PTI - How Much Does Ayton Improve Lakers?

Episode Date: July 3, 2025

Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser discuss the Lakers, Clayton Kershaw, and the Gold Cup. 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 Wilbaum. We're off tomorrow for the 4th of July, Tony. How are you going to spend the holiday weekend?

Tony Cornheiser golfing, napping, confiscating pickle balls. Not a fan of pickleball. Not me. No. Not a big thing. But you know what, though, Tony? Welcome to pickleball. Go ahead.

Go ahead. Who has more Achilles injuries? The NBA in the spring or pickleball every week. If you look at a pickleball court, somebody over the age of 60 is going down in a heap once an hour. Welcome to PTI, Boards and Girls. Today's episode, Clayton Kershaw's historic strikeout, USA's win over Guatemala, and Patrick McEnroe joins us from Wimbledon for five good minutes. But we begin today with Los Angeles Lakers finally getting a big man.

They signed former overall number one pick seven-foot DeAndre Aiton to a two-year contract. Aiton had just been released by Portland. we had played the last two seasons. He averaged 14 points and 10 rebounds for the Trailblazers this past season playing just 40 games. Wilbon, what does this do for the Lakers, and how does it affect how you see the West? It improves the Lakers, and it probably does more specifically for Luca Dantzich than LeBron. I mean, Donchich, you know, is vocal and has been in management situations where he played in Dallas and now the Lakers about the kind of player, Aiton, who he's, he's.

really can tag team with and take advantage of a lob threat at the rim. We hear that. Aiton's defense is spotty. He can be a rim defender. He can be a lot of things, but he can also just take nights off. We saw that even when Chris Paul had to go to the, you know, I'm going to use this jockey phrase to the whip hand and really press him to get them to the finals in 2021 when the suns got there. And that was the best of Aiton. But you had Chris Paul really riding him to get there. I don't know. Is Luca that guy?

Can Luca do that? LeBron can do that. But who's going to get that out of Aiton? Are they now even with Oklahoma City and Houston? No, they're not. Not even Minnesota to me. Not even Dallas to me. No, they're not.

But this is a step in the right direction for the Lakers, and that's where it starts. Just a step. They got more to go. I'm going to go in a different direction and tell you that the most important thing this does, in my mind is guaranteed that LeBron will be there all year.

LeBron James now finally has a big man who will play like a big man, not drift out there and take threes. That's what they were lacking last year. Luca Dantich was their number one rebounder. That's not going to happen now. I mean, I understand DeAndre Aiton hasn't been what people thought

he was going to be. But he has also averaged 16 and 10 throughout his career. And he's going to be a presence for this particular team. And so the threat, threatening comments that were made by LeBron James and Rich Paul seven to ten days ago about you better work on what's happening with the Lakers. The implied threat was that LeBron would want to leave. Well, they worked on it.

They gave him a credible big man, not an incredible big man, but a credible big man. They can reset. And Mike, I think it could be a big deal. And I think they could become true contenders in the West. True contenders, I believe it. But this is not the finishing touch. By the way. Some credit to Rao Polinka, who every year there's sort of, oh, they've got to do this, they got to do that.

And he's done this multiple times, got them to a conference championship round anyway, two seasons ago, two post seasons ago. And he got him Luca out of just falling out of the heavens. And now DeAndre, these guys were the numbers one and three overall picks in their drafts not too long, in their draft not too long ago. So this is a nice move. I'm not, it's not the finishing move. Let's not get crazy. Let's move to baseball, where Clayton Kershaw did something last night. Only 19 pitchers had done before him.

Kershaw struck out White Sox third baseman Vinnie Kappa for his 3,000 career K. There are fewer players who have reached 3,000 strikeouts and 3,000 hits tone. So how significant is this milestone in your mind? Well, he is the 20th ever. He's only the fourth left-hander, Steve Carlton, Randy Johnson, C.C. Sabathe. They're all in the Hall of Fame. Kershaw is going to the Hall of Fame. So are the two active players who are on this list right now.

Scherzer and Verlander, they're going to the Hall of Fame. I don't know all that much to make about it, because a lot of these pitchers are what I would call modern pitchers, where the strikeout is now more important, more prevalent than it was, say, 40 or 50 years ago. I was surprised, Mike, speaking of lefties, Warren Spahn, not on this list. I'm not surprised by Kofax because he didn't pitch long enough.

All of these 20 guys. or either going to the Hall of Fame or are in the Hall of Fame with two exceptions. Kurt Schilling and Roger Clemens. And Clemens is out right now because of the PEDs. I noted that there are fewer guys to 3,000 strikeouts than 3,000 hits. Is that supposed to tell us it's harder to get the 3,000 strikeouts? And I wonder, Mike, is there going to be another one? Or is this it?

