PTI - Why Did the Clippers Release Chris Paul?

Episode Date: December 3, 2025

Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser react to the breaking news of Clippers unexpected release of Chris Paul, recent CFP rankings, and why Penn State hasn't hired a head coach yet. 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 National Hug Day, Tony. Who have you hugged today?

Tony Kornheiser, Vern Lindquist. It's a long story. We need to, we're gonna have to get into this. Are we gonna have to get Pablo to get documents on you and Vern Lundquist? I got notes yesterday. It was not my line about getting in a fight with you. Not my line.

It's a brilliant line. I got notes from people saying, that made me laugh out loud. I don't expect that made me laugh out loud. Welcome to PTI boys and girls. In today's episode, Big Ben suggests Mike Tomlin for Penn State. The clippers say see you to Chris Paul. And Steve Young joins us for five good minutes.

But we begin today with the most recent iteration of the college football playoff rankings, which were unveiled last night. The top two teams remain the same, Ohio State, and Indiana. Texas A&M fell from three to seven after losing to Texas. Georgia, Texas Tech, Oregon, and Old Miss all moved up one spot. Alabama passed Notre Dame at nine, dropping the Irish to 10 after both won games on Saturday. Well, on what stands out to you most

about the latest rankings. I'm going to do something rarely seen on PTI. I'm going to beat you to the glasses. Okay, that's fine. Because I got some notes, because I have to write all this down, because it makes your head swim. It's what we saw last night, and what the possibilities. You know, I love that show. I'm a sucker for that show. I love the show. I like to show a little bit. I like to watch Heather on the show because we know Heather says she was like 11 years old.

Yeah, she's an intern at the post. That's right. Okay, so, Alabama. Suppose they lose. I just, I jump, I fast forward to that. Okay. Because they're ranking things that come in early. I'm going to let you answer all this stuff. Okay.

Notre Dame at 10 and Miami at 12. I still got a problem with that. Okay. That's got to be reversed at some point. It doesn't have to be reversed today. But it better be reversed if it comes into play. Don't tell me the head-to-head doesn't count, because then I start to doubt your product.

Your product's an exhibition, not a competition. Tulane versus North Texas. And James Madison getting in if Duke loses. Yeah. How does Duke beat Virginia? Duke can't be Virginia. Jim Phillips.

I'm talking to you in the ACC if you want to be relevant. The main thing, though, Tony, is if Alabama loses the SEC title game, they would suffer in a way that a Notre Dame couldn't because Notre Dame doesn't have a conference tournament game. How do you reconcile?

So I'm going to take these in the order that you said them. All right. The Alabama Notre Dame thing comes into play if and only if BYU Bets Texas Tech. Because if BYU beats Texas Tech, then two big 12 teams are going to advance. That's going to eliminate, I believe, either Alabama or Notre Dame. I find it very interesting that they jumped Alabama over Notre Dame this week. I believe the committee is setting up for this, that if Alabama, which has beaten Georgia

already this season, if they lose to them in the SEC championship game, and it's reasonably close, I understand that. And so you ask, can a three-loss team, Alabama, get in over a two-lossed, team Notre Dame, and I believe the committee is positioning that to happen. And then I think Texas is going to go crazy because they have three losses, and they've beaten Oklahoma and A&M who are getting in. So I think I've handled that for you. What's the other one? You want to go to Miami now, Miami and Notre Dame?

Don't tell me that Miami. Here's what I'm going to tell you. Fiddle to Notre Dame. We're going to look at the committee right now. The committee has kept Miami at 12. 12's not going to get in because of conference champions. 12's not going to get in. So they keep them there.

That is a signal that they will not employ the head-to-head and move Miami over Notre Dame. So it seems like you're okay with that. But you're not okay with Alabama jumping Notre Dame. No, I'm not. No, you're asking me what I think is going to happen. I didn't get to the okay part. But they're also going to take it looks like they're going to take at least two.

Well, not at least two, but two. Two. Group of five. Yeah. Because that's going to be able to. I'm okay with that. Yeah, I understand. I don't know who I want to leave out. You like underdolls.

