Hour 2: Spurs’ NBA Finals Aftermath, plus ESPN’s Jeremy Schaap & Mike Greenberg

21:25Rich Eisen:Like, what's going on? You took all that out of your pocket. Okay. Can we talk about your wedding? That was great. Sure. We got about one minute left in extra time? Well, you brought it up. Greeny just zoomed in. It was a great wedding. Say it again? It was a great wedding. It was fun. It was fun. Why aren't you in that photograph? Were you at a different table than the ESPN people? Which photograph? The photograph that we showed in the Dan Patrick episode of This Was Sports Center. I don't remember the photograph. Yeah, there's a picture of everybody. You're not in it, I don't think. I was mostly shut.

21:52See, I didn't get to really enjoy all of the party. Remember, I was the chauffeur. What? It was pouring rain, Rich, remember?

22:00Rich Eisen:That is right. And nobody could get to the boathouse. So I was like the only person in the wedding party with a car in New York. Because you have New York press plates. You could park wherever the hell you want. We don't have to talk about all of them. Oh, by the way, this guy. Hold on. This guy. I'm a member of the media. I'm a member of the press. Why wouldn't I have press plates? The reason why he doesn't want to talk about it right now is because he still has them and he doesn't want them taken away. I do want to talk about it. Okay. But you know why I'm not in the picture? because I was driving all the people from the hotel to the boathouse because no one could get a cab because of the pouring rain.

22:35I think I did like, I'm not kidding. I did like 10 round trips. He could park anywhere in New York City.

22:41Rich Eisen:Seriously, here's what you need to do. If you still have those plates, go into the Canyon of Heroes and dare them to kick you out of that parade on Thursday. Just park right there. Just park.

22:54Fowler always loves you. Fowler always loves you.

22:56Rich Eisen:Yeah, Fowler would be like, park wherever you want, man. Unbelievable. Wow. All right. We're out of time. Thank you. Are you hydrated? I will hydrate further. Everybody check out. Where can they check out the year of the Super Bowl? Is it out yet? Yes. It's on, you know, the NFL on ESPN YouTube channel. Okay, very good. Sometimes on two. Very popular. Okay. Very popular. Jeremy Schaap here on the Rich Eisen Show. When you come back here, let's do this again. It's next week. Are you sure? Yes, of course. We'll take another hydration break right in the middle. Right in the middle. All right. 844-204-RICH is the number to dial right here on the program.

23:35Rich Eisen:Running a small business means every hire matters. A bad hire costs time and money, but the right one, well, that helps your business grow. The challenge is finding that person without sorting through resumes. That's where LinkedIn Hiring Pro comes in. It screens candidates so you can focus on conversations with qualified talent. With Hiring Pro, you can hire with confidence and build the team you need. Join the 2.7 million small businesses using LinkedIn to hire. Get started by posting your job for free at linkedin.com slash Eisen. Terms and conditions apply. This man is just like me, scraping the ceiling with the Knicks being NBA champions.

24:10Rich Eisen:Mike Greenberg next on The Rich Eisen Show.

24:27Rich Eisen:Rich Eisen here. You ever notice what happens when something big rolls into your city? A major tournament, a can't-miss concert, a high-stakes playoff game. Suddenly, fans are everywhere. It feels like everyone's trying to get in. Streets are packed. Hotels book up fast. And finding a place to stay? Not so easy. That's exactly why this can be a smart moment to think about your own space. If you're planning to be away, you can list your space on Airbnb and B while all of that's going on and earn some extra cash at the same time. You're not changing your routine. You're just making the most of the moment.

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25:41Rich Eisen:Never watched soccer before? Perfect. Think a corner kick is a karate move? Sure, why not? Prefer sports where players can use their hands? Me too. Just here for the snacks? Now we're talking. So grab a bag of Lay's and jump on the bandwagon. We're undefeated. Lay's, the official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 2026. While the world watches the stars of the FIFA World Cup, Hyundai has its eyes on the next generation of talent. Future stars who are already turning heads at age 14. because Next doesn't wait for an invitation, and neither do we. Hyundai has always moved the future within reach. We did it when we made advanced safety standard on every vehicle and engineered EVs with ultra-fast charging capability.

26:23Rich Eisen:And we're still doing it every day because the future isn't some far-off concept. It's already here. Next starts now. Hyundai, an official partner of FIFA.

26:42The Rich Eisen Show podcast. Rocking. The evolution of my haircuts was hilarious. It went from like sort of small to very, very big to sideburns. I don't know what the hell I was thinking then to any number of other. I mean, sideburns long after sideburns were cool. It's not like we're going back to the 70s when, you know, I don't know, Deep Purple was a popular band. And this was like me in the 90s and the 2000s. So it's very, very amusing. And my kids got a big kick out of it, actually, as well, because that's a person sitting up there that they don't have any recollection of. So it was just terrific.

