PTI - The NBA Offseason is Heating Up!

Episode Date: June 30, 2026

Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser discuss LeBron/Free Agency, Kawhi/Raptors, Buster Olney + more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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A man in Colorado opened the door of his truck and found a bear in the passenger seat. I'm Tony Kornheiser. Rex Grossman? Got to be somebody newer. Got to be. That's been a long time. Tony. This happens all the time in Colorado.

People go out door to get the paper off the front porch. Bear. And a bear? Restaurant sitting in the little knell a few years ago. Having a bite. Bear walks through. Really? It's all placed.

Wow. This happens all the time. The higher you go, like Aspen, Bear. Really? Yeah. Wow. Wow. Welcome to PTI, boys and girls.

In today's episode, Serena Williams loses in our first trip back to tennis in four years. There are upsets at the World Cup, and Buster only joins us for five good minutes. But let's begin with two big stars on the move in the NBA. The Clippers have sent Kawhi Leonard to the Raptors for Brandon Ingram, Grady Dick, two firsts and a pick swap, and LeBron has notified the Lakers that he will play elsewhere next season. Wilbon, where do you want to start?

Well, Tony, I'll start very quickly, very briefly, with Toronto and Kauai going back to where he went a championship seven years ago, because he does join an underrated group probably in Scotty Barnes, R.J. Barrett, Colin Murray Boyles, and quickly, and so that could be something we wind up looking at down the line.

But LeBron's always the biggest news. And if LeBron goes, As some of us expect, and I certainly want to see him go to Golden State. You know, I've been beating this drum for a couple of weeks now to join. I know. That's a squad. I know they're older, and they might not be able to stay healthy for forever. But if that group, that's 10 guys in there, if they got to April healthy,

First of all, it's historically entertaining. And I don't care about going to Cleveland. I guess that could still happen. But LeBron's a California guy now. He's playing golf like 36 a day. His family lives in California. Stay in California. It's a short flight up to San Francisco from L.A.

I'm dying to see this and knowing how you love stars and you love LeBron, you better love it the possibility, too. Did you say that LeBron is now playing 36 a day? Is that for real? He's playing 36 a day? so that he wants to be Jordan more than people understand, because Jordan plays 36 a day, as we both know. Look, I'm going to be very dismissive of Kauai going to Toronto as well.

You know, good for him. He won a title layer. If he liked it, that's fine. But he just went off the radar, as far as I'm concerned, by going to Toronto. Okay, so we're going to take that off the board. What we know about LeBron James is that he has told the Lakers he is not going to be there, but we don't know where he's going to be. I understand that you want him where you want him in Golden State.

There's a certain nostalgia to that, I'm sure. There's a certain nostalgia, for example, if he went to Cleveland, Act 3 with Cleveland, which is his hometown. LeBron James is still a great player, but he's no longer a transformative player. So he has to go someplace where he's going to fit in, and I'm going to assume, and I know you will agree with me, that he wants to win a championship. So he's not going to sign on for a rebuilding. like Dallas or some team like that. I can't see that.

To me, and I understand Golden State, and I understand Cleveland. I'm going to mention three other teams or four other teams. If he wants to win. Yeah, if he wants to win, you go win at Oklahoma City. Because they've already won without you. Huh?

He's not going there. That's not a big. Take that off. But he could win there. He could go win in San Antonio. He could play next to Wemba Nama for Wembañama's first championship, and that might be a lot of fun.

Now I'm going to give you one other one. And you talk about him being a big city guy, an L.A. guy. Do you think he might want to go to New York? Because if he went to New York and he took the starting forward spot that Bridges has right now and played 28 to 32 minutes a game, New York might not lose any games at all. That's a big city situation, and he might like that. I'm just one. Do you see anything in that?

Tone, I don't. And listen, let me let's make this clear, too. We are speculating, and this is fun, because we don't know where LeBron's going to go. He can decide anything. By the way, I get leaving the Lakers because they can't win. It's currently constructed with one-way Luca. But, Tone, he is a small-town guy.

Akron's a small town. And so LeBron wouldn't feel like out of water in a place like Oklahoma City, even though it's been years, or San Antonio, but I don't see either one of those. But, Tony, let's go back to San Francisco for a second. To play with... to Steph and Draymond. These guys are already close, and they've been rivals,

and they like and respect each other. This is what you do, because that's where you want to see him. Yes, I want to see him there. Everything you say is correct. That doesn't mean he's going to do it. Not at all. I think he's going to go where he thinks he can win right now. That's what I think.

If you're the Knicks, would you go in that direction, even though you just won? You don't give up stuff? Are you insane? Of course I would. I'm just asking. Of course I would. Just ask you.

