David Aldridge: I'm Interested In What NBA Team Will Finish Third In The East

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Learn more at AmericanExpress.com slash Amex Business. This is the Rich Eisen Show. You won't see anything from me tonight. Unfortunately, I would not be in uniform tonight. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles.

Here's Curry from half court. Yes! We got 75 guys sitting 20 minutes.

It's not quite easy for them. The Rich Eisen Show. Come on, what are we doing? A scale of 1 to 10, your thoughts of the format?

A zero. Earlier on the show, former NFL general manager Mike Mayock. Coming up, author of the Basketball 100, David Aldridge.

Quarterback consultant Jordan Palmer. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Our number two of the Rich Eisen Show on the air here on this Tuesday after President's Day weekend. 844204 Rich, number to Donald.

Love seeing all the phone lines lit. David Aldridge is going to join us and we're going to hold him personally responsible with everything happening in the NBA. I think he'll take kindly to that. No, he won't.

No, he won't. DA, fix it. Fix it. React to me.

Do it now. Draymond Green saying the format sucks. Apparently Oscar Robinson responded. Did you see that? He said, who cares what Draymond Green has to say? The big O said that? Apparently he did. That's awesome.

Apparently he did. I sort of agree. What do you think about fixing it by having it decide, you know, game seven of the NBA Finals? No, no, no. How about this?

Let's come up with the four nations for the NBA. As if, as if, as if, as if they will go from Thursday to Thursday and have the Stars play three games in between, or four, right? Yes. Yeah. Well, you could if you do the point thing like they did. Well, what they what they've done is it's USA play. You know, everybody plays like a round round. It's like it's like a World Cup pool play, you know, where one team plays the other three and then the top two point getters move on to the championship. That's it. So as if the NBA stars play in one game sometimes is enough.

You could tell them to play four in an all star break. Yeah, right. But Team USA.

Yeah. Team Canada. Team Canada. France. And then a fourth one could be... Just Europe. The rest of Europe. The rest of Europe. Like it would be Spain. Serbia. Slovenia, Serbia.

By the way, you got to make sure geopolitical foes are not all mixed in. Yeah, that's true. Are Serbia and Slovenia friends? They are. Actually, I looked this up. They have good relations.

They do. I looked it up. OK. Yeah. Oh, they share a long history of relations.

I know. And that means Luka and Jokic can play with on the same team. So I don't know. Like, would that help? I think it would.

I would love it. Don't you think? The world team becomes suddenly stacked with the honest Jokic.

Well, guess what? Team USA is pretty damn stacked too. Canada's stacked. Canada's stacked. And France. Let's go.

Wembley, Gobert, Batum. Remember after the draft this year, I made a prediction. Two Olympics from now, France would win the gold medal in basketball.

Yeah, they almost did. Yeah, you might be one over that. So let's go.

Would that be helpful? That the NBA extend the All-Star break by a few games. OK, no.

By a few days. And let's go. We have a bunch of players from Australia, so we got to take that into consideration. Maybe open up to six. Here's the thing. It's a great idea, and it's an awesome idea, and it would work if only the players actually cared. The players care. I really feel like they do. No, I am not convinced that they really care until the playoffs hit. That's it.

That's the only thing they care about. This regular season has been so bad, I've watched the least amount of basketball I have I think in my whole life. It's so awful.

It's unwatchable on a nightly basis. Well, maybe the second half will be better. And the fact that now you've got to go.

But that is a terrible business strategy. I get it. Hey, stay with us until March.

I swear it'll get better. But guess what? The business strategy for the association is as healthy as ever, Chris. Well that is stupid.

That is absolutely insane. Chris, they now have, like right now, they've got two partners in ESPN and Turner. Now they're going to have ESPN, NBC, Amazon, and Turner is still in the business internationally. And inside the NBA is now a Turner product that is being sold to ESPN. So you're still, and Shaq just signed his contract apparently. So they're going to stay intact. And the NBA is reaping in over the life of the contract, $76 billion, Chris.

So that seems like poor business strategy. As healthy as ever. It's thriving. Except the product on the court is at its all time low. Now you can have an argument on this front.

By the way. I mean, we could go back in the day and go, I'm sure in the seventies, the product was much worse. Well, I mean, the seventies is when, you know, people were breaking each other's faces. You know, that was a different story.

Every night, there's like half the teams have a lineup, you don't know who any of the players are. Now that is the issue. That is no question and issue. That's a fact. And that is, and that is where, is there any sense in the association's union and also the players writ large, any sense of pride that this conversation needs to change? That's what it falls on.

And Barkley it's right. The generation of Draymond Green's generation has caused all of this to happen, but it's not just the NBA. The NFL decided we're stopping the pro bowl. Let's just put flags on them. Major league baseball's just been trying to find the right combination, that nonsense of putting home field advantage up for grabs in the world series. Thank God they got rid of that. You know, somebody's 110 win season is affected by whether the All-Stars care about winning a game.

Pretty bad, right? And not even the All-Stars yet, but the last guys on the bench who usually determine who won that All-Star game. That's what they are. But the NHL has figured it out. And I'll say it again, because what is some of the greatest competition we've seen from major league baseball, certainly in a so-called exhibition in the last few years? It's a world baseball classic.

