PTI - The NBA Playoffs are Among Us!

Episode Date: April 17, 2026

Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser discuss NBA elimination, LeBron possible retirement, Oscar Schmidt + more! 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. Tony, a Chinese car company has filed a patent for an in-car toilet. I'm Tony Cornheiser.

Really? I just go in the cup holder. Oh, stop. Just stop. If you can't use a cell phone, it's a great line. If you don't want people using a cell phone, they should be arrested for using a cell phone while driving. How about doing number two while driving? And I don't mean Jeter number two.

I mean the original number two. You don't mean the captain. You don't mean the captain. Welcome to PTI, boys and girls. In today's episode, LeBron Moles's Future, we remember Oscar Schmidt and Mason Miller strikes out every batter he faces again.

But we begin today with the two final play-in games to see who fills out the bracket in the actual NBA playoffs. We have Charlotte at Orlando in the East, Golden State at Phoenix in the West. Phoenix and Orlando had better regular season records than their opponents, and they are at home tonight. Wilbon, who should win these games?

Tony, you know, if we look at the beginning of the season and the first third of it, when Orlando was supposed to be a team on the come with an overall number one pick and Franz Wagner and a really good coach and good staff, and, you know, the betting line, you'd like to quote Vegas, the betting line had Orlando in the top six, not in the play-in, And so the fact that they just seemed to, I don't know if they quit on their coach. Nobody seems to know what's up with Orlando. But I'm taking Charlotte tonight, particularly because I believe someone will justify rookie of the year, Mr. Knieppel, the vote that I just submitted for him about two hours ago.

I believe Knappel, who went 0 for six from three in the last game, will have a huge night. I believe that it might be a little shaky for Lamello ball, because he might get some booze and some people if they're paying attention in Orlando. He may get some booze, but I think they'll overcome that and C Cinnip will have a big game. Golden State, Phoenix, I don't know what to tell you.

I don't. You know Devin Booker is one of my favorite players in the last 10 years, and I root for the sons. But tone, I don't ever root against Steph Curry and Draymond Green. I just don't. I like to see them play more. Can they come up with that second

effort of back-to-back? Maybe it's beyond them. I hope they can, but I can't pick a winner in that game, but I got Charlotte advancing. Okay. So you did half the question. I appreciate it. I did half. I did half.

Who should win? According to the standings, Orlando should win and Phoenix should win, particularly Phoenix, which finished eight games ahead of Golden State in the regular season. But there's always a but. Golden State won three of the four head to head, including one in Phoenix. Charlotte won three of the four head-to-head, including both in Orlando. And Charlotte closed 29 and 10, right? And Orlando closed 7 and 10. All right.

Now, on the other side, Golden State had a worse close than Phoenix. But Phoenix's close was 6 and 11. That's hardly daunting. Like you, I am rooting for Golden State and Charlotte. I'm rooting for Golden State because of Steph Curry and Draymond Green and Steve Kerr, three people I find to be honorable men and champions. I look across at Orlando, I don't see that yet. I am rooting for Charlotte because they have not been in the real playoffs in 10 years.

They're a forgotten team. When Michael Jordan sold that team, it was as if they had disappeared. So I'm rooting for them. I do think, Mike, I do think that it's going to hinge on La Mello Ball and his reaction to the after-the-fact play. Yeah, his reaction, yes. Will it affect the way he plays? Will he be so cautious that he's not who he normally is on the court,

or will he say, I'm going to go out and play harder than you have ever seen because I am beyond reproach? In either case, I think it's going to hinge on him, but we are both looking for the same teams. We agree. It hinges on that, but Cinneple's got to shoot it tonight, and I think you will. I think he responds with a big team. Well, he got benched in the last game.

He got benched. He got to respond differently than that. Back court. Yeah. Let's stay with the start of the NBA playoffs, which could herald the end of LeBron James' career. The athletic reports that retirement is a very real option for LeBron this summer, even as the Lakers' success, when healthy in March, intrigued him.

Sources say he doesn't care about a farewell tour. The impending free agent could also just change teams. The Lakers are first-round underdogs against Houston. Do you expect this to be LeBron's final playoff series? Yeah, this is that season that we're in now with the end of the NBA and the end of the NHL before the playoffs, where these stories come up. We just talked about Will Alexander O'Vetch can retire, and he said he didn't really want to retire.

