has been upright most of his time here in Southern California. So you put it all together and you survey the league and you think about all the teams that have glaring quarterback needs. The Jets, the Giants, Steelers, Browns and the Raiders. And I could give you other names, but I'm just giving you the most obvious potential suitors for any frontline quarterback. Stafford's name keeps popping up. And then Internet slews ran wild last week that Stafford's brother-in-law was hired as the assistant quarterback coach of the New York football Giants. Duh, duh, duh. What's that mean?

Well, couple things. Giants are not trading a top five pick to get Matthew Stafford. No freaking way.

Just not happening. However, when you think about a succession plan, wouldn't it make sense to have someone like Stafford or you pick the guy? I don't think Aaron Rodgers is going from the Giants to the Jets. Love unless he just loves going to those Broadway shows he's been talking about during his brief tenure with gangrene.

That is now mercifully over. The Giants need a body. Whether that body is Kirk Cousins. Yeah, Kirk's going to get a job. It's that lean out there for starting quarterbacks, whether it's Russell Wilson, whether it's Sam Darnold. We'll talk about how Minnesota's approach to Sam may be evolving.

Coming up in the next hour when we check in with Eric Edholm of NFL Media. But the Giants need a quarterback for today potentially to be the bridge quarterback to if they go all in and take a QB with the third overall pick. Be it Cam Ward, who most observers give a pretty substantial advantage to over Chidora Sanders. But the consensus is and I know everybody plays as a rookie now going back to Joe Flacco and Matt Ryan when they change the paradigm. But the conventional wisdom is either Chidor or Cam Ward could use the benefit of a year on the bench.

Well, who better to learn from? That theory would go then a experienced veteran like Matthew Stafford. So I'm not saying it's a done deal. This all could be a grand kabuki dance for Stafford to get more money from the Rams and the Rams tried to knock down his leverage by leaking reports. They're open to moving him. The Rams don't mess around. Look at poor Cooper Cup. And I understand the motivation to make that deal, especially given Cooper Cup's more pressing injury concerns and the emergence of Pukemokuwa and what's going on throughout that collection of wide receivers. But the Rams have done the rare thing of rebuilding on the fly, loading up on defense. There's a reason why Jared verse won the defensive Rookie of the Year award and NFL honors in New Orleans. Rams feel like they were able to avoid bottoming out on a quest to get back into Super Bowl contention, as evidenced by making it to the divisional round. So maybe they feel like they could get by with Jimmy Garoppolo. Yeah, Jimmy Garoppolo was the backup quarterback this year, so I think it's going to be fascinating to see how this plays out.

But maybe it took a little bit of a pause from the NFL. It's hard to or maybe you're becoming your own amateur Howie Roseman and you want to connect the dots across the league. Matthew Stafford is the name to watch and a name we will discuss coming up in more detail as we get closer to the next hour of the program. 120 Eastern Time will check in with Eric Emmo of NFL Media. I'm Brian Weber, in for Rich Eisen.

If you want to share an opinion about the NFL or NBA, you can get that done by heading over to Twitter. B.W. Weber, Weber with two B's. We'll get back to the NFL in 20 minutes when we kick off our number two of the show. Straight ahead, we return to the hardwood takeaways from All-Star Weekend in the San Francisco Bay Area.

And was that mini-tournament really a significant upgrade over what went down in last year's debacle? Looking forward to checking in with Curt Heedlin, lead NBA writer for NBCSports.com. First, it's time for a sports update.

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LinkedIn, the place to be, to be. Brian Weber back with you. In for Rich Eisen.

Rich and the guys return tomorrow. Let's keep the basketball momentum going. Always a pleasure to talk hoops with Curt Hale, lead NBA writer for NBCSports.com. Curt, thanks for taking the time. How are you? I'm doing well. Thanks for having me on, man.

Always a delight. Well, let's go right into the cliche. There was nowhere to go but up after last year's disaster of an All-Star game. Did the NBA achieve that goal yesterday in the Bay Area?

Well, yeah. Like you said, the way I phrased it today is it was marginally better. It was 10 percent better, right? Like it was better than last year's and honestly, the system worked a little better Friday night when the guys had something to play for. The rookies actually tried. But it's still not – it's not there and I'm not sure that there's tweaks to the system.

I'm just not sure there's a salvage. I'm just not sure that there is not a future that looks a lot more like the Pro Bowl where, hey, some skills competitions and we'll have some fun with it and we'll celebrate the game. But I don't know that you can put the genie back in the bottle and have a competitive All-Star game. Before we look to the future, did you see more effort on the floor last night?

