Pardon the Interruption | Bucks’ loss to Grizzlies was a big deal – Klay Thompson off bench – Wilbon

Pardon the Interruption | “Bucks’ loss to Grizzlies was a big deal – Klay Thompson off bench” – Michael Wilbon

With you Tony and just out of curiosity here uh why me I’m Tony Kornheiser it’s it’s Friday who cares I mean nobody’s watching your family’s not even watching rationale they Kinder Thank God It’s Friday um who cares doesn’t tend to end that sentiment you’re supposed to be relief and joy

That we’ made it together you and me we’re back we’re back earlier this week they put us on ESPN news where dozens might have watched dozens maybe welcome to PTI boys and girl wilbon has turned his back on you so I’m joined by our great friend the host of The Fabulous

Podcast Pablo Tor finds out Mr Pablo [Applause] Tor nice hand and we begin today with Caitlyn Clark Pablo who got 49 points last night a personal high in the Iowa record but the signature moment for Clark last night came early when she hit a three from the Hawkeye’s logo about 35

Ft out to get the points that established her as the alltime NCAA Women’s score Pablo what is the shot that clinched it say about Clark it says that her greatest gift is her Showmanship Tony this the scoring the points yes we salute it it’s impressive it’s historical but when I think about

The players I enjoy watching the most I think of someone like Caitlyn and now her very specifically this is the Steph Curry thing yes it’s not just that wow this is from very far away it’s that she has a sense of the moment and she Embraces it and she has this thing where

Arrogance becomes likable because it is so um it’s so pressure-packed and yet she chooses the highest degree of difficulty way to do it so it’s the stage Ander Mastery of it that I am most in awe of even more than the points agree with you right down the

Line she makes made no bones about it she said she wanted to hit the number with a lowo three she hit a few of those last night 49 points in a 40-minute game is a really big deal her I have over the last couple of years she thinks pass first that’s what

She thinks so she’s not out there gunning all the time it is easy to look at her maybe in one game or any one game and think that she’s a Showboat because she is a Showboat she knows how good she is but you’re 100% right when you say

She craves the moment she knows the moment she wants the moment out there um she’s she is just simply great fun to watch I mean that that’s that’s my belief it’s it’s a bad Rabbit Hole to go down when you compare men to women and I

Said the other day that she was Pete Maravich of college basketball so I’ll try to avoid pejoratives here but nobody moves the needle in college ball like klyn Clark people stand outside for hours on long lines to watch her play they pay 5 10 and 20 times what face

Value is to watch her play she is the most popular and best attraction in college basketball men or women yes so she’s 98 points away from passing Pete marovich for the all-time record right very impressive but to me it is the fact that we are not grading on a curve here

For people who don’t know the experience is what it’s like to watch her the fun of it is the point it’s more of the point than the statistics and we can argue about who’s the greatest who is it in women’s basketball specifically for my money it’s her but even more than

That it is obviously her when it comes to who have I had the most fun watching because of the entertainment value this is Show Business Tony I don’t want that to be a pejorative at all it’s actually the greatest compliment I could pay an

Athlete you made it worth my while I I I think you’re 100% right and by the way after every game when she gets interviewed she always thanks her teammates and her coaches and her fans for allowing her to be put in this situation where she can perform like

This and some may say that’s by rot but I believe that it’s sincere she used the phrase it takes a village last night I loved it loved it yeah yes yes arrogance but likable at the same time it’s a rare trick a rare needle to thread but I want

To move to the NBA because uh the Bucks are stumbling Tony they’re stumbling into the All-Star break Milwaukee they just lost to lowly Memphis last night they’re now three and seven the Bucks are in the Doc Rivers era and doc said this quote we had some guys here some

Guys in Cabo end quote Giannis said to that quote enough with the talking enough with our bleep don’t stick mentality do we really want it are we putting in the work when effort is not there it’s very hard for it to go your way end quote so Tony is this loss a big

Deal a little Deal or No Deal for Milwaukee well it’s it’s not no deal because we thought it was a big deal when they won a couple of games last week we thought the ship was sailing and now as Michael Ray Richardson might say the ship may be sinking at this point uh

I mean I I always thought that we would see the real Milwaukee Bucks with Doc Rivers after the All-Star break but maybe these are the real Milwaukee Bucks with Doc Rivers you can’t Memphis is a terrible team they didn’t even have all their starters there you can’t stress