I'm trying to figure out, I'm sure these sources are great, I'm trying to figure out why on earth LeBron James would retire. He is still a great basketball player. In fact, his basketball metrics are probably better than Novetschkin's hockey metrics at the moment. And he is a free agent. He can go where he wants and do what he wants. He's going to have to take a lot less money to go where he wants. But he's got money.

And he's got the ability to do this. I don't get this story in this sense. It seems to me LeBron still loves playing basketball. And he is a beloved figure who adds to his records every time he goes out there. And in recent weeks and months, as the Lakers got better, he took a secondary role behind Donchich and Reeves. He did that. And in the three games, when they were out, then he was the old LeBron.

He averaged 24 and 10 and shot 56% from the field. So, no, I don't see this. Maybe you do. No, I don't because he's too damn good. And he brilliantly figures out whatever it is, whether it's on the fly or night to night or week to week or month to month, what he needs to do with this group of guys. It's, it's, it's, I don't, I don't like even hearing discussion of the end of LeBron or the end of Steph Curry. Hey, stop.

They're too great as the playoff begins. The only person, I want to see more than those two, I admit it is Victor Wimbanyama. This is like to me watching the beginning of Shaq or, you know, something like that, the beginning of Kareem and you, you saw that I saw it too. And I, I don't like these stories like you to begin. We have to talk about it, though, because it's out there. And by the way, Tom, LeBron has said he wakes up in fields old someday. I know he's making fun of himself, poking fun of himself. And I get it.

And he can do what he wants if he wants to walk away at the top fine. But my God, he's too good to walk away now. He's 41 years old. But he is, like Tom Brady was, just better at that age than anybody else has ever been at that age. He's better at that age. Now, if his health problems, if the sciatica is. there's remission on the sciatica and it doesn't bother him again, then Washington play.

Now, if the Lakers were to win a championship, sure, you walk like Elway. Of course you do. But they're not going to win the championship. So absent that, where is the urgency for him to retire? I don't get that. We move now to the passing of Hall of Fame Brazilian basketball star Oscar Schmidt at the age of 68. While he never played in the NBA, the 6-8 forward led Brazil to the 1987 Pan Am Games title by scoring 48 points to beat the United States team

led by David Robinson and Danny Manning. He also appeared in five separate Olympics for his home country, averaging just over 42 a game in Seoul in 1988, and also leading the competition in scoring in 1992 and 1996. Wilbon, he is one of your all-time flavors, Faye players, all-time players,

and one of the most significant. Please explain why. Tony, he's one of the seminal figures in basketball history. His upset, and you mentioned the 48-point game, in Indianapolis, 1987 in the Pan Am games, I was there. You and I then went to the 88 Olympic Games where the United States lost there to the old Soviet Union. And we know that precipitated. That was direct line, straight line to college kids get out, pros, dream team, come on in.

But the 87 game, team coached by Denny Crum, you mentioned Danny Manning and David Robinson. My God, those guys are overall number one picks. Purvis Ellison, that's overall number one picks. Oscar Schmidt took them down. At a time with a three-point shot, no one shot from a logo. Steph Curry was like four years old if he was born. Oscar Schmidt did it. He's 6-8.

The Nets had drafted him. And Oscar Schmidt said, you know, rather than live in New Jersey, I'm going to stay on the beaches of Brazil and do what I do here. And he did it more brilliantly than anyone had seen at that time. And he led this upset at Indianapolis in the old Market Square Arena. It's one of the great games I've ever seen. And that led Jerry West and Jerry Calangelo and all Denny Crum and Johnson. Everybody said, that's it. That's it.

Pro's dream team. We need you. So I remember that you were there when I found out that Oscar had died. And by the way, he is Oscar. He is one name. He is Oscar. He is Oscar. He is Oscar. One name, baby. That's it.

He is also. That's that big. That big. That's all around the world. I knew you were there. I knew you had covered this. What my remembrances of it were watching him shoot and going, wow, this guy shoots from anywhere. And he's a really great player. No one did that. No one. There were, that Brazilian team had two brothers, the Sousa brothers. One of them, I believe, became a medical doctor. That's right. Marcel. He was also a great player. And I think it was Oscar's quote, but it might have been a Marcel Sousa's quote to describe the team and it went like this. On this team you either play the piano or you carry the piano. I played the piano. Everything was set up for those two guys. Everywhere on the court.

