PTI - Can Novak Djokovic beat Jannik Sinner in Wimbledon Semi-Final?

Episode Date: July 8, 2026

Tony Kornheiser and Pablo Torre discuss the recent backlash USMNT player, Christian Pulisic is receiving, dive into a preview of the Djokovic-Sinner match, and discuss potential landing spots for LeBron James with Brian Windhorst! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I'm a interruption by Pablo Torre. It is Be a Kid Again Day, Tony. So what do you miss the most about being a kid? I'm Tony Kornhizer. The dinosaurs, they were great. They were fun to play with. What happened to the dinosaurs? You know?

Yeah, you taking a slide down a brontosaurus' neck, Flintstone style. I can imagine you befriending. You know, right, yeah, we used to play Ride the T-Rex. Everybody did that, ride the T-Rex. I was good at it. I wouldn't get thrown for like five or six seconds. Welcome to PTI, boys and girls.

Wilbon handled Monday. I solo took Tuesday. And co-hosting today is our great friend from the podcast. Pablo Tori finds out Mr. Pablo Tori. Big cheers. And we begin today, Pablo, with baseball. And numbers from last night. We start with 300.

The number of home runs Shohei Otani now has in his nine-year career. Then 10. The number of RBI, Pittsburgh's Ryan O. Hearn had last night against Atlanta. Then 12. The number of consecutive hits, Kansas City's Tyler Tolbert got to last night. Then 14. The number of Reds, Philadelphia's Zach Wheeler struck out. And finally, 17. The number of strikeouts by Yankee batters for a second straight night. Pablo, which number is most intriguing to you? This is one heck of a summer A1, Tony. I love the baseball potpourri. I love what do you like? And I like 300.

I do. Show Hey Otani is the story and not just because of a Miankees Finn who was traumatized by the fact that it's 17 strikeouts in two straight games. It's the idea that you look down the list of historical figures who've gone to 300 this quick in terms of plate appearances and it's a bunch of guys that I will name for you. It is Aaron Judge, Ralph Kiner, Ryan Howard, Juan Gonzalez. And all those guys, according to Sarah Langs, who's done this math quite helpfully, have combined for zero pitching appearances

while also being just faster than Showe O'Donnie with the home runs. And so to me, Otani having his first two-way season and three seasons, looking healthy, coming back, I just think you lead your newspaper with Otani until proven otherwise. Yeah, you left two out. You left out Alex Rodriguez and you left out Giancarlo Stanton. Those are the six people who got to 300 home runs quicker than Otani, who has taken 1,121 games. And I agree with that completely. The only person or persons, you know, you have to list Aaron Judge and maybe Arod that are in Otani's orbit. But yes, the question for both of them is, how many innings have you pitched? Yes, you're 100% right about that.

I'm going to go through some of the other numbers. I am stunned by 10 RBI in a game. That is now the record in Pittsburgh. And here are some names in Pittsburgh that don't have that record. Ralph Kiner, who you mentioned has a big home run hitter, Stardial, Clementi, Dave Parker, and hello Barry Bonds. But for me, Pablo, the number that breaks out is the 12. 12 consecutive hits. Okay, so you don't get on by an error.

You don't get on by a walk. You don't get on because the pitcher hit you. These are 12 consecutive hits by a player who was a journeyman. This is a 28-year-old player now only in his second year in the major. This is only the other night his 94th career game. He is mostly put in, you know, as a pinch runner and as a defensive replacement. So the question for him is, where have you been all my life? And the only two people who have ever done this before, or I'm sure you're familiar with Johnny Kling in 1902.

I am familiar at least with Walt Dropo in 1952. Those are big numbers. I want to get to your number, though, as a Yankee fan. 17 strikeouts, two games in a row. without Aaron Judge contributing to the strikeouts because he's hurt. Like, if I'm you, I'm a little bit nervous about this. I am worried about this.

I am worried, and Aaron Judge is the name that we can land on here because Aaron Judge, when the Yankees have them in the lineup, the sample size is well over 150 games now. They're the greatest team in baseball. When they don't have them, they're close to the opposite, and that would be the concern.

I mean, the pitching, of course, always the concern. The bullpen's been great to starting pitching less so. But that lineup, which is supposed to be the calling card, yeah, I think you need the giant dude at the center of it. Even though this is a sport where ostensibly you don't just need one giant dude. But I suppose. 34Ks in two games. 34. Yeah, not a lot of games.

I just, I don't. I don't. Yeah, I get it. The race four games ahead of us noted. I want to move tone to more fallout from the U.S. men's loss to Belgium at the World Cup. because the focus with this story has now fixed on Christian Polisik's lack of performance in that game. He lost the game high 11 possessions in the first half, which is embarrassing. Then he left early in the second with an injury, which was maybe infuriating to some.

