PTI - Who has the BEST chance to win the Masters?

Episode Date: April 8, 2026

Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser discuss the Masters, Geno Auriemma, and the MLB. 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. We are bumped by the masters for the rest of the week, Tony. How are you going to spend all that free time?

I'm Tony Kornheiser, watching golf, thinking about golf, and stinking at golf. I'm a terrible player. I'm a 21 now. I mean, it's just the number keeps going up. I'm no good. I love it, but I'm no good. That means you get strokes. You're getting strokes from everybody except me.

Right. You and I are going to play even whenever we play. Welcome to PTI, boys and girls. In today's episode, Gino Oriama apologizes. Jorge Solair charges the mound, and Brian Windhorst joins us for five good minutes. But we begin today with the Masters. As we have discussed for the first time since 1994,

neither Tiger Woods nor Phil Mickelson will be playing. Between them, they have eight green jackets, Tiger 5, Phil 3. No one starting in this field has more than two green jackets. Wilbon, what is the biggest storyline here to you? Tony, maybe the biggest storyline is there are a lot of people who can win this. And I know I've been listening to already live from Augusta and live at the Masters and all these shows, because I'm like you, fanatical about this, obsessed with it. And, you know, hard and fast and it's going to be like that because there's no rain in the forecast.

And Augusta's going to play in a way that, you know, people want to see a play, but it doesn't often. I don't think there's any dominant storyline that Rory. was last year, but he won. He won already, and I don't think Rory is a particular storyline this year. I hear people predicting that Patrick Reed should be a favorite. That troubles me personally,

but I understand it, given his familiarity with that golf course. Brooks Kepka's back, John Rom, so you got to live guys, but I, you know, I don't know that that dominates the regular PGA tour players who've been playing already. You've got international field

that's out there. This is I watch to figure out what the storylines are. They will reveal themselves, so I'm not going into this as any great predisposition about what's supposed to happen. The biggest storyline at this Masters is the fact that Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are not playing in it. I know we've talked about it.

That doesn't mean it's not the biggest storyline, especially the circumstances under which Tiger Woods is not playing. The other big storyline is the 40th anniversary of Jack Nicholas winning the Masters, and everybody remembers that. But, Mike, as you know, once the puck drops, you can't look backwards. You've got to look forwards.

I'm going to disagree with you slightly about Rory. I mean, Rory was the biggest story last year because it completed the career grand slam. I believe if he actually repeated, that would be a tremendous accomplishment. But I don't know how motivated he is. And I will say that he has not won a tournament in the United States since winning the Masters last year.

I think if Scotty Schaeffler wins, that's a real big deal. that gives him three Masters Championships and puts them in a thoroughly elite category. Thoroughly elite. But he has had trouble lately because he's had one bad round, a tournament, usually early. I have some numbers here.

The last three tournaments, he's finished 12th, 24th, and 22nd. And he hasn't played in a month. It's interesting, you mentioned Patrick Reed. I was thinking the same thing. He won here. He played college golf in Augusta. I think he's leaving a live tour to play on the PGA tour.

I would mention Rom, I would mention DeCambo just like you, and I would ultimately agree with you, Mike, that it has not revealed itself yet, maybe by Saturday, but not yet. So we'll move on. Gino Oriema has now apologized again, this time actually naming Dawn Staley to whom he should have apologized to directly in the first place. Oriema said in a statement, quote, this morning Dawn Staley and I spoke, I apologize to Dawn, her staff, and her team. I've lost more games than the final four than any coach in history. But Friday, I lost something. more important, I lost myself. Dawn and her team deserved to win and they deserved more from me, unquote. In an earlier statement, Staley said she hoped everyone could turn the page on this incident. Wilbon, are you willing to turn the page as Staley has asked?

I'll get to it. He's in no rush to apologize. He was in no rush to behave like a grown man and apologized in the many rounds of interviews he did Friday night after he got his butt kicked or in the next couple of days when people were gathering in his profession, his sport is industry right here in Arizona. He didn't feel the need to do that.

He took his sweet time. So I'll take my sweet time accepting it if I get around to it. And I hope others do too. Gina Oriema is not some dope. He behaved badly. And so he wants the forgiveness now on his terms. He wants us to accept it on his terms. Sorry.

You haven't earned that. And he kept repeating. He's been doing this 41 years. He's been doing it long enough to know what all the hot button issues are. He's been doing it long enough to know all the people that he has offended, people who could comprise their own Mount Rushmore of women's college basketball. So you know what? He took his time.