Yeah, WBC. What's some of the best competition we've seen in basketball, the Olympics, right? So the NHL is like, let's just have a mini nationalistic tournament. And then the players have responded by dropping gloves and blowing each other up, but also caring. Caring.

It's all about caring. Right. And I don't know what the NFL would be, because there's no worldwide, there's no sense, but putting them in flags and just saying, uncle, we're done trying to tell you that it's raining on you when it comes to this game. But I'm maybe the NBA. We'll just Team USA, Team Canada, Team France, and then the rest, rest of the world.

And if you think that's overstacked, then OK, then let's see it play out. And then have the G leaguers around the world be a part of the slam dunk competition. Or the YouTubers or whatever. Yeah, maybe so.

Maybe so. Because again, there was a flag football game at the Super Bowl this year with YouTube influencers on YouTube. You could have seen that on our YouTube channel, youtube.com slash Rich Eisen Show. And the place was packed. The place was packed in the convention center. They put a flag football field and Cam Newton and Vic with the quarterbacks, Ryan Clark and Angel Reese were the coaches, you know, two LSU stars. Place is packed, you know, and you're watching people with over 60. You know, I think billion followers play a football game. And the PGA Tour started doing a creator classic last year. It's like recognize that, you know, there is some influence out there and there's other great players who are doing their thing on YouTube and make them a part of your broadcast.

I don't know. Just anything is better than what it is now. I don't want to watch a bunch of YouTubers play basketball. No, no, no, no. Not basketball. Your stars, these stars don't care about you and have let you down in this regard. They don't care. So it's time to move on from them. No, but not not that.

We have them dunk. I don't know. Anything that again, as I said, the that's all fans want is to have the athletes care as much as they do.

That's all. You know, Rich, it's funny you say that because that's where my football fandom kind of took a little bit of a dive once, because, you know, as a Cowboy fan, I'd be watching games, Chris, and I'd be so upset after a loss and I get so invested. And then I would watch Tony Romo on the postgame and he'd be flatlined. And I would sit there and go, wait a minute, like, there's something weird when I seem like I care more than he cares.

And then that kind of made me go, all right, man, like, I need to pull this back and rein this in a little bit. Joey in Pensacola, Florida, before we get to overreaction Monday on a Tuesday. Joseph, you there? Rich, how you doing, man?

What's up, bud? Yeah, I think that the NBA has got a serious culture problem and that these guys don't care about the regular season. They don't care about the playoffs. And the NBA over the past couple of years has been trying to overproduce everything. You know, you look at all the colors of the courts and, you know, all the flashing lights and all these celebrities. What they need to do is cut down the number of teams that make the playoffs so that way the regular season actually means something. Maybe that's it. You know, from 16 to eight and now, you know, these teams that they're having about 500, they can actually go and do something with their with the rest of their season.

Thanks for the call, Joey. I, you know, and I understand that there's no way they're going to have fewer teams in the playoffs. It's just not. That means less teams.

And that's this money. I mean, you're never going to see a league contract the number of teams and contract the number of teams that make the playoffs. You just never see it.

You have a 20 out of 30 make it right now. Well, I mean, there's the playing tournament. I know we have our fun with that because there's no stats like the play in tournaments that just go down some sort of black hole. But, you know, one first wasn't it Warriors Lakers when you're in a playing tournament and we were like, absolutely. We're all in.

What do you remember from that game? Somebody won eight four four two oh four rich number to dial. There's an overreaction Monday podcast.

Have you heard of it? What? Really?

You know, and it's led to this segment overreaction Monday on a Tuesday. OK, let's do it. Well, there's no round of applause.

We clap. Thanks a lot. Thank you.

There's a lot up under. OK, guys, like Mayock talked about it, we've been talking about it's one of the big stories of the NFL offseason. Yes, sir.

Really? Here's what's going to happen. Mike Brown is going to open up the wallet, all three Bengals stars get signed, run it back. Bengals.

AFC Championship game next year. Wow. That was I added that part. You did. That was just Omaha.

That wasn't original. I just threw it. AFC Championship game next year. Bengals.

All right. I don't know. I don't know how they're going to make. Mayock said somebody is going to have to get franchise tech to make this work, essentially, is what he said. You know, and not signing Jamar Chase last year.

So stupid. Well, again, when you sign a player to all the guaranteed money that you sign them to, you are required to put a percentage of that in escrow, meaning you can't just say we've got it. No worry about you literally have to have it at this moment and place it aside in escrow. You have to have a ton of cash on hand. And I don't know what the Bengals have cash on hand. I don't know their business model, but Joe Burrow saying on the part of my take pod, I'm seeing the Eagles pay everybody. Let's pay everybody. OK. And he's like, I'm willing to, you know, play ball here. So Joe Burrow is already, you know, generationally enriched himself. And if he wants to give some sort of a hometown discount now and kick the can down the road and keep this team together for the next three, four years, then go ahead and do it.