Of course I would. Yeah. Tony's now once again speaking for trillions of Nix fans coming out of the woodwork. Let's move to Serena Williams' first singles match in four years today at Wimbledon. 50th ranked, 50th. My joint was just 3 and 15 this season, but be Serena. 6-3 in the first set. Serena turned it around in the second, winning a tie break.

But joint rolled in the third, 6-3 to a 3-3-3. said when. Tone, what did you take away from this performance? I know you watched it. Yeah, well, first of all, I was told early in the morning that it was going to start at noon. I was really geeked up to watch it. I had my popcorn ready. I sit down at noon and it doesn't start at noon. No, you get Varev for four and a half hours. The match actually starts at about 2.30 Eastern Time. And before it starts, you have to go through 50 different features about Serena Williams. I am thinking this when I sit down and the match actually starts. I'm thinking that it's a terrible position for Maya Joint to be in. Yeah. Nobody wants her to win. She maybe doesn't

even want to win in this. She's won three out of our last 18 singles matches. She's up there against her idol. Everybody is cheering for her idol. They have picked out, you know, a complete pigeon, it seems to me. Then I find out she has this great nickname, the Ginger Ninja. That's because she's involved in karate, just a fabulous knicker. Anyway, yes, I did watch most of it. I thought early on, I left you a voicemail, I thought Serena was gassed early on, but she made a very good comeback, and she played okay.

She's 44 years old, Mike. I think I expected her to win. I think you expected her to win as well, but I wouldn't have expected her to win a second match. If she wants to continue doing it, God bless. You're a great player. If it makes you happy, keep doing it. Yeah, Tony, I agree.

I thought she moved. I heard you say that early, and I was trying to, look, I'm balancing this with hope. It's like hoping LeBron goes to Golden State. You know, I'm hoping Serena wins. But then I thought she did move better in the second set and early in the third. And then, you know, it sort of crumbled in.

I don't know what happens from here. I'm just, look. She couldn't cover the whole court, Mike. No, she couldn't. She couldn't cover the whole court. And she had to go to the slice forehand too much because she couldn't get in position on the forehand to come over the top.

I don't want to get too nerdy about it in tennis speak, But, yeah, I was sort of into it. But, Tony, I think the greatest athletes, the goats, that short list of goats in whatever sport, they earn the right to play until you tear the jersey off. Yes. Until they tear off themselves. Exactly. And so if Serino wants to play, God bless.

There is no crowd in the world that doesn't want to still see her. That's right. That's fine if she wants to get. It's fine. If I play doubles with your sister, it's fine. Let's move to the World Cup. Last night, two traditional European powers, Germany and the Netherlands,

were eliminated in penalty kicks. Germany lost to Paraguay and the Netherlands lost to Morocco. Today, Erling Holland scored late to lift Norway over the Ivory Coast. Wilbon, which result most intrigues you? Tony, I know that Germany having won so many times in history of the Cup, and there are only eight nations that have ever won, and Germany's been up there

with everybody, including Brazil. They're out again since winning in 2014. they didn't even make, didn't do anything and didn't qualify for the knockout in 18 or 22. And now they're out. And it's sort of amazing that Germany with that kind of firepower could be out. But Tony, I got emotionally involved because I watched every second of Morocco and the Netherlands. And it was just amazing that the Netherlands, which seemed to be dominated, seems like they should have won that game. Cody Gakpo has a heartbreaking and an amazingly emotional story

over these last few days and without getting into the details again when he scores that goal to put the Netherlands up. You're like, oh my God, this is, you talk about storybook. This is going to be that. And no Morocco ties, Morocco winds up winning in PKs. And yet also Ismail Sabari, he's the Dutch person. player of the year and he puts the Netherlands out. Like it's just the irony is so much of it there and there's so many storylines. So I was emotionally like attached and like spent after that game.

Call me Ishmael, as they say in the books. Yeah. So right after that game, the reporters asked the Dutch coach, have you handed in your resignation yet? That's a tough crowd, Holland. That's a tough It is. Yeah. Let me go to Germany for a second. Yeah. Let me go to Germany for a second because I did watch, you'd be happy. I watched the end of that.

They were living in real bad luck yesterday. They had what appeared to be the winning goal late in the game called off. They said it wasn't a goal. It looked like a goal to me. I don't, I mean, I don't know the rules of soccer, so I don't want to get too involved in it. But a lot of people said that might not be a goal. It looked cheesy, tone. Yeah.

Then they fall behind quickly in penalty kicks and they can never recover. The Paraguayan goalie appeared to be seven feet tall. He was taller than everybody else out there, and it turns out he's actually 6-6, which is enormous, I think, in this kind of situation. Yeah, they went out, and the Netherlands went out. European, not Holland, Norway stayed in. When the European teams go out like that, Mike, there were 22, I've got this stat in my head, 22 penalty kicks so far in the World Cup, 10 have been missed.

