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- [00:01]
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- [00:16]
Mike Wilbon
Pardon the interruption, but I'm Mike Lobond. Tony. Scientists are studying fungus that's 99 million years old.
- [00:25]
Tony Kornheiser
I'm Tony Kornheiser. I know. It came from my feet. I know.
- [00:30]
Mike Wilbon
Yeah, one can hope. One can hope. That's not.
- [00:34]
Tony Kornheiser
Do you believe they can do that? Do you believe they can pinpoint that something is 99 million years old.
- [00:44]
Mike Wilbon
Like archaeological finds? I'm much more interested in that than fungus.
- [00:49]
Tony Kornheiser
Yeah, like you don't even believe the Florida man stories. How could you believe this? Welcome to pti, boys and girls. In today's episode, Barry Bonds gets a statue, Lionel Messi faces psg and should the Rays use their time ballpark in the playoffs. But we begin today with news that the Toronto Raptors and their longtime team president, Masayo Jiri, have parted ways. No reason was given. Jiri put together the Raptors team that won the NBA championship in 2019. The other night, Ujiri ran the draft that brought Toronto Colin Murray Boyles from South Carolina with the 9th pick. Wilbon. What is your reaction to this news?
- [01:31]
Mike Wilbon
Well, Tony, at first I was sad. I guess I still am, because I'm not going to sit here and pretend. Over the years, I've become pretty good friends with Messiah Ujiri. And I have come to admire him. Not for what he did necessarily with the Toronto Raptors, which is give them a national championship. I was there for a lot of what happened with Toronto in 2019 and Kawhi Leonard. But what he has done internationally for basketball, what he's done very specifically on the continent of Africa in terms of giving young men hope. And it's mostly young men will become young women soon enough, but hope and some extra direction and infrastructure and things that were not in existence for basketball on the continent at all. And Messiah's been at the forefront of that with the cadre of lieutenants now and people with basketball in Africa and the NBA is involved in other sorts of organizations. And I. I have seen that he's invited me to go and I haven't gone yet, and I should have been. But I see what Masiah Ujiri does when I look at a guy like Malawatch, who Masiah told me about years ago when he's like 15, and I see the opportunity created, and that's a much Bigger picture. I know that we're talking about the Raptors, but there's a new owner in Toronto. I don't know how that would work. I don't know if he knows how that would work. But Messiah Ujiri, his phone ain't. His phone's not silent. Somebody's gonna find him. And if they want to get somebody to run a club and be great at it, he's your guy.
- [03:07]
Tony Kornheiser
So I don't know Ujiri at all, but I know that he made one of the greatest trades in the history of the NBA when he brought Kawhi Leonard on a one year deal. In essence, because Kawhi Leonard was going to be a free agent at the end of the year, brought him to Toronto at the end of that year. Kawhi is the Finals mvp and Toronto has won the NBA championship. When he left for free agency, that began a slow decline. This year, Toronto was 30 and 52. But Kawhi Leonard, you know, he played 60 regular season games, but all 24 playoff games, no load management during the playoffs for Kawhi averaged 39 minutes a game. I don't even know who's on Toronto anymore. I know Kawhi is not. I know Siakam is not. You know, I haven't paid all that much attention. But in terms of Ujiri, if he wants another job, he'll get another job, obviously, because he made this. You know, he took a place that can't get free agents. He made them competitive and all of that. The only thing I read with great interest, Mike, was he makes $15 million a year. That's a lot more money that I thought he was making. And maybe the new owners said, whoa, that's a lot more money than we want to pay this guy. Maybe Tony.
- [04:22]
Mike Wilbon
Tony. Their jobs and their jobs and their club jobs and team jobs. And there ought to be league and industry interest in Messiah Jirry because he's that kind of influencer. He's got that kind of sober judgment and intellectual. Basketball needs him prominently out front. And so hopefully there are people smart enough in the industry to realize that we'll move to baseball.
- [04:52]
Tony Kornheiser
His team right now is irrelevant. I mean, they're like Charlotte, Tony.
