Hour 1: Guest Host Tom Pelissero, Sorby Fallout, plus NBA Draft with ESPN’s Vincent Goodwill

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0:20Tom Pelissero:Quaker, official sponsor of FIFA World Cup 26.

0:30And we're live on Match Day as Doug reaches for a Buffalo wing. He's got it. Oh, and he's going for a can of Pepsi, too. What a finish. There's no doubt about it. It just tastes better. Match Days deserve Pepsi. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Hey, everybody. Can't get enough of the Rich Eisen Show? You're in luck. You can find us everywhere. Watch us weekdays on Disney Plus from noon to 3 Eastern. Miss the show? We've got a podcast so you can listen anytime. But here's the best part. Our YouTube channel. Subscribe at youtube.com slash Rich Eisen Show and you'll never miss a moment. Now, on with the show.

1:14With the first pick, the Washington Wizards select the Rich Eisen Show with guest host Tom Pellicero. God, I love that guy. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Today's guests, ESPN senior NBA writer Vincent Goodwill, two-time major champion Colin Morikawa, Super Bowl champion receiver Antonio Freeman, and now sitting in for Rich, it's Tom Pelissero.

1:45Tom Pelissero:Welcome to a Rich Eisen-less edition of the Rich Eisen Show. Tom Pelissero in the seat, pleased to be in the studio with my boys. Hey, what up, man? Jason Feller. Hey, what up, Tommy? Shockingly, no Mike Del Tufo. And TJ Jefferson right here. What up, Thomas? Part of a jam-packed show. If I do say so myself, last week of June, we've got Colin Morikawa coming on. Big changes in the PGA in recent days announced. Very curious to get the opinions of a two-time major champion on exactly what that's going to mean for the future of the PGA. We got tons of NFL news. I do have in my hand the power rankings.

2:30Tom Pelissero:I don't do many power rankings on this show. It's Wednesday. Top 10 stories between now and September 9th, the start of the NFL season. Top 10 storylines that will get resolved over the next, not even 90 days. We're at like 77 days, maybe? Yeah. To football? 77 makes sense. It kicks off on a Wednesday. Let's do some math. 11 times 7, 11 weeks away. I'm pretty sure that's right. We're going to go with it. Vince Goodwill will be here as well. Tons of news out of the NBA over the past couple of days. And some fascinating stuff that I want to get into from the draft last night. 77 days confirmed. 77 days.

3:10Tom Pelissero:Yeah. I got there. It took a sec. I started at 90. I was like, that seems like too many. We don't want to count today at 76. Less than a month away. I believe 28 days until the first team's report to training camp. That's how close we are to NFL season. We can take your calls on that. 2-844-204-RICH. Any NFL topics or anything else you want to discuss? We'll get into Giannis plenty, I'm sure, when Vince is here a little bit. I'm very curious for his thoughts on how that impacts the East. That part of the trade is going to be maybe the single focal point of media and fan attention between now and next June.

3:46Tom Pelissero:And how does it work out? You don't make a trade for Giannis. You don't think we immediately are the frontrunners in the Eastern Conference with Giannis. You don't do that if you don't think we can win the NBA title. But on the other side last night of that trade, something very interesting happened. And when you looked at it initially, of course, the front line part of the story is they took this mishmash of role players from Miami and picks over Jalen Brown plus two firsts. That's at its core form. You had two completely different trade packages on the table. Rather than taking, and we'll talk a little bit more about Jalen Brown in a second because Brad Stevens talked about him last night, rather than taking a guy who's a 30-point-a-game scorer in his prime, you take, again, a bunch of guys who certainly can fit but aren't front-line type players and then a whole bunch of picks that you can build the roster up.

4:39Tom Pelissero:Giannis has never been a three-point threat, I think, to say the least. He leads the league every year in two-point goals, right? But what they did last night in terms of the post-Yannis era in Milwaukee, what that told me was, we are going all in now on shooting. They were already one of the best three-point shooting teams in the NBA, in part because everybody comes down on Giannis, he kicks it out, and they get a lot of threes. But they trade for Tyler Harrow, who's a volume three-point shooter. Last night in the draft, they take Braden Burry's out of Arizona at 10. He's not a pure shooter, but it's yet another guard, a well-rounded one at that.

