PTI - Why has Wemby Been Struggling?

Episode Date: November 6, 2025

Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser discuss Wemby, Ja Morant, and the Steelers. 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 man in South Carolina was arrested Sunday for doing donuts in a church parking lot while driving his car naked. I'm Tony Cornheiser.

I wasn't naked, okay? I was wearing driving gloves, all right? See, when I heard doing donuts in his church parking lot, I just thought he had glazed, maybe an old-fashioned, maybe a chocolate cake. Donuts in the church parking lot. Sunday morning, snuck out early on the way to some NFL games on TV. Sneak of donut. Maple donuts.

Do you like maple donuts? I like maple. I'm okay with my goodness. I'm all right with that. I like that. Welcome to PTI boys and girls. In today's episode, John Moran struggles. A goalie tries to pocket Alex O'Betchin's 900th goal,

and Booger McFarlane joins us for five good minutes. But we begin today with Victor Wembenyama, who you, Wilbonne, have been slurping all season. Yes, I have. Wimbanyama went on the road last night to L.A. and came out with just 19 points on five of 14 shooting.

He committed five turnovers and six fouls. The spurs were basically beaten by Luca Donchich's 35 points in a game that went down to the wire. In Wembeñama's previous game, he had nine points and six turnovers. So, Wilbon, how do you explain what's happened to your boy Wembeyanama

the last two games? Here's how I explain it. Competition. This is what the teams in the league, the other 29 are supposed to try to do to Victor Wimbaniama, to blitz him, to get him in foul trouble, to figure out things. Tony, the only thing, and by the way, I think this works so brilliantly in Wimbun Mbanyama's favor

and in San Antonio's favor with Castle and Harper and Sochan played for the first time last night and the cast of characters they got young players who are not going to win a championship this year, who are not going to play for one this year, but they're going to move in this year. But they're going to move in that direction, and when Banayama's going to lead them there. Because he's going to get angry and emotional and be competitive and come with answers.

Because he's smart and resourceful and tough and well-schooled and well-coached. This is great for San Antonio. I love seeing this and watching it last night. By the way, some kudos to the Lakers, okay? Some kudos to everybody in the Laker organization. They got no LeBron. They've missed a Luca a couple of games. They don't have Austin Reeves, and they're playing their butts off.

So good for the Lakers. But this is great for Wimbanyama. He's got to counter now. That's his job. I don't think it's great for Wemba Nama. I'm going to leave Wemba Nama out of this. You know, I can explain exactly how this happens with a phrase you've heard me say before,

because the other coaches get paid and they watch film as well. And they try to figure out how do we stop this guy. He'll be great in the long term. it takes practice and it takes time. And he's not Wilt. He's not the strongest guy in the league when he walked in like Wilt was. I'm going to go the other side.

Something else you glean from that game. And that is that the most effective player in the league right now is Luka Donchich. The most effective player. But only if you care about getting 40 points a game. Luca Dantzic, his first five games this year, he has 200 points. Mike, here is a list of all the other NBA players

past and present who opened a season 2, games and had 200 points. Will Chamberlain. That's it. That's the list. Will Chamberlain. The Lakers are winning without LeBron, as you said. They're winning without Reeves, as you said. They're winning because Luca Donchich is making them win.

It's another reason why Nico Harrison should be fired for trading Luca. The Lakers are seven and two, I believe, and Dallas is two and six. And Anthony Davis has heard again. Who could have seen that coming? Huh? By the way, so credit to J.J. Redick specifically. and you're wrong about Luca being that player. You're wrong.

He's runner up. To Shea Gilgis Alexander. I don't care about the points alone. She actually plays the other end. Luca, we'll find out. He's got a better team. We'll see. He's playing with a better team.

He is. He's playing with a better team. Let's move to the tension in Memphis, Tony. John Morant had a bad night on the floor again last night. Shooting just six for 19. Six turnovers. And the Grizzlies lost to Houston. During timeouts, Morant largely kept his distance from his coach,

Thomas Izzalo. And the Grizzly suspended Morant for one game over the weekend for his conduct toward that coach. So, Tom, what needs to happen with Jha? He's got to go. This shouldn't go another day or another week or another month. No, no, no, no. He's poisoned there now.

He's not talking to this coach. So unless Memphis wants to fire this coach, they've got to do something with John Moran. You know, he's not talking to the coach. He's not producing, if you go six of 19, you're not producing. He's been suspended, as you said, one game for not having any relationship with the coach. Previously, he had been suspended more than once for conduct unbecoming off the field, right? I mean, so there's history here. I don't see that there's any way out here except to deal him.

And it's too bad for Memphis because you know what, Mike, and I know you agree with this. They're not going to get a guy as good as him to replace him. No. They're not going to attract a free agent in Memphis. If Memphis screws this up, they could actually have to relocate the franchise. And they are not dealing from a position of strength right now. Those are my immediate impressions. I'm going to give you credit.