I'm not going to sit here and say this is an overreaction, it'll never happen. It's entirely possible that Joe Burrow has a Batmobile, but putting the AFC champion, making the AFC championship game next year, I mean, that's a tall order, pal. We need to see what the defense looks like because the defense did him in this year.

Trey comes back. I mean, that's a good sign. And then the question is, is just like every year, how are the Bengals going to dig out of that 0 and 2 hole? Great question. It always seems to happen.

But I don't think I don't think it's an overreaction to say that they're going to try to do it and that they could pull it off. Do they do they get all three guys signed, you think? I don't. I don't. What else, Chris? Hey, remember that pesky Trevor Lawrence trade rumor last week?

That was kind of fun. But rumors just pop out of nowhere. You know what I mean? There's a root there. You know what I mean?

OK. The Giants should call the Jags and trade for Trevor Lawrence. The Giants. And that would require the third overall selection. They would.

And maybe like a fourth next year. I don't know why the Jaguars would do that. Why would they do that? To get out from this giant contract that you probably regret. Why would the Jaguars do that?

They're going to start from scratch. I mean, TJ has been talking about for years that he's not the guy. But this is the wrong year to do it.

It's the wrong year to do it. Unless it's like if let's just say the Jaguars, you know, what if they signed Sam Darnold? Let's just say they.

Huh? Trade the pick. Sign Sam Darnold. Yeah.

That saves you about half the money. Right. And then maybe Liam like Sam a little bit better. I don't think it's it's signing Sam Darnold. I think it would be it would be going to Indianapolis from from the ball. And then you fall in love with one of these quarterbacks. You fall in love with your door, Sanders or Cam Ward, and you and you get the third overall pick and you draft one of them and you're out from underneath that contract. I start over and then Jets fans would have to sit there and eat it, because once upon a time they envisioned Trevor Lawrence being theirs if it wasn't for Frank Gore scoring a touchdown in a meaningless football game and they want it with Zach Wilson and yada yada yada.

They're back at square one after two disastrous years with Aaron Rodgers that the Giants wind up with this guy. But yeah, that's not I don't think this is an overreaction. All right.

We just talked it out. I like I don't think the Jaguars would go in this direction. But it is interesting that they would come from Indianapolis from Duvall, nothing, never not going to be funny.

Nothing is more gratuitous than just than just having that drop. I think it's going to be a wild quarterback offseason. Matthew Stafford is going to be playing with someone other than the Rams in twenty twenty five. Get out of here with that noise. Get out of here with that noise. How dare you? Why would you as a Rams season ticket holder even put this in the ether? Why would you do that? Well, I'm I'm separate.

This is like severance. I just this is my innie and my out is when you go and walk through the door and forget about everything going on. Oh, my God. Where are you? What's going on? Put that evil on me, Ricky Bobby. Where are the waffles?

I've never seen snow. OK, get out of here. Why would the Rams do this? I don't think there's any sense. Wants a lot of money. I get it.

So they're paying it. Less need is smart enough. I don't understand why the Rams would put again, this is the wrong year to start at square one. If it was last year and you could start drafting one of these kids that you fall in love with and start from scratch and coach him up.

I get it. If there's somebody in free agency that you could actually have because he's perfect to have around or you could trade for this person in their early thirties, just like the Rams did for him. What if they're a Jackson Dart spot at the end of the first Jackson Dart spot? I can't wait to talk about Jackson Dart with Jordan Palmer in hour three, because everybody's saying, hey, look at this guy. He's the guy that's rising.

You can trade back into the first round for him at Ole Miss. That's an overreaction. What else you got, Chris? All right. All right.

How about this one? Another guy is going to be on the move. We know Miles Garrett's going to go somewhere, right? And he's not. I don't know if we know that, but I understand what he wants. If Miles Garrett ends up on the commanders next year, he's going to break the single season sack record.

Why commanders? Well, if he lines up, winds up on the lines, you're here now, I mean, you're seeing a lot of this mock draft craziness where he's going to wind up a bear. I'm looking at schedule, looking at schedule, right? Okay. And it's the east, a lot of sackable quarterbacks. Oh my God. This is going to eat this guy. Chador takes a lot of sacks. Kim Ward, rookie. I think he can break the sack record next season. I don't know why you throw the commanders out there just because David Aldridge is about to join us.

And you know, he's a DC guy and they're the betting favorite to land him. Okay. Uh, sure.

I don't think that's an overreaction at all. Chris. You got one more. Let's switch gears.

I got two real quick ones. Okay. Yes. Nobody. And then the Brock means nobody. TJ Brock. Did he just refer to himself from the third person as the Brock?

The Brock says, I was doing a wrestling. The Brock says nobody's under more pressure this baseball season than Juan Soto. Nobody. I agree.

Certainly. Since it's a Mets town, nobody, it's a Mets town judges talking smack back to them under more pressure. Nobody's under more pressure. Not a single one on the Dodgers.

They already got there. One nobody on the Dodgers because they have a super team. They're supposed to win at Mike trout is saying he's going to play right field to stay more healthy. Makes sense. He's in his 15th year. That's crazy.

That's crazy. I know who else would there be? I don't know. Maybe Alex.

