Tony Kornheiser (3:07)

Yeah. So we used to be sports writers. We wrote for a living. If the NHL had come to us and said, write us a perfect script, it would be this. Stay with me for a little while. You're going to have to have four teams, but you want two of those teams to play each other twice. You want the United States and Canada to be the stars. You want to make sure that all the players completely buy in. You want to put these games in great hockey cities, Montreal and Boston. You want to have them split so that the architecture of hockey remains the same. But you want to have the road teams win, because that would be a fun situation. The road teams would win. In the first game, you want to have some craziness out there, crazy fights about anthems. But in the second game, you want it to be pure and you want it to be clean. You want the goalies to be terrific. And they both were. And then in the last game, you want to go to overtime and have the winning goal scored by the greatest hockey player in the world right now. And that's what you got. So that people go home and they go to bed and they say, that was great. Let's do it again. Let's do it again. Mike, I know I told you this last night when we chatted. The thing that got to me most was the pregame when Canada brought out Wayne Gretzky as captain, the greatest player in the history of hockey. And then the United States brings out Mike Rusioni. Okay. And he's wearing a Goodreau shirt.

Mike Wilbon (4:35)

Yeah.

Tony Kornheiser (4:36)

Because we don't have in the United States, we don't have an immortal NHL player. We don't have that. We got the 1980 Olympics. We got Miracle on Ice, and it was perfect. It was perfect.

Mike Wilbon (4:48)

It really. Yes, it was. And now what's the ripple? What is it gonna mean going forward? What is the NHL gonna do? I'm gonna ask another question. What's the NBA gonna do? Just get its butt whipped and embarrassed and have 15 million people in the middle of the week watching a hockey game that didn't exist three weeks ago? Or they're gonna do. They're gonna wake up and do something about it?

Tony Kornheiser (5:14)

I told you, I've said to you the NBA has to pay attention. You said they won't. They won't care. Let's move to baseball. Justin Verlander, who turned 42 yesterday, had a sit down with Bob Nightingale of USA Today. Among the things Verlander said was that he very much wants to win the 38 more games he needs to get to 300 wins. Everything else he said comes straight out of the Mike Wilbon handbook.

Mike Wilbon (5:37)

Love that.

Tony Kornheiser (5:38)

Verlander said analytics is to blame for the demise of the starting pitcher. He stumps for renewed value on starting pitchers winning games, and he wants rule changes to ensure that starting pitchers go deep into games. Verlander said. This is a quote we used to make fun of guys going five and fly. Now it's the standard. Unquote. Wilbon what are the chances baseball will listen to Verlander?

Mike Wilbon (5:59)

God bless Justin Verlander Tony, you know, I'm a cynic about this. I think baseball is the most reduced sport of all relative to what it was 20 years ago, 40 years ago, 70 years ago. I just think baseball is just regressed. And the biggest part of it, the single largest part, is what has happened. The extinction of the starting pitcher and baseball's attitude. Let's just have a bullpen day during the World Series, in which case I go to Law and Order svu. So right. I God bless Justin Verlander for giving voice to this. A guy who's out there in the trenches. He has been a big star. He's pitched in multiple markets. He's been in the game long enough and he came in at a point where people still completed games, 28 complete games last year. Talk about the NBA being embarrassed over the All Star Game. Major League Baseball ought to be embarrassed. But Tony, I don't think we're there yet. I don't. I worry that Justin Verlander's voice is just like a call in the wilderness. And there's not a chorus. He needs a chorus behind him like Sunday morning in a Baptist church. And I worry he doesn't have enough Amens.

Tony Kornheiser (7:15)

So Verlander has been a guest on this high quality program several times. He is a great guest.

Mike Wilbon (7:21)

Yes, he is.

Tony Kornheiser (7:21)

I find myself Agreeing with virtually everything that he says. I don't know. In this moment, when he looks at the world of pitching, I don't know how much of that is from the narrow prism of a guy trying to get to 300 wins. But I think we both agree if he gets to 300 wins, he'll be the last guy to ever do it. Because pitchers don't get enough starts and managers don't leave them in long enough to hang around. Now, I don't believe that managers don't want their starting pitchers to win. I think they do want them to win, but they have found another path to winning. Or sometimes the GM calls and says, too many pitches. Get him out of here. Okay, so, okay. Now, I don't want to just slam analytics, Mike, because I think analytics are a tool you use to get better. I don't think they're handcuffs. And Justin Verlander, when he went to Houston, praised the analytics in Houston. But having said that, I want to see pitchers go 7, 8 and 9. And let me say this to you, Mike, that if we know Rob Manford for anything, he's willing to tinker with the game to make it better. It's Rob Manfred's pitch clock. It's Rob Manford's. No defensive. In the infield. It's Rob. Yeah, it's Rob Manford. Universal dh. It's Rob Manford. Ghost runner. He's like the wizard of Oz there. So I am hopeful. I am more hopeful than you are.