27:24You guys did a terrific job, and I really, really, really enjoyed it.

27:27Rich Eisen:I appreciate that. And, you know, you told me that you got texts from Michael Kim and Chuck Garfine. And I got one from Larry Beal, who was our shared first, if you will. He was the other anchor in our first sports centers. He texted me, quote, must be dementia setting in. I don't even remember Greeny's first show. Who am I and what am I doing here is also a quote of what I said on my first show. And I told him you've broken so many, Larry. You know, I mean, he's that's what this is about. Again, his recollections and having those moments. Mike Greenberg here on the Rich Eyes and show fresh off the get upset.

28:01Rich Eisen:All right, man. I know you spoke about it today and you've been speaking about it for weeks. It finally happened. I can't believe this is the second day of my life that I can remember waking up and saying the Knicks are NBA champions. Unreal. Unreal. In all honesty, I don't know what to do. So growing up, both of my parents are from the Bronx. So when it came to baseball, we were a Yankee household. And so I did see the Yankees win the World Series in 1977 and 78. And then a few more times, of course, as an adult. And I was very happy about that. But baseball has never been sort of in my blood the way basketball and football were.

28:39In my family, we grew up loving, living and dying with the Knicks and the Jets. And we spoke names like Namath, DeBusher, Bradley, Reed, Frazier, like they were gods. These people were gods in my childhood. And I'm not old enough to have seen any of them at their apex. I remember seeing them sort of at the very ends of their careers. So I don't have any idea how you're supposed to act when your team wins the whole thing. I now really regret not going to San Antonio because I have quite a few friends who went on Saturday. And they were there and they were able to sort of share in the celebration and something that was sort of shared with other people.

29:19I was sitting in my apartment by myself. My stays had gone to sleep. And I'm sitting there by myself in the game. And I could actually feel my building shake a little bit. and I listened, I opened my windows and I could hear people yelling. I mean, I could hear the celebrations, but then I thought to myself, now what do I do? Like, who am I if my teams don't suck? I don't know how to function in a world in which the Knicks have won the championship. So I've had a day and a half to think about it. And here's the number one most important thing I think I would say. I think it is a pleasure because this is a very easy team to like.

29:55And I don't think that is a New York centric perspective. I wonder if people listening to or watching this conversation all across the country feel the same way. I feel like this Knicks team is easy to root for. They're a collection of largely egoless or comparatively egoless players, almost all of whom had been cast away and given up on by other franchises who came together and really, truly played as a team. And I think that's kind of what we all want in sports. So if there's one thing that stands out above all else right now for me, Rich, it's I think this is a really, really great team to see finally do it because they're very, very easy to like.

30:38Rich Eisen:Yeah, I'm with you too. And, you know, you're right. They are easy to like, and I don't know how the rest of the country is taking it to the point where we as New York fans might be viewed as less obnoxious, with the exception of the ones that you and I both called out throwing stuff and being total idiots, right? But you and I having a shared experience of living through and dying, figuratively, with the Knicks teams that came up short, this photograph is what really got me in all the feels of Ewing standing there with a trophy. It's like his wounds potentially cauterized. His lifelong resume being known for what he is and who he is and how great he is and that he's got this as a ring in his mind and the kid who he's known since he was two being the one to make it happen, he's standing next to him in Brunson like, yeah, Knicks fans, this is going down.

31:46Rich Eisen:I got you. It hit me so hard, Mike, seeing this photograph. So my brother and I live, grew up in a building where they did not allow dogs. So our pets were hamsters and we had two hamsters. One of them, the first hamster we got was named Bernard for Bernard King. And the second hamster we got was named Patrick for Patrick Ewing. Those were our pets. It was the closest thing I could come to naming a dog after my favorite players. So yes, to see Patrick Ewing finally win, like this is the part where we probably as fans tend to over-romanticize stuff. But I thought back to being a little kid. And when I first got old enough that my parents would let me watch on channel nine, when Marv Albert and Butch Beard would be doing the nickname.

32:37And, um, and, and the, the team, when Hubie Brown became the coach and they had finally got good. And you have to be a little older to remember these teams where they finally got good. They had Bill Cartwright before he got traded for Charles Oakley. And they had Truck Robinson. And they had Bernard King, who, in my opinion, was the best player in the league at that time. And until now, maybe the best player the Knicks have had, aside from Ewing, since the championship teams. So that's what I was thinking about. I was thinking about all those nights and all those times and how long I have spent watching this team play, the moments that we celebrate, when your team never wins the whole thing, you celebrate things that are less than championships.

