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Pardon the interruption, but I'm Mike Wilbond. It's National Wish Fulfillment Day, Tony. Do you have any wishes you'd like fulfilled?
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I'm Tony Kornheiser. Peace on earth, good fortune for all, a big box of gourmet coffee ice cream packed in dry ice and shipped to me for free.
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Boy, that's very specific. I just want to out drive my kid again. I want to out drive him. I just want this.
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Well, that's not gonna happen. Well, that's not gonna happen. That's not even gonna happen. If you and he uses a six iron, that's gone. You cannot worry about that. It happened to me when My kid was 13 years old. Your kid's 18 years old. You have no chance. Welcome to PTI, boys and girls. In today's episode, trade offers for Giannis, a World cup opener for Lionel Messi, and five good minutes with Tim Kirchen. But we begin today with the announcement that embattled Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby will forego playing at Texas Tech this season and opt instead to apply for the NFL supplemental draft. This comes after the Big 12 announced it would seek to discipline Scoresby and Texas Tech if he played. Scoresby had won in a Texas court the right to play for the Red Raiders this season, causing an uproar in the Big 12 Conference and throughout college football. Wilbon, what does this decision say to you and what do you think it means for Sworesby's future and Texas Techs?
B
You know, Tony, I don't know what it says to me because I'm close enough to college football, the whole industry of it, to have no idea what's going on from week to week. And I defy people to really know what's going on week to week. So I'm going to get to the future of this kid, which, Tony, is like a trip back in time. It's a flashback to another time. Supplemental draft, we're talking about talking about the Walsh kid from Miami back, you know, like 30 years ago. So supplemental draft, you've got to decide blindly sort of what pick. If you want to bid on this kid, you'd like to give Up. Now, I've heard speculation about third and fourth round, but suppose you really, really want him. He's six' three, 235. A lot of people think that he was the most, the second most talented quarterback in the last draft. Had he been in it.
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Yeah.
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Do you go to A two and if you then find out later, and I don't know if the NFL ever announces that nobody else bid anything higher than a 5, do you feel like a fool because you bid a 2? How good is this kid? Supplemental draft. He's going to get the chance to play in the NFL and maybe he should like it. If nobody drafts him supplementally and he gets to be undrafted free agent, goes where he wants, that might be his best option.
C
I'm pretty sure that Bernie Kar was a supplemental. He was a supplemental as well by the Cleveland Browns. And I think it's possible somebody can get in my ear. I think maybe Steve Young came into the NFL as a supplemental draft pick. So it's been around. Let me go a different way here. I think this is the best possible outcome. All right. The Big 12 no longer has to litigate against one of its members. That member Texas Tech no longer has to be a pariah in the Big 12. And SourceBees going to walk away with the $5 million that Texas Tech has paid him. So everybody is whole and Sourcebee has a chance for a career path here. The biggest question is what will the NFL let him in cuz he bet so much money while he was in college on football. I mean, I understand that the NFL, like the NBA, like the NHL, like Major League Baseball. I understand they have gambling partners, but you may not want a guy who bet on football. My feelings that the NFL is going to look at this and say they're very happy that he's in a rehabilitation program for gambling addiction. And what they have done with other players who did not bet while they were in the NFL, they is say, hey, we're going to give you a chance here. We're not going to suspend you, we're going to warn you, we're going to monitor you, but we're going to let you in because you haven't bet in the NFL. The other thing that I think is going to happen here is I think Texas Tech will look for another conference. I think that this has been very wounding of Texas Tech and I think they may end up in the SEC or, or the ACC because they're a football school. They were in the playoffs last year. They're going to be Attractive.
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That's the gambling part of this seem wildly hypocritical to you? If the NFL does anything to this kid, if they were to suspend him even on the way in without playing game, does it? Given the relationship that you outline?
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Yes. I don't think they will.
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In gambling, I don't think.
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I don't think they will. And if you're worried that no team will want him, this is a league where Deshaun Watson got a huge contract in Cleveland. So somebody is going to want.
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I would think so, Tone. I would think so. With the actual NBA season now over, Giannis talk is back in the headlines. Mark Stein is reporting that the Heat has made an offer for the forward that includes Tyler Herro, Khalil Ware and Jaime Hawkez Jr. And Bill Simmons says he's heard the Celtics have also made a bid and that he believes Giannis will be a Celtic within the week. Tone, which of these two potential trade partners makes more sense to you?