Mike Wilbon (8:39)

You are good. I am. Spread the gospel. You and Justin Verlander spread it. Because I don't know that baseball's invested. I don't know that baseball sees itself looking over the cliff just yet. They pull themselves back by shortening the game to two and a half hours from three, zero, whatever it is. But I don't think they see this Tony as anything that's going to necessarily enhance it. Maybe Manfred does. Maybe with Theo pushing him in the back, he'll get there. One can hope.

Tony Kornheiser (9:07)

Yeah.

Mike Wilbon (9:07)

See, baseball is testing something new this spring training. Yesterday, Cody Poteet of my Cubbies became the first pitcher in the majors to challenge a ball strike call. Poteet appealed the umpire's call of ball by tapping his head, and a computer simulation on the scoreboard ruled it a strike, reversing the call. Only pitchers, catchers and hitters are able to appeal anyway. And teams run out of challenges. After failing twice, the system could graduate to regular season games as soon as next year. From what you've seen so far, are you a fan?

Tony Kornheiser (9:47)

Okay. So the issue for me is time. How much time does it take to do this? You know, the best thing that's happened to baseball in 50 years is the pitch clock. It has shaved almost 30 minutes off a game. So I don't want to go backwards. This thing took about 40 seconds in the minors. It takes far less than the minors.

Mike Wilbon (10:08)

17 seconds.

Tony Kornheiser (10:09)

Yeah. So to me, I can live with that. That's not a problem. We see this in tennis. We see this all the time in tennis. There's a call. You want to see how it works? It's on a big screen. The crowd really gets into it. There's a notion that it's clear. There's no ambiguity to it. So in that sense, I'm going to be for it. But, Mike, I've also heard that it's possible the strike zone that's on your TV when you watch a baseball game will not be there anymore to accommodate this. That's a deal breaker for them.

Mike Wilbon (10:39)

They have to adjust it.

Tony Kornheiser (10:40)

I want to see this.

Mike Wilbon (10:41)

They're going to adjust it. They'll figure it out yet. Look, I go to enough games, you know, my seat, the seat I have, which is different than you and your VIP seats in the third row at Nats games. I sit in the upper deck, right on top of home plate at Wrigley Field. And what you realize, Tony, is the view we get, which is over. Usually the. With the right shoulder is slightly off. And I. I've had people explain this to me over the years. They can play with that. They can get that exact. I'm for it. It's. But only like you. 17 seconds is about my limit. That's it. I know you can't go to 20. Don't give me 45. And I understand. It was new yesterday. I'm fine. You got to play with. You got to. You got to experiment with it. You got to get it right. Yeah, I'm okay with it. Because you use it in tennis, though, Tony. Remember, you get, like, five challenges per set.

Tony Kornheiser (11:29)

Well, there's only two here. Two. There's only two. Unless you win one, and then you get to save it. Look, here's my reticence, Mike. You and I grew up with umpires. Everybody has grown up with umpires. We understand they miss ball strikes every once in a while. That's part of the game. Yeah, but if you can get it right, I'm for getting it right. With this caveat.

Mike Wilbon (11:49)

Right.

Tony Kornheiser (11:50)

I want the umpires to be out there. I want a full crew. I don't want this to be like a supermarket where they say you go into the self checkout because there's nobody working to register. I don't want that. Don't want that. Let's take a break. Coming up, what's the word for LeBron's 40 point performance last night?

Mike Wilbon (12:10)

And is it time for the Sixers? Here we go. To shut down. Joel Embiid.

Tony Kornheiser (12:18)

You have a new used self checkout. I refuse to use it. You use it.

Mike Wilbon (12:22)

Yeah, I've been convinced I've been shut down. No, you don't shop. No, I instacart. I instacart.

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Tony Kornheiser (13:55)

Time to get spectacular with our vernacular. That's a good line. What's first?

Mike Wilbon (13:59)

LeBron's performance in a win over the Blazers last night was blank.

Tony Kornheiser (14:05)

My word is redemptive. He had 40 points. I think it was 14 for 24 from the field. He did it without Luka who did not play. He did it in a back to back on the road. His coach J.J. redick said of LeBron, this is a quote. He sets the standard for how you're supposed to approach this craft, unquote. So I think this was LeBron talking to Brendan Hayward, saying, oh yeah, and saying to Brendan Hayward, they pay me to win regular season games and playoff games, not exhibition games. And by the way, the Lakers pay me. The league doesn't pay me. And I think he was also saying To Luka, this is still my team. Love having you, love working with you, but this is still my team. He's 40 years old. He's having the best year anyone that age ever had in basketball.

