Hour 1: Wemby Takes Down OKC, OBJ/Giants Reunion, plus Spurs Analyst Sean Elliott

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1:28It was a failure. I failed at my goal. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. And the Spurs are going to win! Tomahawk Sub! Today's guests, two-time All-Star and NBA champion Sean Elliott, Baseball Hall of Famer John Smoltz, Commander's wide receiver Terry McLaurin, and now it's Rich Eisen.

1:57Rich Eisen:Oh, yes, everybody. Welcome to this edition of The Rich Eisen Show live on Disney Plus, the ESPN app, ESPN Radio and Sirius XM Channel 80. Good to have all of you here in our neighborhood. Appreciate Suze and O'Shea Jackson Jr. holding on the fort while I was hanging out at the Big Slick in Kansas City, which raised$4.2 million for Children's Mercy Hospital there in Kansas City. Also want to appreciate Suze for sitting in while I walked back into the house empty handed from the Emmy Awards in New York City. 844-204-RICH is the number to dial on the program. Oh, my gosh. Is there a lot going on in the NFL world that is apparently about to happen that may never happen?

2:41Rich Eisen:Rumors are flying everywhere right now that it is June 1st and all sorts of salary cap concerns that were on the plate for any team that was looking to acquire big time talent from a team that's willing to suddenly part with big time talented players. All those salary cap concerns that were going down in March and April and May are now gone. It's now post June 1. So we're going to be keeping an eye on all of that. Chris Brockman, hello to you, sir. Hello to you and happy A.J. Brown Day. I don't know. That's going to be happy for you. Come on. Rams are a rumor to be acquiring everybody. Come on.

3:19Rich Eisen:You're being acquired. Let's go. So I have no idea. I've been waiting months for this. Or if A.J. Brown's going to still be an eagle by the end of the day. How are you? Good morning, Rich. Mike Del Tufo. Good to see you. T.J. Jefferson. The candle's lit. Good to see you. Rich, I want to quote the great fife dog of a tribe called Quest. I say, I never let a statue tell me how nice I am. And that's how I want you to feel right now. You don't need a statue to tell you how nice you are. Bless you, sir. Thank you. I appreciate that. Be nice to have a statue. I mean, yeah. Hey, listen. You tell Victor Wembenyama it was an honor to be nominated for the MVP award.

3:55Rich Eisen:That's a different story, though. Yeah. That's different. Yeah. He was nominated. He was a finalist for the MVP award. Didn't win it. Watched Shea Gilgis-Alexander being awarded it. Didn't even come in second. whatever. Jokic was second. He watched himself not win it. And all he did was go ahead and torch the place in winning game one of the Western Conference Finals that had seven games written all over it. And at the end of the day, we got the seventh game, as you know, on Saturday night, requiring Victor Wembonyama and the Spurs and all of their fans sitting back at home and all the nuns that were rooting for him.

4:39to sit there and hope, wish, for another victory in Oklahoma City.

4:47Rich Eisen:That they would have to, at the end of the day, after the regular season and the playoffs, have to beat a 64-win Oklahoma City team for an eighth time. Wow. Got shot nine times. Okay. that's how many shots it took to take out the Oklahoma City Thunder but they came out with an intensity that you could see in the first quarter that would be difficult for Oklahoma City without two of their more talented players again it would be tough for them to match that intensity and they did taking their first lead of the game late in the first half and then the second half hit. Man, if the San Antonio Spurs aren't young and terrific and arriving.

5:42Rich Eisen:Arriving. That's the word that you can use for the San Antonio Spurs now. Arriving. And in terms of Dylan Harper and Stephon Castle and everybody on this team not named Victor Wembenyama, of a certain age. They are arriving. Now, you could say Victor Wembonyama arrived the minute he landed in America as a professional athlete for the first time. Out of the spaceship, you mean. Correct. This dunk on Chet Holmgren in the first quarter, this is what made me think the Spurs were arriving in Game 7. especially since Chet Holmgren essentially disappeared from this moment. Unfortunately for him and Oklahoma City fans, essentially disappeared two shots.