Because they don't pitch a lot of innings anymore. Will Chris Sale get there? Will Garrett Cole get there? Will anybody ever get there? I don't know. Yeah, Tony, it's interesting when you just, go down the list and I started it just before we went on the air, I wanted

to know the top five and Nolan, Ryan, Randy Johnson, Clemens, Carlton, and Blyleven. Blyleven sort of surprises me there, but he pissed like 23, 24 years. But then, Tony, it's a nice note that you make about the sort of the modern nature of the list, although

we're old enough now that you have to put Gibson and Jenkins, the two people that I grew up watching the most, like they're straddling that, right? They're not back with Walter Johnson, but it's been 60 years. I mean, it's been a long time for Gibson and Jenkins, and I'm glad they're on that list.

So you look at the list, and it's quite representative to me. I found it fascinating to go through, and Kershaw, good for him. I just, you know, I don't know what's more important. That or sort of, what are we going to remember? That or postseason success, postseason struggles, World Series rings. Like, what, you know, where do you fall down? Maybe all of it. Maybe it's a tapestry of all of it.

It. Good for him that he did it in L.A. with the only team he has ever played for. Only Gibson. There's one other. Walter Johnson went all the way down with one team. Let's move to soccer quickly, where last night in St. Louis, the United States men's team beat Guatemala 2 to 1 to advance to the finals of the Gold Cup. Both United States goals were scored by Diego Luna in the first 15 minutes. The U.S. then desperately hung on to the lead for the next 75 minutes. The U.S. will now play Mexico on Sunday in Houston. Wilbon has this run made you more optimistic about the United States prospects in next year's World Cup. No, it has nothing to do with the prospects of next year's World Cup because they ain't beat any of those teams. And that's not

this tournament. But Luna, who you mentioned, the most overused word in sports today, and it's used usually by athletes, is dog. He's got that. dog. Not everybody has that dog. Luna seems to have that dog in him. That's the way he played last night. And if you can discover one player who plays with that kind of infectious spirit and determination, then you've done something important in this competition. That's what's important.

Does this bring the United States closer to any of the top, you know, FIFA ranked teams in the world? No. but I liked watching Luna last night, Tone, I did. Yeah, so I can't help much with this because you're Mr. Soccer, not me. You go to Premier League games.

I don't do that, but I can refer to Taylor Twelman, who was our guest a couple of times in the last two weeks, including yesterday. A couple of weeks ago, we asked him what would constitute at minimum success in the Gold Cup for the United States? And he said, you've got to get to the finals. At least get to the finals. So they got

to the finals. So that's, to me, successful, even if they lose to Mexico. unless they lose six nothing. And then yesterday, he looked at both teams and he said he thought the United States had enough talent to win like four nothing. Well, they only won two to one. The only one, two to one, he also said there'd be a pro

United States crowd in St. Louis. And people who watched the game told me, no, it was pro Guatemala, which makes me think that in Houston, on Sunday, it's going to be pro Mexico. So we'll see. Let's take a break. Coming up, is it more impressive how Novak Djokovic is playing at his age, what Carlos Alcaraz is accomplishing at his

and we're going to ask Patrick McEnroe. We're also asking why so many top seats are out so early. What do you see it from Naomi Osaka and Emera Ritakano? Tony, you didn't answer the question about whether it gives you more confidence going into World Cup. I think it does because the guys coming back are going to be juiced up by this. Players are heading into the third round at Wimbledon, which is where we find our long-lost friend, and we love the SPN. Tennis commentator Patrick McEnroe.

Patrick, we're going to start with a comparative question. What is more impressive to you the way Novak Djokovic is playing at 38 years old or what Carlos Alcaras is accomplishing at 22 years old? Well, I would say it's the 38-year-old Novak Djokovic guys, because the fact that he's still playing at this level, we've really never seen this before in a consistent basis in men's professional tennis. Carlos Alcaraz is phenomenal. He's won the last two Wimbledon titles.

He won in Paris just a couple of weeks ago for the second time. He's the guy who's the favorite to win this title, no doubt about it. But we've seen greatness at that age before. But what Djokovic is continuing to do to play at this level in the majors is phenomenal. He played well in Paris, got to the semifinals there, getting dismantled by Sinner, who's the other favorite in the semifinals. But he feels very comfortable on the grass. In fact, he said in his press conference today after his straight-set win,

that that's the best he's felt in a long time. And if he plays like that, he said that he thinks he can beat anyone in the tournament. But it's likely he would have to beat Sinner in the semifinals and then Al-Qaraz in the final. And trust me, he will have to play his A game to have a chance to beat both of them back to back. Be something to see all those guys still left in the tournament the way it's going, Patrick. So many of the top seeds are out already. Are we just looking at sort of fluke circumstances? do you see more a common thread here?

