Pardon The Interruption | Michael Wilbon: Thoughts on both series Mavs & Cetlics being 3-0?

Pardon The Interruption | Michael Wilbon: Thoughts on both series Mavs & Cetlics being 3-0?

welcome to PTI we will get to the NBA Conference Finals and the Raphael Nadal loss at the French Open in a moment but we begin today with the passing of the legendary Bill Walton the Hall of Famer died today of cancer at the age of 71 Walton won two College titles at UCLA and NBA titles with the Trailblazers and Celtics but so many people today will remember him as one of the most entertaining broadcasters in basketball through every phase he regularly challenged conventional culture willon what are your Reflections on the player the broadcaster on the man wow Tony um I don’t even know where to start my whole life I’ve been aware of Bill Walton and then luckily enough over the past 20 years at times to work with Bill Walton and I you know you mentioned some of the amazing things about his basketball career the first thing is and I’m talking to my 16-year-old son about him and I’m saying look you need to look at the high look at the film find it find it on YouTube go you need to don’t let the numbers try to explain to you who Bill Walton was he was a great athlete he was a skilled a a player a big man as there’s been I mean you look at I just looked at clips of Bill Walton shooting left-handed Bank shots B hooks over his shoulder in Championship Games whether for Portland OR for the Celtics and you mentioned both teams great player at UCLA and then Tony he has all these injuries just sort of rearrange his career and lessen it to such a degree but he goes into a booth and as you know with Steve Snapper Jones and then with Dave Pash and a lot of people maybe didn’t like Bill in the moment you and I loved him we would talk about the things he would say and phrases he coined and I worked with Bill in Bristol he would fly to Bristol he started his television career part of it at ESPN and he was in such pain his feet and back he would have to lay on the floor during the commercial breaks sometimes or between shows because he was in such pain but yet he was the guy in the room after being a severe stutterer and being so withdrawn as a young person to be as outgoing as he as he was and so it’s just I’m I’m incredibly sad today because Bill Walton has been at all the parts of basketball watching it the game consuming it the broadcast that I’ve ever experienced and I I love them I know you did too well unlike you I covered him in college um I was in St Louis in 1973 when he shot 21 for 22 against Memphis State and won the National Championship I think he had like 44 points and 13 rebounds the next year I was in Greensboro North Carolina when David Thompson beat Bill Walton in UCLA in the semi-finals and they went on to win the national championship I covered him when he was in the NBA early in Portland I was in Philadelphia when Portland beat the 76ers for the NBA title and I was in the room when our friend Brent musberger held up a microphone in front of Bill Walton and began his question with the following words big guy big guy big guy big guy big guy okay now Walton was very difficult to deal with in UCLA and in his early years in the NBA for the pr yes okay John Wooden sheltered him John Wooden didn’t force him to talk to anybody and Bill didn’t want to talk he was rather mysterious so as you can imagine for me Mike at my age it was with amazement that I looked at Bill Walton as a broadcaster and how how outgoing he was and how bombastic he was how talkative he was how funny he was and in later years I would stand with him and say well what happened when you were a kid and I was a kid and you never talked never talked to anybody and in terms of playing if you didn’t see him when he was healthy you won’t understand what I’m saying he was a great and dominant player so much so that that a basketball league the ABA offered to put a franchise in his hometown and stock it with UCLA players if he would sign with them in the early 70s and and that didn’t Happ I’ll just say this the two greatest college players ever are Bill Walton and Kareem ever that’s it that’s the list we have reached the point let me let me let me mention this to you real quick Tony when I was inducted fortunately for me gratefully into the Basketball Hall of Fame a couple years ago I’m rehearsing my speech and Bill Walton Ducks his head in the room and you’re supposed to have five minutes for the speech and he says you go longer than five minutes I’m giving you my blessing there’s no bill Tony’s not here he can’t stop you you go until they drag you off the stage and of course I laughed until I was almost in tears that Bill Walton who ducked his head into everybody’s life everybody’s got a story a great one about Bill Walton so where it should be we’ll move on we’ve reached the point where both NBA Conference Finals stand at 3 nothing after Dallas beat Minnesota in Minnesota last night Boston and Dallas appear to be in complete Command their younger opponents Indiana and Minnesota don’t seem ready for Pro time wion what’s the word for what