PTI - Should the NBA have suspended LaMelo Ball?

Episode Date: April 17, 2026

Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser discuss yesterday evening's  insane play-in matchups, whether the NBA got LaMelo's punishment right, and the future of LIV golf. 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. It's get to know your customers' day, Tony. You have a question for our viewers?

I'm Tony Kornheiser. Aren't you sick of us yet? All these years we're so old. Aren't you sick of us? Guess not. I'm sick of us. You know, maybe if you ever want to watch people who actually watch games and not the clips.

Yeah. Not, you know, even the clip generation. They've got to learn something. Welcome to PTI, boys and girls. In today's episode, the NBA does not suspend lamello ball. The Liv Tour says it's going full throttle. And hockey analyst, T.J. O'She, joins us for five good minutes. But we begin today with last night's NBA play-in games.

Golden State beat the Los Angeles Clippers by making up a 13-point deficit in the fourth quarter on the road. The Warriors will now play Phoenix for the eighth seat. And Philadelphia beat Orlando convincingly, 109-97. and beat Orlando without Joe Ellen Bede, who recently had an appendectomy. Steph Curry had 35 points for the Warriors. Tyrese had 31 for the Sixers, who are now the seventh seed

and will play the Celtics on Sunday. Wilbon, which win was more improbable? Golden State's win, Tony. You know, Philly's playing at home and Orlando's a mess. Bankero has gone from, oh, my God, what a talent, to what's up with this dude? What's going on in his head?

So I hate to dismiss Orlando, who may even dismiss their coach who I like tremendously. And I don't know what is going on there. No, we go to Golden State. We go to L.A. Into a building that the Warriors were 0 for 9. They never won a game there. And they're supposed to be on a minutes limit, which made you and me laugh yesterday. And so they're down and they need something.

And Steph is playing okay, but not great. And Al Horford's out there. he's at like minus 20. And then boom, it all starts going. Steph has a 16 points, you know, in about 10 minutes stretch in the third. He has 11 more in the fourth. Draymond blankets Kauai Leonard in a way that made Draymond look like a combination of Dennis Robman and Bill Russell.

And you're like, oh, my God, a guy who's won a ring with his offensive prowess can't even get a shot. And so that win, I texted you very late. Yes, she did. I felt some sort of way. I felt honored to watch Steph Curry one more time. You don't know how many times you're going to get to see this. Okay, he's not 27 years old.

To watch Steph Curry and Draymond Green and then old man Al Horford do that, my God, it was cool. Yeah, I got your text and I could feel the passion in the text. My inclination is also to say it's great that Steph Curry continues to play this season. Yes, yes. He's got another game now. You know, because we all love Steph Curry. And Steph Curry was Steph Curry last night. In the second half, he had 27 points.

He shot 10 for 14 from the field and five for seven from three. You know, and I'm not immune to that. I'm not immune to Steve Kerr looking at the audience and saying, all you guys have said, we should shut Steph Curry down. This is who he is, and this is what he does. I'm not immune to that. I'm not immune to Draymond Green holding Kauai Leonard to two points in the fourth quarter in his home gym. That's a wow.

just knocking them out of the whole thing. But, and here's my buck. Just as Steph Curry, I'm going to go for a while, just as Steph Curry is the most important and most valuable player on the Golden State Warriors, Joel Embed is the most important and most valuable player on Philadelphia. And Curry played last night,

and Embed did not play last night. And Philadelphia is still won. And I am impressed with the improbability of that. That's fair. That's fair. Notwithstanding. Yeah. Because as opposed to a great veteran

an organization reaching back into their archives and pulling out a win. The Sixers had to learn how to play without MB because he missed 44 games this year. They were 21 and 23 with Adam. It's not terrible, but they had to step up last night. And as you said, a guy who didn't step up at all was Paula Ben-Cara. He did not. He was seven for 22 from the field and 0-4-5-3 with six turnovers. He melted. He's become an issue. He really has. We get to see Golda-Said to get. I am thrilled about that. Warriors in Phoenix Friday night, let's move to the NBA's

curious ruling on a mellow ball's Tuesday night take down of Bam, out of bio. Ball was not whistled for the swipe at the time that sent out of bio to the locker room. But subsequently, the NBA reviewed the play and has now assessed ball of Flagrant two, and for his

actions, find him 35 grand, but did not suspend him from Friday night's elimination game at Orlando, Tony, Shabal had been suspended. I am changing my mind from what I said yesterday on this show. Wow. Yesterday on this show, I said that I didn't think you could put a penalty on someone in game B for what they did in game A. I thought that felt a little bit vindictive. I do not feel

that anymore. And I think I am persuaded by the footage that I saw yesterday indicating that he did this to the same guy before to Bam Adebio. So to me, I assume intent now in that situation. They gave him a flagrant two, which in the moment of a game would carry an ejection from the game. That didn't happen in that game. It can happen in this game, and I am persuaded it should for this reason. Bam Outabio is the best player on Miami. Absolutely.

