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pardon the eruption but I’m Pablo Tor wilbon has the day off and I appreciate you wanting to work with me Tony Tony corn Heiser actually I wanted the day off too but wi Bon beat me too but I’m here that’s good I’m here happy work always he always seems to have first dibs on vacation days I have noticed that as much as I enjoy being here I do notice that he’s always first to the to the poll on that yeah yeah what’s you know what he’s got houses in so many parts of the country he needs to check on them all on welcome to PTI boys and girls wilbon couldn’t finish what he started so coming out of the bullpen maybe even to tip the bullpen cart drivers our great friend the host of the podcast Pablo Tor finds out the apply named Pablo [Applause] Tor and we begin today with Jaylen Brown scoring 40 points and the Boston Celtics running away from Indiana in the second half last night and winning by 16 also in that second half Indiana Tyrese halberton left the game with a hamstring problem an injury that previously kept halberton out of 10 regular season games so Pablo how did last night’s result impact your view of this series yeah Tony you have cooked steak for me you’ve been very kind to me You’ cooked steak for me I want to put this in the context of steak okay so after game one I was like this feels medium well okay they choke away the lead the Pacers do the Sals come back medium well this feels like we got to throw this series in the trash this is beyond well done this is burned this is bad this is not a thing the Pacers can recover from and Kyrie halberton when he got hurt okay they were losing to the Celtics in the third quarter it’s not as if this was a this was a series they were in control of this just feels like one of those things that I am very tempted to stop paying attention to even as I know that the Celtics have a the Celtics have a habit of at least losing one game against these injury play teams that they’ve played so far in the postseason yeah so let let’s go through the Celtics pattern the the pattern is that they lose game two at home and then they win three in a row and they close out a series they did not lose game two last night they did not even lose game one which they should have lost so as you look forward Boston now goes on the road where they’re 4-0 Indiana is great at home Indiana in these playoffs is 6-0 at home but I think you and I would both agree that Boston is probably a better team even if halberton is healthy and that they are a significantly better team if halberton were to not play these games so I look at this Pablo as I don’t see how Boston could probably be any worse than coming back home to Boston at 3 and one and for me last night’s game just confirmed what I thought after game one that Indiana had missed a golden opportunity halberton is their best and most important player as is Anthony Edwards you know on Minnesota they’re attractive they’re affable they’re emerging stars but at at least last night Indiana was plus one when Hal Burton was out there minus 17 after that so he is a consequential player oh he is and look the Celtics I’m not here to say that the Celtics run to the NBA finals which I am now assuming uh is invalid because they face teams in the Heat and the Bulls in the Cavs excuse me that are deeply injured and they have been missing their best players for stretches at a time I’m just saying that when you have the Celtics who have the deepest starting lineup not depth overall but just like one to five probably the strongest starting lineup in the NBA that they’re not going to have much in the way of opposition to them and so this becomes a different sort of stakes to to talk about that Tony yeah will they choke will the Celtics choke this giant leadway I don’t think so Jaylen Brown has 66 points in two games he’s shooting 24 for 57 which is over 50% right I mean he saved one game and he won another but he couldn’t get enough votes for even third Team all NBA really really okay yes Jason Tatum gets that Jaylen Brown is trying to prove to you that he deserved it but I want to move to the Oilers beating the stars in Dallas Tony in game one sure of the Western Conference Final last night because Conor McDavid was in the middle of the biggest moments there he was earning a four-minute High stick penalty at the start of the first overtime that Edmonton killed off he was missing a point blank chance to end the game in that same period he was scoring the game-winning goal in the second overtime and so the question Tony is whether it is fair to cast this series as a referendum on Conor McD David’s greatness I’m going to get to that in a second I just want to talk about the 4minute high sticking penalty when I saw that on re playay it honestly looked to me like the Dallas player that his stick was forcing mcdavid’s stick up into him I’m not saying it’s not a penalty I’m saying it did not appear to be intentional at all now is it fair to cast this as a referendum on the greatness of Conor McDavid no cuz no no he’s 27 years old no it’s it’s not fair you can’t you going to make a judgment now when the guy could have 8 to 10 years of great hockey playing in front of him what if he wins three cups in his 30s and you’re stuck back here saying oh he’s no good but it even though it is not fair it’s totally understandable I mean we’ve had people we’ve had guests on this show say of Conor McDavid he has a greater skill set than anybody who ever played he’s not gonna win the Cup by himself Pablo but he’s got scorers around him he’s got Heyman he’s got ddal I think there’s a tremendous amount of pressure on him you mentioned Jason Tatum tremendous amount of pressure on him as well I think there’s actually more on McDavid I do yeah I think there’s more