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I mean, I don't even think this is close in terms of the basketball aspect of this. You go to Boston, it's that better landing spot is Boston. They were champions just two years ago. Jayson Tatum is coming back completely whole next year. Then they need a big man, right? They need a big man. Giannis qualifies as a big man. If you have to trade Jaylen Brown for him. And I thought Jaylen Brown was the MVP this year, but I would make the trade Jaylen brown for Giannis 100 times in a row. I would do that. Miami finished 10th last year in the East. They got knocked out of the play in. They got Bam Adebayou, and I don't really know who else that I think is any good. Adebayo scored 83 in a game last year, but it was against the Wizards. It doesn't count because they were trying to lose. The thing about this is, Mike, and you can speak to this, if Giannis, as reported, wants to go to Miami, that's where he's going to go. He's a star. He's a former mvp. He's a former champion. I mean, this is why it works out for Kevin Durant. Wherever he wants to go, it works out for James Harden. And he's not a champion. So if he wants to go to Miami, he will go.
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Yeah, Tony, you know, this is interesting to me because I don't believe in Giannis anymore. Giannis is a rumor. Giannis hadn't done jack in the months that matter, which would be May and June. So since 2021 five years is forever in professional sports. Giannis is a multiple time mvp, a great player, a Hall of Famer, and as you said, a champion. He was that I ain't seen evidence of it. Sorry. A league can now, particularly the NBA, it can pass you by. And with a ton of, of, of, of wings who are six nine, six, six' ten, sort of size, Daban and Caleb Wilson and those kids coming in the league, Giannis can look obsolete fairly quickly if he can't get his butt out there and contribute heavily, massively in May, June, and I don't know that I would not rearrange my franchise for Giannis. Tyler Herro leads his team in scoring. He's an all star. I know he's had some injury issues at times, but, but he plays more than Giannis lately and he doesn't seem to be the diva that Giannis is. So if it sounds like I'm piling on Giannis, yeah, a little bit. For a guy as a player I used to love, I love him less now because I ain't seen nothing lately. I, I don't know that I want to give up Jaylen Brown for him because Tatum has to show me that he is truly, completely healthy. And we don't know that just yet.
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Yeah, it's interesting. I'm not going to go into great detail here, but you've also just described basically the center at Philadelphia who never really plays well, that hasn't done anything in May, June. And I know you don't think that, I know you don't think that the league's passed him by. You might be right.
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It's passed him by. I love him, but it passed him by.
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He can fire coaches. He can fire coaches. He's good at that. Let's go to soccer. Argentina makes its World cup debut tonight against Algeria in Kansas City. Lionel Messi, who will turn 39 next week, is on the team and is their acknowledged leader. He led Argentina to the World cup title four years ago. Wilbon, what would a second World cup do for Messi?
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Well, for the people who already have Messi as the goat, they'll just go crazy. They'll be partying in the streets from Argentina to, you know, Norway. For the people who have that, for those of us who look at Pele's career and say, you know what? Three World Cups is a lot more than one. I understand that Pele didn't have a club career like Messi because club life and club culture didn't exist for a South American. A Brazilian like that like it existed for Messi. Different time, different people. So I understand what it does for Messi in terms of those who are already saying he's the goat. By the way, you know, Ronaldo has a chance to play like Messi in a sixth World cup. And I don't know if there's anything Ronaldo can do at this stage. Nearly as old as Messi to make up whatever ground, though he's Messi, you know, is ahead of him to catch up. But that's what it would do, Tone, plain and simple, that's what it would do for Messi.
C
To me, this makes me so happy. Because you were never a Messi guy. For years and years you were a Ronaldo guy and you're an Mbappe guy.
B
Yes. Now you're a Mbappe. Sports in game, by the way. Get to that.
C
Yeah. And the only reason you like Messi is because finally he won a World Cup. So you can stand and say that's been, I think, in the United States, if the United States team were not to win, and we don't think it's going to win, people here would be most happy if Messi won again because he's the biggest soccer star in the United States by virtue of the MLS and the pink shirts. He fills more arenas than Taylor Swift. He got 88,000 people in a football stadium at Auburn in Alabama, and they let the War Eagle go. They didn't do that for football, they did that for Messi. That was a really big deal. Now, the truth is, Mike, nobody ever list people to repeat. You're asking if Messi repeats. The last repeater was Brazil. Let me get the years 58 and 1962, and that was Pele. And so you bring Pele up because he's the goat and you compare Messi to him and you want to know now, if Messi wins a second in a row and he breaks the all time scoring record for goals in one World cup matches and he's got that club career, then it becomes very close. It becomes very close, I'll give you that.
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Let me ask you this. Mbappe just scored his second goal, two goals today. Mbappe's got 14 goals in 15 World cup games and Messi has 13. Messi has 13 at the moment in 26 games.
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26.
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Mbappe's 25 or 26. Supposing Boppe goes to like three or four World Cups, he could certainly get his second. Now, France has got to anybody, then
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what at that point, if that happens, then he becomes the standard against which Pele is measured and they do the goat thing. It's who holds the records and who's got the most World cup, don't you think? Let's take a break. Coming up, is the Miz the best starting pitcher in all of baseball? We're going to ask Tim Kirchheim.