5:17Tom Pelissero:But once again, somebody's going to be able to score from the perimeter. And then at 13, you take Nate Amant, who, and I know, I don't follow college basketball as closely as probably certain people in this room do. But he was up and down, right, at Tennessee. Right. But he's 6 '10". he can shoot from the outside at his best like the upper end comp that you see is Kevin Durant I'm not gonna sit here and comp him to a hall of famer but think about that Milwaukee which has won has won an NBA title basically with Giannis dominating inside the three-point line is now just going we're just gonna shoot all day yeah we know we can't replace Giannis let's just figure out a different way that we can try to win and that seems like that's a core part of the philosophy going forward.

6:02Tom Pelissero:In an Eastern conference where we just saw the Knicks kind of bully people a little bit physically, where now you're going to have Giannis and Bam teaming up in Miami, and they're saying, we'll try to outscore you. We'll try to out shoot you from the outside. I wonder if that's going to continue here, but it certainly seems like in the post-Giannis era, they're pivoting into something completely different. Yeah, bold strategy, Cotton. We'll see if it pays off. And the East is going to be in a situation next year. Look, TJ, Tyrese Halliburton's coming back. And so Indiana, we know we're, what, a game away from winning the NBA championship two years ago.

6:37They're not going to win 19 games next year. So they're going to be back into the fold. You've got to think Washington is going to be better. If Anthony Davis does indeed stick around and is healthy, Trey Young's staying, now they've got DePonza. They've got suddenly a nice nucleus there. They're going to be better. Not saying they're going to make the playoffs, but they're going to be better. Chicago should be better. Or Philly should be better. Boston, we'll see what they do.

7:02Tom Pelissero:I was about to say, you're leaving out a certain team that you cheer for there, Brockman. I am, but they also have the third. They were the eighth team out of your mouth right there. They also have the third best NBA title odds, which seems kind of crazy. For now. All right, here's Brad Stevens last night after offering Jalen Brown. What I'm saying is that the East is good. It comes out that Jalen Brown was a part of the trade offer. He has not traded on night one of the drafters, what Brad Stevens, the head of their basketball operations, had to say. Jalen Brown's a big part of us. I'm never going to predict the future, but every indication, everything that I think about over the past few years has been building around those guys.

7:45Obviously, you never know, but at the same time, I think the one thing I want to make very clear is how valued he's always been. And he's been amazing. He's been an amazing teammate, great person to be around. And, you know, whether that run ends 10 years from now, when he retires or before, there's a lot to celebrate. And, you know, we have a great relationship and an open relationship where we talk about everything. But I don't want to predict the future, But, you know, I look at it as this is our team.

8:27Tom Pelissero:The open relationship sounds like a bit of a Freudian slip. Maybe Jalen's going to start seeing other teams. At this point, it's hard to imagine, first of all, that Jalen Brown is made available, even for a trade for a multiple-time MVP, if there's not underlying issues here between the player and the club based upon his role, what the vision is. And I also thought I was instructed there that Brad Stevens used the word valued. to me if i'm using just my sports executive translator here put your hat on what i'm hearing with the how valued he is how valued he's always been is you're not going to come in and make us a terrible offer we're just going to give jalen brown away we need to now come correct against the odds with a player who may or may not want to be on the first plane out of logan this morning we need to figure out how we're going to resolve this in a way whether it's now whether it's at the trade deadline but jalen brown the 10 years till he retires thing it was great i love i i can't give gambling advice as you know wouldn't ask for it but i would not bet on jalen brown being there for the next 10 years retiring as a celtic what i would say between now and the trade deadline probably in the next week seven in the rafters no we find out something that's going to happen with jalen brown there should be a market regardless of what the reputation is for jalen Brown and how much management goes into it.