- [04:56]
Mike Wilbon
They were 23 and 22 on the back end of that season. And they're coming with some young players. Everybody doesn't do it like the Knicks and the Lakers. Some people, it takes. It takes time. We'll move to baseball, where the Giants announce they'll soon erect a statue to bury Bonds. Bonds played for the Giants for 15 of his 22 seasons, hitting.586 of his 762 home runs with them. In San Francisco, the Giants currently have five statues outside Oracle park honoring hall of Famers Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Juan Marichal, Gaylord Perry and Orlando Cepeda. Wow. Bonds has not made the haul due to steroid allegations. So, Tony, should anyone have a problem with this statue?
- [05:47]
Tony Kornheiser
Well, should is an interesting word because it creates a value judgment. I think there are a lot of baseball people who would say that Barry Bonds doesn't deserve something so prominent as a statue. I mean, it is likely I won't go any further than that, that he used steroids, that he cheated the game. So there's a large group of people who will have company if they say he shouldn't have a statue, just like they would say Mark McGuire shouldn't have a statue in St. Louis and Alex Rodriguez shouldn't have a statue anywhere he played. As far as I'm concerned, if the San Francisco Giants want to give him a statue, that's fine. That's fine with me. This is not Cooperstown here. This is San Francisco, where Barry Bonds is beloved. Is and was beloved, okay? His total of home runs is higher than anybody on the Giants. And as you mentioned, they had Mason McCovey and he hit his home runs in this park. All right? He splashed him in the water in this park. I have been told today that a lot of people are saying they should build the statue and put it in McCovey Cove. I would be for that.
- [06:50]
Mike Wilbon
Yeah. Tony, I don't need or look for unanimity in anything. We live in a complex world. People have different feelings. I know some of those older baseball players, specifically hall of Famers, who object vehemently to Bonds and the others that you mentioned in steroid use. The perception of it, the reality of it, what it has done to the numbers in baseball. The numbers, as you and I talk about all the time, are much more important to the fabric of the game than the other sports in North America that we pay attention to.
- [07:23]
Tony Kornheiser
That's right.
- [07:24]
Mike Wilbon
But I've spent a lot of time in the Bay Area in the last 20 years. A lot. And a lot of it, most of it has been dealing with the Warriors. But you cannot be right there with that stadium and that ballpark nearly abut one another and not know how beloved Barry Bonds is widely even with the exception of the people who say, hold on, so a statue there is fine. It's fine. Well, boy, I don't know there's gonna be a number of statues, Staples and Oracle. I don't know who's gonna have the most statues, but it's fine, Tony. There's not gonna be unanimity and I'm not looking for it.
- [08:03]
Tony Kornheiser
I don't wanna be a moralist about this. I believe that Barry Bonds took steroids. And I believe that whatever baseball does to punish the people that they believe broke the rules, Barry Bonds should face that too. But the people, as you say in San Francisco, they love him. And he's a baseball player. He's not a retired general. It's entertainment. Let's got no, let's not go nuts here. Let's stay with baseball. At the moment, the Tampa Bay Rays are the first wild card team in the American League. Ken Rosenthal, the athletic reports that Major League Baseball has held conversations with the Rays about where the team could play home playoff games. Their current temporary stadium is the 10,000 seat Yankee Spring training stadium, Steinbrenner Field. Baseball is concerned that stadium might not be able to handle all the tickets baseball itself gives away for playoff games. And they are concerned the broadcast facilities may not be up to playoff standards. Wilbon, if you were the Rays, would you move your playoff games to a neutral field?
