Hour 1:  The NBA’s Flopping Problem, plus TNF’s Andrew Whitworth Talks Rams & Bengals

0:00Rich Eisen:For some of us, personal finances aren't just personal. They include a lot more people than ourselves. Loved ones, neighbours, the communities we call home, and the causes we hold in our hearts. At Thrivent, we help plan your financial picture with the bigger picture in mind. Because even though our business is helping guide your finances, our ambition is to make it mean so much more. Thrivent, where money means more. Connect with us at Thrivent.com. Most protein drinks ask you to choose between results and taste. Bucked Up decided that's a ridiculous trade-off. Bucked Up makes lightly carbonated protein drinks, 25 grams of protein per can, clear protein, not milky or thick, and they taste so good that 25 grams of protein almost feels like a bonus.

0:49Rich Eisen:Bucked Up is so confident you'll love their drinks. They're giving away an island vacation just to prove it. That's the kind of brand this is. No purchase necessary. Giveaway ends May 30th. Enter and find your closest Bucked Up at BuckedUpEnergy.com. Grab a Bucked Up and feel like a million bucks. 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.

1:34Rich Eisen:Now, on with the show. Detroit Basketball! J.D., another jam! This is the Rich Eisen Show. From the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Cha-ching and Thunder Bunny bounce, Thunderbite 19! Today's guests. Prime Video NFL Analyst, Andrew Whitworth. With UCLA head coach Bob Chesney. Jaguars general manager James Gladstone. Comedian Tom Segura. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Hour number one of this show of the Rich Eisen Shows on the air. Another way to say welcome. 844-204-RICH, number to dial right here on Disney+. Right here on the ESPN app, ESPN Radio Series XM Channel 80. we're four wide today Andrew Whitworth is first up we haven't spoken him in a while there's really no uh nothing else other than just like I miss him you know and we'll always talk football yeah of course you know uh and in terms of that the UCLA new head coach Bob Chesney is here uh Bruins fans are pumped for this guy who took over James Madison after Kurt Signetti went to Indiana so they're hoping that that sort of pathway uh leads to some similar success here in Southern California and anybody who's Signetti adjacent, I'm interested in meeting.

2:55Rich Eisen:Signetti adjacent? Oh, my gosh. That's a good thing. No question about that. James Gladstone used to work out here in Southern California with the Rams organization. Now he's the GM of the Jacksonville Jaguars. He's joining us, and I need to know from him, are we done with the idea of a two-way player in Travis Hunter? Are we finished with that? Is that done? Because I would be sorely disappointed. I know. But he doesn't run the Jaguars based on whether I'm happy. Well, maybe he should. And then the last time Tom Segura was on this program, I was doing shots to the face of vodka at the Super Bowl a couple years ago.

3:30Rich Eisen:By the way, there's nothing factually inaccurate about what I just said. We have that bottle. We still have the bottle. Yeah, it's over in the corner. Great. It is empty. Empty. There's a little bit left in case you want a couple of four-year-old backwash. A two-year-old grunk backwash. Is that another fantasy team name? I mean, we're on fire this morning. We are. Tom Segura is in town and he's back on this program in this studio. He hasn't been here for years in this studio, but one of my favorites. Joining us, Tom Segura. 844-204-RICH is the number to dial. Hello, Chris Brockman. Good to see you.

4:04Rich Eisen:Hey, Rich Eisen. Good morning, my friend. DJ Mikey D is indeed. Good morning, Rich. Good to see you, TJ Jefferson. Candles lit. What's up, fellas? Is O'Shea joining us today? He's on his way. You know, I talked to him last night and the last thing I said to him, I'm like, are you coming before the show's over? Because Rich asks me all the time. And he's like, yes, I'll be there. Which means he won't. I would say remind him again this morning. I'll text him around. I mean, he's not awake right now. He's busy. He's got a kick. Go contest wrestling later on today. Check it out. Yes, sir. Take a Fatou.