You like underdog. Am I okay with the head-to-head? The head-to-head happened a long time ago. Notre Dame has two losses in the first two weeks by a total of four points. Miami's losses are worse than that. Notre Dame has run the table, as you like to hear, since then. I think Notre Dame is, but I do think the committee is setting up

to get rid of Notre Dame and keep Alabama. I do. Except if it comes down to Notre Dame, I'm sorry, to Miami and Notre Dame, then they're setting to keep them. I think they will keep Notre Dame. I thought that is the indication. I have. You ignore head-to-head. I'd come at you. I'm going to come at them.

Go ahead. You haven't paid attention all year. It's good than you're paying attention. It'll be like did that get his money. No. Every day. I'll be like a dog on a postman leg. Good. We've had many college coaching hires of late, but the Penn State job remains curiously open. BYU head coach Kalani is a Kalani. Kalani. Sataki is the latest to spur in the school's interest, re-upping to stay in Provo. On his podcast yesterday, Ben Rothensberger suggested that Mike Tomlin would be a potential fit, adding that while the Steelers should not fire Tomlin, perhaps a fresh start is best for everybody involved.

Tom, what do you make a Penn State's problem, and what do you make a Big Ben's potential solution? It's okay if we say this. It's okay if you and I say that the time is done for Mike Tomlin there, and he ought to go to Penn State. It's a great landing spot. It's okay because we're Muppets on a television show. We did not play football for Mike Tomlin. Ben Rothlisberger did. Ben Rothlisberger just came out, basically, a coach who took him to a Super Bowl,

and said, your time's done, get out of here. Ben Rothlisberger played his entire professional career in Pittsburgh. He matters in Pittsburgh. And now he's saying it's time for Mike Tomlin to do this and then do this. My reaction is, wow. If this was, what's the word, my word would be wow. Now, he tries to soften it by saying that Tomlin could win national championships there. And I get this.

Everybody in Western Pennsylvania cares about Penn State more than anything else other than the Steelers. Everybody in Eastern Pennsylvania cares about Penn State more than anything else about the Eagles. There's resonance about what Penn State's going to do. But Rothensberger said, he said, well, he's a great recruiter. He's a great recruiter. He's been in the pros. He hasn't recruited anybody. That's a direct quote, great recruiter.

I don't know. I watched this on camera, and I could see the difficulty that have been a real. Rothersburg was having, and I give him credit for trying to reconcile these positions. Okay, I love Mike Tomlin, as you do. And you love that. And you have a day you met. I love him. Okay.

It's time. It's just time to do something. Again, you know what? Does it matter? You know what? We are on even more than Mike Tomlin doing something for 19 years because we've done it twice in different places. Right.

It's time. It's just time. He's great at it. He'll be great at it wherever he goes. It might be on a network. it might be in a locker room. He's going to be great. He has said he doesn't want college football.

He has said that before. He has said it before, but that was before. Okay. That was before you could get anybody you wanted and have any dollar amount you want in terms of including matching your salary. It's time for him. Maybe it's time for us.

By the way. It's time for us. By the way, Penn State. Yeah. Go get somebody. Stop screwing around. They will. Let's move to the NBA in Los Angeles Clippers

who are now 5 and 16 and a complete disaster. They are. They announced this morning. that Chris Paul is no longer a part of their team. The Clipper sent Paul back to L.A. from Atlanta on a one-way ticket. Paul had announced this to be his last season. He's averaging 2.9 points, 3.3 assists, 14 minutes a game. Well, by Chris Paul is your friend, and I know that.

What do you make of this? And I haven't talked to him. You haven't talked to him? No, I have not talked to him intentionally. And this is hard for me to reconcile. Look, Chris Paul is one of the great leaders. Charles Barkley has for 15 years called Chris Paul, the best leader of this generation.