In spots, yeah, a little bit. Um, Wambayama, you reminded me of a young – remember when Giannis used to come out? I'm taking this seriously. I'm competitive. Every game matters. There was some of that going on with Wambayama and there was some moments. But again, it was, you know, if you really drove the lane and went to the rim, you were not going to meet with intense resistance. You know, you were going to get – nobody's closing out that hard on the Open 3s and so you still end up with guys going through the motions. Talking Hoops with Curt Heelan. Check out his outstanding work at nbcsports.com.

Curt, since you always do a good job of putting things in perspective, how did we get here? Are these guys too rich? Do they have too many marketing deals? Are they too close to each other off the court?

What's the macro issue? Yeah, I think it's just an evolution of a little bit of all of those things that there's just not – and for us fans, we used to really get into it. Because you got, you know, one or two games a week on TV and you didn't get to see all these stars all the time at your fingertips or on your streaming service. So we were more excited and with that fan energy came a chance, hey, they get to compete against each other. They kind of went out there and it's just a different world. A lot of the guys are like, hey, man, this is my break to get my body right before the final push into the playoffs and LeBron James announcing two hours before the game that he's not going to play.

Just stuff like that. And I don't know that there's – you've got this just because the way the players think about the All-Star game has evolved the way we think it's changed. But like I said, I'm just not sure that there's a path back to that. And maybe it reflects where we are when we look at basketball overall. Look, Draymond Green says a lot of things I disagree with and I thought he was way too critical of the new All-Star game format.

But when he described the current product in the regular season as boring this weekend, I can't argue with that. Now the league is trying to tinker with the All-Star game. They've added the NBA cup. They've added the play in, which is a success. Do you think they might try to address the avalanche of threes that have radically changed the sport itself?

Adam Silver talked about that directly and what he said, and I think he was quoting Steve Kerr from an interview with Bob Costas who said the same thing. Which is, are there too many threes? We can debate this a little bit because basically the long twos became threes.

But yeah, probably a few too many. I think they can add more physicality out on the perimeter. And Kurt, how do you do that? Is that a rule change? Do you go back to hand checks?

How do you get to that policy prescription? I think it's got to be more hand checks than just allowing a little more bodying out on the perimeter than is involved now. And there's a line to walk. You've got skilled players. You want them to be able to show off that skill and not just get bullied out there. But you've got to find a way to find a balance because right now those guys, and it's more challenging just because, not just Steph Curry.

Most of these guys, they don't necessarily just shoot it at the arc. They're two steps behind it. No, it's all logos. Yeah, like Damon and the thing with Mr.

Beast. Yeah, so those become even harder to stop. But I think you've got to allow something because the radical changes, the four point line, some of the stuff that gets discussed. That's all going to have wild unintended consequences.

You're now messing with the fabric of the game. And I think just allow, you've got to let the defensive pendulum swing back the other way some. Kurt Halen, NBCSports.com is our guest. I've got to put you on the shot clock. Less than two minutes to go, you can handle it. Is OKC ready to win it all this year?

You look at the talent, it blows me away in terms of their depth. Yes, I believe that. I mean, look, Brian, we do this with everybody. Jalen Hurts could not win a big game, could not win a Super Bowl until we won a Super Bowl, right?

We do this with everybody. I think they're ready. When they lost last year, they weren't physical enough. They went out and got Isaiah Hartenstein.

Makes you a lot more physical. Just guys like Jalen Williams came in with a different mindset. I think they're ready to win it all this year. They've been the best team in the regular season, but I genuinely believe they're ready.

Kurt, great information as always. With the All-Star Game shifting to NBC next year, I expect to see you on the court doing something wacky. Since it's shifting to NBC next year, we will have solved all the problems.

It's a beautiful afternoon of basketball. Perfect. You're probably sitting on a memo you can't share with us, right? Sure, we'll go with that. Oh, I like the coughing. I don't see why just switching over to NBC shouldn't solve every problem. It always does. NBC, you later. Thank you, Kurt.

Take care, man. That's our friend Kurt Hillen and lousy clock management from yours truly. I will do a better job when we have our final guest in the slot in the final hour, making sure we have time to check in with John Rothstein of CBSSports.com. Talking college basketball straight ahead. NFL quarterbacks, who will be on the move?

What do you need to know? Power number two of the Rich Eisen Show is straight ahead. Three children of celebrity. Bravo. Give them Lala. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.