we are seeing finals we’re seeing the two teams at three 0 go to the finals Tony and they’re going to have I I’m starting to think this could really be a great great great match up most of the Year everybody would have taken Boston in this matchup and Dallas was coming along slowly right but even the other day you know when Malika Andrews and I got to talk to Kyrie Irving after a game he said that they got to the all-star break and he thought this is not sustainable we just can’t be great offensively we’ve got to commit ourselves to defense and he meant we he meant he and Luca and the others would follow and they have and so I think Dallas has now in a span of a couple of months gone from a good team that was interesting to potential greatness and Boston I don’t know to trust them yet but they’re going to the finals they’re not going to lose to Indie now they could be down 2-1 in this series Tony they really could be because they’ve been outplayed twice which is sort of inexcusable given who they’ve got but I’m really intrigued by these two teams going at each other and and what I hope porzingis can be out there healthy but I want to see Boston and Dallas I want to see it right now yeah so I have a different word in fact I have a collection of words and my words are the shallow end of the pool that’s the part of the pool where there’s not enough water to swim in but you can stand in it many of the games in this series have been interesting some have been actually exciting but this series is over both series there’s no drama they’re not coming back from no NBA team has ever come back from and 154 have tried and Boston is a better team than Indiana and a significantly better team if halberton doesn’t play and Dallas is a better team than Minnesota and a significantly better team if this is the version of Anthony Edwards that we get and the version of Carl Anthony towns that we get so so to me um you know if these end Mike if these end at 40 there’s nine days until the final start on June 6 all the momentum has gone it’s totally deflating but like you I want to see donic against Boston I don’t know that I want to see the other way but I want to see donic against Boston because I believe Mike that if there’s any two players in the NBA who are teammates who are as watchable and as great as donic and Irving it’s it’s going to be Tatum and Jaylen Brown I want to see that don’t want to see the rest of this want to see that so we’ll move to ten this the great Raphael Nadal lost in straight sets today in the first round of the French Open 63 7663 to number four seed Alexander verev that’s a really tough draw afterwards a nearly 38-year-old madal who has won this tournament 14 times said and I’m quoting here if it is the last time I enjoyed it unquote Wan how did it feel to you Tony I don’t know if it’s the last time but that’s insignificant it’s over it’s okay Nadal is look the the goat conversation of tennis we know what it is I know you don’t even want to include Joker’s name in it jokovic but he’s in it and of course Federer and I don’t even know maybe it’s just those three because I don’t even know that you can go back in time to agasse and SAS and maero and Borg and kind of I don’t Conor I don’t know that you can do that because these guys have dominated for so long for 15 years they’ve been at the top of it but it’s okay it’s all right I mean the do you can’t go on forever and he went on for close to Forever Z is a hell of a player I don’t know Tony this is sort of like when tiger and Phil you know sort of passed from the scene and they’re no longer the dominant players but golf seemed to inherit a cast of characters and Ensemble where there’s greatness there’s some great players I don’t know the tennis is like that for sure but it reminds me of that that’s interesting I mean look Nadal is an all-time great federa was an alltime great jokovic is an all-time great feder is out it appears that Nadal is done here and jokovic is now losing to people who couldn’t get a set off him two years ago right so maybe it’s alarz but there’s no gravity yet with alarz the last time Nadal actually played in Paris he won I think 2022 and then his body which had been breaking down for years actually began to crumble and he couldn’t get there last year yet I think it was a hip injury he hasn’t played much this year I believe he’s never gotten past the quarterfinal this year I think he lost in the second round in the Italian on Clay the other day so you know why he want wants to get to Roland Goos because nobody’s ever dominated like he has do you know his record Mike counting this loss at the French Open it’s 112 and4 that’s his record nobody’s ever going to do that anywhere W like that’s what that’s like K walon yes stop 112 and four get out of here let’s take a break coming up where does the Rangers overtime win put them where does it leave the Panthers and Yosef New Garden goes back to back at the n500 how big a deal is that for this one that’s a great Walton story at the hall of fame that’s a great story he should have said to you throw it down Big Man Down throw it down just talk past the bill