on McDavid I also think that we’re picking nits here in the sense that okay we’re asking how much does he need to do to get the win here right so if they win a Stanley Cup my view is greatness becomes reduced to an obituary level concern right greatness is a big topic Tony and at the end of the day at the end of your career at the end of your life they’re going to ask did you win and they’re not going to take the microscope as we are right now to this game and saying but he did all this other stuff that undermined his team in the process they’re going to say did he win and I do believe if the answer to that question which is binary is yes then he gets elevated of course Beyond Jerome MCA Adam Oats the best players who are a class below McDavid in terms of skill obviously who never won a cup and so to me the question is Will he win one I like the odds of him winning one and therefore validating the greatness that we know underneath the hood it’s so interesting to me because winning is incredibly important in hockey and it’s incredibly important in basketball it is far less important in baseball you can spend your entire career Ted Williams is Ted Williams okay you that’s possible in football it’s the same way because nobody thinks that one guy can win in football nobody thinks that can happen so it these are different things and now we get to the really hard story and the one that I don’t understand the NCAA and the power five conferences have settled three class action lawsuits and now will attempt to move forward with direct payments to college athletes the NCAA will pay more than $2.7 billion do to athletes dating back to 2016 and the parties have agreed to a revenue sharing plan that could see each power five school pay up to $20 million a year to its athletes so Pablo does this agreement make college sports clearer or more confusing so clear in one key sense which is that the ncaa’s plan has been revealed now in the light of day right so what have they been doing they’ve been kicking the can down the road on paying athletes for as long as possible such that they’ve got to the part of the road Tony that is Jagged and messy and full of debris and at the end of that road has been a lawyer named Jeffrey Kesler that is the man who’s been filing these Anti-Trust lawsuits on behalf of all these players this is the man who if the NCAA did not settle would have bankrupted the NCAA and force them to hit reset on the entire concept of college sports and so what the NCAA said was we will Valiant take the best worst option which is settlement which is we’re going to have to reimagine ourselves we’re going to have to now figure out what Beyond this road is there for us and Tony down that road is going to be what is now far more confusing which is are these players going to have contracts are there going to be salary caps to what extent will college sports even be College anymore that’s the big picture question that’s coming up yeah so $20 million per school for athletes good luck trying to get a raise if you’re a medieval art professor cuz that’s not going to happen all the money is going to athletes I am way over my skis on this I do not understand it I’m an English major and a sports writer I’m not an economist and I’m not a lawyer it seems to me I’m happy that they have a settlement but it also seems to me that this is going to lead to chaos in the near term I’m going to make the assumption that football players and basketball players because they bring money in are going to get the most money here and I think that that’s fair but I’m not sure that it’s just I I just think there’s going to be an enormous amount of confusion and as long as you understand this let me ask the obvious questions will wrestlers get paid will field hockey players get paid will soccer players get paid will Title Nine litigate this and try to establish the exact same amounts for women and what’s what’s going to happen it seems to me it’s crazy there are so many more lawsuits to come there are so many more lawyers who will charge billable hours for them to provide the clarity you are seeking I then pose the question Tony what happens when the free market in full comes to college sports it means that those field hockey players the wrestlers they will get paid in accordance to a market value that is now been unlocked is that good for field hockey players and wrestlers right nil’s given us a taste of this I believe that we’re going to have to really wonder how much do we actually want our college sports to feel like college when Justice Means payment which means a free market I’m not saying you’re going to like it I’m just saying that Justice is leading us down a direction that is very very different than what it used to be I get that last couple of years we’ve had outside money nil money and we’ve had the transfer portal now now we’re dumping a huge amount of D on inside money college is paying it it just seems to me in the near term there’s chaos let’s take a break coming up what’s the best way to describe the importance of tonight’s game two for the Timberwolves and show to IM managa is back on the mound for the Cubs tonight so what is the word for the season he is having there are so many athletes that aren’t going to get paid anywhere near what basketball and football players are going to get paid they’re not bring college football coaches those basketball coaches are going to make less as a result they’re going to have to take some hair pardon the [Music] interruption it’s time to go head-to-head with Mr fancy word what’s first tonight is a blank game for the Timberwolves against the Mavs all right so what is my word um this is not a must game it’s an important game it’s not a pivotal game not to me because I believe that Minnesota lost two games at home in the