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Pardon the interruption, but I'm Mike Wilbon. I was in Madison Square Garden, the world's most famous arena, for a huge win by your Knickerbockers last night. Tony, don't you wish you were there?
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Tony kornheiser, let's be real. I would have left after the third quarter, just like I did at home with the tv.
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At the end of the third quarter,
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I said, okay, the game's over. Yeah, I would have missed it.
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You wouldn't have been alone. There were people who left the Garden last or late in the third to go to work today. Get some sleep.
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I can imagine. Welcome to pti, boys and girls. In today's episode, Jason Kidd is out, the Big Ten is a fan of a 2014 playoff, and Kendrick Perkins joins us for five good minutes. But we begin today with the Cleveland Cavaliers blowing a 22 point lead about halfway through the fourth quarter and losing to the Knicks in Madison Square Garden last night in overtime. 115, 104. Wilbon, you were there. You watched it. The Knicks outscored Cleveland 44 to 11 from the time that the lead reached 22. Did the Knicks win this game or did the Cavaliers lose it?
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Tony yeah, ultimately the Knicks won it and Jalen Brunson was great, but the Cavaliers choked like few teams have ever choked in the playoffs. And Kenny Atkinson, their coach, was the captain of that choke because at the middle, at the crux of that was 18 to one run, which took minutes. And with four timeouts available at the beginning of that run, four timeouts. Two of them are going to disappear at the three minute mark if you don't use them. Kenny Atkinson sat on his hands and did not call time. Basket after basket after basket to the point that the Knicks players are like wondering, literally, I'm serious now. They're wondering, okay, he's going to call time. We're not going to get back. Oh, wait. Okay, he's going to call time now. Oh, wait. And this went on and on and on. He's got a tired team that came out of a game seven. So he doesn't help them with their fatigue by not calling timeout. He doesn't get James Harden away from a guy who's torching him, okay. In Jalen Brunson. And he doesn't help Donovan Mitchell get the ball because he's stationary, walking up the right side of the court and standing in the corner. So there are four reasons you have to call timeout. He didn't think any of them were valid and then said afterward, well, I'd like to hold on to my timeouts. Unbelievable. The coaches always say I want to put my players in position. He put his. Put his players in position to fail miserably. And he's been a good coach. A good coach. But not last night.
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Yeah, you know me a long time. You know that I don't have much respect for game ones. The least respect in a, in a seven game series for game one. Because I think that that is a result that can be reversed. I think you have a lot of time. I'm not sure there's a lot of time left in this series. I'm really not. You cannot lose this game if you're Cleveland. You cannot blow a 22 point lead almost midway into the fourth quarter. In the history of the playoffs in the NBA, in the last 30 years, any team that has trailed by as much as 22 points at any point in the fourth quarter, not halfway through, at any point, the record is 1 and 594. Let me repeat that 1 in 594. Mike Cleveland has to win a game at the Garden. If they're gonna win the series, they have to do that. This was it. They were handed a golden ticket and they failed to cash it. A lot of people are gonna talk about the comeback from the Knicks. It was a great comeback. I'll just take about 10 more seconds. It was a great comeback. They talk about Brunson torching James Harden. That's all true. All the shots they made. It's all true. And they now won eight in a row. Okay, Knicks did not win that game last night. Cleveland lost that game last night. And under the what you were talking about with the calling of timeouts, I had Tim Legler on my podcast this morning. Tim Legler said this. You go home after a game, you take the change out of your pocket. You take the bills out of your pocket, you better not have two timeouts in your pocket. You better not have that.
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Legler called the game. He knew it last night. I talked to him. People, we were in disbelief. Standing on the garden floor, Tony, surrounded by the great Knicks of all time. Your friend Walt, Clyde Frazier, Patrick Ewing, all these guys, they're all there. Grandma Ma, Lara Johnson. And no one can believe what they saw. The Knicks were great, but Cleveland let them in. Cleveland opened the door and said, why don't you come in, come in, take a game, have a game. Let's turn now to Jason Kidd being out as head coach of the Dallas Mavericks. The team is calling Kidd's departure, quote, a mutual decision. Also outer interim GM Matt Riccardi and several other front office members as Dallas new team president Masayu Jiri settles into place. Kidd led the Mavericks to the NBA Finals in 2024 just two years ago and presided on over the Mavs rebuild with Cooper Flack this season after fire GM Nico Harrison's jaw dropping decision to trade Luka Doncic. Tone, does this move make sense to you for both sides?