I'll take mine. Yeah, I'm ready to say okay at this moment. I think he apologized completely. I think he apologized totally, thoroughly, and unequivocally. He said, this is a quote, women's basketball deserves better my university, my athletes, my former players, and our fans deserve better, unquote. That's in the same body of the statement

in which he apologized directly to Dawn Staley. So I think he's covered it all. It's late. He should have done this earlier, but he did it now and he did it publicly. The condemnation of Oriama was unanimous out there. Good. And I've got to tell you, Mike,

that it was a 50-50 shot in my mind that the next time we would hear from him would be when he announced his resignation. I wonder if he thought about that. I'll bet he did. I'll bet he decided, I don't want to go out this way, so let me try and say the right thing right now. I think Dawn Staley's public comments have been fine. She has not been vindictive at all.

She is willing to accept an apology. She, I think he even accepted the first apology, which was a non-apology. And I think she knows who Gino Oriama is, and I don't think she wanted to crush him. I think she has taken the high road here. I think she's taking a high road. I think Gino's looking for the high road. Road. Looking for it.

He had found, you know what? Chris Rock always says, I'm not giving you credit for doing what you're supposed to do. I know. He used that a lot. He was forced. He was forced into this position. So no, no, no, I know. A hundred percent.

A hundred percent. A grown man. And he got forced in it. They're going to play. None of this matters, Mike, now. Because on November 24th, those two teams are going to play. And this is going to be the biggest story line. How about that?

And if they play again, if they play again, if they play again, In the final four, this will be the biggest storyline because this is what binds them now. This is what binds them. Yeah, we'd find that storyline going in. Now to last night's dust up between the Braves and Angels, Jorge Soler charged Atlanta's reynaldo Lopez after a pitch that was up, way up, and in,

Solair at homered and been plunked two winnings earlier and said he thought this was intentional. Braves manager, Walt Weiss, all 170 pounds of them, helped tackle Solair and said afterward, quote, I love Solair, but that's a big man. As long as no one get hurt, it's kind of fun. I'm sorry, it's kind of a good time, close quote. Baseball suspended Soler today,

Ann Lopez, seven games each. Tone, does Soler have good reason to charge the mound? This is an interesting thing to talk about, given that we talked about Wilson Contreras yesterday. And you had said of Wilson Contreras yesterday, that you approved of the fact that he said he was going to take somebody out, right? I mean, that's the unwritten rule of baseball is what you said, and I agree with that. Let me tell my notes here.

So I suppose, Mike, that you are inclined to think Solair did the right thing. I am leery about the contraris situation because it's amorphous because it could happen at any time. In this, I'm inclined to support Soler because it happened in the moment. He hits a home run off a pitcher he owns. is like 14 hits and 23 and bats against a guy and five-arm runs. He owns them.

The next time up, same pitcher hits him. The next time up, third time around, same pitcher comes up and into him. And so there then stands, you know, in the batters box and says, okay, let's go.

And he rushes out. He doesn't throw the bat which you said you would approve of yesterday. Yes. He doesn't slide high and try to take his knees out. No, he fights in what I thought was an honorable way.

so I'm a little surprised that's seven for both because seven for a hitter is different than seven for a pitcher. All right, we agree right down the line on the depiction of this and sort of the back and forth to TikTok.

But Tony, Major League Baseball, the commissioner's office, whoever hands down these suspensions, whoever hands down the discipline, couldn't have been more gutless. They basically took the pitcher out for one game while saying Solair

who gets thrown at and thrown at twice. I don't care what Walt Weiss said. He threw at him. Anything else to me is garbage. So he threw at him twice, right? He owns him like you said. Six home runs off this dude.

And Major League Baseball gives Solair seven, five-on-runs. Give Solair seven games and gives the pitcher one. That's a gutless, gutless move by Major League Baseball entirely. Can I just, I'm just going to end this by saying

what is not a gutless move? Because you said this about Walt Weiss. 6-1-1-75. Solair, 632-35. Walt Weiss 62 years old. That was a tough move. That was something. That was something. Let's take a break. Coming up, what is next for Janus and the Bucks? We will ask Brian Windhorst. Yonnes. He's still in the league? We'll also ask him whether a curious play by the Kings last night warrants a fine from the NBA. I found it interesting that I thought Weiss sympathized with Solair, who he had in Atlanta.