Could it be Alex Bregman? Yeah. The third baseman kicking Devers out. I would not like that.

I want to keep my guy happy. Soto man. We want to slow slim Soto. Bring it to us. Lastly. Yeah. I guess it's not an overreaction by the way.

Spot on. If we started with four nations, if Canada loses this game on Thursday, hockey is officially an American sport. You're done. This guy hockey is done with Canada. It's no longer your sport. You can't win the Stanley cup and we took it from you.

It's ours now. Just pissed off a nation. You just pissed off an entire nation.

He's probably is pissed off a kingdom in the chief's kingdom because he went from a kingdom to a nation. 51st state. And we're taking hockey. This guy.

Okay. Too far? Too far? Because Puerto Rico. I think Chris just unilaterally put a tariff on hockey. We're taking it.

Take that Canada. I'm not responding to that. You're on your own, bud. I'm just kidding. All right. Let's take a break. David Aldridge.

When we come back here on the Rich Eisen show, the basketball 100 author, and so much more talking about what's going on in the association next. Don't let the urge to sing along to that catchy tune distract you from that 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 is over 120 IIHS top safety awards since 2006. Because Hyundai is always working to ensure the road doesn't get you.

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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. Hard to imagine anybody more DC than our next guest, a Washington DC native who went to the DeMatha Catholic American University, wrote for the Washington Post, none other than David Aldridge. How are you, DA? Good to see you, man. How are you? Rich, I'm good. I'm good.

DeMatha Catholic High School was a big win last night over Gonzaga, one of the top teams in the country. There you go. I love my Stags. I bet you do. I bet you do. Who was in the Washington Post newsroom when you first walked into it?

Oh, man, Rich. It was great. I mean, I was 22 years old, man. So you had John Feinstein covering college basketball. He had literally just written the season on the brink book about Bobby Knight.

So he was a college basketball guy. You had Christine Brennan covering the football team. You had Tom Boswell writing about baseball. You had Will Bond and Kornheiser as columnists. You know, like, it was ridiculous. Sally Jenkins was writing about college football when I was there.

She was a college football writer. And so I, you know, I just can't tell you how incredible it was. And I know everybody talks about the L.A. Times staff, Jim Murray and all those guys, and the Globe staff with Montville and Gammons and all those guys. They were great. They were great.

But I'll put the post staff of the late 80s up against anybody. So you saw you saw P.T.I. being piloted. Right. And I was literally 10 feet from P.T.I.

for 10 years. They would be in the my desk was right next to where their offices were. And so Kornheiser would come out and go, what's the capital of Belgium?

Anybody know? And you being 22 years old, you don't. I'm talking to Pete Rozelle.

I bet you were diving in to try and help out. It kind of reminds me in a way of, you know, I was 26 walking into the ESPN newsroom for the first time, you know, right. And you know, and that's kind of the way I wanted to start our conversation. David Aldridge back here on the Rich Eisen Show radio network. I'm sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger has the right product for you. Call click.

Grainger.com or just stop by. And we were just strolling down memory lane of when you first showed up at The Washington Post at age 22. Were you covering Georgetown right from jump when you got there? That was well, it was my first year I was general assignment, which is what it is general.

Anything that comes up, you could you do it. Second year I did Georgetown. So I was twenty three and covering covering John Thompson at twenty three. That was that was a fun and crazy year. Who was there and what was it like with John Thompson? The best player was probably Charles Smith.

I think. I don't know if people remember. I always say I, I, I got I got the I got the oddest Georgetown year ever in that era, like in between Ewing and Mourning and Mutombo. My center was Ben Guillory.

That was my. But did Thompson kind of teach you the ropes in a way? Yeah.

You said many times I didn't cover Georgetown. I covered John Thompson. That was that was the assignment was to cover John Thompson for The Washington Post and and John.

Yeah. John would you know, he was he was a force of nature, you know, just in so many ways and great to cover. I mean, you know, was was willing to engage in and argue and tease you and do stuff. And it was fun. It was great fun.

It was great theater. And you always felt like you were you had in those days, other than Joe Gibbs, you had the best you were covering the best show in town. You were covering the best story in town like it wasn't close, really. And so to be a kid covering John Thompson, who was at that time three years removed from his national championship, four years removed from national championship. Yeah, it was something, man. It was something.

It was it was incredible. You know, and you talk in old school with you, David, you know, to start kind of get into the conversation that is surrounding the association right now as we're waiting for the second half to fact the de facto second half of the season to get started is, you know, the annual hand wringing over the the all star weekend and and the format that we just saw on Dream on Green, you know, crapping all over it, quite frankly, while it's being played on Turner. And just I'll give you the floor here on whether you think this matters or it is sort of an indication of a league where stars don't play every night, where we're load managing just for a two, two and a half month tournament, David.

It matters, Rich. I mean, you can't say it doesn't matter. You are showcasing the absolute best players you have in your league, you know, whether it's baseball or basketball or football or the NHL. You know, the idea of an all star game is these are the best players we have at this current time.