- [09:01]
Mike Wilbon
If I ran the Rays after I consulted with people in my building, including the players whose pockets are enhanced or hurt by the revenue produced by the gate in the postseason. After I had those conversations, depending on what I was told, I'd probably tell Major League Baseball to go to hell. And that's just me. So I've got this stadium there. I'm building a place I represent as a team. I get to the post season pretty frequently. Something like six times in the last eight years. You know, I'm not doing this for Major League Baseball. Figure out how to fix some cameras to somewhere else. Too bad. I remember when baseball wanted to bigfoot the Cubs and say, you don't have lights at Wrigley field in the mid-80s, early-80s, you're going to have to put these games at Comiskey Park. And believe me, I would have walked outside with a, with a poster that said Major League Baseball go to hell in terms instead of moving those games to the south side. I would have. So that's how I feel about that.
- [10:06]
Tony Kornheiser
Yeah, it's glad to see you're not angry today. My feeling is if I were the Tampa Bay Rays, I would want to play my playoff games in this field. I've just played 81 regular season games in this field. I played them there because My stadium was torn apart by a hurricane and baseball put me in this particular field. If I'm good enough to make the playoffs, I want to play those games on that field. You know, I don't really want a neutral site. Is for two reasons. One, it's named Steinbrenner Field and he won a bunch of World Series. And two, it's actually in Tampa and we live in Tampa. We are the Tampa Bay Raiders. Right.
- [10:42]
Mike Wilbon
Not in Atlanta.
- [10:43]
Tony Kornheiser
So why do I want to go somewhere else? Right?
- [10:45]
Mike Wilbon
Yeah.
- [10:45]
Tony Kornheiser
So, I mean, I understand baseball's point. I understand that, you know, maybe the broadcast facilities aren't that great. I agree with you. Temporarily fix them. They're broadcasting games every single night there. Temporarily make them better. I understand all of the things that it's only 10,000 people and they give away a lot of tickets. Give away fewer tickets. You're talking about giving away tickets, right? You and I are on the same page on this. That it may hurt the gate because it's only 10,000 seats. And then they hurt the players. My solution, baseball's point is more than money for baseball. Baseball should underwrite that. That's. I don't think you move this team. And by the way, let's be fair about this. They don't draw squat. They haven't even sold out all their home games in a 10,000 seat save. Stop it. Let's take a break. Coming up, two time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz is not the number one seed in the men's draw at Wimbledon. What is the word for that?
- [11:44]
Mike Wilbon
And how big would it be if Lionel Messi in Inter Miami were to beat PSG on pretty huge?
- [11:54]
Tony Kornheiser
I don't understand this. Tampa Bay is a really good team year in, year out, and they don't draw at all. I mean, I don't. I don't get that.
- [12:02]
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- [12:08]
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- [12:39]
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- [13:00]
Tony Kornheiser
Time to hit you with some very merry vocabulary. Even though, as you can see, I am not wearing my doctor's jacket.
- [13:06]
Mike Wilbon
Where's your jacket?
- [13:07]
Tony Kornheiser
Left at home.
- [13:07]
Mike Wilbon
Where is it?
- [13:08]
Tony Kornheiser
Left at home. I'm an idiot. What's first? I left at home.
- [13:11]
Mike Wilbon
It's blank that Carlos Alcaraz is not the number one seed in the men's draw at Wimbledon.
- [13:18]
Tony Kornheiser
My word, or words are head in the sand. Jannik Sinner is the number one seed there even though Alcaraz just beat him in the French Open final and even though Alcaraz has beaten him the last five times that they played. Cuz these seedings are produced by, I don't know, some algorithm somewhere that has no relationship to reality. Alcaraz has won the last two Wimbledons. If he goes for a three peat, you know who he joins? He joins Borg and Sampras and Federer and Djokovic. That's it. That's the list. Only the greatest players at Wimbledon of all time. Sinner's not one at Wimbledon. Sinner hasn't been to the finals at Wimbledon. This is a bad seeding. It's bad wrong.
- [14:03]
Mike Wilbon
You know, Tony, I don't disagree with your reasoning, but my word is or words are just fine. It doesn't matter. Tony, if they play according to form, they're going to meet each other in another final. Just like they met at Roland Garros. They're going to meet at, at. At Wimbledon. They're going to meet one versus two. And for all the nerds out there who want to point out well, his draw is more difficult. You don't know who's going to be playing that well on either side of the draw. You don't know where the upsets are going to occur and change what who you project one or the other to play. It's just fine as long as he's one or two. No, I don't want to see him seven or even three where you have a much tougher draw in a round of 16 or the quarterfinals. I don't want to see that. But if these two get to meet, you know that's what we're all wanting, right?