last series and still won the series it’s not a critical game because you can’t lose the series in the second game so what is my word now my word is let me write it down here let me read it show us it’s a show us game in this regard we’re going to get a chance to see what Minnesota is really all about their coach has already called them out their best player Anthony Edwards is in a terrible shooting slump and they’re playing against the team that that won six fewer games than they did in the regular season so it’s time for Minnesota to show us who they are yeah this is a great man game for me Tony and I say great man is in great man Theory so great man theory was a historical philosophy in contrast with change that comes from below right there are people powerered revolutions and there are top- down revolutions and in the NBA as we talked about earlier this is a league of superstars deciding the fate of the countries that they inhabit and so for me Anthony Edwards is the greatest man in this series Anthony Edwards has been the person who has looked tired great man Theory falls apart when your great man is sleepy when he plays like he has he has I don’t know no more gas left in the tank but I know he does he’s young he’s springy and so in this game What I’m Looking For is is he going to be able to drive to the hoop he is settled for three-pointers in a way that an older man would but I know he’s young I know he’s great so will he take over it’s the Anthony Edwards series it’s the Anthony Edwards game in specific how can you be tired when you’re what 23 years old and you had three days rest in between games how can you be tired what’s next it’s a fair question Shota imanaga is back on the mound tonight his start to the season has been blank oh it it’s been fabulous my only Chagrin here is that he plays for the Cub so this makes wilbon too happy and I’m not looking for that toen he’s 5 and0 I believe with a 084 ra let me say that ra again 0.84 that’s even better than Fernando Valenzuela who in his first nine starts I think had a z. n. 91 0.91 here’s the thing he’s not particularly tall I think he’s 5’10 he’s not particularly fast as a pitcher he pitches around 90 in the World Baseball Classic one of the people on Team USA said and I want to get the quote right that guy’s not very good but he’s unhitable so he’s Greg Maddox right I mean the Dodgers paid $325 million for Yamamoto and I think that’s going to be worth it I do the Cubs paid this guy $53 million this is the greatest deal in the history of sports no what this is why this is Will bonian to me Tony I’m going to cut to the chase here you tease this it’s will bonian okay two reasons number one the guy is old school you mentioned Greg Maddox less generous Jamie Moyer what do I mean he throws 92 and he has a bunch of offs speed pitches some of which I am told he has not revealed yet because he’s facing teams one and done so far so he’ll break out like the slider for the second time through uh these teams now the second reason why he’s wil bonian is because he visited Wrigley Field when it was cold out and you know what was happening at Wrigley Field there was a Northwestern Iowa football game and sha imaga from Jaan looked at this and said I want to play here this is a mikon fever dream Northwestern football brought him to the Cubs and he’s having the greatest rookie season you can imagine for a pitcher so he can go with wilbon to the Chicago sky games that wilbon says he goes to every single game that’s the final word let’s take one last break still to come did the white socks get H by the ums at the end of last night’s game and why is bronny James receiving the Great number of bets to go number one overall in the NBA draft do you think that will happen do you think that happens I I’m still trying to figure out if what I just read is a prank on us cuz that seems insane I cannot imagine stay in school get get all the money that [Music] you happy time people happy 70th birthday Mitch cback Long Island’s own brenwood High School cupac was an All-American in North Carolina for Dean Smith he was on the 1976 Olympic gold medal team in Montreal he was drafted 13th overall by the Washington Bullets and won a ring there in 1978 two other rings with the Lakers in 1982 in 1985 cjack became GM of the Lakers in 2000 and in his tenure the Lakers won four more championships in 2018 cup joined his good friend Michael Jordan and was GM in Charlotte now that Jordan has sold the team cup check Ste down from running things earlier this year Pablo once played golf with Mitch at Bel Air at 69 it’s so real long swing plane very nice fellow very nice yeah it seems that Mitch cupak always values proximity to Stars Tony on the golf course also as a GM so when I think of him I think of all of the guys he got all of the guys he tried to get remember this was the guy who went out and got Steve Nash this is the guy who went out and got Dwight Howard with the Lakers Pal Gasol also Al the guy who tried to get Chris Paul in that trade of course David Stern vetoed it cuz the league was running uh the team and he said basketball reasons sorry no can’t do that and Mitch Cup’s life I think had a sliding doors moment with that specific transaction that made me think of him probably less than I would have otherwise Speaking of Chris Paul and not so happy anniversary Chris Paul on this day six years ago while on the Rockets Paul injured his hamstring with under a minute to play in game five of a tight series with the Warriors years Houston held on for the win and a 3-2 series lead but dropped the next two games without Paul Paul has had terrible luck in the postseason this hamstring another hamstring in 2015 a broken hand in 2016 Co in 2021 a groin strain in 2023 Paul played 58 games this year with the Warriors missed 