You know, we'd like you to watch them and see how great they are. So yeah, it matters. Of course it matters. And so the the amount of effort right is part of how that is viewed and how that is reflected. You know, so I thought they did marginally better this year than they did last year. I mean, the game in Indianapolis was a monstrosity, an embarrassment to the league. And correctly, they realized that they can't do that again. So they tried something different.

I'm not going to say it was a resounding success and they should do this every year. But it was the fact that you had Wimby and Stefan Castle and some young guys with a little energy in it and the old guys saying, we're not going to let these young guys punk us on the national stage. They played a little harder. So everybody played a little harder. That's all we're asking. I think it's like nobody's expecting, you know, full court press. I'm picking you up.

Ninety four feet. You know, that's not going to happen. But just play a little harder, give a little more effort. And they did. So, you know, did they fix it?

No, but it was a little better than it was last year. Well, and again, you know, and in the conversation we're having here and I think maybe our colleagues across sports conversation may be having today is through the prism of what the NHL just is doing. Yeah. Yeah.

That's great. And that there is a sense that it matters to these guys. Now, obviously, we don't want NBA players to hit one another in the same way we just saw in the four nations right between the U.S. and Canada, but a competition, something competitive. Do you think we'll ever see that again? You know, in an All-Star weekend? Well, you know, look, I think U.S. versus the world is pretty much the last card they have to play.

Right. Like, there's no they've tried every other kind of permutation of picking the All-Star teams. That seems to me to be the play. That seems to me what they were, you know, even though we're supposed to believe that, you know, the four TNT people or the, you know, the three TNT people actually pick the teams.

I'm a little skeptical about that. I think it was more, let's get the old guys on one team, let's get the international guys on one team, let's get the young guys on one team and see what happens. And as a result, I think the competition was a little bit better, as I said. But the kind of logical way to take this out going forward is to have a U.S. versus the world kind of set up.

Now, there are inherent problems with that, potentially. And I think Damian Lillard pointed this out. There's way more. I know that there's a lot of international star players in the NBA. I know there are, but there's still more U.S.-born players who are star level players than there are international. And so if you are basing contracts or bonuses on All-Star appearances, well, you're making it a lot harder for more U.S. players to make All-Star teams if you only have one team of 12 NBA players on it in a given year than for international players that just have more space. There's just fewer of them than there are U.S.-born players. So that's something you got to kind of work out and work through.

So expand the rosters, David, right? I mean, who's- I mean, I've only been saying for the last 30 years. I mean, seriously, like- It's an easy fix.

Off of whose nose does this skin come? You know what I mean? Yeah. Like, it's certainly since the last- Listen, man, the last thing I want to be sitting here in this chair is talking about LeBron deciding too late and call someone else's spot, that he's- Right.

He needs to stay healthy for the second half of the season, which we all knew he needs to do and can understand that that's what he wants to do. And I don't want to be talking about, you know, Wembe and Chris Paul getting disqualified in a silly competition, right? Right. Or the fact that, you know, a G-leaguer is the only guy who's willing to stand up and show everybody that he can defy gravity for- Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, this is not the conversation we should be having off of this. I was glad to see John Marrant say, maybe I'll dunk next year.

That's great. You know, I think the league needs this. They need somebody to do it. You know, like LeBron's not going to do it. We understand that that time has passed, but some of these young guys have to step up and say, I'll do it.

I'll try it. What the hell? I've got nothing to lose. I mean, what does Anthony Edwards have to lose?

Like, you know what I mean? Like seriously, what does he have to lose? Like, he's a great player. He's going to get a max- He's already on a rookie extension. Like he's one of the best players in the league. Like nobody's going to think less of him if he finishes second in a dunk contest. You know what I mean?

So you'd like to think that Ja and Ant and some of the young guys that are coming up, maybe SGA one year, says, I'll do it. What the hell? Let's have some fun. You know, because it's about having some fun.

And the thing that I think resonates with Mack McClung among most people, I think most right thinking people, is the fact that he's a young guy that's willing to try some different stuff and have some fun with it, you know, and jump over a car. You know, like that's kind of cool. Come on.

It's cool. You know, and you'd like to see, like I remember when Gerald Green blew out the cupcake on the rim or on the backboard, that was fun. You know, that's fun stuff. Let's get some fun back into this thing. Yeah.

And then you're going to see the player who wins the dunk contest, or at least captures the fancy in attempting to win it, playing an actual NBA game afterwards. That's helpful. You know what I mean? Absolutely.

That's helpful. And, you know, and if some of the stars are needing to protect their brand by not being in the dunk contest, all I would do is say, of all the accomplishments Michael Jordan has, you and I could fill up the rest of my show over the next hour and a half talking about him, David, but the Jumpman logo is of Jordan winning the dunk contest. Like you have no idea what brand building opportunities can come out from you saying you believe you can fly. You know what I mean? Like that's the way I would go here on this front. Absolutely. I agree.

I agree. And hopefully, you know, we're seeing some momentum toward that with and I think it has to be the younger players in the league. I get that people don't necessarily want to see the old guys dunk, although if LeBron did it, of course it would be, you know, the ratings would be insane, but he's not going to do it at this point. But yeah, I mean, it was great to see Castle dunking. I hope he does it again next year. He had some great dunks. Like he was terrific. Like he wasn't, it's not like he sucked. He was awesome.