And it's not by accident that. I agree with Charles on that. Chris is tough. As Devin Booker said on the eve of starting a season that would end to the NBA finals, Chris isn't for everybody. And Devin knew what he was saying, he's tough. When I talked to Chris Paul,

and we've written a book together, I edited, he wrote, Chris has notes. He is, the notes are copious. He is intentional. He is specific. He's tough. He doesn't like load. management. Chris Paul is an old-fashioned old-school tough guy, and he'll go right at Kauai

Leonard and James Hardin and even T. Liu, and I thought they used to be the best of friends. Maybe I'm wrong about that. They haven't spoken. Let me ask you question. They used to be... Let me refer back to this show. Let me refer back to this show. Right. Is it his time to go? It's his time, isn't it? Maybe. It's his time. Maybe. When I heard about this this this morning, my reaction was, wait a second. Are the Clipper is going to somehow scapegoat Chris Paul? Yes. It's what they're doing. God, all. It's what they're doing.

God off of 5 and 16th season. Are they going to say that the 11 minutes a game he plays as his result? You know who this is on? This is on Kauai Leonard and James Harden first, because they're the two best players on the team. And your best players in the NBA. Wait, wait, just, I'm not a Chris Paul guy. You know that. You're a Chris Paul guy.

I am. You know, my sense of this is that it's on the general manager and the coach. Okay. Okay, they have that they stink. They have lost 14 of their last 16 games. That's right. They lost 14 in the last 16 games. They got the oldest team in the league,

and their best player plays half the time. All right, so it's on it. I named those players. But Chris Paul, my guess is there's a clash with Tyron Loo. There's a clash with management. And they say, get out. And there's a clash with everybody, any locker room that Chris Paul's in. It works better with younger players.

I'm told that those older players said his voice is too loud. Well, where are their voices? When you stink like the clippers, they're going to blame it on Chris Paul. It's time. for him to go. It's time. Let's take a break. Coming up, why is Lamar Jackson struggling? We're going to ask Steve Young what he sees.

We'll also ask him whether Max Brosmer is taking too much heat for that thing on Sunday. You know what? Chris Paul can either do TV. He can coach. He can be in a lot of places. A lot of people could use Chris Paul right now. But the clippers can't. No.

They stink with him. We agree. Welcome back to Pardon the Interruption, presented by Greg Part of Happy Hour. We have football questions for our great friend and the man who talked me out of retiring from the NFL more than once. Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young.

Let's start with something Will Bunn does not want me to talk about. The Dallas Cowboys, because he hates them. That's right. He doesn't want to talk about it. They've been hot, and they now face the lions. I'm going to talk about them. Dak Prescott has George Pickens and C.D. Lamb. How does it change the game for you

when you have two receivers of that high quality? Yeah, Jerry Rice and John Taylorman. I'm telling you, today's Wednesday. Today's installation day in the NFL. And what matters is the defense is now is going to play the Cowboys. The installation is all about George and C.D. Like, watch where are they going, where they line up, where do they happen? And what happens, it sinks into their psyche throughout Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

By the time those guys come out of the tunnel to warm up, you have an advantage. And it's an advantage that's like unseen. But it happens on the field. And then you have the physical advantage in the game. So you actually double. You have a perceptional benefit, and you actually have a reality benefit. And then Dak's going to take advantage.

The one thing about the Cowboys, though, and that's why Michael doesn't want to talk about them. Because if they're hot, they're about to not be hot. So that's the part you got to watch for. Amen. Amen. You got to watch for that. We've waited 25 years for the full potential,

the full measure of the Cowboys to come into view. It always feels like they have this huge potential and it never gets realized. So fun to talk about them for a minute and see if they can actually do it. All right, this is next question, Steve. I'm going to give myself a semi-pad on the back. Because a few weeks ago, I asked you if it seemed to you like it does to me that Lamar Jackson has lost his it, his pop, his magic. And now I'm more convinced over than ever because linebackers are catching him that never would have caught you in his prime, you and your prime or him.