- [15:00]
Tony Kornheiser
That's.
- [15:01]
Mike Wilbon
Don't you want to see them again playing the final? Okay, it's seeded for that just fine.
- [15:07]
Tony Kornheiser
What's next? What's next?
- [15:09]
Mike Wilbon
If Lionel Messi and Inter Miami beat PSG on Sunday, it would be blank.
- [15:15]
Tony Kornheiser
It would be seismic. I'm not the world's greatest soccer person, but I'm up to speed on this. PSG just won the Champions League. That's an all star league. That makes PSG the best club team in Europe. Europe is where everybody in America says the next great American player has to go to get better. You have to go to Europe. Inter Miami. Not in Europe. Inter Miami is here and it's in the mls. And if my statistics are correct, Mike, at the moment, Inter Miami is sitting in sixth place, sixth place in the Eastern Conference of the mls. So you wouldn't figure they can play with psg. Now. They got. They got some great old players, and I emphasize old. Chief among them is Messi, who used to play at psg. And they look good in pink. They're really good. But it's hard for me to believe that they can win this game.
- [16:08]
Mike Wilbon
Well, Tony, they can win the game because we don't even know how seriously PSG is taking this. This ain't Champions League. This is, you know, not the league in France. It's not. It's not any of that. It's not World cup. Even though it is this sort of new cup that's out there that really is important, kind of for the first time. But. But my word, even if Miami's to beat a PSG team that's not really fully engaged, it is going to be newsworthy in America. That's what it would be. And people in the United States will probably overreact and say, aha, we beat psg, which is just coming off the winnings. Champions League. Okay, we can overreact like that. That's fair, by the way. And it's okay to give it a certain amount of hype. I don't know how seriously, though, PSG is going to be taking this team in pink. Except maybe they look and see Messi and go, oh, it's the old man. Maybe we'll pay attention for 90 minutes.
- [17:04]
Tony Kornheiser
Do you think. Who do you think is going to win? Who is going to win?
- [17:09]
Mike Wilbon
I think PSG is going to win.
- [17:12]
Tony Kornheiser
I think. Me too. That's the final word. Let's take one last break. Still to come, could we see Cooper Flagg play point guard for the Mavericks?
- [17:22]
Mike Wilbon
And baseball is about to shine a spotlight on Cal Raleigh, who's getting a lot of Slurpee lately.
- [17:28]
Tony Kornheiser
Dumper.
- [17:29]
Mike Wilbon
Lot of Slurpees.
- [17:30]
Tony Kornheiser
Yeah, big dumper. You didn't tell anybody to go to hell in this segment. I'm proud of you.
- [17:34]
Mike Wilbon
No, I let you do it cause you were angry in the first part of this segment. You were the angry old man, so we split it up.
- [17:43]
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- [18:09]
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- [18:39]
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- [18:47]
Tony Kornheiser
Happy time people. Happy, happy 35th birthday. Bobby Wagner, the longtime Seattle Seahawks Legion of Boom linebacker, came over to the Washington football team last season as a free agent. His influence on that defense might not be as impactful as Jaden Daniels was to that offense, but the Washington defense was miles better. They allowed 127 fewer points this past season than the previous season. They were 32nd and last in points allowed and yards allowed in 2023. This past season under Dan Quinn, they were 18th in points allowed, 13th in yards allowed. Wagner is back on a one year deal. He made second team all pro in Washington six different times he has been first team all pro and 10 times he's been to the Pro Bowl. Wagner is headed for Canton.
- [19:34]
Mike Wilbon
He is Tony. I don't want to make this Reggie White going from Philadelphia to Green Bay, but he's having an impact in a second place. And if that defense gets better and leads that team to where a lot of people think they can go, Wagner's going to be a big part of that.