6:42Rich Eisen:I said two shots. A stat line that is unacceptable for Game 7. In fact, the only thing that Chet Holmgren made it seem like he was actually there for Game 7, that he was participating in Game 7, is the number seven on his jersey.

7:05Rich Eisen:Because the Spurs took him out. Victor Wambanyama took him off his game. And then the second half hit. And despite a third quarter in which the Spurs were clearly the better team, Oklahoma City somehow, some way, kept it a tie third quarter 24 points for each and the fourth quarter is when things essentially wrap things up for the Spurs look at that picture where Wembon Yama was like I will take I will lean over and look at him eye to eye Rich he's bent over at the waist his knees are bent and he's still bigger than Shaq this is the truth He is the truth. And the fourth quarter hit, and Champagny was popping threes.

8:04Rich Eisen:Six of ten for three. What a night. And Keldon Johnson really was the kid who made corner threes, made shots, fourth quarter. He was terrific. De 'Aaron Fox getting it done. in 36 minutes, gutting it out on a high ankle sprain that we all know he was battling through. And despite 35 points from Shea Gilgis Alexander, the San Antonio Spurs prevail. And they were the worthy winner. Worthy winner. The better team. The team on the rise. Can you believe that there's another better team on the rise than Oklahoma City, which was for the last two, three years, rightfully so, the avatar for NBA team on the rise.

8:58Rich Eisen:Good luck trying to beat them. Facts. Good luck with them having more Clipper first round choices in their back pocket to put on the table. Add to their stable of young stars like SGA, who they got from the Clippers. Sorry to keep bringing that up. I mean, it's part of the story, though. And the story goes, you know, the story is for this team right now.

9:27Rich Eisen:Good luck trying to beat them. Nick fans who are out on Seventh Avenue after beating the Cavs in game one, coming back from 22 point downs, chanting, we want Wemby. Okay. Dylan Harper, 20 years old. Stephon Castle, 21 years old. Victor Wembanyama, 22 years old. Champagny, 24 years old. and Vassal. 25. He's the OG. He's the gray beard. 25. They have Harrison Barnes. Okay. So. Wambanyama was overcome with emotion after the game. That was cool. And just pouring out at age 22. like a guy who's been spending 22 years of his career and has finally reached the mountaintop that's the way he was acting like it's taken him all this time to get here right which is another reason why you want to root for him and you love watching him and then this reaction when he was asked afterwards what it would like to win the larry ob the nickname of the Larry O 'Brien trophy given to the champions of the NBA?

10:53Winning the Larry O 'Brien, it's a childhood dream. And having a real shot at it, having a chance, tangible chance at winning it, at realizing a dream, you know, it's a chance, it's a lifetime chance, you know, you never know when it's going to happen again.

11:16But it's, you know, the day we win it, speaking for myself, it's going to be an amazing day of, like, realization of a dream. You know, it's hard to put into words. It's almost like the meaning of my life, you know.

11:31Rich Eisen:Oh, my goodness gracious. We want Wemby. Chance, give me a break. Yeah, but Rich, isn't this where the Knicks put this in their locker room and he just said, when we win it. So now you're the Knicks and you're like, oh, he's already looked past this. I know. Oh, and normally you'd take a player to task saying, when we win, oh, you just gave him bulletin board material. Well, when you're larger than the bulletin board, just sitting down and your game is getting better and better and better, good luck. I think the Knicks can still win this, and I'll at some point, if not today, depending on how NFL news breaks, get to that, where the Knicks match up, I think, well with this team.