He had them. They were close. Since he loves them. Yes, clearly. I think he said he understood what was going on there. I did. We have NBA questions for our great friend ESPN senior NBA writer Brian Windhorst. Let's start with this, Brian. What do you expect to happen in Milwaukee specifically with Janus and Doc Rivers?

Okay. Let me say this in a way that will not get me in. too much trouble. I would be surprised if Doc Rivers is the coach next year and Janus is on the team. Now, how that all ranges itself and how everybody wants to protect themselves so they don't look bad, so they save face and all that stuff, because for some reason, that is an issue with this Bucks franchise, I don't want to get too far out over my skis. But the way this season finished, and there's a big, big stat that's awfully important with the Bucks,

and it's not that Janus missed time with five different injuries this year. It's that they were 17 and 19 with Janus on the court. This was not a winning team even when he was there. It is a flawed team, and the way to fix it, unfortunately, is to trade him. They're going to come to that understanding if they haven't already, and they're going to do something about it. And unfortunately, this season, the team did not respond to the way Doc Rivers coached them. I'm not pointing a finger at anybody.

That's just the truth. And so I expect there to be a change in that regard. Wow. It's a long way since that championship in 2021. Let's go to the place we have to go, Brian. Happily, Victor Wimbunyama. Now, he's out tonight and is listed as day-to-day. But the bigger picture is the 65-game eligibility rule,

the threshold for post-season awards, regular season awards. Do you think that the circumstances of all this are going to lead the league to change it, something the players union did sign off on? Nope. I think the players, I think the league likes the rule. I think it is functioning. There are moments with it that I think make the league look a little punitive here. Actually, one of the things that I've learned is I watch these players really stretch to get

to this limit. They really like these awards. Whatever they want to say, their actions indicate they care about getting onto these lists and getting, you know, these honors. And here's the thing, like, I'll just put forth Nikola Yokic. He has been sitting with a game to spare now for five, six weeks, and he has continued to play and continued to play. He can't say he doesn't care about awards either. But I also think that it just shows how many of games would he have maybe missed if he didn't have to hit that? The behavior of the star players

indicates that this number means something. And yes, you can point to the players who may miss a chance to get an award by a game or two. The league would privately point to look how many players got it by a game or two and look how many games they played, including national television games,

which was the point of all this. So while it is unpopular, it is working whether anybody wants to admit it publicly or not. Well, one of the players affected by this directly is, Luca Dachich, who has flown to Spain to get treatment for his hamstring injury, Brian, is there any real chance beyond hope that this is going to get Luca to the point where he looks like March Luca in the NBA playoffs?

Probably not, but I would take a trip to Spain to find out, especially, you know, after a long season. I don't think the Spanish have cured hamstring injuries. I do think that. I do think I think Luca has demonstrated in the past that he will play through pain and that he will play through injuries. So I do think that depending on how, you know, the Lakers do, his season is not, should not be considered over. But the idea that he is going to be able to contribute at the beginning of a playoff series, I do not believe that that is possible. If they press it to maybe the back end of the first round, maybe you're hoping he can limp out there. And that's where I think the Lakers' heads are at right now. We will get you out of here on this.

It's fairly complicated. Draymond Green wonders why the league doesn't find more teams for tanking. After the Kings fouled away from the ball and in the penalty, with three minutes left last night, they failed. Seth Curry. Do you have any thoughts on this? Because I'm sitting in a city where the team has been tanking for three years. Yeah. Shams told us earlier that their NBA is investigating this.

And I'm saying, this is what the NBA is investigating. All the tanking is going on, this is what they're investigating. Unfortunately, for the Kings and their fans, this has an easy explanation. I think Doug Christie didn't know how many fouls there were. And he asked his team to foul because he wanted to use a timeout to set up a play, and he thought they had a foul to give and they didn't. I think it's as simple as that. I don't think it was a tanking move.

In fact, you could argue that the Kings haven't been effectively tanking for weeks now, and they are out of the top three because they've won more games than they need to. I think it's an indication of a coach making a mistake, and the players, frankly, wanting to cover for him. By the way, he did call timeout after that take foul. He drew up a play, and it led to a three-point shot. So they traded three for two. They actually were ahead in that transaction. However, I agree with Dremont that the league has not followed through with what they said they were going to in regards to tanking enforcement.

I agree with Dremont that players would be held more accountable than teams are being held accountable to this and would be fined more. And on that point, I do think he is correct and has a point. Thank you, Brian, as always. Thank you, thank you. I appreciate it. Enjoy the Masters, guys. Yeah, it doesn't help me watching a team that's deliberately trying to lose for three years. Let's take one last break.