You know, he had a couple of really good dunks and I hope he'll play again, he'll do it again next year. David Aldridge here, the author of the Basketball 100. He's got a copy behind his right shoulder. I have one here, right here in the studio, the story of the greatest players in NBA history.

Go get it where all books are sold. So what is the story, do you think, of the now second half of the season that will begin on Wednesday night and then mostly on Thursday for the association? I mean, to me, I mean, there's a lot of storylines. I'm kind of interested in the, who's the third team in the East? I think we know Cleveland and Boston are the first two, but who's the third? Is it New York? I mean, it could be, sure. Could be New York. Is it Milwaukee? You know, like I don't, you know, I don't, Orlando's kind of fallen off a little bit, right? I thought it might be them. Indiana's had a great run, but I'm not sure.

I'm not sure. So I'm curious to see who kind of, does anybody secure that third spot? Because the thing is you want to secure the third spot so you don't have to play the top seed in the second round.

That's why the third spot matters, right? So you're trying to avoid finishing fourth and having to play Boston or the Celtics or Boston or Cleveland in the second round. So that's one thing, you know, and out West, I mean, look, it's a sprint. It's a sprint with everybody that's out there behind OKC and there's so many guys, so many teams.

I mean, it was interesting. Well, I don't know if interesting is the right word, but Draymond just kind of basically saying the Warriors are now going to win the NBA championship was quite the marker to put down at All-Star Weekend, over All-Star Weekend. You know, a team that's barely in the play-in tournament is now going to win the NBA championship according to Draymond, so we'll see. But I am also curious about that 2-3 in the West between the Grizzlies and the Nuggets, at least right now it's the Grizzlies and the Nuggets because I saw Denver early in the season. They looked awful and credit to Jamal Murray for really kind of coming in and helping rescue that thing because it was going south and Westbrook's having a really good year too. So the West is crazy and wide open and, you know, what happens if the Suns don't get in?

What do they do? And then you've got the Spurs at 12 where, you know, and, you know, they go ahead and get De'Aaron Fox. We'll see how the Kings fare in that regard. You got the Warriors that you point out as a tenth, the Mavericks, I mean, what is going on in Dallas right now?

I mean, the commissioner was asked about what the fans' reaction is and he had to address, you know, obviously a direct question. Anthony Davis, is he any sign of him coming back? Because clearly that is going to be big, the Mavericks are in Los Angeles on Tuesday night to take on the Lakers.

What a fascinating development this is, David. Yeah, it's not just AD and it's weeks for AD, it's not days, it's weeks for AD. It's also, they got no, now they got Gaffords out the rest of the regular season, like he's out, he's done, he's gone and Lively's out right now. So they got no center right now, they have zero centers available to play at a very precarious time in the schedule for them. So man, this is rough, like you couldn't have a worse scenario for Nico Harrison and that ownership group than they're facing right now. Like if AD's playing and there went in and they certainly looked in that first game like, okay, this could work, like they got enough here to make this interesting. And then he goes down in the first game he's playing for the Mavericks, I mean, and now he's out for weeks.

It's just, boy, they're in trouble, they're in a lot of trouble, Rich, and it's not going to get easier for them. It's going to get harder if they have to go a month without, you know, any depth whatsoever at center. It's just, it's asking too much of the rest of the guys that they have. Well, and since you and I haven't spoken since that trade went down, what's your sense in talking to everybody about why it happened and how it went down?

Well here's a few things. One is that, you know, you can rightly castigate Nico Harrison for how the trade happened and what he got in return. I think if you're trading one of the five best players in the league, you can ask for anything of any team. Like, you could call Oklahoma City and say, I want SGA for Luka Doncic and they could say no, Rich, they could say no, that's preposterous for not doing it, but you're not wrong for asking, right? Like, you're not wrong for calling the Bucks up and saying, I want Giannis. You're not wrong, right? Because that's how good Luka Doncic is, he's on that level with those guys.

So the fact that they didn't do that and really kind of cut themselves off is kind of odd. And then, okay, if you're going to make the trade with the Lakers, just because you want to make the trade with the Lakers, you've got to get everything from the Lakers, right? Like you got to get both picks, you got to get, you got to get at least a couple of young players along with Christie, who's played well for Dallas since he's been there, but you got to get more, right?

And so those, you can take that, put it to the side, you can criticize Nico Harrison for that, but what I'm not going to do is absolve Mav's ownership of their responsibility in this, which people seem to want to just blithely ignore. General managers recommend at that level, they do not decide to trade Luka Doncic. They recommend to ownership that we trade Luka Doncic and the owner decides if they're going to do it or not. And that's what I want to see more of in terms of how this trade is being evaluated. I want to see more people holding ownership accountable because owners decide to trade a guy like Luka Doncic, not Nico Harrison, that's an owner decision. So they have to take the responsibility for this as well and not just leave him out there to take all the, you know, proverbial bullets on this one. Well, it sounds like Mavericks fans are attempting to do that with signs and with the language and they're getting the gate.