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We'll also ask him why the once sad White Sox are winning while the Rockies are just still sad.
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Was I right about Steve Young and Bernie Kozar? Nobody got in my ear. They just said yes. The magic thing. Yes, I was right about that.
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Supplemental Mbappe, Mbappe, I know you love it. Mbappe's like Koepka. He doesn't seem to care about the regular season. Club stuff. Get me to the world.
D
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We've got some baseball questions for our great friend, ESPN baseball analyst and avocado expert, Mr. Tim Curtin. Let us start with this. What are we seeing with the Miz right now? And do you put him above the other top starters? Dominating starters in the National League like Skins and Sanchez and Ohtani and Sale?
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It's the greatest collection of Cy Young contenders that I've ever seen. And Missourowski basically has to be at the top right now, fellas, in his last eight starts, he's allowed one earned run and struck out 80. In his last start, he struck out 15 and he threw only 95 pitches. We've been charting this stuff for 26 years. No one's ever done that before and we've never seen anybody quite like this throwing this hard. He's 6, 7, he throws 104 miles an hour and the ball comes out of that arm slot that is really difficult for the pitcher, the hitter to pick up. So this guy is the best pitcher in baseball at the moment and no one has has had a good swing against him in eight starts.
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See, Tony, I told you I would take the cheese head over Skeens. I told you that a year ago and you weren't willing to listen to me. Tim.
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I was not.
B
The White Sox and Rockies have been dreadful in recent years, but the White Sox are now, you know, succeeding first place in their division while the Rockies continue to stink. What's the difference here?
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Well, when the White Sox had to rebuild, they drafted and developed very well and made some astute trades. And now they hit the ball out of the ballpark, which is how you have to play if you're going to win games. Meanwhile, the Rockies haven't drafted and developed very well and haven't signed the right people. Fellas, they have a.563 ERA that's almost three and a half runs higher than that of the Braves and it's almost a half a run higher than the next worst ERA of the Astro in Major League Baseball. It is a really bad pitching team and I used to give them the benefit of the doubt, playing in altitude, playing in that ballpark. But sorry excuses are over. They got to get way better than this if they're going to move forward.
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And you like the White Sox, don't you, Tim?
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I do. I think they're in this for the long haul. In a very ordinary American league, they can pitch. That Davis Martin guy is really good. But I repeat, when you are hitting the ball out of the ballpark, they were fourth in home runs in the major leagues as of the other day. You hit it out of the ballpark and you're a young, hungry team that's tired of losing. Watch out for that.
B
One year after the Rafael Devers trade, both the Giants and Red Sox are struggling. Do you expect significant changes with either club?
E
I think both teams are going to look at that, but I think the Giants are much more logical to make some major trades. Devers is in theory on the trade block. Matt Chapman, Willie at Adam is our buster. Only said all three of those guys are available. The question is who is going to go after those guys with all the money that is tied up in those contracts? My guess is they're going to have to pick up a lot of money if they're going to trade any of them. Even though, you know, all three of them were Are still are pretty good players. But the Giants have been shut out eight times, fellas. They just don't score runs anymore. And they're in the wrong division and the wrong league. There are 14 games under.500. They've been outscored by 56 runs this year. They're not going to the playoffs for sure.
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All right, Tim, this is a pet peeve of mine. We'll get you out of here on this. We talked about it yesterday, that ballpark in Las Vegas. The A's and their opponents hit 35 home runs. 35 over six games in Las Vegas. Will that carry forward to their new stadium when that opens in two seasons?
E
Tony, there have been eight home runs hit this year, 460ft or farther. And five of them were hit during the six game series in Las Vegas. Now, the new stadium is going to have a dome and that's going to make a big difference. But the ball is going to fly no matter what, indoors or outdoors in Las Vegas. And the A's are going to hit a ton of homers because they have great power on that team. But they had better upgrade their pitching if they're going to keep the ball in the ballpark. Even in a dome stadium.
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Yeah, I mean, it's a launching pad. It's a launching pad. Thank you, Tim.
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Thanks, Tim. Appreciate it.
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Thank you, Michael. Thank you, Tony.
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Let's take one last break. But still to come, the Golden Knights decide whether or not to keep torts.
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And Tunisia has played only one game, but it's already seen enough of its manager. Tony. I told you, when you're way above sea level, when you get to stuff, you know, in Arizona and in Nevada, you know you're going to have stuff lying around.
