PTI - College Hoops Round Up and Cap Issues with the Dolphins and Seahawks?

Episode Date: February 17, 2026

Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser discuss college hoops, Seahawks/Dolphins, Spurs/Pistons + more! 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. Tony, the Guinness Book of World Records says the oldest manatee on record is 71. I'm Tony Cornheiser.

71. He's a kid. Get out of here. Get out of here. 71. Do you know anything about manatees? Have you ever seen a manatee? Yeah, I actually have.

Yeah. I have not. You have not. No, I have not. But you don't, you're not a fishing guy, neither am I. Neither one of us. No. No.

But we don't fish for manatee, do you? I don't know. Fish for them. They're not fish, are they? Are they fish? Is that what they're considered? Welcome to PTI, boys and girls. In today's episode, could the Seahawks let Kenneth Walker walk?

Are the spurs or pistons poised for a greater second half success? And why did Tony Clark step down? But we begin today with college basketball. Last night, number six, Iowa State beat number three, Houston at Iowa State. The Cyclone's second victory over a top 10 team in three days. since beating Kansas on Saturday. Last night, Duke demolished Syracuse, 101 to 64,

the largest margin of victory all season for the number three Blue Devils. And tonight, number one, Michigan is at number seven, Purdue, before Michigan's game against Duke on Saturday right here in Washington, D.C. Wilbon, you have dived into college basketball, so which of these storylines intrigues you the most?

Tony, I have, and a week ago, if you had asked me this question, I would have given you an answer that revolves around, that revolved, past tense around the Big 12th because Arizona, as you know, was undefeated and, you know, and BYU hadn't lost its second best player to a season-ending injury. But, Tony, now that we've got some developments on that side in that conference,

I'm not going with the ACC, and I'm going with Michigan and Purdue. Look, Michigan's the number one team. Once Arizona lost two games, you know, you had to go. Come on now. You've got to go with Michigan, which is number one team. And Purdue didn't pre-10. And Purdue didn't Purdue start the season as the number one team in the country in most polls? I believe so.

So, Tom, I'm going to go with them. I know that seems chalky and predictable of me. But I just think that Michigan is a team that a lot of people have picked the last four to six weeks to go the whole distance anyway. And now they got this big game against Purdue tonight. So that's the game I'm looking at. I am not going to give short shrift to the Big 12 because they're loaded. They've got Iowa State and Houston and Kansas and Arizona. That's four of the top eight teams in the country.

And Texas Tech, which beat Arizona at Arizona is 13. I'll be honest. I never thought of the Big 12 as a basketball conference. I thought of Kansas and a bunch of middling teams. But now it looks like the path to the final four is going to go through the Big 12 on some level. But I will tell you this, Mike. I tuned in last night, dropped in a couple of times on Syracuse and Duke. I was watching the Olympics.

I was watching the pairs skating, which I liked. But I dropped in for nostalgic reasons because of all those years that Mike Chashefsky was the coach at Duke, all those years that his dear friend, Jimmy Beheim, was the coach at Syracuse. And they never played each other because they weren't in the same conference and they shouldn't be in the same conference now. They shouldn't be.

But I will tell you, Mike, that game was brutal. That was not competitive. They showed a shot once of Carmelo Anthony in the stands because his son plays for Syracuse. I felt badly for him. There's something really wrong at Syracuse. They got to go to a reset. I think what's happening there is what happened about the second or third year

at Michigan with Joanne Howard and they had to go to a reset. It's just not working. By the way, they played once famously because I was at Courtside when Jim Beheim comes right out of his suit jacket, a famous one. That jacket, I think, got auctioned off for a whole lot of money. So that was in Durham and Cameron Indoor Stadium. So they played each other in the once in the regular season. But, Tony, I don't think that game informed me last night

for the very thing you hint that. Syracuse is in. Okay. You know what I mean? Yeah, okay. That's fair. And then Carolina, if we're talking about the ACC is missing Caleb Wilson, at least for the moment.

So we're going to move to the salary cap conundrums in the National Football League. The Seahawks are reportedly unlikely to bring back Super Bowl in the United States. as a transition or franchise tag would increase his salary from $2.7 million a year to somewhere between 11 and 15. This comes on the heels of the dolphins releasing Tyreek Hill

and three others with Tua potentially next to go. Tone, Seahawks, Dolphins, whose choices are more intriguing to you. Okay, well, I mean, look, the dolphins are just dumping salary at the moment. dumping big names and big salaries like Tyree Kill and Bradley Chub and Bradley Chub. They got to do something with Tua. Tua is going to be owed $54 million, whether he stays or goes.

So just as an aside here, I'll say they ought to trade him even up for Kyla Murray. You know, that's what they ought to do and just switch quarterbacks. It looks like, Mike, it looks like they're surrendering next season already. They got a new GM. They got a new coach. They're going to lose a whole lot of games. and maybe these guys will get one more season out of it. I am not intrigued by them

because I think that they are deliberately capsizing the boat. I'm intrigued by Seattle because they just won the Super Bowl. And now they've got to juggle. And this is what happens when you win and everybody wants more money. I mean, Kenneth Walker, I know, I understand he was the catalyst for their offense. Their offense did not win the Super Bowl.

Their defense won the Super Bowl. But he was the catalyst for their offense. Can they bring him back? I guess they don't want to bring him back. So do they believe that Zach Sharbonate coming back from a serious injury will be their number one back? Because you cannot, you've got to give money to Jackson, Smith, and Jigbaugh. You have to.

He was the player in the year in the entire league. You have to give him money. And I know that you like, you like Shahid, Rashid Shahid Shahid, the other wide receiver who's a free agent as well. Tone, the dolphins are irrelevant. As a matter of fact, oh, wait, we spent a whole week talking about when people, do what the dolphins do, they're tanking. But yet somehow the dolphins are just

cutting salary, please, I don't want to hear that garbage. The dolphins are irrelevant, and they're tanking already before the season begins. They could be worse. They could be worse than the Jets in that division.

They could be worse than the Jets. But when you give up on the Super Bowl MVP, this is a huge gamble to me because defense goes with a couple other things. Running the football and special teams. And you need to have all of them, complimentary football I hear on every network a thousand times a day. Kenneth Walker, they're going to give, I don't believe it. I know what's out there and being reported.

Let's see them actually let Kenneth Walker walk. I ain't buying it. Let's move to the NBA and do a made-up story because the NBA is off for a few days to rest up from being off for the previous few days. Here it is, there are two young teams emerging before our eyes in the east and the west, the Detroit Pistons and the San Antonio Spurs. Wilbon, you have said this a thousand times. Young teams cannot win.

They have to lose first and be disappointed. So in which team do you have more confidence the rest of the way this season, the Spurs or the Pistons? Oh, I'm going to shock you now. The Detroit Pistons. I expect, I fully expect it. Did you?

Because, Tom, They played in the playoffs last year. You're right. I have said for 50 years, and I know you don't disagree with me, because we have seen old people come through in the playoffs, in the finals. We know many of those old people.

When they were young and now they're old, the NBA is not a young guy's league. And so San Antonio didn't even get to the playoffs last year. They hadn't even been. They don't even know what that feels like. The Pistons do. And so Kay Cunningham, who could be the MVP, He could. He's not the most important player in the league.

Wimbunyama is that. But Kay Cunningham could be the MVP. You got Duren, who's a big, strong, tough, bad boy like Piston with talent. You've got Isaiah Stewart, big, bad, strong, tough piston, bad boy. I mean, in that sort of more. You got Tobias Harris, who's an ace. I like Detroit, Tony. I do.

And Picker's staff as their coach. I like Detroit right now in the East. Yeah, I mean, I agree with all of that, and so I won't take a whole lot of time here. I'll just pick the Pistons and do the math. The Pistons are 40 and 13. They're in first place in the East. They're five and a half games ahead of the Celtics.

The Spurs are 38 and 16. They're in second place in the West. They're three behind Oklahoma City. I know they've done well against Oklahoma City this year, but they're behind them. Detroit is not behind anybody. That's right. That's right.

And they're in the easier conference. They don't have to go through Denver and they don't have to go through Minnesota and Houston and they don't have to go through OKC in the playoffs. And as you say, they've never been to the playoffs. And Kate Cunningham's got six games worth of experience where he average like 26 points, eight rebounds and nine assists, something like that.

I just think, Mike, I think they're further down the road than the spurs are at the moment. Let's take a break coming up. What does the sudden resignation? of Tony Clark being from baseball's players union, we will ask Jeff Bassett. We'll also ask him how realistic a workstop it appears to be.

But you still like... Do you know that this Saturday college teams one, two, three, and four are playing against each other in the regular season? Only the third time ever in the regular season. I didn't realize that. Right? That's pretty... Bring popcorn to that.

They had all week when they've been. They could have done that this week. This is going to affect the seating. While the Indiana is off. They have had great games this week. Tony Clark resigned today as head of baseball's players union after an internal investigation reportedly revealed he had an inappropriate relationship with his sister-in-law who worked at the organization. And that means we have questions for ESPN senior MLB insider Jeff Passon. Let's start with this, Jeff. How big a deal is this development at this time for the union? It's a really big deal, Tony. And it's a big deal because of how they found out that information.

There was an internal investigation being done at the union in response to an Eastern District of New York investigation into the union about questions of financial improprieties and other such things. All of this came from a whistleblower complaint back in November 2004 with the National Labor Relations Board in which some things, including nepotism, were alleged against Tony Clark and his sister-in-law had been hired in 2023 to work in the union's Arizona office. and the revelation of this relationship took players on the executive subcommittee, the eight most powerful players in labor relations with the union, and took it to the point where it really was no coming back. Tony Clark already had been part of this investigation, and federal authorities have been looking into him. But that on top of everything else in a year where the collective bargaining agreement expires on December 1st, ultimately, it was just too much for him to keep his job. Well, Jeff, let's naturally spin it forward. Who do you see replacing Tony Clark? And regardless

to who that is, is it likely to change the union's approach as we go toward and then beyond December 1? Yeah, I think it's a very fair question about the approach. The person who's likeliest is Bruce Meyer. He's the deputy executive director of the MLBPA. He has been the lead negotiator. He's somebody who's been around for one collective bargaining agreement already. And this is such a seminal and important one, Mike, because owners want a salary cap. And the players association is going to resist a tooth and nail. Players have, since they got to the big leagues and even before that, they have gotten it nailed into their head that we are the only sport without a salary cap. We are going to remain that way. And so, you know, the timing of this, I mean, it's never good

when your executive director is resigning. But it would have been a whole lot worse in October or November. So, you know, players at this point are looking at it like, this gives us a chance to get our ducks in a row. And whether it's Bruce Meyer or somebody else internally, at least it's going to be someone with which they are familiar. Since we know this is about a salary cap, I mean, let's not play around here. Is there some form of it?

Because we've seen soft caps, as you know, Jeff, hard caps to the other league. Is there leagues? Is there some form of it that is palatable to the players at all? No. And it's hard to blame the players, Mike. You know, Juan Stoto getting $765 million last year. Kyle Tucker getting $60 million a year this year. This system's been pretty good to the players.

And yet the important thing to remember in this situation, it's not just that the public is very pro-cap and would like Major League Baseball to have a. It's that it's really hard when you have this institutional opinion that has been hammered into guys' heads for generations to get them off of that when they look at the system right now like it works. Now, you can make an argument, and I think a pretty profound argument, that the system isn't working for all of baseball right now. When the Dodgers are paying $550 million for players and the Miami Marlins have a $70 million payroll, the disparity there is enormous. But is there a compromise? Is there a solution to be found without a cap being put into place?

I believe that there is. The question at this point is, are the parties that are involved willing to go and find that? Because if not, the 2007 season really is in jeopardy at that point. I would get you out of here on this. We'll ask you to be pretty quick. And it's the question you've been expecting. It's everybody's question. What are the realistic chances that there will actually be a work stoppage next season?

When the collective bargaining agreement expires December 1st, Tony, I anticipate Major League Baseball will lock the players out. But a work stoppage is different from a work stoppage with games missed. And do I anticipate that at the end of the day, the games will be missed? I think a lot of it depends on what we see by the middle of February and if there's momentum toward a deal, because mid-March is really the drop-dead date for missing games. And it's the same thing we went through in 2022. I anticipate it happening again in 2007. Jeff, thanks for stepping into the breach like this.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, boys. I appreciate you having me. Let's take one last break still to come. Could Caleb Wilson and his hand be back sooner than planned? Mark Cuban has stated that tanking is overrated. You know, Mark and I, we agree. Because it is overstated and overrated. Yeah.

Well, you're both wrong, and it's okay that you agree. All right. We are baseball fans, you and I. We don't want to see a workstop. Happy time, people. Happy 62nd birthday Buster only. Yes, this is in-house, and Buster is our friend. After graduating from Vanderbilt, Buster became a newspaper sports writer

and covered baseball for the Nashville Banner, the San Diego Union Tribune, the Baltimore Sun, and the New York Times. For the last 23 years, Buster has been with ESPN reporting on baseball. We have regularly had him as a guest on this high-quality cable program. But that's not why we're doing it. We're doing this because Buster has real skills. He grew up on a dairy farm in Vermont. He can milk a cow.

In high school, he learned how to make bagels from scratch, and he is proficient at growing potatoes. So if this whole thing goes to hell, Buster can find work, and we'll bond, we cannot. Yeah, I don't know how much the milking cows is gonna affect you, but let me ask you this. Would you personally like to share a birthday with Michael Jeffrey Jordan, a year younger?

Would you want to do that? that, I'm just saying. No, because I would never get any light at the end of the tunnel. It would all be eaten up by Jordan. No, I would not. Happy anniversary, Baron Davis. On this day, 25 years ago, while playing for the Hornets, Davis took an inbound pass at the end of the third quarter and heaved an 89-foot three-pointer like he was

throwing a football and drilled it. It's the longest made shot in NBA history, and it broke the 24-year-old mark of 84 feet by your boy Norm Van Lear in 1977. Not only did Davis take this ridiculous shot, but a Milwaukee defender appeared to be legitimately contesting it. Davis played 13 years in the NBA for the Charlotte and New Orleans Hornets, Golden State, the Clippers, the Cavaliers, the Knicks. Davis averaged 16.1 points and 7.2 assist for his career.

Tony, Baron Davis would be in the discussion for like all entertaining, right? Every team Baron Davis was on, and every night, it was just sort of fun to be at the gym when Baron Davis took to court. Fun watching him all those years. UCLA player. UCLA player in college. A melancholy trails to Doug Mo.

Moe passed away today at the age of 87. Born in Brooklyn, Mo came to basketball prominence as a two-time All-American at North Carolina. In the ABA, he was a three-time All-Star and won a title with the Oakland Oaks. But Mo made his biggest mark as a head coach for the Spurs, Nuggets, and Sixers. In Denver, he crafted.

a hugely fun motion offense, winning 432 games, and making the postseason nine straight years in the 1980s. He was one of those guys who everyone liked being around. Tony, no question. Whether it was shoot around in the morning,

post game, in the hotel lobby, a great storyteller, as you know. Doug Moe's also a hell of a coach, as you mentioned. Look, he had Ice Gervin, and they got pretty far in the playoffs. I think it was in 1979. And then in 1985,

with Alex English, and fat lever with the Nuggets coached the Nuggets. They got to the conference final where waiting them, sadly. For them was a guy named Irvin Johnson, among others. But Doug Moe, what a career. He was a great friend of my camp counselor Larry Brown. They were roommates at one point in North Carolina, and he was an assistant to Larry at two different stops along the way.

We have another melancholy trail, so this is to the Reverend Jesse Jackson. The civil rights activist has passed away at the age of 84. Jackson grew up in South Carolina, played college for. football at Illinois and then North Carolina A&T. After graduation, he worked closely with Martin Luther King Jr. and led Operation Breadbasket and later the Rainbow Push Coalition from your hometown of Chicago, Wilba. He ran twice for president in 1984 and 1988. The guy with the Afro and the sideburns in one of those early pictures, that guy I woke up to when I was 10 years old, he was sitting at my breakfast table in Chicago helping save my father's job. And my father had been the top salesperson

at his company, yet must be. seriously laid off. Jesse Jackson organized the boycott and said, that will not be happening. Raymond Wilbon's job was saved by Reverend Jesse Jackson, and that money put some guys named Mike and Don, who you know, Tony, through St. Ignatius and Northwestern University, among other places.

That is a great story. eternally grateful. Let's go to the big finish. Let's do it. UNC coach Hubert Davis says Caleb Wilson is learning to play with a cast on his broken non-shooting hand could return soon. Are you surprised by that? No, you and I both thought he would give this a shot, and he's going to.

Tiger Woods says the Masters is not off the table for him. What do you think about this? What? What? Look, I would love this, but I'm going to take the under. So are you. The Lakers would reportedly welcome back LeBron for another season. Do you think that will happen?

Either Cleveland or L.A. I don't care. I don't want to see basketball without LeBron. I'm not ready for that. Why would you want? Nobody wants that. American figure skater Alyssa Lou is in third place after this short program. All right, Dick Button Jr., break it down.

I have watched some of this stuff. She's the reigning world champion. I loved the pairs last night. I know you didn't watch, but I loved watching it. Last one, Mark Cuban says ticket affordability is a bigger deal than tanking, and I'm sure you agree with it. Of course, I told you it's the other day. Load management.

Spend two grand for tickets. Oh, wait, he's not playing. That's what. worst in tech. You know, all the court side seats are always bought. We're out of time. We're trying to do better than next time. Welcome to the world, Brookland Williams, and congratulations, Ty and Alexa.

I'm Mike Wilbonne's same time tomorrow, knuckleheads.