“What happened at the Publix?”

Hey, it's Tony. On today's show, we'll go around the NBA with Brian Windhorst. We'll also go over to Italy to check in on the Olympics with Barry Zerluger. But first, let's do some commerce, boys and girls. Previously on the Tony Kornhazer Show. I remember this. You and I were sitting with Sonny and Sam Huff, and we had lunch. And when they left, I said, whoa, we just sat with Sam Huff and Sonny Jurgensen. Whoa. Yeah, it was so great. And on Sundays, Sonny would sit in the locker room post-game. He would just sort of sit in the middle with a notebook, and he would share the observations. My God, all the times I wrote columns where Sonny would say, hey, did you see this? Did you know this? Of course I didn't see it. No, that's right. This is General George Washington, and you're listening to the Tony Kornheiser Show. Lots of small stuff. Lots of small stuff today. I got to get to the ice cream and the candy. We got Jenny's ice cream. An open candy bar here. Yeah, I opened it yesterday. I ate half the candy bar. You saving it for later? For later. Is it for PTI? Yeah, right before PTI, I'm going to eat the candy bar. Oh, energy boost? Yeah. Yeah, there's nothing wrong with that. Okay, the ice cream is Jenny's. The candy bar, it's either Kinder or Kinder. Bueno. We think Kinder. I assume it's Kinder. Yeah. Because bueno is a foreign word, and kinder is from kindergarten. It's a German word. Children. Children, that's right. Small children. Yes. So I assume it's kinder bueno. Normally these are placed right at eye level at the checkout. Yes. Right. So that is, that's a... The little eggs. As people know, if they listen, I'm not a big Kit Kat fan. I don't really like Kit Kat. No. This is sort of kind of like Kit Kat, but the center is gooier, and I really like it. Kinder bueno, it comes in vanilla and dark chocolate and regular chocolate. The kids love it, right? They did, yes. And it's interesting to see the breakdown. And we just got it out of nowhere. Yeah. I didn't understand it. They just sent it to us. The captain's developing a strong taste for chocolate. Okay, okay. It's really good. The hammer's going for the vanilla flavor. You liked it too. Yeah. I've liked it as well. Jenny's ice cream. They sent us a whole bunch of ice creams. Yes. I don't know why, but I'm grateful that they did. Well, it was because they wanted you to try the coffee. And I'm going to. I'm going to talk about the coffee. And what I loved about Jenny's is I forgot about this, but Liz reminded me when we visited her younger sister who was working in Nashville at the time, there was this great local ice cream spot that was a Jenny's. It was a corner spot and people were lined up around the block. Really? Yeah. Okay. So they sent a bunch of coffee ice cream and a bunch of other ice creams, including gooey butter cake and Queen Charlotte sponge cake. Big Bridgerton fan over here. Darkest chocolate. And what did you get, Nigel? What did you take home? I took home a banana pudding. Did you eat it? I did. Is it good? It is really good. Like I'm not a banana guy. That's why I felt safe. Did you break it out over two nights? No, I just tried it last night. I keep forgetting that I have it. And Liz took home something. Yes, she did. So she found the cold brew with coconut cream, which was a dairy-free. That's, I think, the big winner in our house. The kids were not offered that. So let me get to this. This comes from Sean Bach and the rest of your loyal littles at Jenny's, which is based, I believe, in Columbus, Ohio. Love that. Welcome back from Florida. We missed you last week. We caught your spot on TGL. As promised, we're proud to deliver our new house coffee to see how we measure up. We're releasing our house coffee this weekend to celebrate ice cream for breakfast that occurs in all of our 94 scoop shops on the morning of February 7th. So that happened already, including the seven shops in the D.C. area. We partnered with our friends at Verve Coffee Roasters, steeping their deeply flavorful Bronson blend into our cream and finishing it with espresso fine grounds for a second brighter hit of coffee. There are no stabilizers, no artificial flavors or dyes, no shortcuts, just real flavor built from the ground up were confident that this house coffee will become a fixture within your freezer and devoured next to your kitchen sink, which I did last night. I went through an entire pint. What's the rest of the pint? Should you want a red wine recommendation, we would pair our house coffee with a nice bottle of Barolo Chinato. We also took the liberty of sending you a whole box of that, which includes many of our fan favorites of Double Doe, Bramble Berry Crisp, Gooey Butter Cake, etc. We're hoping that there's something for everyone, including Strawberry Buttermilk for Nigel to help him connect back to his many days lounging around Wimbledon. Goat cheese and cherries for Steve Sands and his family at Calvert Wine and Spirits. Didn't Liz take that? Goat cheese and cherries? I think that's still in the freezer. Okay, maple-soaked pancake for Bootsy, the hammer and captain to share, and of course, banana cream pudding for Reginald. Thank