Defense and give up 13 to them or 27 to JJ Jackson who’s U I’m not really that familiar with it there does come a point Pablo we know this um their last coach was going to be fired that was telegraphed for about a month everybody knew that was going to happen but his

Last 10 games Adrien Griffin was seven and three and DAC is three and seven I think we be coming to the point where it’s fair to ask was this the right move there’s supposed to be a championship team team they don’t look like it at all

I’ve been asking is this the right move for a long time now because I watch Doc and I like Doc as a as an announcer as a guy very friendly personable all that but as a coach Tony it’s one of the great ironies in his in his reputation

That he is famed as this guy who brings Good Vibes oh you have a Troublesome locker room bring in Doc Rivers he’s a players coach or at least he knows how to communicate with the alpha energy of all these guys allegedly but I’ve seen it in Philadelphia I’ve seen it here I

Have not seen The Vibes be good I haven’t i’ I’ve seen him struggle with of course difficult personalities Joel embiid Ben Simmons and Philly Jimmy not to that level but I would say this with Milwaukee they are supposed to be a finals Contender with a bullet this is

Dame Lillard this is Giannis and here are some of the guys that they lost to that Memphis was starting last night Santi Alama zier Williams Trey Jameson Vince Williams Jr and and Goodwin apologies if I mispronounced any of those names cuz I don’t know them very

Well The Vibes are bad when it comes to this team yeah and by the way it doesn’t help that Damen Lillard’s having a terrible shooting year he’s down significant percentages from the field and from three we move on yeah stay with basketball though the great Resurrection last night belonged to Klay Thompson the

Five-time allar did not start for the Warriors for the first time since March of 2012 a span of 727 games Steve Cur said Thompson wasn’t thrilled about his decision nor did he expect him to be but Thompson produced he had 35 points shooting 13 of 22 and seven of 13 from

Three Pablo what are your thoughts on the benching of Klay Thompson it was a brilliant coaching move and I have two takes on this one is that Steve Kerr made the right decision obviously right Klay had his best game of the year ended his game with a great

Defensive play all of that was encouraging but the second thing I have to say about this is starting is overrated compared to closing Klay Thompson closed the game when the game is in the balance Klay was out there when it really mattered most if you can convince him Tony if Steve Kerr can

Convince him that this is the best version of him that is enormous progress for a team that needs progress in that division so what’s interesting about that Pablo is it was about a week ago when Klay Thompson was on the bench at the end of games and that was a story

For us to talk about and now he’s on the bench at the beginning of games this is what he said this is a direct quote after the game you can do two things you can pout or you can go out there and respond I thought I did the latter very

Well tonight unquote now what does that say that says he hated the fact that he didn’t start and that he was auditioning to start again I don’t think we can fault cerr with all the wins that he’s had I mean you know Steve Kerr knows what he’s doing he also said said this

Is not necessarily permanent but he wants to see it and the reason anybody would want to see this is Klay Thompson is shooting historically low averages this year so maybe this brings him up but there’s another part too what Golden State wants to do is resurrect itself as

A dominating team this is when you have to juggle stuff now they finished six last year even for their good wins lately they’re in 10th now this is the time when you do it maybe he’s a Dynamo off the bench for the last 30 minutes of

A game maybe that’s the the reality that comes from this right then it would be great well yes and there’s a precedent clay himself postgame mentioned Manu janoby is the model here Manu is one of the great sixth men of all time he knew his job he knew why he was so important

And it just involved an ego hit that typically a guy like Klay Thompson who’s that good has never had to take now it’s time to take it you know what um everybody ages differently some less dramatically than others Steph Curry and LeBron age less dramatically than most we don’t know

About Klay Thompson yet let’s take a break but coming up when will Scott boris’s bigname free agents finally sign we’re going to ask Jeff passon and we’ll also ask him what commissioner Rob Manfred is going to focus on and what he says is going to be his last term as

Commissioner you know when when Milwaukee gets 35 from Monto Tumo and 24 from l pitches and catchers have reported the spring training thank God which makes it a perfect time to check in with our great friend Jeff pass and I’m going to the glasses because it’s a complicated