12:15Rich Eisen:I'm still going with the Knicks. I got you. But hearing him talk like that, that is such a unique athlete and human. And the Spurs have arrived well earlier than anybody else could have expected. Much earlier. Right? With Mitch Johnson taking over for Greg Popovich after he suffers a stroke. And how is this going to work? That Pop was the one who was supposed to be there for the kid and whispering in his ear and bringing him along. And Mitch Johnson, after the game, was asked about the experience, as I mentioned. Once again, the ages. Harper, 20 years old, Castle, 21, Wemby, 22, Champagny, 24, Vassell, 25.

13:19Rich Eisen:And this young coach blending it all together with De 'Aaron Fox. I didn't even mention him. He's the gray beard. And this is this remarkable coach and what he's been able to cook up for this team to take him to the NBA Finals here and now. As I said earlier, experience a lot of times is used in the form of best use or the lack thereof when you need it the most. And people don't talk about as much the habits, the character, the togetherness, the competitive response, the things we talk about in these media sessions every single day. And this team has now been pretty damn consistent for a long time, for over 100 games for the most part.

14:04and so I'll take those things with the experience that we've gone through and you want to look back in terms of how we started the year how we got to the cup on the road versus Denver and LA what we did in the cup playing these guys around Christmas time a few times expectations we've played in three playoff series without Victor without Fox multiple games I don't know who has as much experience as we do this year in the season of 2025-2026

14:34Rich Eisen:Yeah, the experience they've had now is just as valuable as apparently the experience everyone thinks they need. And the focus, the locked-in focus from Wembon Yama saying what he says about what it means to win. and the team focused on making sure they're not being taken down by what they don't have, but what they have together collectively. And the focus of this coach to keep them all together. The focus of this coach to keep them all straight and narrow, even though apparently when he's at home games, he's got a produce section sitting behind him. I said that. Wow. I see all the memes. kind of hard to miss them focusing fans to all show up wearing the same thing i don't know if we can do that in a certain sections i say to all of them in san antonio congratulations i tip the cap makes me think charles barkley didn't see everyone in the city apparently not those might be imports the humans what or all right trying to be subtle but congratulations to the spurs we've got a perfect guest to talk about it yeah we do um and uh his name is sean elliott who has been calling spurs games since the mid aughts and was the third overall pick in a draft in 89 the same year that david robinson's two-year stint in the navy wrapped up so he joined as a rookie too for larry brown wow sean ellie got traded from the spurs for dennis rodman to detroit he comes back and he's on the team when greg popovich gets elevated to being head coach he was there when tim duncan arrived he was in the 99 finals against the Knicks.

16:46Rich Eisen:Who better to talk about all this than with Sean Elliott, who also probably shares the same hatred of Duke as I do. A good chance of that. Uh-huh. From back in his Arizona days. John Smoltz will join us. We'll catch up with the Baseball Hall of Famer and Fox Baseball analyst. We'll talk some ball with him, but some golf, because he's getting ready for the American Century Championship, just like I am. and after that, we have nothing in common. On that front. Terry McLaurin will join us. Maybe we'll have some NFL news to talk about with the Ohio State OG in Washington, D.C. And you. Phone lines are lit.

17:28Rich Eisen:844-204-RICH. Let's get it. Number to dial on this overreaction Monday. Welcome back. Of the Rich Eisen Show. Sean Elliott when we come back.

17:40the rich is a show podcast

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19:00Rich Eisen:Fast Fund's terms apply at SoFi.com slash DebtPlay. Back on the Rich Eisen Show, our radio audience has returned. Perfect guy to speak with right now as the Spurs are back in the NBA Finals. And the last time they won it all was 1999 when they took on, guess who, the New York Knicks. And on that team is a guy who has been calling Spurs games since the mid-aughts locally. Sean Elliott is here on the Rich Eisen Show. Good to see you, Sean. How are you, sir? hey rich good to see you man long time it's been way too long what's going through your mind right now watching the spurs arrive that's the word i used uh to kick off this program it's perfect uh word i think a rival for this squad sean yeah it's fitting right because it's also about an alien movie and first contact so good one yeah victor yeah you have victor women yama who is the alien he has arrived and look i i thought going into this year i thought we were a mid 50 win team uh we we didn't have victor for the last 18 games last year uh miss dearon fox for the last 16 or so he had a finger surgery and so i i was thinking you know we're a 50 win team or so but halfway through the season when i saw other teams go through or when we were winning games on the road convincingly, I thought, you know, quietly, you know, we have a chance.