33:21I mean, John Starks is a god in this city because he once dunked left-handed over Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen at the same time. People forget the Knicks were leading two games to none in that series and wound up losing in six. Those are the closest things that Knicks fans have had to celebration really over the last 50 years. So Bernard King scoring all those points against the Celtics and taking that great team to seven games. We've always had to celebrate something a little less than the ultimate prize. So, yes, for Ewing to be there. And I will say this, too, for James Dolan, who obviously has been a figure of much scoring in New York City, and I think justifiably so.

34:00The one thing he has always done is a good job of is keeping the former players a part of it. with the Charles Oakley thing, obviously notwithstanding. But to see those guys have been as much a part of this as they were Ewing and Allen Houston and Walt Frazier and all those guys who've been at all the games, it really has created that bond for those of us who are old enough to remember all these generations of Knicks. So everything about it, again, this may just be a very Knicks-centric way of looking at it, but everything about it has felt very good to me.

34:33Rich Eisen:Well, speaking of Nick Centric, I mean, my conversations all day have been because obviously that's personal to me. What was the get up conversation about the Spurs, Mike? What's the general consensus? There is a very strong anti-Wemby feeling here in New York. He became the arch villain in New York. And so the conversation about them was how do we feel they handled it? Do we feel like Wembenyama, the walking off the floor without the shaking hands, some of the comments that seemed a little bit arrogant in the moment? How did people feel about that? I'll tell you generally how I felt about it.

35:17And that is that with the exception of the walking off the floor without shaking hands part, which I will never defend. I kind of like my NBA stars a little testy. I kind of like them a little edgy. I don't think we all need to love each other all the time. I think a little more nastiness is not such a terrible thing in sports than we generally tend to get. I think Wembenyama is going to be ridiculously good. In fact, I think this is a great championship for the Knicks to have won. So there was a little window in the 90s when you had a chance to win a championship because Michael Jordan wasn't there.

35:51He was playing baseball. And the Knicks came within one game of doing it. Instead, it was the Rockets that actually capitalized and won both of them while Michael was gone. This might be that little lull as well, because that combination of Dylan Harper, Stefan Castle and Victor Wembenyama is going to be unbelievably tough to beat in the next few years. So I think the conversation was that they're going to be really good, that Wembenyama's immaturity was to some degree on display here. that I think Mike Brown outcoached Mitch Johnson in the series in a variety of ways. A lot of the disappointment of De 'Aaron Fox, who I remember thinking when they got him, was an absolutely fantastic pickup.

36:34And I don't know just how bad his ankle was, but he, I think, proved to be a real detriment in the series for San Antonio. That was the guy they should have been going to for late buckets, and they just couldn't do it because he couldn't do it. But most of the conversation was about Wemben Yama. some of his comments afterwards that felt as though they were a little missed to the moment a little bit, his walking off the floor without shaking hands, and then ultimately circling all the way back to how ridiculously good they're ultimately going to be.

37:03Rich Eisen:Mike Greenberg, again, I appreciate you back in December taking the time to sit down for This Was Sports Center. And it makes me very happy to hear that your kids saw it and you consider it a personal scrapbook of your career. That's another reason why I'm asking old school colleagues of mine to sit down. And, you know, you don't have to rub it in about going through the history of your hairline, speaking on behalf of Scott Van Pelt and yours truly. Some of us don't have those options, you know. But great, great stuff in that. And I appreciate the time here, brother. You look 12. I mean, in the first clip, when it's you and Larry Beal and you're like, who am I?

37:45I'm Rich Eisen. I'm making my national TV debut. and I'm a lot of fun at parties. You literally look like a 15-year-old kid sitting there. It is incredible to look back. Those are things that I would never otherwise have gone back and seen. So thank you and Mike and everyone else involved for a stroll down memory lane. It was a delight for me.

38:06Rich Eisen:Yeah, as you might imagine, Susie has played that for our children many times. And so my kids on occasion, I'll just walk in the kitchen. They're like, who am I and how did I get here? And I'm like, oh, God, not great. Take care of yourself, Mike. You be well, buddy. You too. See you soon, guys. Ladies and gentlemen, get up. It's Mike Greenberg and so much more for ESPN. Here he is on the Rich Arden Show. I start my morning every day. You start your morning every day. And again, our chat, this was SportsCenter. We did go a little deep on the conversation about what television sports has become and how technology has changed this and changed that.

38:39Rich Eisen:And he feels the same way about the Knicks as I do, man. This is the thing. Bernard King and Patrick Ewing were my guys. That was it. I told you. I remember I was sitting in the back of the Pontiac Blue, the Carolina Blue-colored Pontiac station wagon, hearing on 10-10 wins or CBS or whatever it was that the Knicks had gotten the first overall pick in the NBA draft, and it was Ewing. And it just got up the general manager, there's a guy whose name has been invoked many times on the show today, Dave DeBuscher. We'll come back. Phone lines are lit. We'll take some phone calls. Jay Wright is going to be joining us top of hour number three to talk about the Nova Knicks version of this team.