He's lost early in the second quarter, and you cannot convince me that that didn't have play. in the final score of that game. So I would change my mind now, and even though it would cost Charlotte the playoffs, which I think they deserve at 29 and 10 in their last 39, I would sit lamella. Don't talk to me about fines. Don't talk to me about $35,000 for that

or $20,000 for cursing on the air. $60,000 is a lot of money for most people in the world, unless you make $38 million in a year. And then it's meaningless, so don't talk to me about it. Yeah, you know, I said yesterday, thought he had he deserved a suspension because the flagrant two carries a suspension plain and simple carries a ejection let me say it that way yeah so he should have been ejected from that game i understand why he wasn't in the flow of a game and why the officials wouldn't call that that way

immediately i get that but once you look back and you go flagrant too miami's at the crib bam out of bio's not worth one point he just scored like 80 in a game of course he's worth one point in an overtime game so then then Miami got hosed. And I, you know, I'm sort of charmed by Charlotte, too, Tony. I am. I like looking in on them now and saying, well, what's up? You know, as mellow maturing as a player, what's con, con, canipal got? You know, what do these guys have?

But no, when you go that far, the fine is not enough. There needs to be a one game ramp. Let me ask you this, though. What's that? Well, wait, Spolstra, Eric Spolster said it's okay that he played. Took the high road. Yes. I mean, does that change your mind?

Because I don't know. Didn't change mine, but I appreciate it. It softens it. I'm not as striding about it. All right. Let's move to golf where yesterday it was being reported that the Liv Tour might be going out of business because the flow of Saudi money might be ending.

Now we have the Liv Tour officially saying that for this season at least, all systems are go at full throttle for the remaining nine scheduled tournaments this year. Wilbon, the promise is full throttle, but if you are a live player, how would you be feeling right now? Be feeling rich.

Rich, a lot of that money, hundreds of millions of dollars, a lot of that was paid up front and has been paid by now. So even if you get no more money, most of those guys, a couple, and I don't mention any names, received up front tens of millions into the hundred million north of that, received it already. So I'm feeling rich is what I'm feeling. And, you know, it's interesting, Tony. We, you know, I know that everybody looks at golf down.

No one knows anything about the history of any sport anymore. But we saw this with the AFL. How was Joe Namath feeling when, you know, the two leagues merged, the AFL, which he signed with as sort of a rogue out of Alabama and went with the New York Jets? And then they merged with the NFL. How were they feeling? The guys who went to the AFL and then later to that WFL,

which only lasted like into the second season. How were they feeling paid? Okay, I accept that. I don't think Live is long for this world because it's a guy or two dumping a lot of money into a big pot. And, you know, that wears off. That wears off after a while

and you stop dumping money into a pot. I am much more concerned with the re-entry of the people from the Live Tour to the PGA tour that they were, walked out on because they got, as you say, all this money to leave. I'm interested in that. I don't want to use the word punish, but we are all responsible for our actions. There are consequences to our actions. Should they get back to the PGA tour? Sure, eventually. But what I'm proposing, Mike, is like a probationary period, not for John Rom or DeChambo. They're big stars, not for them.

But it's sort of a probationary period because I want to protect, Mike, the pros, the PGA Tour pros who did not leave that are ranked, say, 60 to 100. I don't want them swept out by a flurry of guys from the Live Tour coming back in. I think they should be rewarded on some level. So I would send most of the Live Tour guys to the DP World Tour for about a year. But Tony, prove that your game is good. A great player like Tyrell Haddon can prove it in a minute. Okay, but Tony, what? All the guys on the tour who stayed, you know what they got? You know what the consequence was? Their damn pockets got heavy. because all of that leverage got the PGA tour. Hundreds of millions of dollars.

And if I was one of the guys from live coming back, I would say, let's check your bank account four years ago and check it now, homie. So I don't want to hear any pious garbage from the guys on the PGA tour. I don't. I'm not being pious. I'm saying you've got to go out.

You have to show me that your game is still as good after 54 holes, after shotgun starts, after music and shorts. You got to show me for a little while. See the world and make money. Let's take a break. Coming up, Alex Ovechkin opens the door

to playing another season, and we're going to ask T.J. O'Shee about that. We're also asking why the Golden Knights switch to torts has paid immediate dividend. I think everybody has gotten rich and gone. They all got rich. Everybody has gotten rich. And you know what?