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I have no idea, Mike. If it makes sense, you got to wait on that. You got to wait two to three years when this rebuild is finished. You just don't know that. Now what I am absolutely sure of is that this was not necessary. It was not necessary to fire Jason Kidd. It was not necessary to hire Masayo Jiri. It all comes from the dumbest trade of all time, as you referred to when Nico Harrison trades away Luka Doncic less than a year after Luka Doncic had led them to the NBA finals, coached by Jason Kidd. Now here's how dumb that trade is. Because when you get done with everything that's happened since trading him for Anthony Davis who barely played at all in Dallas. Now that trade, Anthony Davis is on the tanking Wizards. Now that trade is Luka Doncic, a perennial all star for Marvin Bagley, I believe a couple other players who you don't even know and draft choices down the road. That's why Nico Harrison got fired and that's why he'll Never get a job again. Simple.
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Tony. You know, here's why it makes sense for both sides. Masaya Jiri. Who?
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Owner.
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The owner wants to bring in a new president of OPPs. Of course. Yes. To replace Nico Harrison. Masaya Jiri built a championship roster in Canada in Toronto 2019. And on the way out, when he left Toronto last year, he didn't leave the covered bear. Toronto without tanking is already back in the playoffs. All right. Went to a game seven, right. And they got good young players led by Scotty Barnes, and they're going to contend. And Messiah Jiri will have been responsible for that signature too. So you bring Messiah in to do that in Dallas. Right. Jason Kidd doesn't want to wait three or four years to be in contention again. You just, you just outlined it. He just did that. He can go somewhere else, maybe Orlando, where they can contend. And so Jason Kidd can take his 40 mil and go contend somewhere while Masai builds.
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That's right.
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A new roster in doubt. That part does make sense. Now, your point is, right? How's it going to turn out? We don't know. It's going to take a while. It ain't tomorrow. Ain't tomorrow.
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Jason Kidd had no chance there when new Jerry came in. Because Jason Kidd wanted to be part of management, he had no chance. That's had to happen. Let's move to the college football playoffs. The commissioner of the Big Ten, Tony Petiti, has made it clear that his conference has no interest in pursuing a 16 team playoff. Petiti says the SEC wants 16 and the Big Ten wants, wait for it, 24. Petiti thinks 16 teams is not sufficient to grant access to the playoffs for enough of his 18 Big Ten teams. And he says it doesn't create enough money to offset the loss of conference championship games. Wilbot, he's your Big Ten boy. Does his logic persuade you?
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No. And I am in major conflict here. Let me just explain it quickly. This measure that the Big Ten is strongly in favor for and pushing would basically allow almost all the Big Ten teams over some point for the last few years to have been in the playoffs, including my Northwestern Wildcats twice, 20, 18 and 24. I believe we would have been in the playoff. How can I be against that as a trustee of that university, who's a group charged with the overseeing of the university and its health, including financial health. All right, now there's that, but I hate this. I don't want to see anything with 24 teams. And I was a guy pressing for a football playoff 20 years ago. Eight is enough. 12 is too many. 16 is way too many. 24 is otherworldly and I hate it. And nothing will persuade me. Maybe I'll get fired. Maybe I'll be banned from campus. Nothing will persuade me to want to want to have that.
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24 is completely insane. Does the Big Ten understand that this is not basketball. This is football. You cannot complete two rounds of a football tournament in the same weekend like you can in basketball. I mean, you just can't. What are they going to do with 24? Are they going to have play in games in Dayton? The winner, if my math is correct, would have to win four, five games. It'll take a month and a half, two months. We won't have a college champion till like the night before the Super Bowl. So it's completely crazy. I agree with you about eight. And I'm wondering how they're going to sell it. You try to sell it by saying, okay, we're going to include a lot of small teams. James Madison will get into the playoffs. But that's not what they're not. The Big Ten doesn't want James Madison. They want Minnesota and Iowa and, God help us, Maryland. So, like, where's it gonna stop now? Cause the bell rang and it's too insane to go further. Let's take a break. But it's gonna happen. It may happen. Yes. Oh, I don't know. What's the Thunder's best defense against Victor Wembanyama? We're gonna ask Kendrick Perkins.
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Perk. We're also gonna ask him why SGA struggled so desperately in game one. Tony, I'm speaking against my own interests.
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I understand 24. It's just I never saw that coming.
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I didn't see regular season gonna be six games a six game regular season.
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Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals is tonight, which makes it a perfect time for a visit from our great friend from NBA Today, ESPN NBA analyst Kendrick Perkins. Let's start with this. You played center in the NBA. This is a simple one. What are you seeing when you watch Victor Wembanyama?
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I'm saying dominance. I'm seeing greatness. And guess what Tony? In the next 30, 30 years from now we're going to be sitting up here having a goat debate and it's going to be Wimby, Jordan and LeBron in no particular order. That's how great he is already. And guess what? He's just getting started. This league belongs to Victor Wembiamba. For the first time since I've been watching SGA play the game of basketball. The first time I looked at him after the game in his post game interview and I saw concern all over his face. And that's because Wemby went into the arena and snatched the souls out of the NBA champions and he let them know about it. He's going to continue to let them know about it. The hatred that he has for them and others that doesn't have on the San Antonio spurs jersey makes it everything and more
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perkal. But we're going to continue on Wemby for a second because I want to ask you specifically about trying to defend him. You played a lot of great defense in this league. You had to guard a lot of great big men. The Thunder tried everything. What the hell do you try next? What do you think might slow him down enough to win a game?