You called me Friday and you said, your boy, Jha, has to go now. I give you full credit, because you and I started talking about places where he could go and maybe salvage his career. Tony, he's got to go. And you and I mentioned some places where you have strong coaching, strong organization, strong locker room. And again, you started, I think you, did you mention the Celtics, which in the time and real time I thought you were crazy? And now I don't think you're crazy. No, I mean, it's up. Look, there's a couple of places it's up to them.

It's up to the Celtics if they want him. It's up to Miami. If they're worried about him in South Beach, maybe they don't want him. I would not, if I were the Knicks, I wouldn't do it because Mike Brown just got there. He's a veteran coach, but he's not a veteran there. Right. I mean, to me, a place that makes sense is Milwaukee. With Yonis, with Doc Rivers, a veteran coach.

I like that. Maybe the clippers. I know how much you like, Tyler. Maybe the clippers. But the other part about John Morant is refresh my memory again about how many championships he's won. Because the answer is none. He doesn't even play in 60 games. He's never played in 70.

I love the Milwaukee and Clipper's suggestions. You got to have an established coach and established stars. And you have to corral him. Tony, it's wasting away. You don't get forever. And the jaw and for different reasons, Zion, these guys were supposed to be, we talk about faces of the league.

They're big, huge talents. And it's not working different reasons. Zion is not that kind of problem, but John Moran, man. Let's go to hockey and Alexander Ovechkin, who last night became the first NHL player ever to score 900 goals. He got 900 on a backhand against St. Louis in the second period. As Ovechkin's teammates rushed the ice to celebrate Ovi, the St. Louis goalie, Jordan Binnington, stuffed the puck into his pads down his pants. Alignment had to skate over and ask Binnington for the puck.

after the game Biddington didn't speak to the press, though today Biddington said he, quote, had full intention to give it back, unquote. Well, Bun, what do you make of this? This has nothing to do with OVee, what I make of it. It's just, Bennington's behavior. We all went to high school with a guy like that. All of us. And, you know, I just started thinking, oh, my God, I'm not going to name any names.

Start thinking about Brian White, but that's another story. Of guys who were, you know, pretty tough guys, but they were a little odd. and they, you know, wanted a confrontation, it seems, every day or every other day. And they would do something to make somebody who was maybe a tough guy teacher, Father Busmeyer, come over and say, enough of that because I'll take you out. It just reminded me of high school. It's so funny to me, Tony. I went back like 50 years.

And so that's all it reminds me of. What did Ovi do? Ovi got to 900. That's so cool. And he's got to deal with. this dope being the high school, being Potsie Weber. Come on. This is what I'm thinking. I'm thinking what exactly is Bennington thinking? Is he thinking, I'm going to steal this puck. I'm going to sell it on the black market.

I'm going to steal his puck. I'm going to put it in a trophy case in my own house. What are you thinking? Are you impressed by the guys who took out the Louvre? Because I don't, by the way, buy this thing that he was going to give him the puck. I don't buy that at all. If I'm Gary Bettman last night, I call Bennington and I go, what are you doing? There's cameras all around. We're not going to let you have this puck. What are you nuts? Let me get to Ovi briefly here.

What Alexander Ovechkin, living in Washington, both of us have seen hundreds of his goals. We don't usually see a backhand goal. We know his spots on the left hand side, 25 to 30 feet out. He hits it 800 miles an hour. It's like a Nolan Ryan fastball, boom, boom, boom, and you get to 900.

Look, this is Babe Ruth being passed by Henry Aaron, and nobody honestly believed that Henry Aaron was a better baseball player than Babe Ruth. And no one should believe that Alexander Ovechkin is a better hockey player than Wayne Gretzky, whose number he passed. But this is a singular achievement, Mike. I don't know that anybody's getting to 900 again. It's a great great milestone.

I don't know. I think I bet the under. Real quickly. I think I bet the under. I think how many back hands do you think he scored on in his career? I can't even picture any. I'm going to say there must be 100. No, there's got to be 100.

No, I want to say 100? Yeah. Back hands, really? Let's take a break. He's scored 900. Coming up, the Raiders face the Broncos tonight. Why hasn't Pete Carroll had more immediate success? We're going to ask Booger McFarland. We're also going to ask him whether he gives the Brian Kelly list LSU Tigers

any shot of knocking off number four Alabama. Do you believe Bennington was going to give him the puck? Yeah. Do you believe that? Yes, I do. Oh, you do? I think Bennington just. Why do you stuff it down his pants?