21 others with a broken hand there’s talk that Paul might play next year with the Lakers which would put him together with his good friend LeBron James they are two two of the three oldest players in the NBA and the ultimate sliding doors moment for Chris Paul was in that 2018 Western Conference Finals you alluded to keep in mind what happened in game seven against the Warriors the Houston Rockets who had shot and mastered the three-pointer more than any other team in NBA history to that point right next to the Warriors missed 27 three-pointers and they did it because in part they didn’t have a Chris Paul to orchestrate their offense Chris Paul getting hurt in that series another thing that changed basketball history as we understand standard having trails to last night’s game for the white socks Baltimore beat the white socks sending them to their 36th loss the most in baseball but the story here is the way the game ended on a runner’s interference call on Chicago’s Andrew vaugh with one out and two on Chicago’s Andrew Ben attendi hope I get that name right hit an infield popup Ben attendi was automatically out on the infield fly rule but vaugh the runner on second unintentionally touched Baltimore shortstop Gunner Henderson while Henderson was trying to fi the Fly ball vaugh was on his way back to second when this happened Henderson fielded the ball cleanly but vaugh was called out Chicago manager Pedro gfal argued no harm no foul but that didn’t work game over and White Sox play byplay guy former PTI intern John shrien I hope I get that name right said and I’m quoting here that cannot be the way the game ends what is this nonsense unquote yeah yeah Tony I know we’re not doing what’s the word it’s the it’s the Seas but shambolic is the word that comes to mind because the league reaches out to the white socks Apparently after this and says hey um that whole obstruction call thing probably shouldn’t have been ruled in that way the umps could have shown discretion we could have gone letter Spirit of the law over letter of the law which is a giant shame because it ruined the game for anybody watching the game let alone the people in the game all right let’s go to the big finish Jake Fisher of yahu sports reports the Sixers could pursue Klay Thompson and cavius Caldwell PP this off season do you like that I liked it 5 years ago Luis arise is batting 49s and joining the Padres are you impressed he won a batting title in the American League with the twins he won a batting title in the National League with the Marlins he’s a great hitter this is who he is bronny James has garnered the most bets to get picked first overall does that make sense to you even if LeBron says I’m going to the Hawks if they take him number one this feels like a terrible idea for Brody James it does not make S one seed Novak jokovic says he’s worried heading into the French Open does that make sense yeah he hasn’t won a tournament all year and he’s losing to people rank well below him last one Panthers Rangers game two tonight who you got I got the Rangers cuz I’m in Manhattan it’s a beautiful day out and I want this city to have I don’t know some good vibes for a changer at Madison Square Garden that would be nice for me personally that one they have to score at least one goal to win we’re out of time we’re trying to do better the next time and I’m Tony Kornheiser and I’m Pablo T thank you so much for watching this is my podcast Pablo té finds out but for now did you say earlier that you would throw my steaks in the garbage did you say that a hypothetical steak that was worse cooked than the steak you gave me which was great a great St your St Timberwolves respond tonight I have them winning Tony because I believe in Anthony Edwards that’s the question to me here um Kyrie Irving has been fantastic in the end of games the Mavericks by the way just general idea that two years ago you would have told me you know who’s going to be really trustworthy basically across the board Kyrie Irving and you know who’s going to be playing like Michael Jordan Anthony Edwards I would have questioned what drugs someone had slipped into my drink but that’s what we’re dealing with right now and the question is whether Anthony Edwards going to live up to the idea that he is a closer to and he’s lived up to it winning in seven games against the Nuggets I think he takes over the series with game two tonight yeah I mean I think it’s on him he’s 12 of 40 in his last two games that’s 30% shooting that’s really that you’re not a superstar if you’re shooting 12 of 40 look um I don’t think it’s necessarily a critical game because you can’t lose a best of seven series to nothing and we all know that in the last series Minnesota lost two games at home and still beat Denver that is right the greatest accomplishment of the playoffs so far is Minnesota beating Denver and now we are down to four teams and this is a very bright light on Minnesota for the first time they earned it by beating Denver in game seven but this is a brighter light than they have ever seen before it’s a brighter light that Anthony Edwards has ever played in before not not necessarily all the players and and the coach of that team called him out now if I’m not mistaken the last time the coach of that team called him out it was about Carl Anthony towns and he took too many shots and he was going for some sort of scoring record and the coach said this is not the way we play and the team responded great after that this I believe is the next time he’s called him out so like you I believe they will respond great I do yeah they won in seven games in the deao NBA finals against the nuggets and now it’s time for them to take charge again reassert themselves as I must reassert myself here by saying that is it we are done back to you