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Are we sure they tried everything? I saw Alex Caruso, Gordon Wemby. I saw J Dub Garden, Wemby. I saw Luke Dortz at time. Gordon Wemby. I didn't see Chet Holmgreg, Gordon Wemby and I thought it was beef there. I thought they both wanted to make hamburgers. But to me it seemed like that Chet Holmgren was ducking smoke and you cannot allow Wemby to come into your home and do what he did in Game one and not respond in game Two, and I don't want to hear about the game plan is for Chet to be a help side defender. No, I don't want to hear that because when I played with the Celtics, it was times where Paul Pierce came in the timeout, in the huddle and said, Tony Allen, sit back. I got Braun. I got Kobe Bryant. It was times where I was playing with Kevin Durant and Kevin Durant told Tabo Cephalocha, no, I got Braun. This is the moment for Chet to take that rise and say I'm taking it personal. Because news flash chat, if he's saying this, the man don't like you. Matter of fact, he hates you and you need to understand and have that same hatred towards him and protect your damn house. I need to see chet Holmgren at 71 defend Victor Wembiamba. I'm not saying he's going to stop him, but damn it, at least try and match up with him.
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I love this. I love this. All right, let's go back to SGA who you mentioned already. He had a terrible shooting. 97 for 23. Was he just off perk or San Antonio's defense? And I know they got a great guard rotation defensively. Did that defense throw the two time MVP off his game?
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It is.
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It is. It's the defense of the San Antonio Spurs. And guess what? Because of the dominance and how great Wimby is defensively, their perimeter defenders get overlooked when you look at their size and athleticism, right? We're talking about Dylan Harper, 6 5, right? Shampoo, he's 666 7. Keldon Johnson, big wing. All of those guys can slide their puppies and move their feet and all of them have that dog in the dog in them. And let me not forget Stephon Castle. So when you have guys that are willing to take on the challenge and you have a defensive anchor like Victor, Wimba, Yamba, it allows those guys to put so much pressure on a guy like sga. And it's hard because they could take his physical push off, you know, his little nudge for him to get separation. And now those shots are a lot harder. In order to get SGA going, the Thunder are going to have to get out in transition, force turnovers and get SGA out in transition so he could get easier looks.
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Let's shift to last night for a second. The Knicks came way back from way back to D, Cleveland. Like this is an amazing situation. Let me phrase this question as best I can.
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What the heck happened? What you mean what happened, Tony? They folded like Clean sheets. Same series. No, different series, same story. When you talking about, and I'm speaking about James Harden, more turnovers than more made field goals, Defensive liability. But yet Kenny Atkinson sits over there and takes all his timeouts home and doesn't make a decision that's best for the team. I would have said James Harden down last night, the way that Jalen Brunson was picking on him in the fourth quarter and in overtime, 7 for 8, Jalen Brunson went when James Harden was guarding them. At some point, Kenny, you gotta do what's best for the team. You have Dennis Schroeder over there. You have D. Wade over there. You have all of these guys and options that you could have put on the floor. And also having James Harden on the floor, guess who it took away from Donovan Mitchell. How many times last night did we see Donovan Mitchell standing in the corner? Offensively, Kenny Atkinson has to get out of this love fest that he has with James Harden. I don't know if it's because they verbally agreed to give him a contract extension after this season, and it's coming from the top that he has to be on the floor, but his last three games has been horrible to the point that you're putting it. You're keeping them on the floor, and it's hurting the team.
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This is why you're on this show, Coach Perk. This is why we love you, Coach Perk. Thank you.
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I love y', all, too. Thank you.
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See you soon, my brother.
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Let's take one last break. Still to come, James Wood accomplishes something you rarely see in baseball. And I saw it last night. I did.
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Ugh. And the Cubs surrender first place in the NL Central. I told you that. I knew this was going to happen. I don't want to talk about it.
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Happy time people. Happy 84th birthday. Leroy Kelly History lesson kids. Kelly is a Hall of Fame running back. He was an 8th round draft pick out of Morgan State in 1964. Fortunately for Kelly, the Cleveland Browns took him and he got to learn the position behind the greatest running back of all time, Jim Brown. Kelly took over from Brown when Brown left football to become an actor. Kelly led the NFL in rushing yards twice and in rushing touchdowns three times. He was first team all Pro three times and he went to six Pro Bowls. Kelly was on Cleveland's NFL championship team in 1964. That's the last time they won a championship. Cleveland remains one of four NFL teams that have never reached the Super Bowl.