4:31Rich Eisen:There you go. Fatou. The Miz is on tomorrow. Fatou is on. You're talking a lot of wrestling here, Rich. I'm kind of digging. Listen, I'm wrestling adjacent. Fatou is losing his mind, TJ. Okay. Reign him in. 844-204-RICH is the number to dial here on the program. So the Oklahoma City Thunder improved to 5-0 in these playoffs. Shocking. They bounced the Lakers in game one last night. And listen, there's two conversations coming out of this. One is, if the Lakers are going to make this a series and potentially shock the world without Luka Doncic, who's still sitting in his street clothes, and according to our friend from yesterday, Well, he's not our friend from yesterday.

5:18Rich Eisen:Our friend who was on the show yesterday. There you go. Because Brian Windhorst is a forever friend. Forever friend. We're BFFs. Yeah, for sure. You know what that stands for. Yeah, that's friend forever. Thank you. Basketball finds focus. That's another one, too. Interesting. I'll stop you from saying any more. I'm going to continue my thought here. He says, Luke, it's not anywhere near coming back. so if the lakers are going to beat the oklahoma city thunder without luca holding sga under 20 points for the first time in 141 attempts that's wild uh that's a good way check that box right if you're gonna have shea gilgis alexander um turn it over seven times the most turnovers he's had in a game since the game six loss in last year's finals to Indianapolis, Indiana.

6:12Rich Eisen:That's another way to do it, right? Guy doesn't turn the ball over very much. Turned it over seven times. Shot eight of 15 from the field. He had 140 straight games with 20 or more points. Check those boxes, right? Now then, not turning it over a ton of times yourself, you know that would that would be a good thing you know don't turn it over 17 times to oklahoma city's uncharacteristic 16 and not to lay this at the feet of any one player but austin reeves can't go three for six it's just it's just it's just that simple yeah you know i'm not saying at least shoot 50 that would be great obviously give me 40 but 40 three of 16 for eight points that's just and then Marcus Smart also matches him for a minus 10 last night he was four for 15 so we'll do the math for you seven for 31 from Austin Reeves and Marcus Smart yikes Max Max ain't gonna cut it and then Jared Vanderbilt blowing his pinky up on the backboard didn't help either and sure enough you know the Oklahoma City Thunder move on in game one thanks to Chet Holmgren's 24 and 12.

7:29Rich Eisen:They did, you know, Oklahoma City did its usual other things, which is play terrific perimeter defense. Also, take advantage of your mistakes, turning the turnovers into transition points. Alex Caruso, despite his five points plus 15, led the Oklahoma City Thunder last night in that category. So LeBron is sitting there answering questions about, you know, Hey, you held down SGA, but you still lost. What does that mean? We're down one. Same. Shea versus the Lakers. Lakers versus the Thunder. We're down 1-0. That's the main thing. Keep the main thing the main thing. And that's who win or lose. That's all it's about.

8:17Rich Eisen:27 points on 12 of 17 shooting for LeBron. he did his part six assists four rebounds shot 50 from three three of six so that's that's the one thing is that the lakers got what they needed out of their defense of oklahoma city's best player still lost by a poop ton of points well all right we'll do the math it's 18 not great Not great. That's one story. The other story is the NBA can't win for losing. Because in the regular season, they can't stop their teams from tanking to the point that they have to come up with some convoluted, always sunny in Philadelphia, conspiracy theory, red stringed. concept of anti-tanking with ping-pong balls and relegation zones and things like that that'll be totally confusing for fans to understand you can't stop the teams from tanking in the regular season oh well but postseason's hit we don't have to talk about tanking but now flopping is right there flopping is front and center jalen brown called your center Joel Embiid a big time flapper.

9:36You know?

9:37Rich Eisen:Yeah, and everybody thinks that was sour grapes. And Jalen Brown, um, then quadrupled down on his own Twitch feed talking about how some referees need to be investigated. And that they clearly had an agenda. That's a$50 ,000 fine for Mr. Brown. Who cares? Jump change? Yeah. Still 50 G's. But his other comment is the one that truly lingers. Every good basketball player does this. What are you all talking about? They clearly had an agenda. That was the first two sentences before the agenda line that caused the NBA to pop them 50K. And my timeline last night, not about yours, my timeline last night on threads, because I'm off the hateful X, was filled with montages of SGA flopping.

