PTI - Bucks Cut Lillard, Sign Myles Turner

Episode Date: July 1, 2025

Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser discuss the Milwaukee Bucks, Wimbledon, and NBA Free Agency. Plus, Brian Windhorst joins the show to break down the latest in the NBA! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, sports fans, the ESPN app has all of ESPN all in one place. The ESPN app is your home to thousands of live events, ESPN shows, and originals across every ESPN network and service. And now you can check if you already have ESPN Unlimited as part of your TV package for no additional calls. Visit activate.esPN.com to learn how to access your account or sign up, then start streaming in the ESPN app. It's all of ESPN all in one place. Sign up or activate now. Pardon the interruption, but I'm Mike Wilbon, the second half of the year. Starts today, Tony. You're making any half-time adjustments?

I'm Tony Kornheiser. Less glad, more mad, just like you lately. More mad. Good. Seems to work for you. Right? I'm going to be mad all the time, too. Follow suit.

That's good. Who made the best second half adjustments ever? Ever. Richie Pettibone. The best second half. adjustments of a coach ever. I was going to say Joe Gibbs. I was going to say Joe Gibbs, but that's the same thing. That's the same thing. PTA bone. Welcome to PTABone, boys and girls. In today's episode, huge upsets of Wimbledon.

Two unusual home runs for Willioreau. And Brian Windhorst joins us for five good minutes. But we begin today with a couple of huge moves by the Milwaukee Bucks. And neither of them contains Janus Anta Tocoupo directly. The Bucks waived their star acquisition from a couple of years ago, Damian Lillard, who likely is not going to play this coming season anyway because of a torn Achilles. With the money they saved by ditching Lillard, the Bucks then signed 611 Miles Turner away from the Indiana Pacers.

Wilbon, what does this do for the Bucs, and where does it leave the Pacers? Man, I'm going to start with the Pacers since they just play for the championship. Wow. I mean, losing Turner like this to a division rival. I mean, this is, this hurts, Tony. And they're like the Celtics now,

in that their best player is out for maybe the whole season, or certainly most of it, and then they lose a big part. You can argue the second best player or their second most important player. So the Pacers have to, I mean, next year, we don't know what the Pacers are going to be. We're going to skip a year with them,

but let's go to Milwaukee, which is, you know, going to catch most of the conversation. Chris Haynes, who's reporting for Turner and NBA TV and who talks to Yannis directly, is reporting today, like right now. that Janus is less than thrilled about this. Now, we don't know if that means that specifically Janus is less than thrilled about losing Dame Lillard,

or he just doesn't think that this is enough to keep him in contention. He and LeBron are the players who are looking at this point of their lives, even though Janus is, God, almost 10 years younger than LeBron, to still prime of their careers, are, am I going to be close? Am I going to be playing for a team this is any good?

Here's what Milwaukee's lost since Janus won a chance. championship in 21. Drew Holiday gone. Brooke Lopez as of yesterday gone. Chris Middleton, gone. And even DeVincenzo gone. Pat Connitton, who came off the bench, gone. So Janus is there with Bobby Portis, but I don't know that that's going to contend with the Knicks and Cleveland and maybe Orlando. So Janus is maybe in the spot. He's got some time to figure it out, but it leaves him wondering. All right. So I'm going to agree with you right down the line on Indiana. They now have two of their best three players from last year are not going to play with them this year. So they fall back into the pile.

It's as simple as that. They fall back into the pile. I don't know about the Milwaukee deal. It would seem to me that the subtext here is that the bucks either are or should be trying to do everything they can to make Janus Anta Tocompo happy. I would assume that Miles Turner, if he thought Janus was leaving, would not sign with that team. Why would he go to a lesser team

than he just played with for the NBA championship? I will grant you that it's a stunner that they got rid of Damien Lillard. I certainly grant you that. And again, I would say, do you not think they ran this by Janus Anto DiCompo? If they were supposed to be one and two

on a championship-type team, don't they have to talk to Janus about this? Now, look, I think that Lillard, he's going to keep all his money, but I do think he's basically been treated like a piece of meat, expensive meat, but a piece of meat. The two years that he was there were a total waste of time for him. A total waste of time. They had two first-round exits in the playlists.

When he comes back, he's going to be 36 years old, and it's going to be a long way from stardom. So it's just, again, Mike, I've got to feel, if they don't make every move with keeping Janus in mind, then what are they doing? I tell you, you wonder. And that's why the Chris Haynes reporting is important to say

that Janus is less than thrilled, which doesn't mean he's unhappy and he might have time to digest it. Dane can, by the way, when he does come back, go play with somebody where there is stardom, because he will get the $100 plus million dollars because the Bucks did that, which is a wow. That's a historic payout for a guy you're saying goodbye to who you thought was going to tag team with your story.

star, Yannis, and get back to the championship round and it didn't happen, didn't come close. Wow. Man. And we're going to continue with some stunners, tone. A rash of first round stunners at Wimbledon today. French Open champ and second-seeded Cocoa golf lost in straits to Ukraine's Diana Yistrimska. Third-seeded Jess Pagula. Out.

