PTI - LeBron is Headed to the Sixers!!!

Episode Date: July 27, 2026

Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser discuss LeBron and the Miz. Plus, Brian Windhorst joins the show! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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You're richer than you think. The interruption, but I'm Michael O'Antonia. Truck Crash in Ohio. Spill pickles. all across the highway. I'm Tony Kornizer Pickles. I bet those commuters were salty. What do you have to do with salt?

I've never eaten a pickle. I will never eat a pickle. Pickles are the nastiest things in the universe. I've never eaten one. Never. You've never eaten a pickle at your age? Never? Never had a good half-sour pickle?

Really? Never? If I see a pickle, the salad goes back to the kitchen and the chef could be. threat. What a salads? Nobody puts pickles in salads. What about on hamburgers? If it snuck onto a hamburger, you don't,

what do you do? Death. Really? Death. Death to the kitchen. I thought I knew you. I never had a pickle. Welcome to PTI, boys and girls. In today's episode, The Miz strikes out 12 of 13. A potential star is born on the PGA tour, and Brian Windhorst joins us for five good minutes. But we begin today with LeBron James officially signing a contract with the Philadelphia 76ers yesterday, a two-year $8 million contract, perhaps one of the greatest bargains in the history of sports.

Well, about what do you make of LeBron's decision to go to the 76ers? And what does this mean for all involved and uninvolved? Well, Tony, look, this is going to be probably the most fascinating result we could have gotten out of this. As you know, I said out loud, and I think you sort of agreed with me that I would like to have seen him go play with the Warriors with Steph Curry and Jemont Green. And that's what I wanted. but I realized as time went on,

you heard less and less buzz around that, and that wasn't going to happen. Cleveland, Miami, been there, done that. Philadelphia, they become a threat in the East. And the East isn't what the East was. Even a year ago, the East is much deeper, much better, young talented players coming in, and they own the champion, the New York Knicks.

It just creates intrigue right off the bat. LeBron's going to go and play on another Super Bowl, team. I do not believe that team will win a championship the first year. When he played with Duane Wade and Chris Bosch and each of those guys played 76 or more games that year they didn't win. And LeBron was 15 years younger and they didn't win. So you can be terrific, you can be intriguing, you can be irresistible to watch. You ain't win in the first year. But I can't wait to see it. I'm glad he's there. My God, what a great start to this season it'll be. Okay. So first of all, I believe I had this. I sat on this show last week and told you, I believe that Philadelphia was the best nesting place for LeBron James. And that was based mostly on the fact that they had acquired Jalen Brown in one of the great steals of all time for an overpaid, overrated Paul George. So I thought this was a very good place for them to play. I know you wanted him to go to Golden State. And there would have been some nostalgia in that when you put him with Steph,

Curry and they play for Steve Kerr. But even then, Mike, I thought they would be significantly behind San Antonio Antonio and Oklahoma City in the West. Totally agree. Unlike you, I make the 76ers, the favorites in the East now. Yes, over the Knicks and certainly over Boston.

I consult my notes as I always do. I think LeBron is chasing rings. I know that his manager or his agent says that's not true. I think he is chasing rings because if you want to say I'm the greatest player of all time, you better go have some rings. I'm not. at all against this. I think this is a good idea. I think he chose Philly because he felt they were

closer to it than either Miami or Cleveland. And he gets to go to a franchise where if he wins there, it will be his fourth different franchise. If you are trying to surpass Michael Jordan, you have to have something Michael Jordan doesn't have. And nobody has, nobody has championships from four different franchises. I mean, look, I, yes, I think this is. is the right place on all levels for him. I do. I think it's a cool place. I don't know if it's right or wrong because I don't care. I like the notion of seeing it. The Knicks of the champs. And I'm riding with the Knicks in as far as, by the way, not to repeat necessarily just to stave off Philly.