10:37Rich Eisen:You say montage, I say montage. Ah, montagery. The montagery of SGA flopping. And fans are done with it. Sick of it. Last year, the Oklahoma City Thunder were those young kids that were blossoming together in an MVP season for SGA. you could countenance all of this flopping free throw merchant i believe is what uh doris burke dropped that line on a broadcast that a lot of other people picked up that's another way of saying he's flopping and he's getting the calls so there's that why would you stop and the number of times where it's just like Why is he just, he's dribbling himself into trouble, and then the way to get out of it is to flare out a leg and then fall down on the ground.

11:34Rich Eisen:It's so unfortunate because he's so otherwise supremely talented. We're not seeing the other stuff in the palm of my hand on a montage. You say montage. Listen, it's not just this game. the Pistons beat the Cavs in game one of their round two series last night final score was Detroit winning by 10 and Donovan Mitchell shot nine of 19 from the floor he got 10 trips to the free throw line made only four of those so you could do the math and how it might have been different the final score if he had a better night but this was his comments after the game and um it's part and parcel of the new conversation that's hitting all across the NBA right now the playoffs talking about flopping a friend of mine got fined for talking about flop so I'm not gonna um try to double down but I mean like I feel like that's what I got to do at this point you know what I mean like I'm trying to get downhill trying to get to the bucket and And sometimes my people are in my way and I'm trying to fight through contact and I'm not getting these calls.

12:53Usually I have, what, like 13 in the last series? Like 16? I mean, I'm just not getting the calls. I don't know why. I don't flop. Maybe that's why. And this isn't just a tonight thing. This has been the entire series and it's frustrating a little bit because I'm such a dynamic driver, right?

13:18Rich Eisen:But I can't control that. A couple things here. Number one, obviously he meant the entire playoffs, not the entire series since it just started in game one. And number two is you guys may not be aware because we don't usually hang out this way. I'm a dynamic driver as well on the 405. Oh, yeah. Oh, man. Yeah, I've seen you out there. So Donovan and I have a certain similarity. I'm a dynamic driver. Both hands on the wheel? sometimes you know there's a there's a there's a hand on 10. Dynamic driver not at the American Century but in your car. Let me stick to the jokes. That was me. And you stick to not calling out my golf game.

13:58Rich Eisen:Got it. Netflix is a joke. Thank you. Tom Segura on later. Listen.

14:07Rich Eisen:It's a season long problem. And all I got to say is this. Is it a player problem or is it an officiating problem? Do they not see it? Do they not know it? Do they not probably break down all this film? Don't they know who does it and who doesn't and how they do it? Shouldn't they? I understand it's a very difficult job, the speed, the power of the game. It's very difficult to officiate to begin with. I understand that. but the number of times where it's just like it's what are you doing obvious shouldn't you if the guy falls down and trying to look for a call from you as a ref shouldn't you be offended like you're trying to dupe me into doing this sort of thing what would stop it what would stop it is what not calling it would be number one number two would be when do we start teeing some people up for this sort of behavior didn't they have i thought there was a rule yeah i thought there was a rule in place where you could get fined or something yeah but i don't think i think it's when you're flopping as a defender oh you want it on offense yeah we're now getting to the point where it's time to start teeing people up for flopping on offense too and not just on a three-point shot where you're flaring your leg out to get content right i hate that this stuff where it's like i'm in trouble.

15:37Rich Eisen:Bail me out. Thank you for bailing me out. I'm going in line for two, even though the other guy didn't touch me and it's in the second quarter of a playoff game and because you as a league and a association do not let coaches continue to challenge until they get one wrong. If they get it right, they'll lose it by the end of the game because they will not continue to stop this action over and over again because it does require officials going to a podium and let's see Steve Javi in that neat spot you know where we can see television screens behind him and he's in this replay center and here he is explaining what's going on and I know sometimes now they're doing what the NFL does let's go to a commercial break and we come back we'll tell you what happened because we're not gonna we're not gonna hold this thing up for another three minutes so because there's not a lot of challenges to basically say that was a flop he wasn't touched what are we doing and it is the only reason why I bring it up again is because stars like Donovan Mitchell are saying I'm not a flopper so I'm not getting the calls right and stars like Jalen Brown are saying there's an agenda here it happens all season long and the flopping's going all over the place here and this is now replacing the tanking conversation and if I'm the association I'm like this is awful this is stupid and fans are beginning to get fed up with it.