Tony’s not here he can’t stop you time to find out what’s big with the littles I’ll get the first one ma time go to the glasses where does Ronald aunia Jr’s second ACL tear leave him and the Braves well this has happened before Tony you mentioned second the Braves were able to sort of soldier on and win that year and they didn’t win when he was the MVP but aunia listen to this he’s led the league already at 26 years old twice in pled appearances once in at bats twice in runs three times in stolen bases I mean he’s LED in in on base percentage he’s LED in Ops he he’s LED in total bases he’s LED in a lot of things that he’s been an MVP and it leaves any team that he leaves reduced it just does because you we we can talk about what has happened but we don’t know what’s going to happen you just hope he can come back he’s done it once I know it’s going to be hard but he’s such a great and exciting young athlete I just saw him in person a couple of weeks ago out here in La the game is lesser lesser without him for the rest of this season so two acl’s strikes me as as really rough we have become accustomed to seeing people come back from one ACL rather routinely but two it you know it makes you think of two Tommy Johns you know you go you’re thinking well that’s one too many I this is a great player we’ve come to think of the 4040 as an incredible achievement 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases he went 4070 last year nobody has ever done that um he loses a full year and he loses a year in his prime so everyone is deprived who watches baseball of seeing him now as you mentioned the last time he had a torn ACL the Braves won the World Series cuz baseball’s not basketball it’s not if your best player goes out in baseball there’s a lot of other players who who can pitch in and make up for it is not like basketball but they are at the point now Mike they lose their best player in aunia they lost their best pitcher in Strider just a little while ago I mean that hurts a team I mean if if you’re if you’re the Philadelphia Phillies and you’re already six up on Atlanta you’re thinking we’ve got a clear path to winning the division that’s what you’re thinking if just hope he’s what Theo Epstein has in mind when they want to see more action in baseball Ronald A J is that yeah get a hit steal two bases yeah what does the Rangers overtime win in game three do for them and where does it leave the Panthers well Tony when you can sort of reclaim home ice and you can reclaim the lead in a series and it looked like the Rangers were I don’t want to say teetering but they were certainly on their heels I thought the Panthers had them in that place and the Panthers are I don’t care about record and points this year the Panthers are their equal when you guys sturing and gold for New York you got to feel pretty good about where you are even with a lot of series still remaining this is an enormous win for the Rangers because they were outshot in this game 38-23 and 13-4 in the third period when the Panthers came back from 42 to 44 this is look the Rangers are on the road against the team that was in the Stanley Cup Final last year the Panthers are supposed to win this game and then this shot and I was watching live I don’t know how I got on it but I was watching the last five minutes of Regulation and then the overtime the shot out of nowhere I don’t know if it hit the guy’s hands I don’t know if it hit his stick I don’t know if it hit his chest I don’t know what happened but there is this goal there is this goal and and it’s an overtime win again an overtime win Mike the Rangers are 5-0 in overtime games in these playoffs they ought to make sure that every game goes to overtime because they’re they’re perfect in that they’re not they’re not supposed to win this one totally outshot and outplayed when it seemed like it counted and they win the game and as you say back to home ICE you know against a really good team against a really good team let’s get out of here enough femail let’s take one last break still to come Conor McDavid and the Oilers try to bounce back from their game two lost tonight and Angel Reese goes down goes down hard but gets back up and plays the famous person in my ear tells me they’re 4 and0 an overtime game so I’m thinking ahead as a ranger fan when they get to be 5 and0 Excell I wouldn’t worry Havey time people happy 27th birthday Daniel Jones this feels like the year of Reckoning for Jones and the New York Giants Jones is coming off a torn ACL and was one in five as a starter last year he signed a four-year contract last year but the deal is structured with an escape hatch for the te team after this coming season Jones is now without saquan Barkley who left in free agency but Jones is excited about first round draft pick LSU’s Malik neighbors Jones is 2237 and one as a starter with the Giants in his 85.2 career passing rating ranked 47th out of 95 quarterbacks who have thrown at least 100 passes since Jones entered the league in 2019 Tony he’ll be around Jones has some physical skills and talent it’s matter athleticism he’ll be around if he wants to for at least 10 more