20:26Like, I haven't really seen a team that's really better than us. Matter of fact, we're better than almost everybody out there. And so I thought, again, going into the season, we're a 50-win team. I thought next year, next year, we're going to be a team that's going to contend for a title. I just didn't see this coming. And I don't think anybody in San Antonio saw this coming. I thought we were going to be a really good team but the way our guys have gelled and grown up before our very eyes here we talked about the inexperience of this ball club all year long but when you go into a game seven on the road against the defending champions and the two-time mvp and you win that way the win that game the way they did late down the stretch making plays this team has grown up they have arrived they're here and they're going to be a problem for a long long time why do you think this is happening right now?

21:18I think number one, I think Mitch Johnson's done an unbelievable job. I said it over and over again, Rich. I don't think people were listening. He was the coach of the year. ESPN projected us to win 40 games. We won 62. He did a phenomenal job getting everybody to believe in each other, getting everybody to play on the defensive end of the floor. The hardest thing in this league to do is to get young teams to defend. Everybody's trying to get their numbers. No one's trying to stop anybody. Our guys went out there, accepted their roles, and they defended their butts off the entire year. So Mitch Johnson, I think, is the number one reason we've ascended to heights.

21:59And Brian Wright has to be commended as well. I thought, again, he was the executive of the year. I thought the signing of Luke Cornett this summer was the biggest signing of the summer. It flew under the radar, but he's been absolutely phenomenal for us. You got De 'Aaron Fox coming in last year, even though it wasn't this year. You got him last year at the trade deadline. And then you draft Dylan Harper and Carter Bryant. Dylan Harper, I've been telling people, he's a superstar. He is an absolute superstar. No doubt about it. He plays well beyond his years. He plays a lot of poise. He's never, ever rattled, even when things aren't going his way.

22:41after the second half of the season, the second half of the season, he was probably our best three-point shooter. And that includes having a guy like Julian Champagny on our team. He defends, he's bigger than most people know. And he finishes extremely well at the basket. And then, you know, Steph Castles, you know, continued to build on his rookie of the year campaign. He's been absolute dog on both ends of the floor. And then you have Devin and Keldin who have matured and become valuable team leaders on this team. and then you have of course Victor Wimanyama that anchors and pulls all that together now he's an absolute terror on the defensive end of the floor his offensive game is still coming around I don't think he's even begun to scratch the surface of his potential and that and that's what's so scary but let me tell you Rich I've never seen a player have the defensive impact that he has on the floor It's not just about the blocks and the deflections.

23:37It's about the no-nos in the paint. When guys get in the paint, normally they're going to challenge any other shot blocker in the league, end up throwing it out to guys on the perimeter. Sometimes that creates turnovers. And instead of getting a shot at the rim, you're getting guys taking long three-point shots that are well-contested by our wing. So, I mean, there's a lot there, obviously. but we have made great strides this year and something that a lot of us didn't see us coming

24:03Rich Eisen:we didn't see it coming this quickly Sean Elliott here on the Rich Eisen show um and then there's Wembon Yama um let me just linger for a moment you've played with Duncan you were there when Duncan arrived you were there when David Robinson arrived as a matter of fact you arrived together as a matter of fact um does Wembon Yama remind you of either of those gents and another name that I've thrown out names I've also thrown out for him because of the burning desire that he seems to have that is uncanny I've I know I've I've been taken to task for this sort of thing but I have thrown out just in terms of that part of it the burning desire part of it Sean I've thrown out the names of Kobe and Jordan.