Yeah. I mean, I've seen some of that, but I've seen mostly Nico Harrison's the dumbest man who ever lived and that's not true. But I've seen more of that than, wait a minute, why did they okay this? Why did they say no? Why did they say we'd rather trade him than pay him $345 million?

Why? And I think that's a fair question to ask of the people who actually made the decision. Well, the general sense is that they didn't want to pay him because he doesn't have the body commitment or Michael Finley had to take a beer out of his hand or, you know, I mean. Whatever the reason was, I would like to hear them articulate that reason on the record. I don't think that's too much to ask of the people who own the basketball team. You know what I mean? I do actually own the team to say, okay, why did you say this was a good thing to do? You know, and give me specifics.

Don't just talk about, you know, you know, we're culture and things like that. No, there's a specific reason you didn't do this. And again, I've said this to me and I've said this for 30 years, rich owners are allowed to do whatever they want. It's their team. They bought it. Okay. So the Dumonts and the Addlesons, they have every right to do whatever it is they think is best for their team.

But they have to explain that to the people that are paying the ticket prices so that everybody has information to decide whether they're going to keep paying those ticket prices. DA, you're the man. The Basketball 100. Everybody check it out.

Go get the book where it is currently being sold, which is everywhere. Thanks for the time. I love it. Thanks, Rich. Appreciate it.

Always enjoy it. That's David Aldridge. Check him out on the Athletic as well at David Aldridge DC.

Of course, the DC is in there because he's Mr. Washington, DC right here on the Rich Eisen Show. Are you looking for a voice that truly represents your values? AMAC, the Association of Mature American Citizens, was created to champion the needs of Americans who believe in faith, family and freedom. Members gain access to incredible member benefits and discounts, including the award-winning AMAC magazine. From exclusive discounts on travel, insurance, everyday services to a strong voice in Washington, the Association of Mature American Citizens is here to make a difference in your life and in our nation. Anybody at any age can join, and you'll belong to a community that stands for timeless American values. In honor of President Trump's first 100 days in office, AMAC is offering an incredible deal.

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That's correct. Stevie Wonder! You kind of have to understand how Stevie began. White Radio. That's where the money was. That's where it still is, you know what I'm saying? Rolling Stone music now.

Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You know, when I was a kid, I loved the Steelers and one time I was able to get into the locker room with a guy who knew Bradshaw. I saw Lynn Swann over by the locker room. How old were you? I was about 10.

And the guy that was friends with Bradshaw worked with my dad. He goes, you want to go say hey to Lynn Swann? And I was like, I'm good, I'm okay. I so badly wanted to do it, but I was so nervous that I just couldn't bring myself to doing it. And then most of my life, even as an adult, I was like, why didn't I say hi to Lynn Swann?

I would have really, that would have been really, really cool. I used to before I moved to Kansas City when I was a kid, we had a football pencil machined at our school. And I used to give the Steeler pencils to this guy that worked with my dad that was from Pittsburgh. And so the Steelers were playing, I was living in California, they were playing the LA Rams, and he took me. I was in first grade.

And that changed my life. I was such a Steelers fanatic as a kid. To this day, if I need to remember a number, a phone number, an address or something, I'll associate it with a player from like the 70s, late 70s Steelers. If you name a number, I'll see if I, I mean, I don't even know. Go for it, Chris. This is all, we haven't planned this out.

Okay, this is all jogged up. Go through the, go to the pro football reference. And we'll put together a phone number for Paul Rudd, area code first, and we'll figure it out for his Steelers. What year in particular? I don't know, maybe go like a 79. 1979 Steelers, call them up. I don't know.

This is fantastic. I have no idea, 78, 79, what, you know, I don't know, we'll see. Do you got it over there, Chris? Yep. Okay. For Paul Rudd.

Let's do a Rocky Blyer to start. He's 20. 20. Correct.

Mm-hmm. Win Swan. 88. Benny Cunningham. 89. Larry Brown. 79. Nailing it, actually.

Or do this. Theo Bell, T-Bell. 83. 83.

If you want, say a number and I'll see if I can get that player. Nice. 63.

63. Was that Ernie Holmes? Tom Dornbrooke. Oh, no.

Tom Dornbrooke. Yeah. Oh, right, right, right, right, right. Before 79. Okay.

Give another one. 47. 47 was Mel Blount.

Correct. 59. 59 was Jack Ham. 52. 52, Mike Webster.

They're all correct. Fantastic. Pretty impressive. Paul Rudd, everybody. 58 for the win.

58 for the win would be Jack Lambert from Kent State University. Guys. Paul Rudd. I'm allergic to Paul Rudd.

You love Paul Rudd. Brockman, by the way, I knew all of this. I don't know what just happened. My throat closed up.

I knew all of those. All for Klempt. Paul Rudd looks so sad watching the Super Bowl. Rich Brockman. I know. By the way, what a run for Paul Rudd.

Yeah. SNL 50 this past Sunday and the week Sunday before he was at Super Bowl 59. Well, Chris and I were just talking. Can you imagine being a fan of those 70 Steelers, that dynasty, and then you get your Chiefs now? Like, he's played his football cards pretty well, I assume. Just in between his Steelers fandom then and the Chiefs actually winning Super Bowls. There was about 35 years of a dog period I'll tell you about.