9:47Tom Pelissero:Hard to imagine that's anything other than Brad Stevens going. I kind of have had my leverage punctured here by everything playing out publicly and the player knowing everything in what was already a delicate situation. Let's see how they navigate this just again over the next week into free agency and then up until the start of training camp and then all the way till February when decisions will have to be made. Maybe they are Brockman. Maybe they're right there in the East again. I mean, Brad Stevens was the executive of the year this season. Yeah, I have no reason to expect that they won't be in the mix because that's just what it's been ever since the Brown and Tatum era has begun.

10:25So, look, it stinks, but it's not something that Jalen hasn't dealt with before. Like we said yesterday, TJ, in the rumors for Anthony Davis, in the rumors for Kevin Durant, and he has bounced back each time and had phenomenal seasons. He's second team All-NBA this year and was in the MVP conversation. And the Celtics were the second seed in the East. So I would expect them to be there at the end.

10:52Tom Pelissero:A couple other things that jumped out at me last night. Kingston Flemings is your classic, the pass rusher whose arms are an inch too short. Great name. He measured in at 6 '2 and 5 '8", I believe. They always say 6 '2, 5 '8", barefoot. As in, were some guys wearing their shoes? No, but like that was a little, that was like an inch shorter. And suddenly a guy who is probably based on the testing stuff. And I've asked people that I know in the NBA about this based on like the testing, his athletic profile. This is the best athlete in the draft. He's a little undersized, but the things he can do athletically are next level.

11:28Tom Pelissero:That's one I'll be watching just to see is this, you know, Elvis Dumerville area of somebody. Well, his arms are short. Well, he's really, really good at his job. It's probably going to work out. This year's Reuben Bain? Reuben Bain? Another great example. Reuben Bain had other stuff going on, but the arm length was the primary thing. Right. This guy looked like he got a haircut for draft night, which I think is nice. Memphis also, that's the other one. There was a lot going on with Memphis last night. They take Cameron Boozer at three, and we'll get to how some of those things played out in a second here.

12:01Tom Pelissero:But then the multiple trades back to amass five second-round picks. If I'm a fan of an NBA team, the last thing that I want to hear is my team amassing second round picks. You know what a team is doing when they acquire five second round picks in multiple trades on draft night? They are going to go out and they're going to draft a bunch of 18-year-old European dudes and hope against hope that one of them is Nikola Jokic. And if it is, awesome. winner but there are way more of those who play three four years over there and you never hear from them again it's a signal and again i appreciate that all right if you're going to take a shot take five shots these are lottery tickets and you're hoping one of them has the right numbers but it's also a signal we'd rather than having the 16th pick or the 17th pick we'd kind of rather have five second rounders to be able to go out and just chuck some darts here and see if these young developmental guys one of them becomes something that can help us probably two three four years down the line because it's a non-guaranteed contract because you can hold the guys rights it doesn't count against you if i'm a grizzly fan if i'm cameron boozer sitting there watching this play out i'm going i'm gonna i'm getting a little bit a little bit nervous here that that's everything that came that played out on the broadcast last night that drives me absolutely bananas it's not about the broadcast itself which by the way star of the broadcast by far Lisa Salter's couch interviews not even close every pick gets taken come over there some comedy look how many how many family members can we get in there on that couch also can we get a bigger couch these guys are all like I think what would be fun would be if you you kind of do some gaslighting on the audience and over the course of the first round you swap in smaller and smaller couches so the guy's taken late sit down you're like how'd this guy not go earlier he's huge I think that would be a nice touch but Lisa Salters is like a baseball closer who's got two great pitches it's not Mariano Rivera just throwing the same thing over and over again you know what are your emotions like right now she's coming in with either you led the conference in rebounding besides being tall what makes you a great rebounder or your entire family was chased from their homeland by violent warlords half of them are dead what's it like to go to Atlanta you don't know which way she's going and like the conversations that come out of that because it is so disparate are very fascinating and revealing in that moment uh on a really big stage lisa's a legend i i fully enjoy every single one of those every time but there was another scene where they had cameron boozer and his and his former aau teammate on the stage they're interviewing together with kenny smith it's on the second stage right and they pause him like mid mid question mid answer like hold on hold on we got a teammate coming for you and it's at the the 16th pick where it's bennett sturtz and they're like what do you think oh i like that pick i like that pick let's go not 20 seconds later they go uh we're just getting word uh sturtz has been traded and he's like oh i'm like yeah welcome welcome to this yeah i don't like that but how have we not fixed this i i understand the rules are different okay in the nba that it is in the nfl You can't trade guys in the NFL until they've signed contracts.