So are you seeing this yet? Am I crazy? what are you seeing with Lamar Jackson? Last week really were like he's diminished physically. You can see it and you can see it in his demeanor. You can see it in his play. It's like when you're hurt

and you can't be all of yourself and it kind of gets into your head, you're a whole athleticist and like now you're not as good a passer. Now you're not watching. You're not ahead of the data and you're not seeing the open guy as much. It's like it's you're just diminished as a player and you've got to get back to health. And so I think the thing that's shocking me is that

the team is not responding by, look, Lamar, we're going to ask less of you physically, but we still need you to play elite quarterback from the pocket and throw that ball over the field and get those 350-yard, 400-yard games that you've had in the past. And we won't ask you to run around so much because somehow they've got to find, or else get healthy. Because it's hard to watch Lamar in this spot. It's painful. Tony? You guys know how much I love them. We do too. We love watching. We love And it's like, oh my God, that's not really Lamar Jackson. We're going to stay in division and go to Joe Burrow, who told Albert Breer he's trying to find fun, the fun.

In football again, after dealing with his injuries the last two years, you went through this whole process over many years in the NFL. How important to you was fun in the equation? Look, I'm going to be authentic and real about this. My dad used to scream at me because I worry so much. You're like, Steve, my dream is that I get to play football, the game I love for money, and you get to go out there and, like, just have fun. And I be like, fun.

Like, I got to go out there. Joe Montana never threw an incompletion. He never threw a, he never lost the game. He never, like, I've got lots to worry about it. So I dealt with it. I love the idea of Joe and Patrick Mahomes is the ultimate, right? He's playing in his backyard. That's the magic of Patrick Mahomes.

I want to be Patrick Mahomes to change. just be in my backyard playing at Arrowhead for the championship and just feel like, yeah, you know, pass me a drink from the patio. I'm good. Like that's, I love the presence of that. That makes me feel like aspirational. Like I would love to be that guy and Joe working on that. If I was playing like today, I'd be on the same journey.

Like, how can I be more joyful and fun in the moment? I admire the effort and I applaud it because it was. It was the long ways away, he felt like. We will get you out of here on this. Vikings quarterback Max Brossmer, I hope I pronounce that correctly, got ridiculed for his fourth and one pick six. But head coach Kevin O'Connell said it was totally on his play call. And no one on the line blocked a Marcus Lawrence.

So from a quarterback's perspective, which you will have, who is actually to blame for that one? So you're getting into mitigation and accountability. Mitigation is everywhere on the field. People miss blocks. They have all kind of chaos. They turn the wrong way. Tip ball, like everything.

But the truest truth of all of it, the accountability part is the ball is in the quarterback's hands. And then where it goes from there is the quarterback. It has to be. And the second, anybody says that's not the truest truth. They steal from the accountability for all the mitigating things that go on so they can go back and say, look, you turn the wrong way. You didn't block your guy. because everybody else says, well, yeah, but you didn't blame the guy who had the ultimate decision.

In the end, Tony, it has to be the responsibility of the quarterback where that ball ends up. And so it's completely true as truth. It's on the quarterback, and he needs to take it. And if he doesn't, nothing else is going to get fixed. And no football will ever be played that's any good if the quarterback doesn't. If he gets lost in mitigation, I always said, look, watch post game. Watch when they get to the, they ask, you know, the media stands up and they said, You know, when you lose, what do they do?

The first question is, what happened? And just put your ear to it. Do you hear mitigating words or do you hear words of accountability? And if you hear mitigation, you're listening to somebody's not going to win next week. If you're listening to accountability, true is truth, I bet on that guy. That should be on a card. Fabulous answer. She'd be on a homework card.

By the way, it's Brozmer. I had it wrong, but it's Brozmer. Thank you, Steve, as always. That's great. Thank you. And it's a lesson for Mr. Brosmer. Let's take one last break. Still to come, Duke takes out the champs.

to stay unbeat. And the Thunder and Avalanche are both off the stellar stars. Who's is more impressive? I told you. Accountability and mitigation. That sounds like a law firm. Accountability and mitigation. Anybody on this show go to law school?

You know. Did you? No, I didn't. No. I think you left. Pardon the Interruption is presented by Great Goose. Make Time Wait. Please enjoy responsibly.