On the men's side. Third-seeded Alexander Zverev. Out. In fact, 12 of the 32-seeded men out already, most ever. So what are you making of all this? All right. So this just happened within the last couple of hours. So I'm going to consult my notes that I took every once in a while and look down on them.

You like to use the words, Mike, overrated and overstated. You say it all the time. I think it's possible that could apply to Cocoa Gough right now. It was still a young woman who has not hit them. top the apex of her career. I know she just won a French, and I know she won a U.S. Open, but Mike, you covered a lot of tennis. A first round bounce, that doesn't happen to the greatest of the players out there. Not a first round bounce at Wimbledon, the most important tournament, and everybody sort of understands that. The truly greats, at least state, look at Alcarat's

the other day, pushed to five, but he won it in five. Pushed, but he won. You always tell me that that people are being anointed as the next Tiger Woods. You said, hold on on McElroy, hold on Speeth. You've said, hold on on Sheffler. I think you're right about that. I'm wondering if people aren't looking to anoint the next Serena Williams, because she's the greatest American female tennis player that we've seen in a long time. And I don't know is Cocoa Gough right on that?

Because God knows there's no next Pete Sampras with the American men. Nobody's talking about that. So I'm just getting to the fact, Mike, that as great as Cocoa Gough might be, perhaps we are pushing too hard with Coco Gough. Tone, that's an interesting point. I had not thought of that. And probably fair,

because when you look at age now and she has won those two major, those two slams, it's like, okay, there's still some growth. And to be fair, she has some time to have that growth. What's the rush? But, Tone, I'm going to go in a different way

while I'm not disagreeing with you. I think, and you mentioned golf, I think golf and tennis are, similar this way. There are so many great players across the globe that you can just lose. You can find great players to pop up even if they're not great. They're talented enough to force their way in and beat even the greats once. They may not be able to stay with them. It may not be sustainable for a year or three years or over a career. But there are just so many talented young people playing goals.

golf and tennis, I don't know. Maybe these things shouldn't be considered upset because the opponents, the peers are so well trained, so well school, so well coached. And you're looking at these global sports. Maybe that's it. Tony, we got the U.S. Open coming after this. We can pay attention and see what's going to happen there too. And often we haven't heard of the really young ones.

Like the kid who won to golf the other day, pot-geeter. Good point. Great point. The kid's a South Africa. 20-year-old kid, won a PJ tournament. Let's go to baseball. Red Sox right-fielder, Williour Abrae, became the first player since Roger Maris in 1958 to hit both a Grand Slam and an inside-the-park home run in the same game.

The Red Sox won 13-6, by the way, which is a big deal in Boston because the Red Sox are under 500. Wilbon, which is the bigger deal here, the Grand Slam or the Inside the Park Home run? Well, the inside the park home run is the greater curiosity. And now you see so many grand slams. I remember growing up as a kid where people talked about, you know, Garrig had a certain number of grand slams. I want to say 24, but that's probably wrong. But like if you had six or seven grand slams, it was a big deal.

Now it's like it seems like everybody's got at least a dozen. So the inside the park home run is the curiosity. And it's because ballparks are pretty much, symmetrical. Yeah, you got some places out there with a curious center field like in Houston where you had to go up a ramp

for a few years and some weird stuff like that. But ballparks are now, you don't look at them and go, wow, there's no 440-foot center field like whatever it was. Was that, Ebbott, you would know better than me that had these huge pologrounds.

Okay, you don't have that. Yeah. So if you get it inside the park home run, you got to have a ball in Karam in a way that allows you to get around the bases, you know, unless you're Carl Lewis. So I'm going to say the inside the park home run. Okay, so a couple of numbers here to put this in perspective.

In 2024, the most recently completed season, 131 grand slams. It's a lot of grand slams. Eight inside the park home runs. Eight. So one is a lot more common than the other. In the context of a baseball game, a grand slam is a bigger deal because it's four runs.

But in the context of rarity, in the context of aesthetics, inside the park home runs are fabulous to watch. It's like this great race is going on. You've got to track down the ball. You've got to make at least two relays. Often you're going home with it. Wireless guy is running around the bases. It's beat the clock.