17:02Rich Eisen:Heaven forbid they vote with their remotes. I'm doing something about it. We're calling the officials in and say, you're on the lookout for this sort of thing. And one way to also help out is let the coaches challenge as many times as they want if they get it right. And if you want to limit it, put it at five. And I understand that would extend a game, stop the action, start it again then figure out a way to do it faster because this is getting out of hand yeah i kind of go straight to the top let me ask you this do you think we would have the tanking issue and the flopping issue if david stern were still alive oh don't do that no i don't do that i don't know i put this on adam silver man i don't you could you could by the way you could mandate to the officials stop calling this as much as i as much as i lament the tanking and this what they're doing to try and fix it and this flopping stuff i think adam silver is an excellent steward for the game i really do and the fact that david stern is long gone and he did he had an iron fist way of doing things that we might look back on right now and miss different times different problems different questions.

18:21Rich Eisen:You know, what do you think? Players would flop less if they think David Stern is watching it as opposed to Adam Silver. Adam doesn't want this stuff. I think he's more attuned to it, too, where it just, I don't want the MVP star of the game coming off of a playoff game having a bunch of memes and videos, and that was in the palm of my hand more than anything else last night because fans are sick of it and want it stopped, and the officials keep calling for it. Although last night, I should say, point out, fair and balanced, there were a couple on the montage where they play on. Yeah, I'm watching, looking.

18:55Rich Eisen:Play on. And guess what happened with some of these play-ons? He didn't score 20. He didn't get to the free throw line. And if Austin Reeves made some shots and started to lay it on his feet, and they didn't turn it over as much, and Marcus Smart made some shots. It would have been a closer game. Well, we might be talking about a different result because the officials didn't call the flopping to send SGA to the free throw line. You know, I mean, let me just take a look just to make sure. I'm spot on here. I mean, he took three free throws last night. That's it. He'll sometimes do that in two possessions.

19:34Rich Eisen:Yeah, I mean, free throws were even, 13 to 12. No, I understand that. The Lakers had more, actually. I understand that. It was a bad night to make that argument because, like you said, he wasn't getting a lot of these calls. But every drive is a, whoa. Do you want Donovan Mitchell coming and saying, I'm not getting calls because I'm not a flopper like the rest of the league is? Maybe I should start flopping, says one of the best players in the game. Have some pride. I still understand the players who engage in this philosophy. You're the king of you ain't cheating, you ain't trying sometimes. Yeah, well, you also see how it looks.

20:11Rich Eisen:Have some pride in how you play and how you're presenting yourself on the court. Right. So, whatever. I don't know. But we'll see if it continues. I do believe this conversation is only going to keep blossoming. You know, Knicks aren't immune either. Everybody says Brunson does the same thing. He does. And so does Embiid. Yeah. You know, as that series of facial recognition versus geotagging returns tonight. 844-204-RICH-NUMBER-DOWN. Andrew Whitworth is logging in. We can't wait to chat with him. That's next. This is The Rich Eisen Show.

20:51Rich Eisen:The Rich Eisen Show Podcast.

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22:50Rich Eisen:For some of us, personal finances aren't just personal. They include a lot more people than ourselves. Loved ones, neighbors, the communities we call home, and the causes we hold in our hearts. At Thrivent, we help plan your financial picture with the bigger picture in mind. Because even though our business is helping guide your finances, our ambition is to make it mean so much more. Thrivent, where money means more.

23:25Rich Eisen:Jaisen show radio audiences return. Andrew Whitworth is back here from prime video and so much more on the program. What NFL story has jumped out at you? What, what, what are you, what are you curious about Andrew? Well, you know, this rich this time of year for me, and you used to, used to do this Thursday nights. I'm getting ready for what my travel schedule looks like, baby. I mean, come on. It's only a few weeks, rich. I mean, people get excited about the draft. I get excited about schedule release. I'm trying to plan where I'm going on a Wednesday night to eat dinner. I'm trying to plan where I'm traveling, what the kids are excited.

24:00They want to pick their city that they get to go to dad with. You know, hey, they want to go with dad and go hang out. So we're excited. Schedule release. This is a big deal for Thursday night. This is our travel schedule, baby.