So if you were writing a column on Polisik today, what would your angle be? All right, so like I did this for a living. I wrote a sports column. I know how this works. The angle on Christian Policic is not just what happened in that game. It's the fact he had no goals. He had no goals in the World Cup this time. Four games, no goals.

And this is the Wonder Boy, right? This is the lead actor in the play. This is the guy who's going to lead the United States World Cup team to new and unprecedented heights. And he had no goals. The guy with the red card had all the goals. It wasn't polistic. And yes, he's getting slammed around for this. I mean, he had an injury.

He was asked about the injury after the game. His quote was, I sprained my ankle. It's frustrating to end like that. but now I get time to rest so it will be okay. That doesn't bother me, but it bothered Carly Lloyd. And Carly Lloyd's got two World Cups. You know, she was on two World Cup winning teams. Her quote was, you rest when you're playing career is over.

That is a shot at Polisick. Landon Donovan, who has played on the United States World Cup team more than once, he tried to review all of Polisick's career, and he basically said, in fact, he specifically said, in easy games, he's there and he scores a lot of goals. but part of that quote is, you know, it's more than just a trend now. In big moments and big games, he just hasn't delivered. And that is a real slap.

You know, I mean, you can't back off and say, but I'm not criticizing him because you are criticizing him. You're leading him to the water and dunking his feet in the water. Yes. Well, and the other part is that 30 million people more than there's ever been to watch a U.S. men's national team playing a World Cup watched this game. This is not the sort of thing that was just kept. in a closet for the soccer super fans to assess. This was your broad introduction to the world.

And so, look, this is the story to me. It's that wearing that label, let's read between the lines there, of soft, is really hard to come back from. And it's because he took the gold cup off to rest up for the World Cup. And it's because it makes me think of a nickname that you once gave one of your old local heroes, Stephen Strasbourg, because you used to call him what? You know what I... The orchid, I believe.

The orchid. The orchid. And so, blooms on certain times. Needing optimal circumstances, when you're supposed to be the guy, I mean, that's, that is more than just a performance issue. That's a character issue, too, now. There's a, I mean, the column has to be about politics's immediate failures. There's, I mean, there's no question about that.

Oftentimes, Pablo, the losing locker room is the best place for the column. And I, and I suspect that there. that that would be it. I don't know how much he would talk about it, but I suspect that would be it, that, you know, you didn't deliver. Let's move to Wimbledon. Yesterday, we ended up on this show on ESPN2 because Novak Djokovic was in the process of taking five hours and 15 minutes to beat Felix Ojez Ali Assim in five sets. Tiebreakers in the first, fourth, and fifth. Jokovic's seventh seed, now draws the number one seed, Yannick Sinner, in Friday's semifinal.

On the women's side, Cocoa, is the highest seed left in the third. in the semis at number seven, she will face Carolina Mahouva, the 10th seed in the semis. Pablo, what chance do you give the seven seeds, Jokovic and Gough, of reaching the finals or anything else you got about Wimbledon you wanna talk about?

Yeah, so the column I would write is Jokovic. And we've talked about this previously, I forget which year it was, in which you were moved to get off your couch and applaud, because that's how stunning it was that Jokovic was outperforming his age. And he's 39 years old, and of course Yonik Sinner, who he's

going to face is 24. And so here's the story to me. It's that Joakovich playing the longest quarterfinal match in the history of Wimbledon, which, according to my records, is a pretty long history, is the guy who refuses to leave the party. He knows that Alcaraz is injured. He knows that sinner's coming for everything he did, but Djokovic tone is there every time. He's somehow still there when he's hanging on by tiebreak, by tie break, by tie break five hours and 15 minutes later. Now, can it be sustained? I hope he gets two. I hope that story continues, but right now we got to celebrate that he hasn't let go of that rope yet. So it's a complicated issue for me because people who watch his show know that I am not

keen on Novak Djokovic, but I am a great admirer of his talent and his record. If he wins Wimbledon, that's his 25th major. That's more than anybody ever. Crazy. And so if he wants to say he's the goat, it's very hard to refute that if he's got more than anybody ever. I mean, he has been many of his, if not most, many if not most, of those majors that he's won, Federer and Nadal were out there. These are great players. It's hard to beat them, and he was beating them. He has gotten lucky here on a couple of levels. One, Al-Qaraz is not in the tournament. He has to play Sinner, but he doesn't have to play Sinner and Al-Qaraz. He's 39 years old. Sinner is 24 years old. You're given away a lot, and you're given away. You just played five sets and over five.

hours, but you get lucky again because there's a two-day layoff. You don't have to play the semi-final against the guy who you lost to in the semis at Wimbledon last year. You don't have to play it for two days of full rest, which, as they say in a trade, is gold, Jerry. That's gold. Look, I think golf is going to win. You know, she's the only one left. She's won two majors. She's the only one left among the women who has won a major. But the actual great story in Wimbledon is this qualifier kid, the wild card kid, Arthur Ferry. ranked 119th in the world who grew up blocks away in Wimbledon. Everybody is going to cheer for him against Zreyev,

or Zreyev, if I pronounce that right. He's going to be the Wyndham Clark of England. He's going to get booed every single time he hits the ball. That's going to be something. Let's take a break. Yeah. Coming up, where is LeBron most likely to end up? We're going to ask Brian Windhorst.