But he's making up for it now. All the Chiefs fans are. Are you kidding me? Here's a riddle for you. What are yoga mats, a toothbrush, and a Hyundai Abincomin?

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Pick up through a participating Hyundai dealer in select markets. Fun with David Aldridge. You were talking about it in the commercial break. He walked into the newsroom in Washington Post, this is age 22. There's Thomas Boswell, there is Sally Jenkins, there's Christine Brennan, there's Wilbon, there's Kornheiser, there's John Feinstein. That's like a murderer's row right there. Heaviest of the heavy hitters. And I'm sitting there thinking, I was 26, there's Robin Roberts and Bob Lee and Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann, just to name a few, you know what I mean?

I was 26 walking in, there's Kilbourn, Kilby, you know, and that was blowing me away too. That Berman, you know, my God, you know, and so I hear you and still, yeah, Stuart came up and he's like, who the hell are you? No, he didn't. He did not.

He's probably wondering, why is this guy sitting next to me every single day? Talking about Seinfeld. You like that story, right? You like that story?

I mean, he had a point at that time. For those who may not know the story, I'll quickly tell it. I did a sports center with Stuart in the late 90s. I made a Seinfeld reference to go to break. He pauses the commercial break. He goes, what was that? And I'm like, what do you mean, what was that?

What reference you just made? I'm like, it's from Seinfeld last night. Brothers don't watch Seinfeld, but you do, or you did now. It took till 2015 to get me to watch, but once I got into it, oh man, I was 2015. I was hooked. It was off the air for 17 years. And then you watch, you are, you are proof though, that brothers watch the golden girls.

Oh yeah. Now you were in the golden girls before you were into Seinfeld, right? That was, you know, growing up with my grandparents. So Saturday nights, you know, hanging out with my grandma, you would watch the golden girls. Watch the golden girls. Yeah.

Laugh out loud. Were you LOLing at the golden girls? But it's funny. You get older now and I rewatch old episodes. I'm like, I didn't understand half of this stuff that they were talking about. Oh really? So it's now growing on you.

Well, not growing, but Blanche, she was, uh, Blanche was out of pocket a little bit sometimes stuff that you didn't get when you were 10. So she liked the show, aged well is what you're saying. I think so. Okay. Very good.

She was like 40 on that show. Dude. You have no idea. That's kind of crazy. Our number three, Jordan Palmer coming up here on the program, something we won't be talking about as the golden girls with him.

I don't think he might be a fan. It's still, it's still Getty was like 60. Yeah. She was like the youngest one out of that or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Like I said, we were watching, we were watching Martin and you know, who's we, TJ probably me and Stuart Scott, you know, from different coats. I never talked about the golden girls with Stu. I don't think he was in the golden girls. How could you not be?

I don't know. Maybe he was, I just don't think he was never, he never made one of those references. I still get, he was 62 and that show started.

Wow. It's like, it's, it's, there should be the Estelle Getty line. Like there's the Wilford Brimley line, right? How old was Wilford Brimley in the game cocoon?

Like 51 or something. That's unbelievable. Could you imagine walking around looking 50 years older than you really are? It's the truth.

It's the truth. Yeah. We thought he was like 65 and cocooned.

To be honest. She was 51 when that show started. How old? She was born in 34 and it debuted in 85. Look at you doing the golden girls math.

You didn't think when you woke up today, I'm going to do math live on television, talking about the age of the golden girls. Absolutely not. Be Arthur, right? She was the other one. Thank you for being a friend though. Chris.

You got it. Be Arthur was older than Estelle Getty. That was the rub on the show. The Be Arthur joke that Jeff Ross told, just to bring it all full circle here. You can't talk about it. I cannot. You can't say that. I can tell the joke in the cleanest way possible once upon a time on the Tony Kornheiser show, the radio show.

How? Because when I first started on Sports Center, John Walsh, the father of Sports Center came up to me and said, you've got a new fan. I'm like, who is it? It's Tony Kornheiser, whose syndicated column I read in the Staten Island Advance, my hometown newspaper that syndicated his column.

And I'm like, wow, Tony Kornheiser knows who I am. So I went on his radio show and I don't know how the subject matter came up. You told that joke? I did. You know?

Well, I mean, you could basically tell the joke that I wouldn't copulate with Sandra Bernhardt using the appendage of Be Arthur. Is that how you said it? Maybe.

Something along those lines. And so Tony found that so funny. He started describing the joke to me, not Jeff Ross. Hey, this guy Rich Eisen told me this joke. So for a long time, if you googled the Be Arthur joke in my name, it was as if I had told the joke, not Jeff Ross.

And so there's that. I thought Be Arthur was still alive. She's not.

No. She died in 09. I think it's still getting the only golden girl who's still alive. I think they're all gone.

May they rest in peace. Like hour two of this program. Bravo TV star Lala Kent holds nothing back.

Like I go into a full spiral. Get to know the TV personality. I talked about this with Teresa Giudice. Remember when I pushed Andy Cohen? Yes, it was iconic.

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