Still to come, the Detroit Pistons may be getting a big boost to their lineup tonight. And the Pirates give a nine-year contract to a dude has played five games in the bigs. Tone, I got a solution for you. with the Wizards. Wow. Just move to a place where the team is good and you're not tanking. You're an empty nestor.

Yeah, three years worth of tank. You already got two, three, four homes anyway. Happy time, people. Happy 27th birthday, Sedarian Delionne Lamb. You know him as CD, the Cowboys' Pro Bowl wide receiver now playing on the other side from George Pickens. Lamb was a 17th overall picked by the Cowboys in 2020

out of Oklahoma, where his quarterbacks were in security. successive seasons, Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray, and Jalen Hertz. Now Lamb catches passes from Dak Prescott, who, yes, got his money. This past season, Lamb had 75 catches for 1,077 yards, but just three touchdowns in 14 games, the fewest receiving touchdowns of Lamb's career. Over that career, Lamb has 571 catches, 7,416 yards, and 41 touchdowns. In 2020 through 2025, Lamb has the third most receiving yards in the last.

league and the fifth most receptions. All these flashy parts, lamb and pickings and deck, and the Cowboys still never amounted Jack. That makes me happy. Yeah, well, it's because their offense isn't the problem. The defense is the problem. Happy anniversary Detroit Tigers. On this day, 63 years ago, the Tigers claimed young pitcher Denny McLean off waivers from

your Chicago White Sox. Five years later, in 1968, McLean won the same. Cy Young and the American League MVP when he went 31 and 6 with a 196 ERA. The Tigers won the World Series that year when their other great starter, Mickey Lollich, had three complete game wins, including Game 7. Since then, no pitcher has won 30 games. Steve Carlton in 1972 and Bob Welsh in 1990, 127. The most wins in this century is 24 by Justin Verlander and Randy Johnson.

We talk about how starters don't go as deep into games or win as a lot. many games as they used to. The most wins in the last 10 years is 22 by Rick Porcelo. Tony, all McLean's life was a huge deal in Chicago, including the Detroit years, because McLean was from Chicago. If he had been a star, the South Side with the White Sox of the South Side, he went to Mount Carmel High School rival of my St. Ignatius. Little known fact, we both had something in common, played the Hammond organ growing up. McLean, a lot more accomplished musician than me. Oh, I remember

when Denny McLean had gigs as an organist of a singer. I remember that. I didn't know you did that. I didn't know you did that. A melancholy trails now to Davy Lopes. The Dodgers Great has passed away at the age of 80. Lopes was a four-time all-star with the Dodgers, the second baseman of the

classic L.A. infield that also included Steve Garvey, Ron Say, and Bill Russell. The quartet made four World Series together, winning one in 1981. Lopes was a fine defensive player and a great base dealer when that was central to the game. He played for four teams, managed the Brewers for three seasons, and was in the league in one position or another for 45 years. Wow. Tony, that infield that you mentioned that Davy Loeb's helped anchor,

they had Fernando Valenzuela on the mound for a little bit of that time late in that run. Just an astonishing team to watch stay together for a long time with the Dodgers in those years. All those infielders were under six feet. All of them. Let's go to the big finish. Cade Cunningham is expected to return for the Pistons tonight against the Bucks. Is that a big deal? Yes, the Pistons can incorporate him back and get him back to mid-season form.

I don't know if he can't reach 65 games. Maybe there's an appeal. I don't know. Pirates are signing 19-year-old rookie. Connor Griffin to a nine-year, $140 million deal. Does that make sense? It makes sense if you think that this makes them think they can keep Paul's schemes, that those two could anchor a good team in Pittsburgh and build from them.

The rockets have won seven straight. Is that significant? Yes, that's a big deal. If you can finish in fourth or even third, you get home court advantage in that first round, the seven-game series, yes. And they're still playing for it. Alex Oveskin says he will decide his NHL future this summer, your prediction. I think he will retire and go out as still a very, very, very good player.

Last one, the Vegas Golden Knights are now four and over torts. Of course they are. Your reaction. Why doesn't everybody just fire their coach a week before the playoffs begin? Why not? That's how it works. We're out of time. We'll try to do better the next time, and I am Tony Cornhage.

I'm Mike Wilbon. We are bumped until Monday by the Masters, you knuckleheads.