- [19:52]
Tony Kornheiser
Happy anniversary Tony Parker. On this day 24 years ago, the French point guard was selected by San Antonio with the 28th pick in the NBA Draft. Parker played on four NBA title teams and was once Finals MVP. Parker is the most successful French basketball player in NBA history. Of course Victor Wembanyama could change that. This past season there were 14 French players on NBA rosters, including Rudy Gobert, Bilal Koulibaly and the number one and number two picks in the 2024 draft, Zachary Ricachet of Atlanta and Alex Saar of Washington. This year, three more Frenchmen were chosen in the draft's first round and three in the second round. Only the United States and Canada have more NBA players than France.
- [20:38]
Mike Wilbon
Ah, Tony. He may be very French and he is, but his daddy grew up on the south side of Chicago, hooping in the playgrounds there. I wanted to be like his dad, like Tony Parker's dad. I told Tony Parker that some years ago. He's like, are you serious? Like, yes. And Tony Parker's brother was the point guard at Northwestern and he sounds like a guy from the south side. Where is Tony? Tony sounds like he's from Paris and his brother and father don't. What's up with that?
- [21:06]
Tony Kornheiser
Having trails Griffin Canning, the Mets starter appeared to suffer an Achilles injury while on the mound against the Braves last night. Canning is 73 with a.377 ERA this season and now seems sure to join fellow starters Kodai Senga, Tyler McGill and Sean Minea on the injured list. On the upside Mets, they beat the Braves for the second straight day, splitting the four game series and returning to first place in the NL East, a half a game ahead of the Phillies.
- [21:37]
Mike Wilbon
Yeah, you don't want to see this whole Achilles thing spread from the NBA to other sports. Just hate seeing that.
- [21:45]
Tony Kornheiser
All right, let's go to the big finish if we could.
- [21:47]
Mike Wilbon
Let's do it.
- [21:48]
Tony Kornheiser
Let's hear the music. And go. Jason Kidd wants to see Cooper Flagg play some point guard early on. Do you?
- [21:55]
Mike Wilbon
No, but I hadn't thought of it. But that's what Jason Kidd does. He sees things. So, okay, Cal Rawley accepted a spot in the Home Run Derby. Does that make sense to you?
- [22:06]
Tony Kornheiser
It's great. He's leading the majors in it and apparently his dad is going to throw to him and that's going to be fun to watch. Irina Sabalenko, who you've been critical of, and Coco Gauff posted videos of them doing TikTok dances together from Wimbledon. Are you surprised at that?
- [22:20]
Mike Wilbon
Not really, because Sabalenka's bad behavior seems confined to the court and she seems completely engaging the other times I really. Caitlin Clark is out again tonight. You concerned?
- [22:33]
Tony Kornheiser
Yeah, of course I'm concerned. The second time she's been out for one reason or another. This year she's the most important player in the wnba. Last one NHL draft is tonight. What are you most excited to see?
- [22:44]
Mike Wilbon
Well, I mean, Matthew Schaefer is reported likely to go number one to the Islanders. I want to see who the Blackhawks take with the third pick. Unless they deal it. That's just me.
- [22:54]
Tony Kornheiser
I really wish that Tony Parker had said to you, you cannot be serious. That would be funny. We're out of time. We'll try to do better the next time. And I'm Tony Kornheiser.
- [23:05]
Mike Wilbon
I'm Mike Wilbon. Have a great weekend, knuckleheads.
- [23:11]
Tony Kornheiser
In 1979, the first words spoken on ESPN weren't just an announcement. If you're a fan, they were a sports prophecy. What you'll see in the next minutes, hours and days to follow.
- [23:24]
Mike Wilbon
Glad you're with us tonight. May I convince you you've gone to.
- [23:28]
Tony Kornheiser
Sports heaven and right now you're standing on the edge of tomorrow. This fall, the next era of ESPN begins sports forever.