PTI - What Does Pacers' Win Say About the Series?

Episode Date: June 6, 2025

Tony Kornheiser and Pablo Torre discuss the NBA Finals, the French Open, and Kyle Busch. 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 Pablo Torre, and I love being back on TV with you, Tony. I'm Tony Thornton Heiser. I love being back on TV, too.

Thanks for being so complimentary. Uh-huh. Yeah. Was I supposed to say something nice and kind? Another relevant detail that you could have added on a Friday afternoon, or I'm helping save this show. Because where's Mike? You got me.

All right. Let's take it from the top one more time if we could. Welcome to PTI, boys and girls. Wilbon has the day off, so I am joined by our great friend. And the host of the podcast, Pablo Tori, finds out Mr. Pablo Torre. Nice applause. Very nice. And we begin today with the Indiana Pacers coming from 15 points down in the fourth quarter

and shocking Oklahoma City on a last second shot by who else? Tyrese Halliburton. Oklahoma City was heavily favored in this game and heavily favored in this series. Pablo, what did last night say to you about this matchup? That this is the story of this NBA season. Tyrese Halliburton, these Pacers, using those win-probability charts where it looks like, wow, they're about to lose. It's 99.9% likely. And Tyrese Halliburton takes those graphs and he picks his teeth with them.

He's done this every round. Tony, I'm in New York. You know this. I saw what he did to the Knicks. yesterday on the show, you said, Novak Djokovic, sometimes you dislike a guy, you stand up from your couch and applaud.

While you were asleep last night, I was standing up and applauding for a villain because this is the legend that is real. I don't know who's more clutch than him. I don't know a team that's had more comebacks like this than these Pacers. It is remarkable to watch happen in real time. Yeah, let me give you some statistics.

When I get to that, Thank you for telling the world that I missed the game. I didn't miss the game. I missed the ending of the game. I did what any sane person on the East Coast would do. I stopped watching. And why? Because Oklahoma City was up by 15 points with nine to go.

And Oklahoma City going into this game was 43 and 7 at home. And Oklahoma City had the MVP of the league who was scoring a lot of points. So I said, okay, this game is over. And I got out. Right. Now, how do I feel about all of this now? If you were a person who, for example, picked Oklahoma City in four or five, as long as you said five, you still have a chance. Historically, there was a team, the Laker team with Shaq and Kobe, got beat in the first game by the Philadelphia

76ers with Alan Iverson and then swept the next four games. So that stuff happens. But Rick Carlisle is a crafty fellow. I don't know that that happens here. I think people have forgotten and I think I forgot how great Indiana was against the second best team in the whole league, Cleveland, beat them four to one in the playoffs. You mentioned these other things. We'll get to Halliburton in a second. This is the fifth time in these playoffs that Indiana has come back from being down at least 15 points, five times in these playoffs, not three years, these playoffs. And Tyrese Halliburton is six of seven in these playoffs when he is taking either a shot to tie or. or go ahead in the last 90 seconds,

which is pretty good for the most overrated player in the league, right? And again, those people who voted him that should stand up and say, I'm an idiot, because look at what he's doing. He is, I think it's fair to say he is on the verge of becoming legendary. Oh, they should have to put a sign on their lawn that says how bad they got this. And by the way, you know, Halliburton has always been a bit of a hood ornament for the all-NBA. sort of a roster. He was with the Olympic team, never played, and we all agreed.

Like, of course, it's Tyne Ralliborne. He's just the other guy. He's now the star. Tony, he is the story of this postseason, and he's doing things with a level of comfort under pressure, which to me is the greatest way to earn respect objectively. That, to me,

is so deeply special. It doesn't mean that Indiana is going to win this, sir. It doesn't mean that at all. But, you know, that was a stunner. That was a stunner. That was a It means that at least, yeah, we're going to be watching more basketball. We should watch some of this tennis, though, because in the French Open, Tony, Novak Djokovic's improbable run came to a close this afternoon because he fell to number one seed Yanik's center in straight sets. On the other side of the draw, Carlos Alcaraz dropped the first set to Lorenzo Mussetti, when the second at a tie break, bageled Mussetti in the third, was up 2 O in the fourth, and Mussetti retired with a thigh injury.