We're also going to ask him what happens with the Warriors if they don't land LeBron. By the way, going back to him. back to the soccer for a second. After that Belgian game, nobody sat around and sang, Take Me Home Country Roads, West Virginia, did that? No, the coach was kicking water bottles.

No. Yeah, Linden Donner was like, I played with a torn hamstring. That's what I did. Why are you getting great? Okay, you didn't win either. This episode is brought to you by Accenture. When your advertising operations fall out of sync,

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Wayfair, every style, every home. We've got NBA questions for our great friend ESPN senior writer and the host of the Hoop Collective podcast, PTI's Omaha Bureau Chief, Mr. Brian Windhorst. Brian, let's start with the big one, the elephant in the room. Where is LeBron most likely to end up? I don't have a strong answer for you, Tony. I can speculate, but it would just be that. With the teams talking to LeBron right now, there's a lot of one-way conversation. They're saying things to Rich Paul. In the case of Bob Myers, he went on Rich Paul's podcast, I believe, basically to speak to

LeBron James and pitch him on the Philadelphia 76ers. There's very little or no information coming back, including on what a timeline would be. Now, when I talk to some of these teams that are chasing LeBron, they remain hopeful that their pitches will be received, but they say to me, don't you think he's going to go to Cleveland at the end of the day? And I say, look, if there's no other good options, I think Cleveland would be the default. So what LeBron, I think, is waiting for is for an option to present itself that's more compelling than going home to Cleveland. And because he's going to sign for significantly less than his value, he has no penalty in waiting.

So he'll be on the golf course tomorrow, Tony, waiting for something to develop that may catch his eye. I just like that the teams are asking you, Brian, what do you think is they're trying to figure out what they think? but I can't get information otherwise. Well, I've learned this about the business. The Warriors, though, what if they don't get LeBron? What happens to them next? Well, they have been big game hunting for months now, Pablo. We know they tried to get Janice Tenacumpo.

We know the year before they tried to get Kevin Durant. Two years ago, they tried to get LeBron James at the trade deadline. So they have three tradable first round picks. They have Chris Hep's Porzing. who they signed to a $20 million a year contract that is eligible to be traded right now. They are saying very clearly that they do not intend to trade Jimmy Butler.

So I think they will continue to go big game hunting and continue to be opportunistic. That is how they got Jimmy Butler, you know, a year and a half ago at this point. But I think basically they're going to just have to wait and wait for the market to develop. And the biggest thing for them is Jimmy Butler's health. You know, their big addition to this roster

at the end of the day could be getting Jimmy Butler back healthy mid-season or around then. And if it's not LeBron James, that might be their big addition. I want to swing the camera back to the Celtics for a second here, though, because the big move Brad Stevens made, obviously, trading Jalen Brown. Brad Stevens has now talked about it, the president of basketball ops in Boston. What did you make of what Stevens said about that trade? I don't think he's being 100% honest, which is understandable. I don't think he's, I don't think he's, he's fully articulating the reasons that he traded Jalen Brown because the reasons that he gives publicly are not compelling. They seem wishy-washy. And Brett Stevens is not wishy-washy, right? You know,

they came to a firm understanding. You know, he said that he lost sleep over what the fan reaction would be. He didn't say he lost sleep over making the deal. So I think what the Celtics are doing here is they're trying to be at the cutting edge of the NBA. And the cutting edge of the the NBA is not having players that are overpaid versus their production and having a lot of depth and a lot of youth. That's what I think the Celtics are trying to lean into. Now, you may come back to me and say, well, wait a minute. Paul George is expensive and he's old and he hasn't been healthy. How does that help them get there? And that is a fair point. But I think what Brass Stevens believes is a shorter contract for Paul George, more tradable. The draft assets that they use that they got can

either be traded or used themselves and that they can get closer where they want to be. But I agree, if you're a Celtics fan, it looks a little hazy as to what they're doing. We will get you out of here on this. Is there any buzz about what we have already seen early in the Salt Lake Summer League? Yes. Darren Peterson, my God, does he look impressive? Now, there's nobody ever doubted his talent coming out of Kansas. People questioned his health, people questioned his makeup.