But my God, what rivalry. In every sport, you and I have sat in New York and Philly shoulder to shoulder over many years and covered it is so irresistible. Philadelphia is a difficult place to play. The most difficult. I would suggest. And LeBron's never been booed at home. He's never even been booed. He's got to live and work in Philadelphia, even if he goes semi-wilt and lives in New York and commutes to Philadelphia.

He's going to live in New York. Tony, it's going to be hard. You know how hard it is to exist in Philly on a team that's got expectations? Yes. Yes. But when you win, it's the most wonderful place on earth because they appreciate sports

in a way that is difficult for most of us to understand because they boo so much. But it is in their core. Sports is in their core. Let us move to your favorite pitcher, even though he doesn't pitch for your team. Jacob Mizorowski, who yesterday struck out the first seven Colorado Rockies he faced, then 12 of the first 13.

The Ms. through 66 pitches over 100 miles an hour. In the first inning alone, the Milwaukee pitcher threw 13 pitches over 103 miles an hour. The Brewers 1, 11, and 2 in the MIS's Major League leading ERA now, stands at 158. Wilbon, what are we watching in the miss? Tony, you know, I want to say we're watching throwback because starting pitchers,

just having any prominence and start them is a throwback. But it's not a throwback because the guys that you and I watched went eight, nine, ten innings if they needed to 11. That's right. They went every fourth day, not every, you know, once a week. But it's a throwback of sorts, Tony. But there's also this nerve-wracking thing when he's throwing this many pitches,

with this velocity of what could happen because nobody else out there is pitching. I mean, they're throwing. They're not pitching, which is one reason why I know the great Pedro Martinez, and you know I've told you about the conversation I had with Pedro Ed Lent about this, they're not pitching, they're throwing, and that's why they're throwing their arms off. And they're having surgery after surgery every day of every week, it seems, because they don't learn how to pitch anymore from the time their little kids.

Mizorowski, I don't know. Is this sustainable? I don't know. but Tony, when he's out there, it's irresistible, even more than Skeens. I told you, I thought Mizorowski was going to surpass Skeens in this way. I know he's got to go some because Skeens already has a sigh in another season under his belt. Mizorosky, man, he's must see. Okay.

Thank you for mentioning Paul Skeens. Because this exact same question could have been asked on this show last year and the year before. But it would have been about Paul Skeens and not Jacob Misrausk at that time. The same Paul Skeens who was rookie of the year in the National League's first year. The same Paul Skeens who won the Cy Young Award in the National League last year, the same Paul Skeins, who while pitching for a bad team, not a playoff team, Mizorowski pitched for a playoff team. Skeens pitched for a non-playoff team was 21 and 13 over those two years with a 197 ERA.

And now he's getting cuffed around a little bit. He is. He's nine and nine, I believe. He's got a 365 ERA. So I say to myself, if that happened to Skeens, it could certainly happen to Mizorowski. But what we see in Mizorowski now is a complete wow. They have changed the velocity rates because they now measure from the time you release the ball. And not in the old days, 20, 30, 40 years ago, not when it crosses the plate.

But even in that way, Mizorowski has been fabulous. For example, Mason Miller is thought to be the hardest throwing reliever in baseball. He has 11 pitches this season over 103 miles an hour. This guy last night or yesterday, he had. At 13. At 13 in the first inning. And you can compare first innings because a reliever, great reliever only has the first inning.

But like you, and I won't go too long here, I worry. I worry because general managers want velocity and they believe that all pitches are interchangeable parts. I worry Tommy John. I worry somebody gets hurt. But at the moment, 185 strikeouts in 120. Does he remind you of your guy Nolan Ryan? You're a Nolan Ryan guy going back decades.