So it's going to be Sinner and Alcaraz on Sunday, Tony. your reaction to today's results would be what? Well, my first reaction to the Al-Qa-Ras match is I'm not a doctor. Why, I am a doctor. I'm not that kind of doctor. And I don't want to be too hard on Mercedes-i. But he's doing great. He wins the first set, loses a second set in a tie break,

against a guy who has won majors. I mean, he looks really good. So they say it's a thigh injury. I'm sorry that it's a thigh injury. I'm sorry he didn't feel he could play anymore. I'm not going to impugn him in every. any way, but my sense is when I first heard about it was like, well, you don't get out of the semifinal in a major unless you're dead or vomiting all over the court. I mean, you just,

you know, you hang in there. So again, I don't want to impugent him. And my reaction to Jokovic, and I watched a lot of this match, and it's well known I'm not a big fan of Jokovic's. I'm not. But he went out like a lion. I mean, he was a champion out there. I mean, he was a champion out there. He's being run around the court by a guy 15 years younger than him. And he never did anything but play hard and play well. I think Sinner missed more shots than Jokov. Jokovic kept the ball in play all the time. I mean, you know, good for him, good for him. But I think there must be some creeping sense, though, that we're close to the end for Djokovic. And it's not because he looked like he wanted to give up. It is not the case. It is not the

case that he rolled over, you're totally right about that, even as I am unsurprised to hear you say, that you respect someone way older than someone else giving a real effort out there. I appreciate the thin psychoanalysis I may be tempted into right now. I am also, though, going to observe that what we're getting with Alcaraz and Sinter, Tony, is this next generation in the present tense. Yes. And that's what's astonishing here, is that Sinner is the top-ranked player, Al-Karez might be better. Al-Karez might be the guy. And again, we're onto a conversation now that Djokovic crashed, right? Djokovic was the latecomer. So it's not, of course, settled what this is going to be. But that's what I'm so impressed by. We're getting this stuff at that age

22 and 23 today. There's a complicating issue. There's a complicating issue. And that is the drug test on sinner and the suspension of sinner for having had a masking agent at one point. And a lot of people, Tennis, you know, is going on here. And I think that's out there. The other thing is, did you see his outfit today? He looked like somebody dressed him from the little rascals from 70 years ago. Like, what was that outfit? That was weird. But he's really a good player. He's really a good player. Let's move to the College Softball World Series, where last night, Texas Tech, even the series to 1-1 with a winner-take-all game tonight. Texas Tech lost game one when their great pitcher, Nigel Kennedy, couldn't execute an intentional walk. And the Texas

batter hit what was intended to be ball for for a two-run, go-ahead hit. Last night, Kennedy was back on the mound, got a strikeout to end it at four-three with a tying Texas run on third. When asked if Kennedy would pitch again tonight, Texas Tech coach Jerry Glasgow said, and I'm quoting here, on one condition, if she's breathing, unquote. Pablo, do you like Kennedy and Texas Tech's chances tonight. You like them. I love those chances. I love that quote. It reminds me of what Mike Dan Tony said during Linsanity, if I may refer back to my own journalism here. I'm going to ride him like he's friggin' secretariat. That is what you do when someone is on a hot streak like this. And the irony of the hot streak, of course, is that the only reason it seems that they lost

game one was because she's so good at pitching that she didn't know how to throw ball four intentionally. And that was, of course, this amazing clip from that game. But what we're seeing right now is somebody who is going to pitch every plausible inning because she got paid a million dollars a year in NIL, Tony. That was how I first learned of her to do exactly this for Texas Tech out of Stanford. Yeah, yeah. So that she's the column. And the beginning of the column is that, that they paid her a million dollars to transfer from Stanford,

a million dollars for a college softball pitcher. And they had to have in mind in Texas Tech this game. Can she get us to the World Series? Can she get us to where we can win it? This is the game. This is the referendum. She's the column. Does she win or does she lose?

She pitches every pitch in every single game. You know, I mean, I called Richard Justice, our friend Richard Justice a couple of days ago about this, because he's a Texas guy. He went to UT. He's born and raised in Texas. He lives in Houston. He said the entire state has gone wild about this, the Texas Tech, Texas College World Series. The ratings are up before the finals. The ratings were up 25% from last year. Patrick Mahomes was at this game last night. He was cheering wildly. I looked in him. It looked like around his neck, Pablo. He had like, you know, black rhinestones. I was informed today they were black diamonds. So I want to make sure that I say that they were diamonds. But I mean, is going to win? I have no idea. You know, this is not anything that I handicapped. Texas is good, too.