Part of Happy Hour. Happy Time. people happy 65th birthday Igor Laryanoff the Red Wing Center played on three Stanley Cup winners in Detroit 1997 1998 in 2002 larianov had 169 NHL goals 475 assists in a 14-year career that included stops in Vancouver San Jose Florida and New Jersey though we never got to a Stanley Cup final anywhere but Detroit Larianov was on two Olympic gold medal hockey teams for the Soviet Union in Sarajevo in 1984 and Calgary in 1988

He was on a Russian team that won bronze in Salt Lake City in 2002. Laryanov is the sixth Russian-born inductee into the Hall of Fame, but he won't be the last because OV's coming. Tony has some other Red Wings got there before he did. Eisenhowery, Federoff, Shanahan, Lidstrum. I mean, those are the mainstays on the team. Laryano didn't get to the Wink until he was 35. That's surprising.

Happy anniversary, Tyron Matthew. On this date, 14 years ago, the Honey Badger was named MVP of the SEC title game after contributing to LSU's 42 unanswered points when trailing Georgia 10-0. It's rare for a defensive player to be so honored, but Matthew returned a punt for a 62-yard touchdown. He recovered a fumble to help get LSU into the national championship game

for a rematch with Alabama. Matthew almost had a second punt return for a touchdown as you see here. Matthew was dismissed from LSU in 2012 after battles with addiction, but he had a long NFL career that included a Super Bowl ring with the Chiefs in 2019. Matthew retired this past July

after three seasons with his hometown Saints. And fitting that he ended up right with hometown Saints. But that's a long career. Yes, it is. And he is not a big fellow. He has some speed. That gave him advantage.

Happy trails to last night's game from Florida. The 15th ranked Gators fell to number four Duke by one at Cameron last night. The reigning champs were actually up two with 30 seconds left when Duke set up Cam Boosier for the final shot. The Bozer got double teamed and he dished it to Isaiah Evans, who had been 0 for 7 from 3.

Evans hit would prove to be the game winner instead of it later, quote, I'm thinking I've got to get to church. I've got no words for that. I shot it with confidence and it went in, unquote. By the way, the freshman Boozer had 29. Duke is now 9 and 0. I'm going to talk quickly about another freshman, Derek Dixon, at the University of North Carolina.

Gonzaga High School was owned from Barry. Another Gonzaga mentioned. Hey, have we talked about Caleb Williams yet? He hit the three that won. Do we have Gonzaga kids in the Oregon? Do we have them? Do we have them? They're silent.

Thank you. Big finish quickly. The Thunder has started the season 21 and 1 in the Avalanche 19, 1 and 6, which is more impressive. They both have had sort of easy schedules. But Dreamline says he thinks the Thunder are capable of going past 73. Really? Wow. In some point you have tough teams too.

LSU's Charlie Weiss Jr. going to return to Ole Miss to be the OC through the football playoff. Your thoughts? I thought so. That's all miss made an exception here and I should make an exception. make an exception for Lane Kiffin. You know why I think... He's not leaving. I believe he should coach that team in playoffs. Grizzly Center, Zach Edy, has averaged 17 rebounds a game over his last four. You impressed? All the people who thought Zach Eadie could have played in the

NBA. Shut up. You were wrong. Five-star quarterback recruit, Jared Curtis switched his commitment from Georgia to Vanderbilt. What does that say to you? Says there's an opening. Diego Pobby is probably not going to return. It also says there might be some money. Might be? In college today, it might be some money in Vandy? They might. They might. Last one, the 17. 17 and 4 pistons at the 9 and 13 bucks tonight. Who you got? The bucks have lost either.

Not stinks. The pistons look really, really good. Like they might be the best team in the east. The bucks are going to be in a paragraph with the clippers at some point. They are. We're out of time. We'll try to do better the next time. I'm Tony Cornhunt.

I'm Mike Wilbon. Same time tomorrow, knuckleheads. When are we going to get to when is Janus going to get his trade? When is that with Dak?