Question cuz it’s Scott Boris Scott Boris still has several high-profile unsigned clients as you know including Cody Bellinger and Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery and Matt Chapman is the leverage for these guys getting stronger or weaker the reason that they’re still free agents right now is because they believe

That they have leverage and that Leverage is going to come during the course of spring training when there are injuries when there’s ineffectiveness when a team realizes that hey you know maybe we’re not as good as we thought we were and we need to go out and add an

Impact type player that being said it’s a dangerous game to play being a free agent this late and the notion that they’re going to get the full value that they’ve been seeking you know Blake Snell won $250 million Cody Bellinger in that same vicinity probably not realistic at this point but I caution

You Tony to remember you know half decade ago when the two best free agents on the market were still there in March one was named Manny Machado the other was named Bryce Harper both of them wound up getting over $300 million so while I don’t think all’s lost for the

Boris 4 who are still out there there you know it’s it’s getting it’s getting a little hairy right now and uh if there’s some nervous players I would understand free agency Jeff always Harry with a Boris client but I want to ask you about a guy specifically who’s under

Contract right now and is terrifying me because this is what I’m hearing about Juan stto who my Yankees of course traded for in December Brian Cashman GM of the Yankees is saying this quote odds are this is a one-year situation this is another Boris guy so I ask you this is

One year the likeliest outc come in your mind with him oh boy I I think a lot of it depends on production Pablo because let’s remember there was another one-year situation two years ago with the New York Yankees they didn’t come to a contract extension before the season

With Aaron judge he goes out breaks the American League home run record and ends up signing for $360 million back with the Yankees as a free agent and so I think it’s going to be a similar sort of scenario scario where depending not just on how wano produces this year but how

The Yankees play it’s going to really factor in to whether they pursue him full throat this off season and I I think the match is is just so exceptional with the short porch in right field with the power that stto has with the left-handedness he’s made for

Yankee Stadium he’s made for New York with the way that he produces and the spotlight that he wants so while they may not have something right now I think long term stto in New York is an exceptional fit so let’s go longer term with a different protagonist of course

Maybe the biggest character right now is Rob Manfred who has said five years from now Jeff January 2029 he’s done he’s out of this job and so do you believe that and if it’s true what do you think he’s going to focus on in these next five years yeah his predecessor Bud seelig

Said you know what I’m done I’m done in 20 9 and then like a year later he signed an extension I’m done in 2012 he stayed on until 2015 so the idea that Rob manfred’s giving himself five years of Runway to potentially change his mind nobody in the game is convinced that

He’s going to be done yet like you can only love golf so much uh when you’re getting paid 25 million plus dollar a year that being said there’s a lot of things that he needs to do over the next few years number one handle the local media rights that have

Imploded and start a streaming service next year as they’re planning that’ll have half the teams and hopefully get rid of the television blackouts beyond that though is the collective bargaining agreement that expires in 20126 Pablo we remember what happened last time 99 day lockout it is trending toward that same

Thing this time and if it happens uh you know Rob manfred’s Legacy is on the line here I will get you out of here on this everybody sort of thought it was a done deal that the A’s were going to move from Oakland to Las Vegas are there now

Any doubts about this among other owners yeah Tony there are doubts everywhere about the A’s because here’s the one thing that they have proven themsel Adept at being completely incompetent that you know I was talking with somebody yesterday uh doing a story on expansion and you know the the A’s

Came up because the A’s need to be in place in Las Vegas in order for MLB to expand two more teams which is looking like it’s going to be 2030 or so but you know this person who’s been dealing with the A’s is like do they do they know

What they’re do like is is this a joke the whole process has been messed up from the start you know dating back 20 years to them trying to get a stadium in Oakland failing to do so and now they’re going to go to Vegas and all of a sudden

It’s going to be smooth sailing in a city that really hasn’t shown a lot of desire to have you uh the entire thing from the beginning Tony has been a disaster and if this thing fell apart it would surprise absolutely nobody Jeff pleasure to have you thanks for coming on

Yes pleasure is always mine guys thanks for having me let’s take one last break still to come the NFL reportedly suspends Jimmy garoo and fairly Dickinson’s basketball team overcomes an unexpected obstacle and and and and [Applause] [Applause] and and spe and and andir andir andir andir and and and and and and

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