Texas rested their pitcher. Yes, they only pitched two-thirds of an inning. So she's rested in the way that Alcaraz is going to be rested before the final against center because he didn't have to go the last set. But Tony, in Texas, they respect, they recognize a hoss when they see it, right? Someone who's going to throw that ball as hard as they can, as often as they can, until the wheels fall off. That's how you want to go out if you're going to go out. That's part of her myth, again, also made real. You know, it's great, by the way, that none of the women pitching in softball seem to have to need Tommy John's surgery. That the underhanded motion works, whereas the overhanded motion, everybody's in, you know, everybody's in the hospital.

All right, let's take a break. Coming up, what's the word for Junior Camerero's game-winning sprint from second last night? And how best to describe the showdown in tomorrow's Belmont State? It's in my ear that Kennedy's getting another million next year. It's already been reported. I'd ask for more. If I won this one tonight, I'd ask for two. Oh, yeah.

I asked for two million. Couple carve-outs. What are you doing? Break that deal wide open. Yeah. Absolutely. Come on. Time for a little Friday word play.

What's first? Junior Camerero's winning run last night was blank. So my word is bizarre. Caminero scored from second on an infield hit. It's the bottom of the ninth. Tampa has the bases loaded. They're down one run. The Tampa player hits the ball to the right side. The first baseman chases the ball in front. The second baseman chases the ball from behind. And the pitcher doesn't get over there to cover in time. So it's an infield hit. Obviously, the guy from third scores. But Camerro runs through a stop sign at third base and attempts to score from second base. And here's his quote, I didn't even look at the third base coach. I just went. So they get two runs on a ball that does not get out of the infield. Caminero runs 180 feet. Pablo, I didn't know he could run

because the only time I've ever seen him, he has hit a home run and he walks around the bases in a full minute shaking hands with every... That was in the Dominican League World Series. You know, and I didn't have any idea he could run. My word is bizarre. My word is triggering. And I say that because I watched Garrett Cole,

not cover first in a play that was very flashback-inducing to lose the most miserable game I've ever seen Game 5 of the World Series just last fall. So already I'm just like wish he had covered first, Mr. Pitcher. Can we just get pitchers who can do that? Now, the Cheminero thing, man, if he had seen his third base coach, he would have seen a stop sign. That's why this is so delicious.

Yeah. The guy is just calling his own shot. He is doing whatever he wants. And by the way, when you hit six home runs in the last eight games, when you're 21 years old, when everything seems to be a giant tee ball, yeah, I guess you can do that. You can unilaterally decide I'm coaching myself now. Well, he appears to be becoming a star right before our eyes at a very young age. Hidden home runs all over the place.

I mean, and, you know, we don't associate Tampa with a lot of home runs and a lot of scoring. They've always been a pitching team first, not a scoring team. What's next? Tomorrow's showdown between sovereignty and journalism in the Belmont Stakes should be blank. It should be riveting, okay? I watch the Belmont. I watch the Triple Crown. This is like a big deal for me.

Sovereignty beat journalism fair and square in the slop and the mud at the Kentucky Derby. But then Sovereignty's trainer did not put him in the Preakness. Journalism went to the Preakness and had the great. Greatest closing burst anybody had ever seen. He looked like secretariat out there. And so what that does is set up the Belmont as the de facto race for horse of the year. I'm going to mention some names here and what they're picking. Yeah, they're picking in this particular race. The great Andy Beyer is picking journalism. He said that he fell in love with journalism, basically at the 16th poll at Pimlico.

My friend Eddie, who gets this right very often, is picking sovereignty. other people are picking Bayezza because they think that these two horses will expend too much energy and fall off the pace and Bayeza will be there to win. I think it's a match race. I think that everybody's eyes are going to be on these two horses, journalism and sovereignty.

I'm rooting for journalism, Pablo, because I was a newspaper reporter. I was never a king. I was never a Duke. I was never a Viscount. I was not a sovereign, so I'm rooting for journalism. Yeah, I fell in love with journalism personally

when I realized that, wait a minute, they put journalists on TV and they make a ton of money and they don't have to write anymore. This is great. I have fallen in love with journalism, thanks to you. But for me, the word is non-metaphorical, because I do want to make every joke about how journalism and sovereignty with democracy hanging the balance is all very on the nose, and we should lean into this, and the metaphors of burying leads and kickers. That's what journalism, the horse's story is. But that closing, man, Tony, the way that ended, that closing kick. It was dangerous. It was cinematic. It almost went horribly. It almost went like we got to cancel the sport horribly. And instead we celebrate the press. A remarkable turn of events. And no room, he had no room to make that move and catch the horse in front of it. That's the final word. Let's take one last break still to come. The stars fire their very successful head coach. What gives with that?