Somebody should thank Phil Nicholson. Bill was right. And somebody should thank Phil and not treat him as an outcast. It's the last night. the NHL's regular season. The playoff starts Saturday, which makes this a perfect time for a visit from ESPN NHL analyst, T.J. O'She, who Mike and I know from his days that the capitals when he was on a Stanley Cup capital team. So we'll start with that in mind. Alexander O'Vetchin says he is pretty sure this has not been his last season. You played with him in Washington. The other day you

spoke with him. That was on television. What sense are you getting, T.J., about Ovi's future plans? Well, I actually spoke with him the night before the game as well. We hung out and talked for quite a long time, actually. I've obviously retired just a couple years ago. We played together for 10 years. And maybe I rubbed off on him because I talked about how much I missed it, how much I miss everything. Even like playing through injuries and stuff that people would be like,

this guy's nuts. But when you're not there anymore, you do miss it. But I think he was really on the fence. And I think he didn't want to close either door. And I think he tried to do a very good job of, of showing that. And those comments, I mean, I get the sense that he does want to come back. I think it might take a couple weeks to see how his body's doing,

see if he does want to get back in the weight room, obviously over 40 years old now. It takes a little bit more than it did when you're in your 20s and 30s. But the big man, he's unbelievable. And I'm not kidding. If he comes back, I got him down for another 30-goal season. This guy can score like no one I've ever seen. Well, of course, Ovesgue is such a large story where Tony and I here are here in D.C. I'm going to spread this out a little bit to Buffalo.

The Sabres were such an intriguing story throughout the regular season, but we're at playoff time now, of course, TJ. How do you think they stack up with the Bruins? Honestly, Buffalo is the one team I'm most excited to watch in a playoff game. Throughout the last half of the season, they've kind of ran through everyone. And they've done it offensively. In the playoffs, offense is a little harder to come by. They're very good at transition.

They're very good off the rush. Usually those transitions off the rush come from turnovers in the playoffs. Trust me, I know. The guys are a little bit more nervous to make high-risk plays through the middle. They're going to be a little bit more safe so Buffalo is going to have to work

a little bit harder than they did in the regular season to score. I will say if they do adjust, this is probably my scariest team in the east and probably my favorite. If they can play a playoff-style game and continue the offense that they have, I can see them going all the way.

Well, perhaps you can help us figure out what the heck's going on in Las Vegas with a Golden Knights fire Bruce Cassidy, then win seven of eight under torts. Why do you think that kind of abrupt change so late has been able to work? I think when you look at the Vegas roster, everyone assumes they should have been a lot better than they were. I will say, no matter who you bring in, you could bring my mom in. If a coach gets fired, the players, I'm not, well, actually, you would be probably scared to play for her, too. She would get on you. But the players know, all right, the coach is gone.

Guess who's next if we don't succeed? Now it's the players. And we're going to break up this locker room. So no matter what, the players are going to have a little bit of a fire lit under them. But then you bring in torts, a guy that everyone completely respects. He demands respect. He's incredibly honest. And he's been around the league quite a bit.

He's seen a lot of different characters. I love the guy. I played for him in the World Cup. I wish I could have played with him at some point for a full season and especially in a Stanley Cup final because of his honesty and how much he cares about the guys. And so I'm not surprised at all. I think Vegas now is a very dangerous team come playoff time.

Let me stay with this theme about coaches, not coaching changes. Well, I guess it was. Coaches and what they say in their honesty. Okay. So Columbus interim coach, Rick Bone, reportedly has agreed to a new deal. He blasted his team the other night after the game against the caps, I believe, saying they didn't care. I mean, he lit them on fire. If you were a

player on that team, how would you feel about his words and his return next year? I would personally love it. I think the comments are only going to affect a certain kind of player, and that's a kind of player that didn't leave it all on the ice. If I'm in that lock, I guarantee Zach Werenski took that. Maybe as a protective leader, he feels like he's got to protect his teammates, but that's not directed towards him. He gave all he had.

He drove the bus for that team. It's the guys that didn't commit everything. The guys that maybe didn't care of them, take care of themselves as much. Maybe the guys that were a little nervous, a little shy when things got tough down the end of the season when everyone's trying to make the playoffs.