I think Bennington is just that guy. Week 10 of the game. The NFL schedule kicks off tonight, which makes it a perfect time for a visit from our great friend, ESPN NFL and college football analyst, Mr. Booger McFarlane. Today wearing a shirt from High Grove in central Florida, Gil Hans's course hasn't even opened yet. Wilbon. Booker's going to be there to cut the ribbon. Let's start with this. BIPR.

Bougarley. So tonight it's the Raiders at the Broncos. Buger, why do you think, or maybe you disagree with the premise, that Pete Carroll hasn't had more immediate success? Yeah, Tony, I think it's a number of reasons. Number one, Gino Smith just hasn't been as good. You know, Pete kind of handpicked him. They traded for him. He's the quarterback.

He's turning the football over at a very high rate. That's number one. Number two, like, they don't have many weapons offensively. They got a couple of good tight ends and Michael Meyer and Bowers. Those guys are really good tight ends, but they don't have the weapons on the outside. And then lastly, you know how it is. All us old guys up here on this panel, man. Pete's 74 years old.

Pete kind of suck in his ways. Pete grew up in that Seattle. covered three defense, and I don't think the defense has evolved. So the defense hasn't been as successful, and I think Pete has to kind of innovate a little bit. And I think maybe there's a hesitancy to innovate and change. Pete wants to run the football. They went out and they drafted Ashton Jensen. You got to morph into what's going on right now. It's no longer a ground and pound league. You got to turn into and throw the football around. And so I think they got to figure out what they want to do and how they want to play. And Pete's got to spearhead that. Oh, speaking about

figure out what they got to do. Let's go to the New York Jets. And Booger, if you're on the Jets defense and your team trades away the two best players on your defense, you brought a coach in a defensive guy, defensive ace, and you trade them for future picks, you are thinking what? Well, first of all, I'm wondering how come I didn't get traded because I must not be good enough if they kept me. That's number one. Like, why the hell am I still here?

Second of all, here's the thing that I would think about. Are you really telling us that we're trying to win now? Like when you trade the two best players on defense, the guys that's making the most money, I think we're all adults in the room. We all understand, A, you're not trying to win now. You're not trying to win anytime soon. And we're stockpiling picks for a quarterback. And so I would just ask the coach, let's be honest, guys.

Like, we're all professionals. We're all getting paid a lot of money here. I would hope that Aaron Glenn stands in front of the room and say, hey, the guys that are here, we're going to go out, and we're going to try to win every game. But I think we all know that the Jets are looking for at 26 and 27 drafts trying to figure out who their quarterback is going to be. But I would be scratching my head. Like, if we're going to make a fire cell, how come I can't get out?

Like Quincy Williams, the linebacker, they traded his brother, and then they bitched him. How could you didn't trade me too? That's what I'd be asking. A logical question, to say the least, but the Jets don't deal in logic. All right, one of the many reasons we love having you on is we can segue to college football. And the game I'm looking to more than any other this weekend is BYU at Texas Tech, numbers 7 and 8 in the country. BYU runs it, Texas Tech stops it. So how do you see this whole thing playing out in that game?

Yeah, if that's the case, I think it's going to come down to the quarterback. You know, BYU has this quarterback, Bear Bokmire. He wears number 47, like one of the old school numbers, young quarterback. their physical team, you're right, they like to run the football, but I think this quarterback is going to have to grow up, and he's going to have to do it against one of the fiercest pass rushes out there because Texas Tech went out, and they took some of that Will Bond money and some of that Cornhizer money, and they put it all together,

and they bought maybe the best team they've had in a long, long time. They put a lot of money in the defensive line. And so this defensive line is built to get out to the run game and get after the quarterback. So if you're BYU and you know you want to run the football, you're probably going to have to make sure that you block this. defensive line at some point, and you're going to have to hit some big plays over the top. Texas Tech, Texas Tech has been beat before, but I think you're going to have to hit some

explosive plays in the passing game in order to do that. We will get you out of here on this, and this is very close to home, this question. What sort of a chance do you give your alma mater, LSU, in now the first game after a buy at the end of Brian Kelly? He's not there anymore. What sort of chance do you give them to knock off number four Alabama? What do you give them? Yeah, well, first of all, good riddance that he's not there anymore.

That's number one. Number two, I think the interim coach Frank Wilson is going to do a really good job of getting these guys ready to play. I think they're going to play for the three letters on the helmet LSU. And I think if you're the Tigers, man, you got to go out and let it go. You got to play fast. You got to play physical. I'm always going to choose us, honey. I know everybody.