C
Happy time, people. Happy 68th birthday, Darrell Griffith. Griffith was a more dominant player in college than in the NBA. He led Louisville to the national championship in 1980 when he was nicknamed Dr. Dunkenstein. Griffith was the second overall draft pick and went to Utah where he played his entire 10 year NBA. He was rookie of the year averaging 20.6 points per game. Griffith was a better three point shooter than anyone nicknamed Dr. Dunkenstein figured to be. He led the NBA in three pointers. Made twice in 1984 and 1985. Wow. Griffith's 91 threes in 1994 and his 92 threes in 1995 were NBA records in the pre step era. Over the length of his career, Griffith averaged 16.2 points per game.
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Yeah. He led a victory over Luke Olson's Iowa squad. Back then with my homies, Kenny Arnold and Ronnie Lester. Painful loss back there, but it was great watching Daryl Griffin, wasn't it, Tom?
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Yeah, he was a very exciting player. He, you know, he jumped out of the building. Come on, everybody loved it. Happy anniversary. Derek Lee and Chris Young on this day 19 years ago, after Padres pitcher Young plunked Lee with a heater underneath his chin, the duo exchanged actual punches before Cubs manager Lou Piniella attempted to break up the fight, leading to a bench clearing brawl. In 2025, Lee was inducted into the Cubs hall of Fame. He was a lifetime.281 hitter with 331 home runs over 15 big league seasons. Lee won a batting title with the Cubs in 2005, hitting.335. The 6 foot 10 young, who was Ivy League rookie of the year at Princeton in both baseball and basketball, went 7967 with a.395 ERA over 13 big league seasons. He's now president of the Texas Rangers and built the Rangers World series champions in 2023.
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Thankfully, I don't think either one of those big punches landed from those guys. D. Lee, not small himself, wasn't six'10, but I think he was about six'5. One of my 10 to 12 favorite cubs of all time. D. Lee, very underrated career in Chicago. Yes, absolutely.
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Really? So he's ahead of Kyle Tucker for you. Happy trails to Tunisia's manager. The wonderfully named Eagles of Carthage fired Sabri Lamucci after losing to Sweden in the World cup opener five to one. Sweden entered the tournament as the 38th ranked team in the world, while Tunisia was formerly 45th. Tunisian media reported that several physical altercations broke out in the team's camp afterward, leading to the firing. Tunisia has done this before, firing its manager two losses into the 1998 World Cup. Tunisia now faces Japan and the Netherlands in group play, both of whom are ranked substantially higher than Sweden.
B
Who's running that Tunisia outfit? Lou lamarillo just dump people, right? You know, in the playoffs. Is they in the postseason? What I don't like, I don't like
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their chances of getting out of group. Let's go to the big finish. Your boy Pete Crow Armstrong hit for the cycle in a Cubs win yesterday. Is he coming around?
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He.
B
He'll be fine if he can pitch and. And do that the rest of the year. I mean, you know, anything's possible. The Vegas Golden Knights won't be bringing towards back next season.
C
Wow.
B
You've got to be surprised too.
C
What he took them to the Stanley cup final what, man? Venus and Serena will play doubles together at Wimbledon. Is that significant?
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Every day we talk about this. I tell you what, this is going to wind up for Serena. You know, there's one wild card spot apparently left for Wimbledon. That seems a little early, but at some point. Cal Raleigh returns for the Mariners tonight. Is that a big deal?
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Hasn't played since May 14. Hit 60 home runs. Last year was the story of baseball. Yeah. Last one. Cam Jordan finalizing a one year deal with the Saints. Is that all right with you?
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It is. It would have been better if he'd wandered straight north and played for his former coach who happens to be in Chicago. But that's for another goal. Good thing we're out of time.
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We will try to do better the next time. And I am Tony Kornheim.
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I'm Mike Wilbon. Same time tomorrow, knuckleheads.
Date: June 16, 2026
Hosts: Tony Kornheiser & Michael Wilbon
Special Guest: Tim Kurkjian
In this lively episode, Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon tackle breaking news around Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby's decision to enter the NFL supplemental draft, the fallout for Texas Tech and the Big 12, and the broader implications for college football and gambling policy. The co-hosts also debate blockbuster NBA trade rumors centered on Giannis Antetokounmpo, preview Lionel Messi’s World Cup run, and welcome ESPN baseball analyst Tim Kurkjian for in-depth MLB discussion.
[00:56 - 04:46]
[05:11 - 08:33]
[08:33 - 11:39]
[13:26 - 18:07]
Straight-shooting, witty banter, ribbing between hosts, sports history lessons, and quick pivots between sports headlines. Regular dives into context, precedent, and the human element, with both hosts confidently disagreeing while respecting each other's perspectives.
Summary prepared for listeners seeking all key takeaways, quotations, and storylines without missing a beat from this episode’s spirited PTI conversation.