And so I love the message. I think it might be one of the reasons he's back there. I heard all their comments today. today, they all love them. In the exit meetings, you go in with the GM. It's just you and the GM. No one else. You can say whatever you want. And all the players said that they respected them and loved them and they knew how much he cared about them. So if I'm looking in the mirror and a lot of those guys will be, I've been one of those guys before. And I heard my coach say that after our last game when yes, it meant nothing, but you're playing for pride. You're playing for yourself. You're playing for your city. Your fans that were there all season. If I'm looking in the mirror and bone says that, and I think that might be towards me. My summer is going to look a lot different. It's going to be a lot harder in the gym, a lot more time on the ice. I'm going to come

back and prove that I deserve to be on the Columbus Blue Jackets. Thanks so much for being with us. This was delightful. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thanks for having me, boys. This is an honor. Thank you. Let's take one last break, but still to come, Shohei, make sure the Mets dropped their eighth in a row. And the NBA decides that the 65-game rule doesn't apply

to K-Doh. or Luca. Can you imagine being coached by T.J.'s mom? I mean, can you imagine that? I laughed out loud at that. Happy time, people. Happy 35th birthday, Nolan Aronado. When he came up with the Colorado Rockies in 2013,

Aronado was an immediate star. Over eight seasons in Colorado, he had eight straight gold gloves at third base and four silver sluggers. Aronado had 235 home runs with the Rockies and a batting average of 293. Aronado was then traded to St. Louis where he spent five seasons. He won two more gold gloves, giving him 10 in a row to start his career, tying Ichero for the Major League mark to start a career.

Aronado won a silver slugger in St. Louis, hit 118 home runs there, and made three All-Star games, giving him eight All-Star appearances combined with Colorado. Aronado is now in Arizona, traded there this past January, only hitting 206, but it's early. You know the word I associated with Aronado's play, Tony, particularly defensively, is stylish. And in those years, he was in St. Louis. I'm just not allowed to root for that. I like Aronado. Now that he's in Arizona, he's in a palatable place for me. I can go back to rooting now in this last chapter, probably, for Nolan Aronado.

Great, great, great, great player. Happy anniversary, New England Patriots on this day, 26 years ago. The Patriots selected Michigan quarterback Tom Brady in the sixth round with a 199th overall pick in the 2000 NFL draft. Brady was the seventh quarterback chosen in that draft, a fact he never forgot. Chad Pennington who went in the first round to the New York Jets and Mark Bulger, who originally went for the Saints, had nice careers, but nothing within miles of Brady's. Brady went to 10 Super Bowls, 9 with New England and one with Tampa Bay,

and won 7. Six with the Patriots, one with the bucks. Brady may be the greatest draft pick ever, given the fact that it was in the sixth round. Anybody got an update on Spurgeon win for us? That's why, as much as I now, the last three years, obsessed over the draft, at some point, no matter how many mock drafts you consume, no matter how many 40 times and, you know, arm-length, you know, numbers, you don't know. You just got to say you don't know what's going to happen in those, what is it, seven rounds now?

You don't know. Happy trails to the eighth straight game for the Mets, and it wasn't close as they lost to the Dodgers 8 to 2. The Mets got shut down by Shoah, who won six innings, allowing just two hits, one earned run, striking out 10. Otani didn't bat in the game, but ran his pitching numbers to 2-0 with a 0.50 ERA. Meanwhile, the Mets have fallen to 7 and 12, have scored just three runs in their last 38 innings. Offensive centerpieces Bobichette and Francisco Lindor have just one homer apiece. Next up for them, a three game set at Wrigley against your Cubs, Wilburne. Yeah, the Mets aren't going to stay awful forever.

They're going to break out. That's at some point, I don't want them breaking out of it. And Wrigley, but, man, Shohei. I mean, you know, you just, Shohei and Wimbenyama. Whatever you're doing, when they're on, just stop doing what you're doing and watch them. I think we're, you know, looking at maybe the greatest baseball player of all time.

Let's go to the big finish. Let's do it. The NBA rule of Kaye, Cunningham, and Luca Donchich are eligible for postseason awards, despite not playing 65 games. Does that make sense for you? I think a collapsed lung and flying over halfway around the world for the birth your child are reasonable excuses. Very reasonable. The NBA did the right thing. In my opinion, Kaden Boozer has decided to stay at Duke. Not going to transfer. Your thoughts? I think it's great.

It gives him a chance to change the arc of his career after that play against Yukon. Good for him. Asia Wilson agreed to a three-year, five million dollar supermax deal to stay with the Aces. Is that significant? Yes, she's one of the great players in the league history, the history of the league, and the contract is both symbolic and practical. Yes, going to Asia Wilson is the way. way to go. The Wizards will reportedly retain head coach Brian Keith. Are you feeling about that? I expect that. He did exactly what they told them to do. Lose. Fine. Last one, Aaron, Judge, Homer, four times Mike Trout, five as the Angels and Yankees split a four-game series. Your thoughts? It's early. I'm more fascinated by Trout's a golf course in his building. But Trout, I just want him to be in the playoffs. I want his team to matter. Team success for Mike Trout.

We are out of time. We are trying to do better the next time. I'm Tony Corny. I'm Mike Wilbon. Same time tomorrow, knuckleheads.