I think we're a 10-point underdog. That's fine. It's all good. It doesn't matter to me. I think my guys are going to show up and they're going to play hard. If we can run the football and the quarterback remembers what color jerseys we're wearing, I think we're wearing white, then I think we're going to have a chance in the fourth quarter. And when you're a double-digit underdog on the road to have a chance in the fourth quarter,

that's all you can always ask. But always, Tony, what type of chance? I'm always choosing them three letters, baby. LSU, you know that. Do I detect that you were not a Brian Kelly fan? Do I detect that? Brian Kelly didn't work hard enough in bad. Rouge. I think right now all the stories are starting to come out. There's a thing called being a good fit. And I think as we look back on it, Brian Kelly wasn't a good fit. And I think for all the reasons that we talked about, him being from Boston coming down to the south, like it just wasn't a good fit. I don't even know if he knew what Gumbo was. Like, if I got to explain to you what Gumbo is, you probably don't need to be in the South. Get out. You ain't allowed. Get out. Stay out. Didn't you like when he said family? Didn't you like that? Let's take one last break.

by the way. He didn't like what he said family. None of us did. Nobody did. The Padreys hired a manager not named Albert Pujols. You're surprised? Maybe he wasn't a good fit.

Two pumps cost Rico Doudal 15 grand. Is it worth it? Booker, you're so right. And in the SEC, you've got to fit. You have to fit. Each one of those schools, you have to fit. Happy time.

People, happy 72nd birthday, John Candelaria, the Candyman. Candlearia pitched 19 seasons in the, majors over three decades from 1975 to 1993. He was with the Pirates for his glory days, but also pitched for the Angels, Mets, Yankees, Expos, Twins, Blue Jays and Dodgers. Candelaria's greatest year was 1977, when he went 20 and 5 for the Pirates, led the majors

in ERA at 2-3-4. Candelaria had a no-hitter in 1976. The Big Lefty's best post-season game was in game six of the 1979 World Series, when He threw six scoreless innings at the Orioles on just 65 pitches and beat Jim Palmer for nothing. That series wins seven games with the We Are Family Pirates, winning games five, six, and seven by a combined score of 15 to two. Tony, when you said the big leicter, you weren't exaggerating. Candelarias stood six, seven.

Stans six, six, seven, and played a couple of years of pro basketball in Puerto Rico. We're talking about a great athlete here in the Candyman. Yep. Yep. A not so happy anniversary, Chris Boswell. On this day, nine years ago, the Steelers kicker attempted a trick onside's kick known as a Robona kick. As you can see, Boswell failed miserably and comically against the Ravens. Kick went about six inches. What is that?

Boswell got too cute for his own good, prompting laughter from players and officials. But Boswell is still going strong in Pittsburgh. In week one, he hit a 60-yard field goal to beat the Jets 34-32. Longest field goal ever by a Steelers kicker. Boswell is currently the most accurate kicker in NFL history on attempts 50 yards or more. 49 for 59. Wow, interestingly enough,

Boswell nailed a successful Robona while playing at Rice, but his team still went on to lose. Yeah, bring some other dude in and put him on special teams to dribble the ball. You want to dribble against somebody else. This dude is kicking it out of the stadium to have that kind of accuracy beyond 50 yards. Kudos to him.

Amazing. really is impressive. Happy trails to the Padres hiring Albert Pujols as their next manager. The team today surprisingly hired Craig Stammon as its new manager. 41-year-old Stamman was a long-time reliever for the Padres and the Washington Nationals had been a special assistant to GM, A.J. Preller. Pujos was thought to have had the inside track on the job, partly due to his relationships with fellow Dominicans, Manny Machado, and Fernando Tatez Jr. Bob Nightingale even reported that Pujose's second interview with the team lasted nine and a half hours, but it's stamina who will replace Mike Schilt.

Maybe Pujoos is just difficult. Or maybe, you know, he just says, you know what, I don't need this right now. I can do whatever I want to. I'm Albert Pujose. Big finish as quickly as we can. Russell Westbrook became the NBA's all-time rebounding leader amongst guards last night. Eclipse and Jason Kidd is that significant. Tony, it is because it speaks to effort.

And nobody's ever tried any harder than Russell Westwood. The Thunder loss for the first time last night is that significant. Not like they were going 82 and 0. By the way, they got beat Tiago Splitter now 5 and 2 in Portland since Johnson's Bill left. Yep. The Knicks scored 83, 83 in the second half of a win over the Timberwolves last night. You impressed?

I was befuddled. I watched the first half of that come back. I look at the score. I'm like, how did this happen? The NFL fine Panthers running back, Rico Dowell, nearly 15,000 for his two pumps. Tops, touchdown celebration. Maybe I'll get fined.

Does that make sense to you? Don't ask me, ask Keen Peel. Last one, Clippers at Suns tonight. Who you got? You know I root for Book. You know I root for T. Lou. I'm torn. You want to play out your tragedy

on a national scale? Who you got? We're out of time. Trying to do better the next time. I'm Tony Kornhizer. I'm Mike Wilbaum. Same time tomorrow, local heads.