I think it's a little more fluky, Mike, than we've seen before. There are 19 seeds of the 32 out in the men's field. There's 17 out in the women's field already. You know, the conditions, the first couple of days, it was brutally hot here for the first two days, which is very unusual for London this time of year. That made the courts actually play a little bit differently, a little quicker.

And I think that could have been part of it. But, you know, there is a lot more parity in men's tennis, in women's tennis down the line, not at the top of men's tennis. Sinner and Alcares, between the two of them, have won the last six major titles. So we had the era of the big three. Now we're pretty much in the era of the big two. They've distanced themselves from the rest of the field. In the women's game, it's definitely more spread out.

In fact, here at Wimbledon, there's been eight different winners of the ladies' singles title in the last eight years, and it's very possible. In fact, I'd say likely that we'll see a ninth winner. At the moment, you'd have to say Arena Sabalanka, the favorite, the top seed. You had Cocoa Gough being upset in the opening round, which was a big shock. Jessica Pagula, the three seed also being upset in the opening round. So not wide open, but I think there's more players in the ladies' tournament that can win it. Whereas on the men's side, it's pretty much Al-Karaz, Sinner, maybe Djokovic is the third favorite at the moment.

Well, let's stick with the women's side for a second. Patrick. I'm glad you mentioned it. I'm excited that Osaka and Raducano, who is kind of removed from their major championships, are seeming to be at least on the front porch of the big action again. How do you assess where each of them is right now? Well, let me start with Emma Radikano, who's obviously from Great Britain, so there's a lot of attention on her always. She came literally out of nowhere a few years ago, as you both remember. coming through the qualifying, winning the U.S. Open, which was one of the most unpredictable, amazing efforts that we've seen in the modern era of professional tennis. She's struggled since then. She's had some injuries. She's a superstar now in England,

so she makes a ton of money off the court. But finally, she seemed to be finding that love of the game, that a game again. But that's the good news for Emma Radicano. The bad news is that in round three, she's got to take on Sabalanka, who's got the most power of any woman out there and who certainly has the ability to essentially blow her off the court. Naomi Osaka, a very different story.

She won four majors in her career, including, as you will remember, beating Serena Williams in the final at the U.S. Open. She won two at the U.S. Open. She won two in Australia. She's never played her best tennis on a grass court. But I'll tell you what, guys, the draws really opened up in her section of the draw. I'd mention all the seated players are out, many of whom, we're in her part of the draw. So she's got an excellent chance, I believe,

to get through to the semi-finals where she would likely play Sabalanka if she gets that far. But here's another American to look out for her. There's Madison Key. She won the Australian this year. But Amanda Anisimova, that's another player that I think could be a huge surprise. She's knocking on the door, the top 10,

and she's a player that's also in the same section. I think it's going to be between Anisamova and Osaka to likely threaten Sabalanka most likely in the semifinals. Patrick, we'll get you out of here on this. I love this question. I love this story. Djokovic said today that Wimbledon's tennis balls are fluffier than they were 10 to 15 years ago,

and that as a result slows down the grass game and allows more baseliner's to compete. Do you like that evolution? And in fact, is this a thing? I mean, I would think if this were true, it would be a major. your deal because tennis balls, they matter. They matter. Would be like baseballs going out in, you know, in the stadiums, people hitting at 500 feet. Is this? What is this? What do you think? Well, they talk about the juice ball and baseball, right? And maybe this is the non-juice ball in tennis. And I think no, I'm not going to argue with Novak Jokers. There's no doubt that about 20 plus years

ago, the All England club here that runs Wimbledon made the decision that we want the game to be a little bit slower. They changed the nature of the grass. They changed the nature of the ball. And they're constantly tinkering with it because they want it to be a good spectacle, a good viewing spectacle. And they didn't want those big servers. Remember Pete Sampras? Remember Goran Yvanovich. Mark Filipus. Richard Kreichick. It was basically becoming a serving fest at the end of those 1990s, early 2000. So they switched the balls. They changed the grass. And it evolves. Every year, they tinker with it a little bit. But here's the bottom line. You've got to be a great all-court player to win this tournament. You've got to be a jock. You've got to be an athlete. You've

got to be able to move exceptionally well. And yes, you can come to the net. Yes, you can be successful. We've seen Al-Carez do that in the last two years that he's won this title, both times beating Novak Djokovic in the final, but he also got to be able to play from the baseline. And you've got to play it well. Jokovic is a perfect example of a guy who's got the all-court game. He can come forward. Essentially, he started out guys here as more of a defensive player. to serve as improved, the ability to come forward as improved. And that's why he's looking for his eighth Wimbledon title, which would tie the great Roger Fedder, in my view, the greatest offensive player ever to play on this court.