Mike Wilbon (14:50)

Amen. But Tony, he had to. It was necessary. That's my word. Because the Lakers had lost to Utah, they had lost to Charlotte, two of the four worst teams in the league, and they went to Portland, which has been a bad team. But I'm really glad for my man Chauncey Billups. Portland had won six straight road games. And you know, I thought the Lakers were going to lose that game last night, particularly when Luka wasn't going to play. LeBron saved them. It was necessary because you got teams coming up on the rail, including Sacramento, Golden State, Dallas, the Clippers, Minnesota. The Lakers can't afford. Even though they're ahead of them, even though the Lakers had a fine first two thirds of the season, they cannot afford to go into some tailspin now because they still got to figure out how Luka and LeBron are going to do this. So those two have to figure it out. That's only fair. But in the meantime, you cannot go into three, four, five in a row was necessary for LeBron to do that.

Tony Kornheiser (15:48)

And it's a good word. I'm just saying. This was also aimed at Brendan Haywood.

Mike Wilbon (15:51)

Good.

Tony Kornheiser (15:52)

It was aimed at Brendan Haywood. What's next?

Mike Wilbon (15:54)

The Sixers would be blank to shut down Joel Embiid.

Tony Kornheiser (15:59)

My word is justified because he can't play. He was off for a week, Mike. He came back. He played 27 minutes and a loss. He shot 3 for 9. Okay. It's not working, you know, so they would be justified in shutting him down. But it's also true that he's had stuff happen like this before. And then he gets out there and he plays a couple of good games, 3, 4 games in a row, and suddenly the Sixers are kind of sort of a threat in the playoffs. So while you can justify shutting him down, you don't have to, because this is the arc of his career.

Mike Wilbon (16:35)

Tony, it would be strategic too, because you're looking at a draft that is supposed to be. And Jay Billis reminded us of this last week. Really good at the top and deep. And if you're the Sixers and you are considering apparently shutting down Paul George Chu, who's got knee issues, then you're looking at the lottery. They can't even catch the Bulls for a play in spot. So then you're looking at that. And I don't know who a big is. If there's anybody out there who down the line could sort of replace even the numbers, much less the impact of Embiid. Malawatz, the kid at Duke, the 72 kid. He didn't seem like that now. But I don't know how the draft is going to shape out with. Not yet. Not with. Well, Elijah W. On average like 7 and something his freshman year, too. And then, oops, look what happened. So big kids take a longer time to develop. I don't know. But, Tony, let me give some credit to our friend Kendrick Perkins, who I know I was sitting with a couple of different times, and he said, hey, this is not hard. Sit Joel Embiid. Sit him down. Force him to sit down. You cannot get through with this. You can't limp through with Joel Embiid doing this. And I think of a conversation that I had with Embiid in the finals last year where I hoped he didn't play in the Olympics. Not because I didn't want Embiid not to win a medal, because I did. You know, I really like Joel Embiid. I just thought that the wear and tear of a summer, the practices and the games were going to be more than he could handle once we got to now.

Tony Kornheiser (18:03)

Well, you were right.

Mike Wilbon (18:04)

Yeah.

Tony Kornheiser (18:05)

You were prescient. Ugh. That's the final word. Let's take one last break. Still to come, the Yankees decide whether it's finally time to end their beard ban.

Mike Wilbon (18:14)

And the spurs beat the Suns with no Wimby. The Suns, man, they. I think they are now officially the most disappointing team in the West. Philly in the east, Suns in the West.

Tony Kornheiser (18:29)

76Ers paid so much for Embiid and George. They're getting nothing. They're getting nothing from them.

Mike Wilbon (18:35)

No, they're not.

Tony Kornheiser (18:38)

Race the rudders.

Mike Wilbon (18:39)

Race the sails. Race the sails.

Tony Kornheiser (18:42)

Captain, an unidentified ship is approaching. Over.

Mike Wilbon (18:45)

Roger, wait. Is that an enterprise sales solution?

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Tony Kornheiser (20:23)

Happy time people. Happy 79th birthday. Bob Ryan, our dear friend, one of the greatest sports writers of all time. Bobby's been working at the Boston Globe since 1968 when he graduated from Boston Boston College. He's in the Basketball hall of Fame, just like you, Wilbot. He covered the Celtics when the Celtics were great. He wrote about all the Boston teams, the Red Sox, the Bruins, the Patriots, the college teams. He thinks Bobby Orr is the greatest hockey player ever. And that gets you crazy. Wilbot yeah, he's in the National Sports Media hall of Fame. He's been on Sports Reporters around the Horn PTI a million times. More important than all this stuff is that Bob Ryan is great. Great to talk to about anything and everything and we love him.