15:29Tom Pelissero:NBA, you can trade the players. But the cutoff, you can't trade the picks. This has gone on for decades. That's because the NBA league start, the new league year start. I'm aware there's cap considerations and everything else. But are you telling me that after Kobe in the Hornets hat is the lasting image, Luka in a Hawks hat at no point can we just step in and say this is actually hurting the drama what's the best part of the NFL draft oh we got a trade they're now on the clock this is literally like follow Shams X account and he'll tell you what team guys are actually on there was another guy the 28th pick where it was Jefferson Joshua Jefferson who is ostensibly taken by the Timberwolves.

16:19Tom Pelissero:He's not invited to the draft. And Malik Andrews or whoever was narrating is saying, oh, this is one of the best parts. We love this. The guy wasn't invited to the draft, but he came here anyway. He wanted the experience. He's coming down. He's hugging family members. He walks down and he puts on the Timberwolves hat. I don't care how far back you tilt that hat. It still has the wrong logo on it. You're a Brooklyn Net. What a weird thing. Well, who did the Lakers take? And as he's walking up, he's like, I'm getting traded. I'm getting traded. The Knicks took him and they took him to draft. It happens every year.

16:56Tom Pelissero:He's walking up to the podium. I'm getting traded. Adam Silver has done so many positive things for the NBA. Being bold and doing things like, I mean, the NBA Cup, whether you like it or hate it, it was a way to make competitive basketball a little bit more competitive, a little more interesting in the middle of the season, which can otherwise kind of be the doldrums. This is up against NFL playoffs and everything else. Like he's done a ton of smart stuff. Adam, if you're listening, I am just pleading with you. And I know this is not an original take, but please, can we figure out a way to just once address the issue and figure out, is there some way, whether it's reorganizing, working with the players associated, whatever the hurdles are.

17:36Tom Pelissero:I'm not an expert on the NBA collective bargaining agreement. There has to be some way that the guy is on the stage without the wrong hat and the wrong logo projected behind the biggest moment of his life. And you have to go on social media to find out. Yeah, he's not really on that team. We'll talk NFL in a little bit. The Brendan Sorsby case. I want to spend some time on that. This has massive ramifications. And by the way, it's not over yet. there are still ins and outs to this entire situation. Break down that in a little bit. But coming up after this, maybe Vince Goodwill. Maybe Vincent Goodwill, senior NBA writer for ESPN.

18:13Tom Pelissero:Maybe he's got an idea for how to get the right hat on the right guy. We'll also talk to him about much more important things, including after the Giannis trade, who is the next star to get dealt? We'll ask him next on The Rich Eisen Show. The Rich Eisen Show podcast.

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20:50Tom Pelissero:Now we're back. We're troubleshooting a little bit here with Vince. He is coming. They actually handed him the wrong hat. Vince Goodwill will be here momentarily any other takeaways last night for you Brogdon or TJ out of night one NBA draft I agree with Adam you said earlier about him liking the Bulls I think the Bulls did a really good draft they should be happy especially with I've heard a lot of people say Caleb Williams between him and Peterson could be the best player in this draft so getting him is a bonus was that intentional? What? You just said Caleb Williams. Did I say Caleb Williams?