And will the Panthers even things with the Oilers tonight in games? two of the Stanley Cup final. Thank you for being kind on that. Wilbon would have made fun of the horses as we know, and you didn't do that. That was very nice. I appreciate that. I'm here to talk about Aaron Rodgers, horses.

Yeah, he doesn't do that. It's a good time. It's a good time, doctor. Pardon the interruption is brought to you by Real Steel. Find yours at steel.com. Happy time, people. Happy 69th birthday. Jordan Borg. Borg was a teenage sensation in the 70s. He was 18 when he won his first major,

the French Open in 1974. He won another French Open in 1975. Then he won Wimbledon in 1976 and 1977. In all, Borg won six French and five Wimbledons. Borg never won the U.S. Open, though he went to four finals, twice losing to Jimmy Connors, twice losing to John McEnroe. Borg retired from tennis when he was just 26. The McInero Borg matches were simply fabulous. I have a photo at home of their 1980 Wimbledon final when Borg won 8, 6 in the 5th. The fourth set tiebreaker was 1816 McEnroe. The match took three hours and 53 minutes. I can't look at John McEnroe without thinking of Borg.

No, Tony, I cannot escape the idea that tennis is a lot like boxing. You are defined by who beat you up. And in this case, just the shocking nature of his retirement at age 26, how shocking was that to you as someone who was covering this at the time? because in retrospect, I don't get it. I am kind of stunned that he walked away like that. Unbelievable. Like, everybody had the same reaction.

What? He's 26. What are you talking about? He never came back. Happy anniversary, Kyle Bush. On this day, 16 years ago, the two-time NASCAR Cup champion won a nationwide event in Nashville.

Then shockingly began smashing the custom hand-painted Les Paul Gibson Guitar Trophy onto the floor like a rock star at the end of a concert. This one-of-a-kind guitar trophy reportedly took motorsports artist Sam Bass 140 hours to complete. Soon after that, Bush said he smashed the guitar into pieces to provide memorabilia for the whole Joe Gibbs racing team.

And it was later learned that Bush made significant monetary contributions to music programs in Nashville. I don't remember rock stars smashing their Grammys. The next time I see Wilbon, I'm going to ask them, should we smash our Emmys? Just smash them. I kind of feel like you keeping your Emmy. Speaking of just like the decor of your home, there's Bjorn Borg, and then there's a bunch of Emmys in your bathroom. I feel like keeping them in the bathroom is enough statement at this point, to be quite honestly.

Not all of them are in the bathroom. Some of them are in closets underneath clothing. Happy Trails, Pete DeBore. The Dallas Stars fired their head coach today, even though he had led the team to the Western Conference Finals in each of his three seasons. In last week's elimination loss to the Oilers, DeBore pulled Star goalie. Jake Ettinger, or Ottinger, rather, after he gave up two goals on the only two shots he faced, explaining, quote, I didn't blame it all on Jake. But the reality is, if you go back to last year's playoffs, he's lost six or seven games to Edmont and, unquote, bomb quote. Stars GM Jim Nill said those comments played a role in the decision, but were not the reason

for it. I wonder whether a team will throw their present coach overboard to hire DeBoer. Right. I mean, the conspicuous part if you're DeBore is you got fired after every job was filled, which would raise a bit of frustration in me if I was him, especially when I remember, I am 9 and 0 in game sevens. I am good at this, even if this would be my sixth tech coaching job, should I get another one? It seems deliberately mean.

It does to me. Let's go to the big finish. Yeah. Adam Silver said he'll talk expansion with team owners next week. Are you excited by that? I am excited a little concerned. But Seattle deserves a team. Las Vegas seems faded for one.

The Braves, meanwhile, led the Diamondbacks 10 to 4 with one out in the ninth and lost 11 to 10. Your thoughts. I got to read this. They had won 766 games in a row when leading by six runs after the eighth inning. 766. Yankees starter, Max Fried beat the Guardians,

raising his record 8 and 1, lowering his ZRA to 178. You impressed? I am impressed. It was a great acquisition. Also, the Yankees are hosting the Red Sox for three starting tonight, so, you know, eat it. Scarborough. Meanwhile, Cocoa Gough faces Arena Savelanka tomorrow for the French Open Women's title. Who you got? I'm pulling a wheelbond. I'm pushing. I don't know.

They're five and five career against each other. Last one. Panthers Oilers game two tonight. Who you got? I got the Panthers. I have the state of Florida for reasons that I continue to regret. But I happen to happen. We're out of time. We'll try to do better the next time. I'm Tony Kornheiser. And I'm Pablo Torre. Thank you for watching. What Locatorre finds out is my show.