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Tony was pretty cool when I was in March in Morgan State's gym in Baltimore and there hanging is the banner jersey commemorating Leroy Kelly. It's very exciting to see that all these years later and know that he went to Morgan State. What a great backing guy he is. Happy Birthday.
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Happy Anniversary Indiana Pacers on this day 54 years ago, the Pacers closed out the final series by beating The New York nets108,105 to win their second of three ABA championships. This was four years before the merger. That Nets team featured Rick Barry, who was the ABA's biggest catch, having been an All Star in the NBA before jumping to the ABA. Those nets also had Billy Paul, John Roesch, Bill Melchione, Trooper, Washington and Ali Taylor. The Pacers had Roger Brown, Mel Daniels, Freddie Lewis, Rick Mount and a terrific rookie, George McGinnis. I was at that gate working for Newsday. The Pacers and the Nets entered the NBA in 1976 and neither team has won a title yet. The other entering ABA teams, Denver and San Antonio, both have quickly another Pacers anniversary.
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364 years ago, the Pacers came back from 14 down with less than three minutes to play and beat the Knicks in the Garden in ot. I'm just saying. Wow. One year.
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Happy trails to hitting a grand slam the easy way for James Wood. The Nationals outfielder hit one the hard way. In the second inning of last night's game against the Mets, Wood launched a fly ball to the opposite field as he often does that carom off the heel of the glove of left fielder Nick Morabito. Wood rounded the bases and beat the throw home handily with a beautiful head first slide. Something you don't see often from someone who is six' six. The grand slam cut the Mets lead to one in a game the Gnats ended up going on to win 9.
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6.
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There was another inside the Parker of sorts last night as Diamondbacks outfielder Corbin Carroll legged out a triple but took a relay throw off his bare noggin while sliding in. Corbin quickly got up, scampered home, but was officially scored a triple and an error.
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I want to go back to Morbido and James Wood. Morbido went to Gonzaga High School in Washington, dc. James Wood, who hit the home run, went to his blood rival, St. John's in Washington D.C. tony, you know this is major conflict in the nation's capital. How cool was that?
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But they don't talk to each other. No, no, no. Those people from those schools don't talk to each other.
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That's right.
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Let's go to the big finish. The brewers beat the Cubs, first place in the NL Central. Your thoughts, Mr. Cub?
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The Miz is unhittable. But more importantly, the Cubs are in trouble. I told you this. You asked me going into the series, are you confident? And I said, oh no, I'm terrified. Now you know why Aaron Rodgers says, thank God, this will be his final season. Are you surprised?
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Yeah. What if he has a great year? What if he does? Southampton got booted from the Championship League final for spying on multiple opponents. That's a big deal, right?
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Yes, it's huge. They had a chance to get promoted into the Premier League. That soccer heaven. Now they blew it. Ben Simmons sport fishing team what Won the Blue Marlin Open in the Bahamas. Are you impressed with that?
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Yeah. Maybe he's better at that than the NBA surprises me. Last one. Golden Knights in Avalanche, Game one tonight. Who he got.
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PK Subban has convinced me the Golden Knights could possibly play good enough defense to slow down the Avalanche. I'll take them. The Golden Knights in game one.
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We're out of time. We will try to do better the next time. And I'm Tony Kornheiser.
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And I'm Mike Wilbon. Same time tomorrow, Knuckleheads.
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This is what everyone's talking about.
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Everything's on the table.
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This. This is what champions come to take. This is what everyone came to see. No do overs. No second chances. No more Mr. Nice Guy. This is winner take all. And it's all happening now on the home of the NBA Finals. Don't miss it. June 3rd on ABC and the ESPN applause.
Hosts: Tony Kornheiser & Michael Wilbon
Guest: Kendrick Perkins
Air Date: May 20, 2026
This episode of PTI spotlights the New York Knicks’ dramatic overtime comeback against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Playoffs, a game Wilbon witnessed firsthand at Madison Square Garden. Kornheiser and Wilbon debate whether the win was a heroic Knicks effort or an epic Cavaliers collapse, dive into the firings and front-office shakeups for the Dallas Mavericks, and discuss college football playoff expansion. Kendrick Perkins joins for "Five Good Minutes" to break down Victor Wembanyama’s ongoing dominance, the Thunder’s struggles, and the Cavaliers’ meltdown.
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This episode captured the emotional highs and lows of sports—from Knicks fans’ ecstasy to Cavaliers’ unraveling, plus the unpredictable world of coaching and league politics. Perkins provided both spicy critique and memorable metaphors, particularly on Wembanyama’s historical impact and Holmgren’s moment of truth. Wilbon and Kornheiser maintained their playful, incisive banter throughout on topics both momentous and mundane.
For listeners: