PTI - Could College Teams Soon Have Owners?!

Episode Date: July 30, 2026

Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser react to Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly's response on Bryce Harper's honesty, dive into Luka Dončić's new mini-camp post-Lebron, and talk the possibility of college basketball teams having owners! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Pardon the interruption, but I'm Mike Wilbon. It's International Friendship Day, Tony. What do you look for in a friend? I'm Tony Kornheiser. Kindness, loyalty, top golf course memberships. Very important. I'd like to disagree with you, but I'm not going to disagree with you. No, I know. I know.

No, you like to go hit it someplace nice every now and then or every weekend. Yeah. Somebody's loaded. That's why people are your friends because you belong to a business. bunch of great clubs. Welcome to PTI, boys and girls. In today's episode, Luca Donchich invites the Lakers to Slovenia. Josh Passener clarifies his comments, and Eduardo Perez joins us for five good minutes. But we begin today with Philadelphia Phillies interim manager, Don Mattingley, clapping back at Bryce Harper's suggestion that Phillies need to get, quote, some help at the trade

deadline. Mattingley said, quote, players like being GMs and spending other people's money. So I just let it go with that. I mean, Dave Dombrovsky's been doing this for a while. Bryce is Bryce. He's going to say what he wants. I kind of take it with a grain of salt, unquote. It must be pointed out that Mattingly's son Preston is the titular GM of the Phillies. Will Bonn, what do you make of Mattingly siding with the front office over Harper? Tony, every like 30 minutes, I change my mind on this. You know, I'm having a hard time coming to sort of a consensus. I think what I make of it is Mattingley is going to be

very popular in that clubhouse because he basically took the side of the players even though he was siding with management by doing so he says to Bryce Harper throws a little brushback and says stop you're basically

calling out your teammates you don't want to do that and it does seem sort of like Bryce Harperish that when he said what he said and I lauded it a couple of days ago as being honest and frank and I believe he was. It also calls your teammates

into question. It also says, you know, the guys in the room right here, they're not good enough. We need something a little better.

We need another bat. We need another arm because these guys aren't quite good enough. Don Manningly comes to the rescue. The clubhouse has to, even though he sided

with management, which includes his son, he also sided with the clubhouse. Yeah. I'm going to tell you what I make of it. I make of it

that Bryce Harper may not be with the Philadelphia Phillies much longer. Wow. I'm not saying he's going out on the trade deadline, which would be a boom. Right. But it's not going to surprise me if he's not there next year. Bryce Harper is still, in my mind, a great hitter. He is a team leader, but he's batting, I think, 169 in July to this point. And this is the second time he's had an issue with the front office.

If you remember last year, after the season, for reasons that I did not understand, Dave Dombrowski came out and questioned whether, Bryce Harper was still an elite player. He didn't have to do that. He chose to do that. Now Bryce Harper comes back and says, why don't you get us some better players so that we can win this thing? I mean, to me, you add, and then you have Don Maddenly with one foot in the dugout and one foot in the front office because of his son being the GM of the team. This feels like the shootout at the OK corral. I'm going to go on for about 30 seconds here and then I'll get out. When Bryce Harper signed that contract, it was the most lucrative contract in toto in history of baseball.

I think it averaged $27 million for 13 years. That was 2018. All right. Bryce Harper right now, Mike's 25th highest paid player in the league. Next year later, he's the 34th. You can move him. You can move him now if you choose to. Well, especially, Tony, they've gotten close.

Bryce Harper was not on the next world series. had not one world. Series team. He doesn't have a ring. And he left. Don't have a ring. On his own. He said later, I'm going down the street to play for a hated rival.

You know, you know how I feel about this. I sort of like that that he's left out in the cold. Let's move to the NBA. As Luca Donchich attempts to fill the leadership void that LeBron left in L.A. Lucas' first big move, a 4-18 minicamp in his native Slovenia, slated for all. August, all on Lucas Dime. The Lakers added a bevy of new players this offseason tone.

Does this mini camp make you more bullish on their upcoming season? My short answer is no because they don't have LeBron James anymore. Perhaps you've read about that, that he's not there anymore. And I don't think anybody collectively that they have brought in can actually balance that out. I don't. But I think the subtext here is the Lakers are saying LeBron is now gone. This is Lucas Tim. All right? So we're going to have this Luca's European summer adventure.

We're all going to go to Slovenia. We're going to play a little bit of golf. We're going to do a little bit of tourism. We're going to eat some good food. Lucas is going to spring for all the money here. We're going to have a fabulous bonding experience. And it's Luca. It's not LeBron. We're going to have a new day and a new team. Who wants some Slovenian sausages?

Now, to answer the question directly, I mean, maybe the players will be happier this year. Maybe they will be closer this year. LeBron won't be there to berate them if he ever berated them. It's Lucas Deal right now. But, you know, to the answer to what makes me more bullish on him, no, it does not. No, Tony, it doesn't. Because when they tip it off at 7.30 and whatever night in October, they tip it off, who's going to play defense on that team?

It ain't going to be Luca and it ain't going to be Austin Reeves. And that's what we start with the Lakers. Now, yeah, the big boy they just got from Utah, he's a, he's a, Nice defensive player. He can rebound. But the Lakers are not a threat to me, not a threat to OKC, not a threat to San Antonio. And that's where you start with the Western Conference, even though Minnesota, to me, is worse. Even though Houston is not as good, even though teams in the West other than San Antonio and OKC of taking a dive.

I agree with everything you said. So I'm going to go to a quick story about Luca and the Lakers. So Luca's playing for Dallas early in his career, very early. And at one point, somebody's sitting behind Luca on the front row, a trillionaire's row, and then Staples Center, starts to speak Slovenian to Luca, talk a little trash. Luca's irritated. He turns around and talking trash to him in Slovenian is Kobe Bean Bryant. How great is that, right? Kobe, who spoke like five languages anyway, had decided before the game.

They didn't do a little something to Luca. One of the trillion reasons that the league in the world and we all miss Kobe Bean, Bryant. But, you know, Luca's, Luca needs to do this, Tony. I think it's a smart thing. Build the bonding out, even if you can't defend, you can be close. Bumbing. Well, you hate Luca as a player, right now.

Let's move to college basketball and a flipping remark last week by UNLV coach Joss Paster, who suggested that potential owners of an expansion NBA team in Las Vegas might instead buy the UNLV team. Pastor said, quote, you don't have to spend $10 billion to own our team. You still get a great tax right off and you can be as involved as you want. And you can tell everyone you're the owner of the team, unquote. Pastor later said he wasn't serious.

He said, quote, we need support, but we're not really for sale, unquote. But Wilbon, Yahoo dealt with this and asked, is it really that far-fetched? And I ask you, is it? It's not far-fetched. It's real. He may have been joking, but he wasn't joking. You know what I'm saying? I mean, every school, mine included, we're all looking for sugar daddies.

We're looking for somebody who wants to come in and provide that kind of resources, all right, at that level. Tony, it takes $10 to $15 million to put an even competitive men's basketball team, power four, on the court today. For those who want to win those conferences and maybe have a decent seating in the tournament, the tournament, it's going to cost you upwards of $22 million. I know that for a fact. So since you've got, Tony, teams are selling patches. Teams are entering into all sorts of agreements that bring in millions of dollars. Yes, they're all for sale and they're all for sale today.

Yeah, I mean, there is no regulation. at the moment that tells you how to funnel the NIL money. And without regulations like that, I can see possibly that a team is actually for sale. Let me go down a different road here. Let's say you've got a really good chemistry department. And Dow Chemical says, we want to help and invest in young future chemists.

So we're going to offer this school $100 million to buy the chemistry department, just that. Now, let's remember here, The chemistry department is not basketball or football. It is not revenue producing. CBS doesn't go to the chemistry department and offer a billion dollars to televise the laboratory practicals. That's not what happens.

So it seems to me conceivable that you could actually sell a team. Mike, I never thought. I never thought the NFL or the NBA would endorse gambling. Never. And they are right in the thick of it now. So things change. It strikes me as actually. possible that a school could sell a team.

Not tomorrow, but down the world. They're all for sale. We are all for sale. And anybody who comes back and says, oh, no, you're exact. No, that's the deal. If you said to an NIL guy, if you said to an NIL guy,

we're going to give you the T-shirt, we're going to give you a better seat, but we're going to reward your investment. This is what I'm saying, that a financial company could actually buy a team. I don't think it's impossible. Let's take a break. But coming up,

Kutariq Skubel actually become a brave. We will ask ESPN MLB analyst Eduardo Perez. We'll also ask him about how much harder it is to hit pitching now than when he play. Nobody hits 300 people. I mean, if they say,

if we make money, you can make money. Yes. Private equity would buy a team. They'd buy Northwestern. Yes. Yes. And I'll fly them there.

Yeah. Baseball's trade deadline is just a few days away, which makes it a perfect time for a visit from ESPN baseball analyst, Eduardo Perez. You're in Atlanta for the Nats and the Braves tonight. I will watch because I'm a Nats fan. I'm sure it's hot. You're out in the sun. So let's go to this.

Do you think that the Braves might make a serious bid for Tariq Scouble to pair on the top of their rotation with Chris Sale? 100% yes. And I think it's not only the Braves, it's everyone that is at least four and a half to five games out. Why wouldn't you when you have a two-time-raining Sye Young Award winner, a guy that had six weeks off because of an elbow surgery that was pretty simple and he's come back strong.

He's going to be strong through not only the rest of the season, but in the postseason as well. This would be a great one-two punch with Chris Sale if you can get him there. But look, there are a lot of great one-two punches. If Milwaukee gets him, then you're looking at Jacob Mizorowski and Terrick School Bowl together. You go anywhere you can. This guy will make a difference on any team. And Alex Anthopoulos, I guarantee you, is right there at the top.

All right, let's follow up. Because of everything you just said, Eduardo, do the Dodgers prohibitive favors from the day we started spring training, do the Dodgers say no, no, no, no, no, no? we're going to, even if we don't necessarily need him, we're going to block him from the Braves, from the Brewers, from the Cubs, from anybody. Are the Dodgers that big and bad? C, C, C, C, C, C, yes, you might say,

I'm absolutely on board with that, because this is the nature of the beast. And I think the Dodgers know, in a short series, anything can happen. And great pitching, will neutralize, great hitting. It has been the history of the game for a long time. And right now the Milwaukee Brewers, with the best record in the National League, have the opportunity if they go out and, let's say, get that one-two punch.

It is hard to beat in a seven-game series, a team like that, that last year was embarrassed by the Dodgers. You can look at any other team that has a great number one. Chris Sale, add them to the group. Yes. So that's why the Dodgers, knowing that they don't, and probably we don't know yet with Show Hill-Tani down the stretch, If you can get a guy like this and add him to the rotation,

again, Andrew Friedman has been known to do things like this. All right. Everything becomes Dodgers-centric because it has to. You have seen everybody up close and personal already this season. Who do you like most in the National League right now as a serious challenger to the Dodgers? I would go with two teams in the National League Central. One is the Milwaukee Brewers because of Jacob Mizorowski and the way that they can put the ball in play.

They can beat you in so many ways. This is a team that was not slugging and still they were winning games. They do the small things right. And in the postseason, the small things work. And the Chicago Cubs, we've seen two already 10 game losses in a row by the Cubs, yet they are a team that can turn it on in a heartbeat and be great. And they can hit.

And they hit early. They hit often and they have PCA at the top. That's one of the reasons why. Going back to question number two of trying to block Terik Scoobo from, let's say, going to the Chicago Cubs, they have a weakness. They know it. If they address it, the Cubs can also be contenders. How much did Wilbon pay you to mention the Cubs? I can't believe this that the Cubs are part of this discussion.

Willam, let me slip to something. No, your audience. Let me get you out of here on this. No your audience. Good. Okay. Okay. Here we go. We get you out of here. In addition to being an analyst, I think people know this. You played in the majors for 13 years. Your dad played in the majors for 23 years. That's a lot of at-bats over a lot of years. How is hitting different now than it was during both of your careers? And I bring this up because pitchers now, it seems, go all out to throw 104 on every single pitch. Has that changed hitting, Eduardo? Well, it has. It has. And look, and a lot of people say, well, it's damaged. No, it's not. This is where the game is right now. Just like when the three point line was put in basketball, it changed. The game changed. Look, before it was you had to have the ability to be able to hit the ground the other way to move the runner to third base, to be able to create and get that sack fly, or to be able to hit the ball on the ground when the infield was back. Right now, I think at a younger stage, we're so infatuated and we're so in love with the exit velocity, with the launch angle, with making sure that those numbers are right so the kids can get signed so they can go to college, that we're not looking at the athletic ability of a kid that has great hand-eye coordination and can win ball games.

And that's what you're looking for, winners. You look at the Cleveland Guardians, for example, they have a pretty good one in Mr. Ramirez at their base. He can do all the little things right. That's one of the reasons why the guardians are always in contention. Yes, he can hit the ball out of the air. He can hit the ball out of the ballpark, but he can also move the runner over when he needs to on the ground. He can steal a base. He catches the ball.

He throws it. Hitting his chains in so many ways. For the better, that's up for discussion. The veteran guy will say it's worse. The contemporary guy says, look, baseball is harder than ever right now. It's a great pleasure to have you. Thank you for being with us, thank you so much.

Thank you. You see, I can get invited back because I mentioned the Cubs. There we go. There we go. Even though we lost that game in St. Louis last night. I'll be off the show.

If you come back for the Cubs, I'm doing, I'm taking vacation. You can catch more at Mordo on the broadcast of tonight's Nats Braves game at 7 p.m. on ESPN. I will watch that because of Nats are in it. Let's take one last break still to come. Soccer teams like Spain, England,

France are threatening to boycott future World Cups. We'll tell you why. Somebody's got to tell me why first. That'll be sure. I don't know that. And the WNBA has a sports betting snafu that features

two of its biggest stars. Cubs had a tough loss, Tony. After PCA goes deep, two nothing Cardinals in St. Louis. Happy time. People, happy 78th birthday Billy Pulse. History lesson kids.

The Whopper was a 611 center for the New York Nets when they were in the ABA and played on Long Island. I covered Paltz when I worked at Newsday, liked him very much. He was a seventh round draft pick out of St. John's, where he played for Luke Harnasseca, who would coach him in the pros as well. Paltz was on the Nets' 1974 ABA championship team with Julius Irving, Larry Keenan, Brian Taylor, and John Roach.

Paltz also played on the Nets' 1972 team with Rick Barry and Bill Melchione that got to the ABA finals. Pulse played in the NBA in San Antonio, Houston, Atlanta, and Utah. But I remember most from the ABA where he averaged 16 and 11. Wilburne he owned a restaurant near the Nassau Coliseum called the Salty Dog. Must have been pretty good. Tony, I only remember him in the NBA because the ABA didn't really have any kind of substantial national presence. Don't even know if they had a national TV contract that lasted long.

Couldn't see Julius Irving in Chicago. It could sneak across state lines and maybe catch the Pacers here and there. But that was it. We didn't see those guys. A lost generation for some of us. It was great fun. I love the ABA. Happy anniversary, Sidney Crosby. On this day, 21 years ago, the Pittsburgh Penguins selected Sid the Kid with the number one overall pick in the NHL draft. How'd that work out?

Crosby, who turns 39 next week, helped Pittsburgh to three Stanley Cups and helped Canada to two Olympic gold medals. This past season, Crosby was very good when he was healthy, scoring 29 goals and 74 points in 68 games. The great story about Crosby is that after he, He was drafted by the Penguins, then owned by Mario Lemieux. Crosby lived in Lemieux's house for five years, and the four of the Mew children reportedly treat Crosby like a sibling. Lemieux and Crosby have been named

the two top number one draft picks since 1980. How about this? The year before Crosby was taking number one, Pittsburgh took, you have Guinea Malkin number two. Those guys have been there forever and ever, forever and ever. Yes, pretty good. Pretty good draft picks. Happy Trails to UE Team.

participating in the World Cup? The European Federation today rejected FIFA's plan to sell shares of the international governing body to private investors for billions, adding it would boycott all FIFA events until that proposal is dropped, and FIFA agrees to never raise it again. This would mean the teams like Spain and France and England and Germany would refuse to participate in the men's or women's world cups, said UEFA, quote,

There are moments when institutions are judged, not by what they are prepared to accept, but by what they refuse to compromise. This is one of those moments. The FIFA World Cup belongs to football. It always will. And so long as Europe has a voice, it will never be for sale, unquote. That sounds nice. That's garbage.

As I said once earlier in this show, everybody's open for business. Suppose some of that money starts to trickle down to the players. How you think they're going to feel about that? What a lie. What a big fat lie that could turn out to be. Let's go to it. Quickly, quickly. Kurt Signetti said today, we don't run a hype machine up here in the Midwest.

When we fall short, we say we fall short. When we don't win, we don't cry a river. That's why we're the best. Analyze that, Mr. Big Ten. Sounds good, too. Taysam Hill will not be returning to the Saints. Your thoughts. He's a very valuable player.

I don't understand that. Jackson Quoibon shot minus one at the Rocket Classic today. You impressed? I was going to crow, but Peter Melnati is shot of 61, so he's like eight off, the lead. WNBA said it's post that show Paige Beckers and Angel Reese betting $400 on a game between them missed the mark. I think you agree with that, don't you? Missed by a thousand miles. You can't do that.

Last one, Astros have won eight out of nine. Is that a big deal? Astros getting hot. It's still early. Series with the Rangers coming up. We're out of time. Try to do better the next time. I'm Tony Corner.

I'm Mike Lilbon. Same time tomorrow, knuckleheads. Remember, boys and girls, open for business.