A little, yes, big. Nolan Ryan was very, very big. But Nolan Ryan was pretty quickly a pitcher and not just a thrower. And that's the distinction you're making and I agree with it. Let's move to yesterday's surprise winner at the 3M Open. Jackson Coyvin,

a 21-year-old shot of 5166 on Sunday to hold off a charging, Scotty Sheffler, and clinch his first PGA tour win. 21. Tony, you more intrigued by Coyvin's win in just his third professional start or by Scottie's fifth runner-up finish this season. I'm more intrigued by the win because going into the weekend, I had never heard his name. I had no idea who he was. As you say, this is only his third pro start and he wins it and he wins it so comfortably. He wins it had such great composure as we both watched him go down the stretch on Sunday. But I want to get to Sheffler for a moment.

Sheffler threw a 63 out there yesterday, a 63 on a Sunday. He finished 22 under par. I can't imagine that Scotty Sheffler ever thought he could go 22 under 63 on Sunday and not win. I believe it's happened once this year. And I believe Wyndham Clark actually was the winner at the Byron Nelson and somebody finished 63 and 22 and didn't make it. I bring up Wyndon Clark because this is not the U.S. Open. Windham Clark had to look at Scotty Sheffler for all 18 holes. Scotty Sheffler teed off an hour before Coyvin teed off. So Coyvin did not ever have to confront him individually and personally. But Coyvin shot 25 under, Mike.

And as you know, every test, every test that he had to take, he passed. Every one. Yeah, course record, 25 under. He's been a pro 24 days. Tony, here's what I say about the whole Scotty Sheffler of it. Scotty Sheffler better hope he's not looking up to a wonderkin. Because then you know what? He may throw all kinds of 60 whatever's out there in mid-60s on Sundays

if this kid's a wonderkin. Big if, Tone. Every couple of years, there's what we used to call in sports. Usually it pertain to baseball, a bonus baby. Somebody who will come out there and just make you go, oh my God, look at this kid. Well, I'm that way on Coivin. from Auburn.

I didn't connect with Charles, our dear friend Charles Wade, Barclay last night, because I know Charles knows his kid as much as Charles loves golf and pays attention to everybody from Auburn. This kid has been the SEC player of the year. Three consecutive years.

The SEC. Tony? Yeah. I'm looking at him and his form and his athleticism and the way he walks around, stalked around the course. I'm saying, you ask me to just look at these two dudes,

him or Scotty Sheffler, I might be ready to ride with him for a long time. Let's see what happens in the next few weeks. Yeah. Yeah. As we say in the trade, slow down, sparky. Slow down. All right.

He's won one tournament. We don't know if it's one of one or we don't know if it's the first of many. Early. What we know of Scotty Schaeffler is he has built a career. Not one great win, a great career. He's got 11 top fives this year. Let's take a break. Coming up, should the Sixers be considered the favorites in the East?

Like I think, we'll ask Brian Windhorst. Stop, Baldur Dash. We'll also ask him what this all means for the teams that didn't get bronze. I like... When West Jet first took flight in 1996, the vibes were a bit different. People thought denim on denim was peak fashion.

Inline skates were everywhere, and two out of three women rocked, the Rachel. While those things stayed in the 90s, one thing that hasn't is that fuzzy feeling you get when West Jetting welcomes you on board. Here's to West Jetting since 96. Travel back in time with us and actually travel with us at westjet.com slash 30 years. Let's get back into LeBron's decision to join the Sixers with our great friend ESPN senior NBA writer, Brian Lindhors.

Brian, you've covered LeBron for a million years. What is your reaction to his choice of teams and the terms of his contract? It's a little bit absurd, to be honest with you. And I don't say that critically or mockingly. It's absurd in all the ways that you want to be refreshed. I mean, he's going to be 24 years into a career and do something that none of us ever saw coming. And it's incredibly intriguing, high stress, high entertainment. You know, are you not entertained?

He makes a decision that is not based on money, that is not based on, you know, his family, is not based on history and is a gamble because now he's going to a team that is humongous expectations. And if they don't win, which maybe it'll be his fault, maybe it'll be, one of any other 10 ways, he'll get blamed for. It's crazy, out of this world, unexpected, and I absolutely love it. And I am totally, I'm re-bought into LeBron's career when I had kind of, like, lost interest in the last few years if you want my honest assessment. Well, certainly Max E&MB didn't lose interest at all because they helped talk LeBron through it. But, Brian, what about Jalen Brown?