It's the most fun of all. And in a place like Fenway, which is an architectural, it's an asymmetrical place. as the ball rolls around in corners, it's just more fun. You're right. We agree on this. It's just more fun. Let's take a break. Coming up, what do the Nuggets moves and free agencies say about their plan?

We will ask Brian Windhorst. We'll also ask them about the new extension that will end up earning Jay Gilgis, Alexander, more than $70 million a year. And by the way, Garrick had 23. I got to tell you this, Mike. 23 for Gary. I got to tell you this. When I first heard.

about this with Maris in 1958, I thought it was 5, 5, 5, 5, 5.5. But baseball stats matter. Let's dig back into more NBA news with our great friend NBA senior writer, host of the Hoop Collective podcast, Mr. Brian Wynthorce. Brian, let's start with this. The Denver Nuggets traded Michael Porter Jr. to the nets for Cam Johnson. And they also brought back Bruce Brown. What does this say to you about what the Denver Nuggets are trying to do? They are addressing their depth problems. After a couple years of really being too shallow and losing in two seven game series, they are finally taking it seriously.

This trade, Cam Johnson and Michael Porter Jr. are comparable players. You could talk to 10 different executives. You could get five that like one, five like the other. Cam is known as a little bit better of a defender, maybe a little slightly better ball handler. Porter is a little bit better shooter, a little bit more high. He has a little higher ceiling in terms of scoring. But the big thing was the reason that the Nuggets put a first one, Brown picking this deal is it saved $34 million off of the Nuggets books the next two years.

And so the question became, did they do this deal to save the $34 million or did they do this deal to make room to add more players? And I wasn't sure which one it was going to be because the Kronki family, the owners of the Nuggets, have made moves like this before you save money. Well, in the last 12, 14 hours, they've added three other players. You mentioned Bruce Brown from their 2023 championship team. They made a trade and took on five extra million dollars for Jonas Fallon Shunas to truly get Yokets a backup. I don't want to overreact by the backup center, but he didn't have one. And then today they signed Tim Hardaway Jr., a shooter.

So they are actively trying to help the depth, and that would be really helpful to go to Nicola Yokic with a contract extension offer, which they're going to this summer, saying, Nikola, look what we have done to help get you backup. Wow. We can't talk about anybody in the Western Conference very long, and we're going to stay there without. getting to the Lakers and LeBron and opting in Brian maybe not the big splash and other teams foes in the West

are making but what do you make of LeBron opting in? Well it was his only reasonable choice and I think reasonable is the important word there like yes he could have bypassed this option and gone and signed with Cleveland or whomever but it's not reasonable to leave

$53 million on the table I don't care how much money he has that's not a reasonable decision. And asking for a trade is, I mean, it's not impossible, and I guess it could still happen, but it's not really reasonable. He has a no trade clause, and it's very hard to make that work. I won't say that's impossible. I guess it could happen. So he made the reasonable decision, and then he did something that he's been doing almost like clockwork for years, which is apply pressure to the Lakers organization. The reason this is different is because he's now in a last year of his contract, which he has never been in his career. In 23 years, guys, he's never been in a

situation where he's on the last year of his contract. It's a new experience. And so for the first time in 23 years, he is also not the franchise player where the team makes decisions all around him. So it is a new experience for him. He has got something he's trying to get accomplished. I'd be lying to you if I could tell you I knew exactly what he was doing. But I think the key is here. He wants to see the Lakers invest in this season. And if he feels that that's the case, I think he'll be fine. If it's not, I guess we should all stay tuned. Well, Brian, if the Lakers don't, they could get knocked down or wrong. We'd started with Denver and what they've done.

How about San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston, and the arms race they seem to be in? That's part of this whole context in the West. What do you make of what's happening in Texas? What's so remarkable about what they're doing is that they're all young. They've built their teams through youth. Yes, Kevin Durant is in his 30s and they're going that way. Yes, Kyrie Irving is in his 30s, et cetera. But the Houston has built this through the draft.

San Antonio has built this through the draft. They've got a shot to having three consecutive rookies of the year. And now the reason there's so much excitement in Dallas is because of the Cooper flag draft. And so the reason that Texas is so interesting is that they're not super teams that were constructed on the fly. They are teams that are being grown organically. Dallas may have fallen backwards into that by hitting the lottery with a 1.8% chance. But that's why this is exciting. And by the way, the team that just won the championship,

was built organically, and the Pacers who've lost the championship were largely built organically. This is the way forward, and I could see this being the beginning of a long rivalry between these teams. We will get you out of here on this, Brian. You mentioned LeBron opting in for somewhere a little bit north of $50 million. I got a number here you're going to love. Sheikh Yuljus Alexander has agreed to a four-year supermax extension that will end up paying him nearly, wait for it, $80 million in the final year. How high are these basketball salaries going at the top moving forward? So I believe by the end of this decade, there will be a player who has $100 million on his contract,