Last night in this game, in the Paraguay game, in the Dutch game, like four didn't even hit the net. Mike, I don't understand that. You couldn't put a boat in that goal. Tony, it's stressful. That thing's enormous. It's stressful.

Do you see? There are people who wouldn't take kicks. They're famous players who say to their coaches, apparently after all after extra time. Yeah. What is part of that? Pressure. Wow, that's exciting.

Let's take a break. Coming up, what to baseball people make of the Mizz. Will they ask Buster only? You know what I make up. And we'll also ask them whether we should still expect Dalton Rushing to be catching Shohei again tomorrow. Tony is so dramatic. What's more dramatic than the PKs?

No, that's a great ending. It's just the 90 minutes I have to wait to get there or even more. 120. 120, you got to wait to get there. We've got baseball questions for our great friend ESPN senior baseball writer and PTI Farm Bureau Chief, the head of potatoes, Buster only. And Buster, we will start with this. The National League has totally dominated the American League and Interleague play so far. It's like a 40-win gap.

Do you have any theories as to why this is going on? Tony, blame the Dodgers and their thirst for championships because what that has done is, set off an arms race in the National League. In recent years, we've seen this incredible gravitation of talent to the National League. Yes, the Dodgers added their guy in Shohei Otani, but the Philly spent big money to keep Kyle Swarber to try to keep up. We've seen the Giants make big moves. San Diego Padres trading for Mason Miller, signing Michael Kingback, Kyle Tucker going to the Dodge. Alex Breggman going to the Cubs. The National League teams are trying to keep up with the Dodgers, and that means more talents,

of the National League, and right now the National League is great, and the American League stinks. Well, that leads me into this, Buster. The Miz leads the majors with an ERA of 1-4-5 as a Cubs fan lifelong. I saw this coming. I'm terrified of this kid, but what is the rest of baseball making of him right now? So after his last start, absolute dominance that he showed on the mound, I was talking with Garrett Cole at Fenway Park, and he was talking about how Mizzerowski is at the top of all the charts. He's the highest fastball velocity, 105.5.5. He also has the highest spin rate for breaking balls. He also has the greatest induced vertical break. And on top of that, he is someone who has the most extension in his delivery. And Garrett Cole

kind of shrugs. He's like, if you're the top of all those lists, you're going to be dominant. And they walked out of that conversation, went on the field. And there's Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez. and he went through the exact same list of things about what separates Mizorowski. And Aaron Boone said to us the other day, he throws 103, and it feels like the hitters, like it's 108 miles per hour because the nature of his delivery. Buster, does all that, or does that we concentrate, make Milwaukee the biggest challenger to the Dodgers, or is there somebody else? Now, Michael, I think it's the Philadelphia Phillies who have put things together under Don Mattingly,

he took over from Rob Thompson. He has made some changes. He's focused on defense. He's playing Bryson Stott Moore at second base. He's playing Brandon Marsh in the outfield. He's more aggressive with his bullpen use. And this turnaround for the Phillies also coincides with the turn of Zach Wheeler. The Phillies didn't really know what they're going to get out of them this year. And what they've gotten is Zach Wheeler back to being a top five pitcher. And the return of catcher J.T. Real Muto, who is excellent defensively. All of that put together. with Kyle Schorber, with Bryce Harper, to me, makes the Phillies the most dangerous team to the Dodgers. They almost beat them two years ago, and you wonder if going forward they're going to be, again, a huge threat to L.A.

I'm going to second that. I just watched last week the Phillies in the top of the ninth, come back and beat the Nats three games in a row. I mean, it was just unbelievable how clutch they were. We will get you out of here on this. Show Hay is back on the mound tomorrow. Have the Dodgers given any thought to switching out catcher Dalton rushing after the issues? Those two had in Showe's last start about, you know, the challenge and about calling the pitches, all of that. Have they thought about swapping them? So here's the bottom line, Tony. Whatever Shohei wants, Shohei gets.

Okay. He basically tells the Dodgers when he's going to pitch. And I think if you were to go to them and say, hey, Dalton rushing, I don't want to work with him anymore. They would listen to him. But that doesn't look like what's going to happen here. Dalton rushing, I think, is going to catch Shohei Otani's next start. I was checking on this this afternoon. We'll see what the final lineup is on Wednesday night.