He came out on that court and showed an entire offensive NBA ready package fully furnished. He scored at all three levels, stepbacks, drives, in transition, in isolation, coming off pick and roll. It was as impressive as I have seen from a guard coming into his first summer league games in my career. And he's got an incredible moment on Thursday night. he will have played two games, has some rhythm, and gets to play the Washington Wizards and AJ DeBanza, and he clearly articulated. He wanted to send a message to the world about his game against Cam Boosier the other night, where he had a brilliant game, 25 points and 12 assists. I think he's going to want to send a message in this game against Washington on Thursday. I know it's just a pre-s, it's a, you know, a Summer League game, but I have been extremely impressed with him.

By the way, I was also impressed with Cam Booser. He looked very good. a bunch of three-pointers showed everything he could from Memphis in Salt Lake City. But boy, am I looking forward to see what Peterson can show off when he plays games in Vegas as well? Absolutely. I mean, he wants to show Washington that they were wrong, that they

picked the wrong guy, right? That's going to be his motivation. Thank you, Brian. Thank you, Brian. Thanks, guys. Let's take one last break still to come. The Royals look like the Mets before the Mets look like the Mets. And Egypt files a formal complaint about the officiating.

Yesterday's lost to Argentina. Yeah, good luck with that. Good luck with that formal complaint. Happy time, people. Happy 74th birthday, Jack Lambert. The Hall of Fame linebacker was an anchor on Pittsburgh Steel Curtain defense. Linebackers were Lambert, Jack Hamm, and Andy Russell. Up front were players like Mean Joe Green, Elsie Greenwood, Dwight, and Ernie Holmes.

On the back line were players like Mel Blunt and Donny Schell. There were great offensive players as well, like Terry Bradshaw, Lynn Swan, John Stallworth, Franco Harris, Rocky Blyer in the center, Mike Webster. But the four Super Bowls, those Steelers won were mostly because of the defense. And when you think of that defense, the names that jump out first are Joe Green and Jack Lambert. And of course you mentioned mean Joe, but Jack Lambert being Jack Splatt and Dracula in cleats, underrated nicknames in the annals of football history, I believe. Happy anniversary, Ken Griffey, Sr. on this day, 46 years ago, near the end of his run on the Big Red Machine,

the Cincinnati Reds outfielder hit a home run off Tommy John and was named MVP of the 1980 All-Star Game. 12 years later, at the age of 22, Ken Griffey Jr. was named MVP of the 1992 All-Star Game. The Griffey's are the only father-and-son duo to accomplish his feet in baseball history. Bobby Hull and Brett Hall are the only hockey father-and-son to win the NHL All-Star Game MVP.

Bobby won in 1970 and 71. Brett won in 1992. Vlad Guerrero, senior and junior have won baseball's home run derby, but only junior won an All-Star Game MVP. I'm doing my demographic research. I'm fairly confident that all professional sports will just be the sons of former athletes

pretty soon. Jalen Brunson, of course, just the most recent example of you don't even need your dad to be that good at basketball to be great yourself. So congratulations to everybody. Who is it? happy trails to an easy out at first for the Royals

calamity struck in the first inning of last night's game against the Mets with runners at first and second and two outs Carson Benj of the Mets hit a chopper back to the pitcher but Seth Lugo threw it away allowing one run to score a terrible second throw followed and then a third allowing Bobichette and Benj to score that's a three-run Little League home run it's a play we've come to expect from the Mets not the Royals

of course the Mets would end up gagging away a nine-de- lead and losing 16th of 12. I like how that was almost kind to the Mets, except at the end when you revealed actually jokes on you, you are still very much the Mets. 1612, when I saw that score. Yeah, that's bad. You're not 1612.

Let's go to the big finish. Suboptimal. Egypt has filed a formal complaint with FIFA about the officiating in yesterday's loss to Argentina. Does that make sense to you? It makes sense and also the only thing you can do it was injustice. They cannot remain silent about that. I'm glad they are not.

Chris Middleton, meanwhile, ended up back on your Wizards. After a 16-train trade, are you excited? Yeah, it's great. He's 50 years old at this point. I mean, the Wizards are now not only collecting the number one pick. They're collecting a bunch of veterans, too. I don't know what they're doing. It's the 16th anniversary of the decision.

How do you remember it? vividly as a template-setting show for an era that could only be so influential because it was also embarrassing to the people who made it. And I'm glad it exists even though it kind of blew everything up. Justin Verlander, he has announced that this will be his last season. Your thoughts? He's been heard all year. He hasn't really pitched at all. He's got 266 wins.

I don't know that anybody will top that in the future. He's going straight to Cooperstown in five years. Last one, World Cup tomorrow. France Morocco at four. Who you got? Of course, the betting line say France, but the heart says Morocco. I'm rooting for Morocco. Give me Morocco.

Really? Over France? Really? We're out of time. That's right. Try to do better the next time. I'm Tony Kornheiser. And I'm Pablo Torre.

Thank you for watching.