Find them, let him shoot, get out of their way. I remember that very well. I told me as you know, we went, you and I then watched him in multiple Olympics, Oscar. Yes. And I went to see him wherever he was and through that multiple Olympics, the Pan Am Games, he'd come to some

NBA playoffs in the spring sometimes. I got to know him a little bit. He was a fascinating person. He and Marcel Suza, Dr. Marcel Souza. And they Tony, Oscar begat all these Joker and SGA.

I agree. I agree. Yeah, you can date it back to him. You know, it goes direct lines straight to Oscar, man. You can date back to him. Dirk. The respect that the American public began to to get and the American basketball insiders began to get for foreign players.

It dates back to him. Let's take a break. Coming up, Shohey's side campaign is off to a strong start, but is Mason Miller's off to an even better one. And Connor McDavid wrapped up another scoring title last night, but did Mackinacellibriini do something more impressive? Manu Genoble, he thought Manu wasn't impacted, you know, when he was growing up by knowing what Oscar Schmidt did?

You point about the United States. Your point about the United States being impacted. They understood they had to get better because the world was coming at him now. We can't deal with this dude. That's right. It's time for toss up. Two men enter. One man leaves, finishes the show, then spends the weekend trying to convince himself

that the Harbortown tournament is right up there with the Masters. What's first? Toss up, more sigh-worthy start to the season. Show A.O. Tani or Mason Miller? Okay, I got stats here. Mason Miller has not allowed an earn run in nine and one third inning so far. He has only allowed one hit. He already, Mike, has six saves.

It's mid-April. He has six saves. He has faced 30 batters. He has struck out 23. That's amazing. He is Cy Young worthy, but relievers rarely get the sigh. Mike, only once in the last 33 years has a reliever gotten the Cy Young. Mariano Rivera did not get the Cy Young because starters get.

the Sa-Yung. Show Hayatani is a starter. He's 2-0. His ERA right now is 0.50. He's gone 18 innings, one earned, and 18 strikeouts. Do you remember a couple of years ago when he couldn't pitch

because he was recovering from Tommy John? And so he said, I'll just hit home runs and steal bases. And he went 54 and 59, which nobody had ever done in that sort of connection. Well, this year, it appears that he's going after a Cy Young.

And if he continues like this, he's going to win it, and Mason Miller is going to stand up there and applaud him. He is. Tony, there's no argument against Mason Miller, and the argument for him is that hitters in their last 29 at bats are won for 29. You mentioned the 23 strikeouts. Come on. Come on.

This is insane. And relievers are harder to find. There are some franchises that would have won, I don't know, three or four World Series in the last 30 years, Chicago Cubs, but they could. never find the Mason Mill. Just couldn't do it. Can I just ask you one question? Just a small interruption here.

What's that? Relievers are harder to find than starting pitchers who you say don't even start anymore than you go on. And a starting pitcher with 50 home runs? Yeah, but here's a deal. Starters, is that about finding them? Managers and clubs with their stupid statistics, their deathly stats, their metrics will not let these people

start and stay in the game a third time through the rotation. You know that's true. I believe there are starters out there. Jeff Passon told us this the other day. There are people who can start and finish games. They don't let them. But what Shohei is doing is beyond all of that. Look, you talk about a five-tool player. He only needs two tools, hit and pitch. And only two dudes have done that in the history of baseball, Ruth and Shohay. And right now, Shoah is doing it and he's starting and he's hitting later in his career. The Ruth's pitched and hit into his career. That's right. It's Shoah. Yes. It's Shohen. It's Shohen. He's living everybody in the dust, including George Herman. What's next? Toss up more impressive

accomplishment last night. Connor McDavid or MacLen Celebrini? All right. Once again, to statistics. McDavid had four assists last night, gave him 90 assists on the season. He's got 138 points for the season that leads the NHL, right? He's now got six scoring titles. This ties him with Mario Lemieux and Gordy Howe, but they are all three behind Wayne Gretzky, which you would expect. Celebrini last night, oh, by the way, McDavid is not even 30 years old yet, so we're going to see this for a while. Celebrini last night had one goal and two assists to give him 115 points. That is the most points ever by a San Jose shark.

More importantly, he also got his 70th assist last night, meaning that he and Wayne Gretzky and Wayne Gretzky are the only two teenagers ever in the history of the NHL to have at least 40 goals and at least 70 assists. So we have McDavid behind Wayne Gretzky, and we have Celebrini even with Wayne Gretzky, but Celebrini has 20 less assists than McDavid, and that's why they call it toss up

and I don't have an answer. Yeah, we made both push. I was ready to argue McDavid until you get to the part where a dude is with Gretzky and they were both in 19 years old. You're with Wayne. That's like being with Wilt.

That's like when we say, Oh, Wimba Nyama's done so and so and so and so, and now he joins Wilt. That's the end of the sentence. Go to the next page. And so this is the case. I'm afraid with, you know, with Celebrini. And by the way, I'm going to go off book now because we agree here.

We both push, which is an all-time PTI low mark. We agree and we both push. I'm going to go off book for a second. You hate tanking. And here's why I hate that the Blackhawks did not tank last year. A couple of more losses late in the season. And we would have added Celebrini to Bardard, two kids who grew up playing against. Against each other, each other in Western Canada in Vancouver.

Come on now. We should have tanked. I would fire somebody for winning games if I could. I want Celebrity. I can't have them. That's it. You're wrong. That's it.

Tanking is good. Tanking is good. Tank. Let's take one last break still to come a huge deal for a Texan's defensive star. And as a playoffs get underway, which Stanley Cup winner would make the best story. I want to have Celebrity and Fadarred. Come on. Yeah, you're being selfish.

Happy time, people. Happy 59th birthday, Marquis Grissom. Grissom was the MVP of the ALCS in 1997 when he was with Cleveland, and before that, a World Series champion with the Atlanta Braves in 1995. Grissom was a two-time All-Star, a four-time gold glover in the outfield. He was born in Atlanta, the second youngest of 15 children, grew up in a home his father built from scratch while working at a home. Ford plan. Grissom played baseball at Florida A&M and was drafted by the Montreal Expos with the 76th

pick in the 1988 baseball draft. Played 17 seasons in the majors, hit 272, hit 317 in the postseason, hit 390 and 19 World Series games. He caught a Carlos Bayerga Flyball to record the last out in that 1995 World Series. What an incredible story, Tony. You mentioned growing up one of 15 children so poor he could not afford to play organized baseball. When he was eight or 10 years old, he struck a police officer's Cadillac with a rock, thrown from a great distance, just sort of rock throwing as a kid. The officer was so impressed by the throw, he agreed not to charge Grissom if he would join his youth baseball team, and that is how he got into organized baseball.

Incredible. Happy anniversary, Julius Irving, on this day 39 years ago in his second to last regular season NBA game, Dr. Jay scored 38 points for the 76ers, sending him over 30,000. 10,000 career points, joining only Will Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on that level at that time. Irving had 18,364 NBA points with the Sixers and 11,662 ABA points with the Virginia Squires and New York Nets. I covered him occasionally for Newsday when he was on the Nets. We drove the same way to work up the Meadowbrook Parkway from Long Beach. The only difference was on a basketball player's salary.

He drove in Avanti, and on a newspaper reporter's salary, I drove a Ford Pinto. So who'd have ever thought two Long Island boys would end up becoming doctors? I once actually asked Dr. Jay. I said, was Tony any good on the playgrounds playing basketball when you guys were growing up? He said, Anthony, indubitably. Anthony was pretty good player. Intubatively. And I was like, oh, my God, Julius Irving said Anthony was a pretty good player.

Jesus. A melancholy trails to Garrett Anderson. The longtime Angel Star has passed away at the age of 53. No cause of death has been given. Anderson was a three-time All-Star who had 306 with 29 homers and 123 RBI for the Angels team that won the World Series in 2002. The following season, he won the home run derby and All-Star MVP. In all, Anderson amassed 2,529 hits over 17 seasons with three clubs and holds the Angels franchise records for games played, total bases, extra base hits, doubles RBI, and Grand Slams. Flew under the radar far too low and far too long, Tony.

What a great player. Let's go to the big finish quickly. The Texans and edge rusher, Will Anderson, agreed on a three-year deal for $134 million guaranteed. Your thoughts. Maybe the best defensive player are than the Miles Garrett in the whole league worthy. The Padres are close to being sold to private equity billionaire Jose Feliciano and his wife, Quanza Jones for 3.9 Bill. Big deal? Way more than the Mets win for.

A big Premier League game on Sunday, Arsenal and Man City. Who you got? City has to win with a handful of games left. Arsenal's fade in Cleveland. rookie Parker Messick lost a no-no in the ninth last night against the O's you impressed I watched the 19th inning on MLV network it was great good for him good for him last one Stanley Cup playoff start tomorrow most intriguing first round series flyers penguins I can root against both of them I hate both time time Tony I'm Mike Wolbon have a great weekend knuckleheads