24:49Rich Eisen:Yes. I'm wondering if this tracks to you. Well, 1 ,000%. 1 ,000%. He's got Kobe Bryant's drive and determination, motor, heart, killer mentality, and a 7 '4 plus frame. That's what he's gotten. And I can talk about this. Rich, I've been around the game. Oh, I'm 58 years old. I've been playing this game since I was nine or 10 years old. Back in the day, big guys were on the high school basketball team. Guys, your age and my age, we understand this. Big guys were put on the basketball team because the coach saw him walking through the hallway and said, you're on the team. And then he'd run everything around the guy and he didn't love it.

25:38right and so i don't know how many times i've been in the middle of guards and littles and bigs it's a whole long dissertation the little guys have 90 of the passion big guys 10 for them in general now i'm going to throw david robinson and tim duncan out of that equation because those guys had the passion and that's why they were great but you have a lot of big guys and there's a whole list of them that have gone through the league and fans know they see him play and say the guy doesn't love the game he doesn't have that motor we've seen that over and over again vicar is that anomaly he's got that guard that that little man motor that heart like avery johnson has you know where he just wants to get better and better and better he's got that kobe bryant drive where he wants to be the very best player in the game and the best player that's ever played he's always in the gym he's always working on his game he's got incredible incredible competitiveness and and that's something that you just don't see very often again in bigs so i i make that comparison i tell people all the time he's got kobe's makeup in a seven foot plus frame how much does greg

26:54Rich Eisen:Popovich stoke it Sean I mean again that that shot of him being on the tarmac waiting for Wembon Yama when he came back from Minnesota after he got ejected for throwing the elbow is something I I can't get rid of that moment in my head and Wembon Yama has been a somewhat mostly more aggressive, dominant player since that moment. And then I want to play this soundbite for you when he was asked after the Game 7 win about Greg Popovich and what he's going to say to Greg about this. I can't answer that question. I don't know what it means for him. That's a guy who's got more experience as a coach than almost anybody and has been through so many things in his career and so many things right now as El Jefe.

27:56He goes through some things we can't even imagine. So I need to call him. I need to see him. I need to talk to him.

28:08Because there's no way I can understand right now how he feels. I don't know if he's ever, if he's going to do an interview about it or if we can get, yeah, I figured knowing him, he's not going to. So when I talk to him, it's going to be the only story in my head, except if I record it in secret. But I need to have, I need to talk to him so quick.

28:39you know uh rich i i've been around pop for a long time and and when pop uh before victor got drafted he was really on the verge of retirement he was looking into the abyss of retirement and that's where he was going and when we won the lottery that year there were a whole bunch of players i wasn't the only one a whole bunch of former players that that told pop he's gotta to stick around because he's got to give this young kid a great foundation in this league and i didn't i don't think it took too much prodding i mean when pop pop is a smart guy right and so he can see what's going to happen with this young french kid coming in and so pop decides to stay and we've had conversations about where pop felt like he really had an obligation to give him a solid foundation teach him how to play the right way uh teach him what this league is all about and and what it takes to win a championship and i know how pop is i've been in that locker room with him i've seen him address david timmy manu tony it does not matter he's if he's not pleased with what you're doing he's gonna go right through you a lot of guys know this guys that have played for him know that he's not going to blow any smoke up your nether regions he's going to give you the truth and so he was there at the plane and i'm sure it wasn't like hey big fella you know watch your elbow that's not how that conversation went i'm sure and so pop has also gone in locker room a few times you know after we haven't played so well during the playoffs just to you know lend that other voice because you know some the players are hearing mitch and then you have pop come in there and then they get that second opinion and they're like okay what mitch is talking about is exactly right uh here's pop in here telling us exactly the same thing but in maybe not so friendly terms or phrases and so pop i'm sure he had a very candid conversation there with victor and you see how Victor responded.