seasons as a quarterback in the NFL so yes it may be a Day of Reckoning or a season of Reckoning with the gmen but not in terms of his whole career guys like flacko and Testa verie they can stay around forever lead you to the playoffs Daniel Jones will play somewhere he’ll find another home if the Giants don’t want him yeah he’s had very good games a couple in a row but he hasn’t had like five in a row or six I hadn’t had that happy anniversary Boston Celtics around this day 30 seven years ago with Boston having just turned the ball over and trailing the Pistons by one point with 5 seconds left Larry Bird stole the inbounds pass from Isaiah Thomas and found a cutting Dennis Johnson for the winning basket perhaps you remember Johnny Mo with the call here’s a steal by ver underneath the DJ and LS it in coincidentally the date of that steal is the exact same as John Haven’s famous steel against the 22 years before it’s also just one day after last Saturdays where Drew holiday stole the ball from Andrew neard icing Boston’s win over Indiana I was always jealous that you were in Madison Square Garden Courtside for the Reggie Miller game yeah that that that’s the game I I wanted to be at but I working for the Washington Post like we both did I was at the bird stole the ball over to DJ DJ lays it in I was there I’m looking at it right in front of me and as it happens you just turn to people and say my God I cannot believe that happened one of the great plays in NBA history and DJ Dennis Johnson one of the underrated players ever of all time but in the Hall of Fame in in the Hall of Fame yeah still underrated though all right happy trails Alyssa Thomas the Connecticut Sunstar was tossed on Saturday for throwing rookie Angel Reese to the ground late in the third quarter of Connecticut’s Road win over Chicago reys who has openly said she has idolized Thomas ever since she watched her play at the University of Maryland took no umbrage at the hard foul which is judged to be a flagrant two upon review ree said quote it’s no hard feelings to at I’m a basketball player I want them to come in me every day they’re not supposed to be nice unquote Thomas and Reese were jostling under the basket when Thomas slammed Reese down Reese was making her home debut in Chicago she had 13 points and five rebounds reys is going to be huge star in Chicago with that attitude throw me down and I’ll throw you down let’s go that’s what we’re about I can’t wait to go and see the sky play in person they had that great win in New York good for them they don’t even have cardoso yet so Angel Reese believe me there’s some she’s going to be a popular person in my hometown in her new town they were really banging around under the boards they were I’m not saying you could see this coming but there yeah that look like were going at it people are saying enough is enough on this one don’t you think all right let’s go to the big finish the or beat the Red Sox today for their fifth straight win is that significant probably Tony I mean it’s a long summer but Yanks owes that would be pretty good it’s a flashback throwback for guys like you and me so even I95 I can still root for that oh a nice I95 that’s something yeah Jose of New Garden won the nd500 second straight year your thoughts you watched it didn’t you I did um this only happened twice now in the last 50 years C nees did it an 0102 I think and now that repeats are very infrequent and the last lap was thrilling thrilling Max for stop and finished sixth at the Monaco Grand Prix costus for concern concern no he wins everything my God but it’s the first time all season he’s not on the podium in a race that he actually finished but concern let I get crazy DJ Wagner transferred from Kentucky to Arkansas is that a big deal he following Calipari who recruited him out of high school the Wagers have had three great players they in a going back to Milt Wagner one a championship at Louisville last one stars and Oilers game three tonight who you got you know what my answer about this is the action moves to Edmonton I want to see the Oilers win I want to see them in the Stanley Cup Final that’s what I want we’re out of time we will try and do better the next time and I’m Tony Kornheiser I’m Mike wilbon same time tomorrow knuckleheads NBA Countdown is on at 7 Eastern let me say it one more time as a tribute to Bill Walton Walton throw it down young man throw it down for V e y time to feed First Blood enemy double kill so familiar get over here oh lit you have defeated an enemy an enemy has been defeated you’re done for an ally has been defeated you have defeated an enemy an ally has been defeated your tower has been destroyed an enemy has been defeated sck around an ally has been defeated ultimate all for for e only the righteous will prevail [Music] keep your mouth W First Blood rally to me your tower has been destroyed you have been defeated only the righteous will prevail our base is under attack screen you have defeated an enemy you have been defeated an enemy has been defeated double kill

Pardon The Interruption | Michael Wilbon: Thoughts on both series Mavs & Cetlics being 3-0?