21:30Tom Pelissero:See, I don't think. Yesterday, I said, Wilson, you made me. You got in my head just right now. I didn't even realize. I already have seeded in TJ's brain. I literally talk about the issue with Caleb Wilson and Caleb Williams being in the same city. Because early on this card. 15 seconds later. On this card says Caleb Wilson. So, yeah, that was you. You made me do that. I'm going to start gaslighting you. Every opportunity I get just to see what's going to come out of your mouth. You really did get me with that one. I liked what the Thunder did, too. I thought that they got big. We see that Chet probably not a five, probably more suited for the three.

22:07So for them to get the big man out of Michigan probably made sense.

22:10Tom Pelissero:And I also feel like that might be it for Harden. Keep taking big injury risk, guys, because you got like 72 first-round picks over five drafts. You're going to have to deal with Wembenyama for the next 12 years. So you've got to get as much size as you can. Vincent Goodwill, ESPN NBA senior writer, one of my absolute favorites in the entire business with us right now. Tons to get into here, Vince, but I want to start with this. We were talking about this in the opening segment. And I know this is not an original complaint, original argument. I appreciate it when we've talked about flopping in the past.

22:38Tom Pelissero:You seem to be on the team. What do we need to do to fix the guys being handed the wrong hat and then finding out afterward that's not actually the team that took it? either though. We took a step last night, y 'all. We really did. We took a big time step in making sure that guys had the right hat on. Me, Brian, Winhorse, Vanessa Richardson, and Iman Shambord doing HoopStreams, a three-hour live show. And what we got to see was a couple of players actually getting handed the right hat. Now, you guys may not see it on TV. Once you go on stage, you get handed the wrong hat. Adam Silver hands it to you.

23:13You take a picture with all these sparkles on a hat that is not yours and then maybe 10 seconds later or a minute later you go and get the right hat they put it on the board of who has the right trade they announce the trade it's a little bit of a weird thing just because league rules and all that type of stuff but i'll tell you a funny story we announced to a player last night that he was being traded to memphis we thought he hit on the wrong had he on the detroit pistons at kareem lopez who was picked 21st by Detroit was going to be rerouted to Memphis. We kept asking him about Memphis. He was looking at us like we grew a third nostril.

23:46And then we discovered that he found out just like we found out that he was going to Memphis. A memorable moment is probably somewhere on YouTube, but yeah, steps, but not quite there.

23:58Tom Pelissero:Well, this is what I don't understand. I know there's rules, right? It's the cadence of the league year. It's when you can trade players if they're under contract or not. It's about the cutoff of when you can trade the picks. But this has gone on for decades. Vince, Kobe in the Hornets hat. Everybody knows that image, Luca in the Hawks hat. Like, there has to be a way that you don't have on the main ESPN broadcast. Last night, Cameron Boozer being told, hey, hold on. We're about to draft you, teammate. All right, they took Sturge. What do you think? I love it. Hold on. He's been traded. And that was it.

24:28Tom Pelissero:Like, you literally have these moments. I know it's like it's this fun thing. I'm sure certain NBA fans just are entertained by the chaos of it. I just, I don't understand. Why do we want these moments to exist? The drama in other drafts, namely the NFL draft is like, this team's now on the clock. Is there nothing? You're telling me there's nothing that Adam Silver can do to just say, let's work with the Players Association, whatever it is, the bylaws, and let's just make this smoother. Tom, when I'm the CEO of Common Sense, we're going to go back to that type of stuff because remember back in the day, Vince Carter and Anton Jamison, college teammates get traded for each other on draft.

25:04and I think they were picking either four and five together. We saw them exchange their hats on live television. The same thing with Penny Hardaway and Chris Webber. The trade was announced to everyone, and the guys changed their hats. For whatever reason, some of these trades can't be consummated until July 6th when the new league year begins and everything else. But we all know the difference in time. Luka Doncic with an Atlanta Hawks hat on. Can you imagine one day, Luka Doncic, Magic City Monday? You know what I mean? Could he have been an Atlanta Hawk for maybe one day and then going on to Magic City and then going to be a Dallas Maverick?

25:39I mean, a Los Angeles Laker or whatever team he plays for now, all that stuff. It would have been fun for him to be good for one day.