Djokovic would love to be able to tie that record and not to mention, then hold the all-time record of 25 major titles. Currently, he's tied with Margaret Court. So he would love to wrap things up here at Wimbledon with number eight and number 25. I love it. I love the fact that they change the grass. I love the fact that they change the tennis balls. Thank you, Patrick. It's great to see you again. Thank you. Appreciate it. A lot of things have changed here, but guys, don't ever change. You too, okay? We just get older and older. You can catch Wimbledon on ESPN again tomorrow, starting at 8 a.m.

Eastern. Let's take one last break still to come. The Blue Jays could sweep the Yankees and take over the AL East tonight. Is that a big deal? And yet another great catch at or above the center field wall. There's a lot of them. A lot of them. Tony, isn't it great to be in London in midsummer at Wimbledon or anything else? Isn't it awesome? I loved it. I loved it when I was there.

Yeah, covered it a few times. I loved it. Happy time. People, happy 58th birthday, Brian Cashman. Sneaky Young, considering Cashman, has been the general manager of the New York Yankees since 1998. That's 27 years. Cashman is the longest-tenured GM in baseball. If George Steinbrenner were still alive and running the team,

there is no way anyone in the Yankee organization would have a job for that long. Cashman started with the Yankees as an intern in 1986 after graduating from Catholic University where he played the infield. Cashman was at the helm of the Yankees when they won three straight World Series under Joe Torrey from 1998 through 2000. He had another World Series winner under Joe Girardi in 2009, and he's waiting for his first one with Aaron Boone. For a long time there, if you mentioned Cashman,

and the senior had to mention Theo Epstein, because they were the Yanks and the Sox, and they're fighting back and forth, and then their roads diverged, and they both had wildly successful careers, it seems to me. Happy anniversary in Martina Navratilova. On this day, 43 years ago, Navratilova beat Chris Everett 6-1-362

for the first of her six-straight-Wimledon titles. Navratilova ended up with nine Wimbledon titles and 18 majors overall. Everett also won 18 majors, including seven French opens and six U.S. opens. The two contested 80 matches between 1973 and 1988, 60 of which were finals. Navratilova was 43 and 37 in the head-to-heads with Everett, 36 and 24 in the finals. They are the most prolific tennis rivalry of the open era. Everton and Navartolova were great rivals who became best friends. There is a story about their friendship by Sally Jenkins and the Washington Post that will warm your heart.

The lifelong consumer of tennis, Tony, I always felt enriched when I got to see them play each other. And as you mentioned, usually at the end of a tournament for the championship, nothing like. Yeah. Happy trails to extra bases for Riley Green. The Tiger Slugger hit one deep to left center last night. Nat's center fielder Jacob Young tracked it, scaled the fence, and came away with an impression. probable catch. Young said he thought the ball was going to travel farther, but it died by the wall, so he ended up backhanding it at shoulder height. Here's a fun fact, Mike, Riley Young,

Riley Green, rather, and Jacob Young played travel ball together as teenagers in Florida. I never get tired of seeing these at the wall or over-the-wall catches. All night long, you can go with them, and they just all seem to be thrilling. And every day somebody says the best catch of the year, and it's not the next day is the best catch in the year as well. Let's go to the big finish. Your guy the Miz gave up five earned in three and two thirds. He took the loss to the Mets last night. How'd that taste? Tasted great. We got a half game on the Brewers who split. Come on now, it tasted great to have a cheese head getting rocked. Blue Jays beat the Yanks last night, have caught them atop the AL East of this.

You think that's significant. Yeah, I think any time you're in first place, even if you're tied, it doesn't matter. Yeah, it's significant. Red Panned is out of the hospital after breaking her left wrist. When she fell off her unicycle, your thoughts. Sally's going to miss a few months, apparently, but she's just a great athlete, one of the best in the arena, any night she's there. James Wood of the Nats joined a home run derby, the home run derby. I bet you're excited. I am, because he hits the ball harder than anybody in the National League

other than Shoahatani. You know, I'd love to see him in a home run derby. Last one, CFL tonight. Winnipeg Blue Bombers at the Calgary Stampeders. Are you smelling upset? I don't know. I need to be predicting Canadian football. But I'm gonna watch, Tony, when I'm not peeking at the Cubs Cleveland

in the rubber match of that. Not the rubber, going for the sweet. Watch everything. We're out of time. Trying to better the next time, and I'm Tony Kornhizer. I'm Mike Wilpon. We're off until Monday, knuckleheads. Enjoy the holiday weekend.