But Shohei Otani is going to call his own pitches. I think the Dodgers feel like that Dalton rushing is such an important young player to them, a left-handed hitting catcher with power. They're going to try to make this work. And Otani is going to grab the reins on the pitch calling. but Dalton rushing has to start making adjustments, or at some point, Shohei Otani might say to the Dodgers,

no, I want somebody else behind home plate. Buster, appreciate it all the time. Thank you, both. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, guys. Let's take one last break, still to come.

The Mets, do another Mets thing. Jonathan Cominga can't stick with the team that traded for him. Can't stick. You have defended, you have defended, You have defended Kaminga time and time and time again. Are you going to get off? Not looking as good now, Tone.

I may have to jump off that car. I may have to. Happy time, people. Happy 29th birthday, A J. Brown. A recent trade reunited the Pro Bowl wide receiver with his first NFL coach from Tennessee, Mike Vrable. Brown caught 185 passes for 2,995 yards, and 24 touchdowns for Vrable there.

Then Brown went to the Eagles in a trade and caught 339 passes for 5,034 yards and 32 touchdowns in Philadelphia. Brown caught a touchdown pass in the 24 Super Bowl when Philadelphia dominated in Kansas City. But although Brown is quick to say he is always open as he does in a commercial, his tenure in Philadelphia was marred by discomfort on his side and theirs. Now he finds himself on a Super Bowl contender in New England. As terrific as he is, Tony, nobody's more overrated in the league than this guy, particularly

on this network. of you a half dozen receivers I'd rather have. Justin Jefferson, Jamar Chase, CD Lamb, Pooka, J.S.N, Amun Ross St. Brown. That's off the top of my head without going to research. I'll take all of them before Brown. Happy anniversary Penny Hardaway on this date 33 years ago. The Orlando Magic drafted Chris Weber with the overall first pick. But shortly afterwards traded Weber to Golden State for the third overall pick Penny Hardaway. The back story is that Shaquille O'Neill, then with Orlando, met Penny when both were filming the movie Blue Chips, and told the Orlando front office that he wanted Penny as a teammate, or he would walk away after his contract was up.

Shaq and Penny led Orlando to the NBA finals in their second year together, something Weber never accomplished. But Shaq walked away anyway. Hardaway continues his coach at his alma mater, Memphis, where he's 175 and 87. Shaq's instincts were the right ones. He and Penny were incredible marriage tone. The knee injuries, the leg injuries, Rob Penny Hardaway. and Chris Weber, who you know I love. He got robbed for a different reason. He got robbed by the league playing the Lakers in the playoff series, and he should have won a championship too.

So they both got shortchanged. Happy Trails to last night's game for the Mets. It didn't take long for another low light. The Blue Jays leadoff man, George Springer, hit a soft liner to left that bounced beneath Juan Soto's glove and went to the wall, where center fielder E.J. E. E.J. E.U.E.U.S. his Little League home run helped the Blue Jace to a two to one win.

Elsewhere in the outfield last night, Dane Myers of the Reds reached for a catch, collided with the wall, got carted off. Yanke's second base with Jazz Chisholm was tracking a bloop in short right when he got closed line by onrushing teammate Jason Dominguez. Good thing Jazz wasn't sucking on a lollipop. Then and Jace Bowen of the Padres ended up with a mittful of Ivy

on Sayas Suzuki's drive that won the game for your Cubs. Yeah. That's right, Tony. The Cubbies have rebounded somehow with 19. pitchers on the IL. We've won some games lately and are at the top, near the top of the wildcard chase. All right, let's go to big finish if we could.

The Hawks declined Jonathan Camingas's $24.3 million team option. Are you surprised? Am I the only person who still likes Jonathan Comingga and thinks that like 24 years old? He can contribute? I'm the last person. Spurs wing. Julian Champini agreed to return to the Spurs

for three years 45. Makes sense to you? He's a good player. He's a really good three-point shooter. Yes, he is. Yes, makes perfect sense. They're going to win. Landry Shamet will return to the Knicks on a four-year $24 million deal.

Is that a big deal? It is, Tony. The way he shot the ball, he was 8 of 9 for like 11 for 13 for 3 at some point. You run it back if you're the Knicks. You really do. Pistons Center, Jalen Duren, is meeting with the Lakers and Kings. Don't the Pistons actually need him? Well, he stunk in the playoffs.

With a regular season on a good team, he averaged 20 and 11. Yes, I would think they need them. Last one, Asia Wilson of the ace is out for tonight's WNBA Commissioners' Cup against the Liberty. Is that a big deal? Anytime Asia Wilson is out, it's a big deal. It's a bigger deal that she's out longer. You hope not to miss Asia Wilson. We're out of time.

We'll try to be better than next time, and I'm Tony Cornhide. I'm Mike Wilburne. Same time tomorrow, knuckleheads.