Mike Wilbon (21:04)

But the fact that Bob Bryan and Charles Barkley back to back birthdays Tony One of the great thrills of my life was beating Bob, meeting Bobby or a month or so ago and or saying he loved that Bob Ryan had his back. When we got into this daily thing about Gretzky and and or and by the way, I hate to burst Bob's bubble, but it's clear that Orr thinks Gretzky is the greatest player of all time.

Tony Kornheiser (21:31)

I'm just saying Happy anniversary. Anthony Davis on this day nine years ago, while with the New Orleans Pelicans, Davis scored 59 points in a win over the Pistons. Davis took 34 shots. He made 24 of them, 2 for 2 from 3, 9 for 10 from the foul line. Davis is now with Dallas after being traded from the Lakers for Luka doncic. Davis played third, 31 minutes in the only game he's played with The Mavericks, scored 26 points, grabbed 16 rebounds, seven assists, three blocks before leaving with an adductor strain. He will be reevaluated in two weeks and at minimum will miss seven more games. The other Dallas bigs Derek Lively and Daniel Gafford are also out for extended periods of time with injuries.

Mike Wilbon (22:13)

Tony, there's certain guys I think of and I wish they were blessed with great health, bodies that can withstand the punishment of professional sports. The first two guys I think of are Chicago kids Derrick Rose and Anthony Davis. And of course, if you're going to go expand that list, the bigs would be Anthony Davis and Bill Walton. Wouldn't we like to see what they could do if they could have been out there for like 75, 80 a year? Even greater career.

Tony Kornheiser (22:39)

Happy trails. Yes, Happy Trails to UC Irvine dribbling out the clock while up front 41. At the end of the first half, the Anteaters led the Matadors of Cal State Northridge 58:17 with seconds left when Shirelle Nahum received an inbounds pass, dribbled twice, then launched a one handed three quarter shot. Switched it. Nahum's three put UC Irvine up 44 at the half. I'm not sure it was necessary, but it was very fun to watch. As Wilbourne always says, if you don't like it, stop it. The Anteaters went on to win the game 156, dropping Cal State Northridge to 4:20 on the season.

Mike Wilbon (23:17)

You have to feel bad for Cal State Northridge. You look up, somebody's dribbling out of clock and sometimes players don't take these shots because they don't want their shooting percentage to go down. Kudos.

Tony Kornheiser (23:29)

Really?

Mike Wilbon (23:29)

Yeah.

Tony Kornheiser (23:30)

You think it's that selfish? Really?

Mike Wilbon (23:31)

Yes.

Tony Kornheiser (23:32)

Let's go to the big finish.

Mike Wilbon (23:33)

Let's do it.

Tony Kornheiser (23:33)

The Wembley List spurs beat the Suns in Austin, Texas last night. Is that significant?

Mike Wilbon (23:38)

Yeah, it is for the Suns, who don't look right now, Tony, like they could even make the play in. It looked like they're outside of that. The Yankees are ditching their facial hair ban for what Hal Steinbrenner is calling. Well, groomed beards make any sense.

Tony Kornheiser (23:54)

Goes all the way back to George Steinbrenner 50, 60 years ago. I sort of liked it because it was the only one. You could always have a mustache. The US women's soccer team blank Columbia 2 nothing. Your thoughts?

Mike Wilbon (24:04)

It's like the 50th straight show. Yes. I mean, expect it. The Saints are reportedly hiring former Chargers head coach Brandon Staley as their defensive coordinator. Is he a good fit?

Tony Kornheiser (24:17)

It's a bad team. I mean, Kellen Moore is a young guy and with a lot of enthusiasm. It's not a good team. Last one. Men's college hoops tonight, 14th ranked Michigan state at number 12. Michigan. Who you got? Mr. Big ten.

Mike Wilbon (24:28)

Traditional big ten baby. Not this California influx. I'm going with Tom Izzo and the boys to winning Ann Arbor. I have.

Tony Kornheiser (24:36)

We're out of time. We will try and do better the next time. And I am Tony Kornheiser.

Mike Wilbon (24:40)

I'm Mike Wilbon. Have a great weekend, knuckleheads. You can get the podcast on the app or Apple podcast Tony with James Harden's beard. According to Steinbrenner. Be well groomed. Oh, I'm just asking.

Tony Kornheiser (24:52)

It's well groomed, but it's voluminous.

Dell Speaker (24:55)

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