39:24Rich Eisen:Coming up.

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40:51Rich Eisen:The Rich Eisen Show, the podcast. 4204-RICH is the number to dial. You've seen Hyundai signs all over these World Cup games, aren't you? because when the world watches the stars at the FIFA World Cup, Hyundai's got its eyes on the next generation of talent. The future stars already turning heads at age 14 because next doesn't wait for an invitation and neither do we. Hyundai's always moved the future within reach, and we did it when we made advanced safety standard on every vehicle and engineered EVs with ultra-fast charging capability, and we're still doing it every day. The future isn't some far-off concept.

41:26Rich Eisen:It's already here. Next starts now. Hyundai, an official partner of FIFA. Let's go to Spencer in Chicago, Illinois. What's up, Spencer? Hello? Yeah, you're on the air, Spencer. How are you? I am great. It is Monday, June 15th, and for the first time in my life, I can say one of my teams won a championship in New York Knicks. I cannot be any happier right now. But I just want to tell a story. So growing up, most kids, when they're told bedtime stories, they're told whatever. But my dad used to tell me stories of Willis coming out of the tunnel of game seven. I always thought one day maybe I'll be able to reach it.

42:09But as I've gotten older, it just felt it was going to be more and more impossible. But Wednesday after game four, I'm in Chicago. My folks are in New York. I gave my dad a call and said, I think we got to do it. We got to go down to San Antonio. and he took a minute and then he said, yeah, let's do it. So flew down, got to be there and saw it in person with my dad. Wow. That's awesome. Yeah, just truly incredible. It's just one of those things that you, as I've gotten older, I just never thought I'd see the day and then, you know, hoping one day I'll be able to tell my kids the stories of me and my dad going together to San Antonio to see the Knicks finally won a championship after 53 years.

42:54Just truly special.

42:56Rich Eisen:Way to carpe that diem, Spencer. Well done. And send my best to your dad. Thanks for calling in to share that story. Of course. Yeah, it didn't look good, though. That was every game. Man, oh man, oh man. You know, put that, I saw you just popped it up. Put that up on the screen here. This is unbelievable. According to ESPN Analytics, the four games the Spurs lost in the NBA Finals, they were up 13 points through the third quarter. ESPN and Analytics had them a 91.6 % chance of winning. Up two points with a minute left in the fourth in game two, they had 72.8 % chance of winning. Obviously, up 20 with 9.33 left in the fourth in game four.

43:45Rich Eisen:They were almost 100%. And then up 10 with 754 left in the fourth of game five, they had a 95.4 % chance of winning game five. They lost all of them. And Michael Mulvihill, who works for Fox, he's their analytics guy and their ratings guy as well. He said the odds on the Knicks coming back to win in all four of these scenarios, combine them all,

44:13Rich Eisen:237 ,867 to one. So if you bet a dollar on that, you've got a quarter of a million dollars. You parlay that whole thing together. The stat I saw, the running time, the Spurs led for 72 % of the NBA Finals. I mean, they outplayed them in every game. But they didn't finish is the problem. Yeah. Games are 48 minutes. You have this Wimbanyama soundbite all queued up on this. Hit it. hit it i learned one of many things i learned is the margin of error is very very thin our domination stints are absolute we absolutely absolutely dominated for most of the series but our our errors our mistakes are punished so hard that we can't have ups and downs like this so so much you know the ups okay the downs it's

45:19it's the reason we lost yeah you know what uh i doubt about it and this is the other thing why

45:27Rich Eisen:i still can't fathom it's the knicks who are the ones who took advantage of other people's mistakes rather than being in the position of Wembonyama to lament because that's been the Knicks way of having results go of the last 53 years. Anytime, you know, throughout the Urban Meyer era and all that other stuff, Michigan going against Ohio State, I would turn to Cooper or whomever I was with. Any mistake that you make against this team is an opportunity that they're most likely going to take advantage of and beat you over the head with, and that's what championship teams do. And that's what the Knicks did.

46:05Rich Eisen:That's what the Knicks did. And, you know, and that is truly a stunning turn of events. You know, and I take this to say that the Spurs have a team, as Mike Greenberg pointed out, that the Knicks took advantage of now Now, potentially, as you're going to see, I mean, sports are littered with teams filled with young people that overachieve, if you will, or arrive early. That's a better way to put it, right? And you go, oh, they're going to be back. And then they're never back. Never back. I mean, the photograph of Westbrook Harden and Durant and Thunder uniforms have been all over the place the last two days, you know.

47:02but there is a sense that now would be the time to take advantage of it

47:07Rich Eisen:because they're so good and so is Wembenyama. He's just completely different from anybody else. So I understand that, but the Knicks were that team that just took advantage of every mistake and destroyed their opponent with it, which is new for them.