24:10Rich Eisen:I understand that, and that's right around the corner. But you know your travel. You're just going to hop on a plane with Al, and, you know, whenever he's ready to go, you'll meet him. on you know air air al and then you're gonna hop on with him and then it's just but the kids going it's kind of funny that you have you're at the station in life where your kids want to go with dad and al's at the station of like when when am i getting to stay at home in los angeles you know what i mean like that's two totally different things for you exactly it is and it's a big deal two years ago i started it letting the kids pick their show they want to go to and i mean there's their week they want to go to and so it's been a lot of fun it's been fun taking them with me each one of them gets to pick a week so there's four weeks where the kids go and uh we're looking for the forward for the schedules but let's be honest too it's fits and i's excuse to go walk around a town and meander and find some speakeasies and hole in the walls and everything else so we got some agendas there's some places we want to go i we haven't done minnesota on thursday night yet i want to go to i would love to go to minnesota go to a vikings game there in their stadium uh you You know, a couple places you want to visit.

25:18We haven't been in Jacksonville since we started. You know, so we got a couple cities that I want to go to, some teams I'm interested to watch. I mean, Jacksonville Jaguars are one of the teams that I had circled this year. I want to see them take that next step. And then the Chicago Bears. You know, I think they're the exciting one to see, hey, can we build off the magic of last year, Ben Johnson, Caleb Williams, and this relationship? What's that next step? I think it's Sean McVay and Jared Goff when we got together in 17, you know, and then 18, we made that Super Bowl run. And it's like, are we going to see a next step jump out of the Chicago Bears?

25:49That's another exciting one to me.

25:50Rich Eisen:Andrew Whitworth here on the Rich Eisen Show. Schedule release is probably next week, if not that, then the week after. We'll see what happens there. Let's talk about some of your former haunts. The Bengals made a trade right before the draft, trading 10th overall to the Giants and take Dexter Jackson off their hands and put him right there on the defensive line. And my thought was this is their most clear indication yet to Joe Burrow to say, we hear you. Am I wrong? Big swing, Rich. Big swing. Let's go, baby. Yes, it is. And it's something I talked about at the league meetings. I did an interview there with some of the Sensi media.

26:34And it was a little around the Max Crosby topic. And to me, it was like they were asking why I'd kind of set out that I thought they ought to do something like that. But it's really one of those things that as a franchise, you look at really the talent they've had, where they've been able to get to, the Super Bowl run they had without winning it, but then making it back to the AFC Championship. They've been so close. And it's like in those eras, you want to just not keep the great players you have. You want to send a message that we're all in. And I think that when you talk about Cincinnati, the narrative has always been, all right, if they draft really well and they have some good talent, they're a good football team, but they're never going to do anything aggressive.

27:11They're never going to do anything that really goes all in. They're just going to hope that the draft picks work out. To me, this is the first time in their history trading a top 10 pick like this. And they're saying, you know what? As an organization up top, from the very top in the front office, we are all in on Joe Burrow and Zach Taylor in this era of Cincinnati football. And we want to take that next step to be one of those elites year in and year out. And so I think this, to me, sends a message to that organization. Your team needs that sometimes. all the players, hey, we got no excuses.

27:44Let's just go out and play elite football because we can't sit here and say the organization's not bought in. Look how much money they've spent in the last two years trading away a top 10 pick for an elite player in Dexter Lawrence. Like, they are all in. So now it's time to go. There's no excuses. Let's go out and play our best and see where we can go.

28:02Rich Eisen:Well, I mean, obviously I meant Dexter Lawrence, not a Super Bowl MVP from Tampa years ago. but the the message though specifically to burrow now this may be a media creation okay but we're in the media that you know you see burrow hanging out in los angeles a lot you see him at the met gala he clearly uh he clearly is a guy that that likes being um in big towns to be very honest with you and and if things don't work out in cincinnati there's a you know a fear i think at least in in in that city that he could pull a Carson Palmer and this is a way to say here's Dexter Lawrence man here we go you know we're not going to go playing for the future and getting some kid that could real or even an offensive lineman that can protect him like physically but it's one you know hey your 30 points now will win a game is a way to basically tell him that right Andrew or am I off here what do you think no you're right and you look at really their Super Bowl run, you look at when they've had these runs, they haven't been some top five defense.