We didn't hear as much publicly. Should we make anything of that? Well, we have not really heard fully from Jalen Brown. and we know that Jalen has access to platforms. And, you know, he definitely has a relationship with Maxi and a previous relationship with Embed. They were on the Olympic team together. The Jalen Brown thing is fascinating, guys,

because Maxie and Embed were fully bought in to LeBron. They were pitching him, they were talking about it. Jalen Brown did talk to Rich Paul, but Jalen Brown didn't ask to be on the 76ers. Jalen Brown didn't ask to be in this situation. So this is going to be a challenge for him. And let's be honest. The Sixers need Jalen Brown to have a great season.

They're heavily invested in him. LeBron, they've got almost no investment in. It's basically a free role. Jalen Brown, they owe him $170 million over the next three years. They've severely, seriously invested in him. They need that to work out. Maxie and Embed are going to play their roles. They're point guard and center.

It's not like they're going to play a different position. LeBron and Jalen Brown are going to be the ones who have to sacrifice and bend and figure out how to make this work. And LeBron has done this over and over, and he has very little skin in the game. This is all about Jalen Brown and how bought in he is and how effective he can be. As irresistible as I find this, Brian, I do not have the 76ers winning the Eastern Conference in this first season. Tony does. Do you? I can't make a call on this.

Like I said, this whole situation is absurd. They have an incredibly talented roster, but a lot of their talents are duplicate. kit, and you're going to be asking them to do certain things they haven't done before. For example, they've got four of the fastest uptempo guys in the league. Their four starters are huge transition guys. And then their center is one of the slowest plottingest guys in the league. Yeah, it can work, but it's going to take some time to figure out. I like the ability to watch them play a few months before I have to declare who's going to win these.

Is that okay? Nah, that's no fun. That's okay. That's okay. We will get you out of here on this. I get away with that. What does this do for the teams that didn't get him? And I guess we're thinking specifically about Miami

and we're thinking about Cleveland and I guess Golden State. Well, one of the reasons this has been such a one-off situation is these teams were all looking at adding LeBron for next to nothing and adding them to built out teams. And if Denver or Minnesota would have gotten him, it would have changed the balance of power in the West. I'm not sure Miami would have been a title team, but certainly would have opened the window for them.

and Cleveland probably would have been the favorites to win the East if they had gotten them. And the thing about it is, none of them have cap space. And in some cases like Minnesota and Denver are super capped out. But the team and I want to watch the closest is the Golden State Warriors. There's two things guys that want to watch. Number one, when they signed Raymond Green, do they give them a no trade clause? In other words, we're not going to trade you this season. I would expect they don't want to do that, which leads me to believe that that would still potentially be on the table.

Secondly, does Steph Curry extend his contract this summer? He can't extend it for another four weeks. It's not on the table right now. And if he wants a two-year deal, they're going to give him the two years in $140 million. But if he doesn't extend, it potentially opens Golden State to have more than $100 million in cap space next summer. And that would leave something very interesting on the horizon. So I'm going to see how that plays out. Thank you, Brian.

Great to have you. As always, appreciate you. Let's take one last break. Still to come, C.J. Abrams has been so hot, so hot since the All-Star break, while the Marlins have knocked. And a few of the highlights of the WNBA's All-Star weekend. We've got to ask Brian whether or not, we'll ask him off camera. The Sixers and Nick should play each other opening night. Do you wait and build it up a little bit like until Christmas? Or do you just go, boom, Halloween. Try them out. No.