not necessarily that he's earning it, but that it'll be, he'll sign late in this decade, and by the end of his contract, it'll be $100 million. And the reason I can say that with a good assurance is that the media rights deal is for 11 years, and it's for $77 billion, and it's $77 billion, and it's $1,000. and it's going to keep going up. The salary cap went up 10% last year. It's going to go up 10% this year. Next year they're projecting 7%

and it could be 7 to 10% the year after that into the foreseeable future. And there's still only 15 guys on the team. Still only 15 players. The media rights are going way up. There's the same number of players. So the $100 million number is coming. And I'll never forget this.

When I entered the NBA, my first year covering the NBA, 2003, The max salary was $14 million. Today, the average salary is $14 million. The average salary is $14 million. And LeBron's been in the league for both times. That's why I wish I was 7 foot 8, but it didn't happen.

Thank you, Brian. Take care, guys. Thank you, Brian. Appreciate it. Let's take one last break. Still to come, the two-time defending Stanley Cup champs are somehow keeping their stars. and a big time catch in last night's Padres Phillies game. So they keep all their free agents, right?

Florida does that. And they keep Kachuk and they keep Bobrovsky. Why aren't they going to win again exactly? Why don't they go for three in a row, exactly? Have it time, people. Happy 64th birthday, Carl Lewis. If running and jumping are the hallmarks of being an athlete, Lewis may be the greatest athlete of all time.

Lewis won nine Olympic gold medals and won silver in running and jumping. He was on a couple of relay goals. He won two golds individually in 100, one gold and 200, and four straight Olympic golds in the long jump. The most famous race Lewis ever ran, he lost the 100 in the 1988 Olympics. But the winner, Ben Johnson, was disqualified for using performance-enhancing drugs, and Lewis got the goal. Lewis is currently head track coach at the University of Houston, where he went to college. Lewis also would have been in the 1980 Olympics, which had a boycott. I mean, look, I know swimming takes up all the air in the room because all the events.

Carl Lewis, my Olympic goat. Not so happy anniversary, Andy Hawkins, on this day, 35 years ago, the Yankee right-hander no-hit the White Sox at Kamisky Park. But due to a series of errors, Hawkins lost the game for nothing. The game was scoreless in the bottom of the eighth when Sammy's so. Hit a grounder that Mark Blowers did not feel cleanly, and Sosa beat the throw to first on the error. After two walks, Hawkins got Robin Ventura to line to left, but Jim Lairitz missed the catch and three runs scored.

Jesse Barfield then misplayed another fly in the sun, and Ventura scored from second. Hawkins retired Dan Pasqua on a pop-up for out number three, keeping his no-hitter, but he lost the game. People will hear Sammy Sosa in that sentence and say, what? Sammy Sosa, yes. He was on the White Sox. He was the South Sider for a couple of seasons before going on eight miles north to a lot more fame.

Happy trails to a three-run home run for Max Kepler. With two on and two out and third last night, the first year Philly sent what seemed to be a sure home run ball sailing towards center. Padre's centerfielder Jackson Merrill tracked it, leaped and brought it back. while fully extended at the apex of his jump. Catch is terrific, especially considering Merrill only moved to the outfield last season after being a lifelong infielder. That said, it comes in the shadow of the catch Denzel Clark of the A's made three weeks ago

when he literally climbed the fence. In the NFL, his toe taps along the sideline and in the end zone, and in Major League Baseball, it is going up over the fence to rob somebody. Spectacular plays. Quickly to the big finish. The Panthers agree to new deals with Brad Marchand and Aaron Ekblad. Is that a big deal? Yeah, they're keeping a championship team together.

Yes, it's a huge deal. The Dallas Stars hired Glenn Gulleton as head coach 12 years after firing him. Does that make any sense? Second chance. You wait long enough, you get one. Al-Galalau, upset Man City in the Club World Cup. Is that significant? Yes, there are teams and places in the world that have been.

beating European elites now. And you go, wait a minute. When is this happening? Why is it happening? What does it mean? Zlatan called Leonel Messi's teammate statues who run as if they're carrying bags of cement. Your reaction.

Well, my first reaction is to laugh and the second is to praise the Slotan, who we both love. Last one, Schemes at Rahm and Yamamoto, all on the mound tonight, which is the most intriguing? Schemes is going against the Cardinals. That's the most intriguing for this Midwestern kid.

Yeah, because it's your division. We're out of time. I'm trying to do better the next time. I'm Tony Corny Huss. And I'm Mike Wilbon. Same time tomorrow, I'm Knuckleheads. You know what's coming now.