Summer heats up in FX's The Sharm. Set in 80s, Los Angeles, the Shards follows a group of beautiful, privileged prep school students who are preyed on by The Trailer, a serial killer targeting teenagers across the city. This fever dream of youth, beauty, sex, and mystery is a must see. FX's The Shards, streaming August 5th on Hulu on Disney Plus. Sign up now at Disneyplus.com. Happy time, people. Happy 33rd birthday, Jordan Speak.

Speeth, among others, most notably Rory McElroy early and Scotty Sheffler Lake, stepped into the vacuum created when Tiger Woods drifted away from the golf tour. Speeth won three majors between 2015 and 2017. The Masters, the U.S. Open and the British Open. Brooks kept the one more majors but never connected with the golf crowd the way Speed there. Speed delighted crowds with nearly impossible shots from nearly impossible places. But Speeth has not won on the PGA tour since beating 10th. Patrick Cantley in a playoff at the RBC Heritage in 2022.

Speed has plummeted to 55th in the world. Earlier this month, missed the cut at the British Open. What happened? Well, Tony, there's so many great young players out there. Maybe they just in a bunch and they sort of caught Speed for a moment. Or maybe Speed, like a lot of them, felt the pressure of having to perform up to Tiger, the Ghost, looking over their shoulder. I don't know, but it's sort of weird, right?

Yes, very weird. Not so happy anniversary, Tommy John. On this day, 38 years ago, the man who underwent a revolutionary reconstructive elbow procedure that now bears his name had what we call a bad patch. John then 45 years old and in his second stint with the Yankees committed three errors on the same plate. Milwaukee's Jeffrey Leonard hit a comebacker that John Bobble, error one. Then John hurriedly through the ball wildly down the right field line, error two.

And finally, John inexplicably cut off Dave Winfield's relay throw to the plate and threw it past the catcher, error three. This calamity allowed two runs to score. But all's well that ends well. John pitched eight innings and got the win in a 16 to three Yankee romp. The key part of that is John pitched eight innings. You look at him near. He was 113 years old. He went eight innings.

And then nobody was to take a phone call from some dope in an office. saying you can't get through the lineup a third time. Happy trails to Team Coop in the WNBA All-Star game. Team Spoon took the contest behind game MVP, John Quo Joneses, 22 points, 13 rebounds, and eight assists. The game also featured long threes from Caitlin Clark and a dunk from Dominique Malanga. Rookie Aze Fudd won Friday Night's three-point contest,

missing just six of her 27 shots in the final round, to which she said, quote, You say only six shots, but I feel like that was a lot. I don't want to sound cocky, but it's easy to me. It's just a set shot. Take the ball from the racket, really is muscle memory. It's what I've been doing since I was young, unquote. She then challenged Steph Curry to a contest.

What do you think? I want to see that. I want to see her shooting against Steph Curry. Tony, the highlight to me was Cynthia Cooper being miced and interviewed during the action. Cynthia Cooper. And at the beginning of that league and the multiple championships, I think, four. Cynthia Cooper. Quick to the big finish.

Niners coach, Kyle Shanahan, involved in a serious car accident. But we'll make it back to the team for training camp. Your thoughts? Yeah, broken stuff and stitches and concussion, a severe concussion. We hope the best for Kyle Shanahan. Jeff Kent, Carlos, Beltrane, Andrew Jones were inducted into the baseball hall. Your thoughts. Deserving Hall of Famers, not all timers.

North Carolina put football general men. manager Michael Lombardi on paid administrative leave. Your reaction. How's this going for Chapel Bill in this second season? What's going on there? C.J. Abrams, your boy, has an OPS of 1632. That's insane since the break. They're talking about trading him.

Are you with that? No, no, no. You don't trade C.J. Abrams. You don't trade James Wood. No, no, no, no, no. Marlins have lost a franchise record 12 straight. You're smelling 13 tonight. Yeah.

Yeah, Zach Wheeler. I'm smelling 13. We're out of time. We'll try to do better than next time. I'm Tony Cornheim. And I'm Mike Robo. Same time tomorrow, knucklehead.