you for bringing so many laughs and levity to us every week. We hope we can become a fixture at your kitchen sink. So the coffee's really good. The coffee's really good. The kids loved, well, Henry loved all ice creams. Henry gives everything a 10. Henry gives everything a 10. He does. We need him in the Olympics to be a judge. Bootsy is tough grader. Oh, yeah. Bootsy is tough. Oh, yeah. Well, he doesn't know all of his numbers. Yeah, Bootsy's tough. The baby, the captain, he just eats everything. Yeah. And that's fine. So I need to say this. There was one flavor that I thought was sensational. It's called darkest chocolate. It's really really a dark Cocoa color It's fabulous I ate that I didn't stop eating that Because the kids had eaten it And so it had already been breached When I opened the jar Now did you try and put it away at any point? I put I had two scoops the first night And covered it? I recovered it The next day early in the morning I opened it and ate the whole thing Because it was that great It was that great Wow Darkest chocolate, darkest chocolate. And so I would also say, and I really like the coffee, but I'm sensing that if you made a darkest coffee as well, that I might- These are helpful tasting notes. I might love that. Now, I don't think you build ice creams for me, but I love the darkest chocolate so much. Maybe it's an adult taste, maybe not a kid's taste. I don't know. I loved it that much. So we are very grateful to Jenny's, very grateful to Kinder Bueno, very grateful for all of these things. Thank you very much. If you want to keep sending, it's okay. We're always good with that. It's okay. So we did that. So that's ice cream and candy. Check that off your list. Toothpaste. Oh, no. Toothpaste. Michael, do you remember? At the Publix? Do you remember? Oh, yes. Tell the people what happened at the Publix. So I have to escort you to the Publix because you did not bring mouthwash and you ran out of toothpaste. So we're looking for a travel-sized toothpaste. And frankly, you're there long enough and we think you might extend the stay. So I'm going to get you just your normal tube of toothpaste. You're surprised because I immediately know where to go in the public. So go all the way to the left, about two miles in from the dairy section, and we find the toothpaste. And you immediately start looking for your old, reliable, Crest regular paste. That's right. Your standby, yeah. The light blue, yes, yes. Old faithful. So I see some tubes of toothpaste that are priced at about $459 to $549. They're not particularly large tubes. No. That's your first tell. And then I looked in another spot, and I see a large tube of cavity preventative toothpaste crest for $3.50. I say, I'm going to get this, Michael. I'm going to get this. Do you remember your response? You were disgusted with me by that point. Well, you were complaining that the smaller tube could somehow cost more. That's right. And I was trying to remind you that within brands, there are different levels. And this might be, you know, it might have a different whitening agent or there might be something else that it's providing you. But you just figured smaller tube, lower price. No, bigger tube, lower price. I took the bigger tube. Right. That is, you argue that smaller tube should cost less. Exactly. That's my feeling. You got the value purchase right there. So I bring it back. I bring it back. I don't have my glasses, so I don't see anything. I just see cavity preventative toothpaste. Oh, no. I bring it back and I open it. it's cool mint gel no so i am voiced on my own petard that's gonna take months for you to get through so it's it's now i don't dislike it that's an active feeling to dislike it but i don't like it now i'm using it i'm using it because i bought it yeah because i bought it and i'm admitting publicly to my son i made a mistake i'd say after a couple days you get used to whatever toothpaste you have. Yes, but it's, you know... So we're a Colgate household, and by that I mean Liz used to buy Colgate, so now I use Colgate. Okay, that's fine. But I always forget, every time I go to the grocery store, I like to get the, you know, two tubes in one, and I always forget which is the icy version I like. So this is... One of them is too spicy. This is the cool mint gel, and so, you know... Alright, I got another thing. It's a holiday weekend. That's right, it is. So everybody... President's Day. You're president. Okay. You're gonna buy a mattress? No. In the literature, in the literature that I have read when I am reading something that mentions the holiday weekend I don't ever think of President's Day as a holiday because I don't ever think of President's Day because I'm old enough that we celebrated Lincoln's birthday on February 12th and Washington's birthday on either the 21st or the 22nd and then it was combined some years back into whenever I Whenever I have read about this holiday weekend, I assumed it was Valentine's Day. How stupid am I? I assumed that, and then I would say to myself, how can Valentine's Day be an official legal holiday? Can't really be an official. Get a really strong lobbying on. So this was in the 70s? What was in the 70s? The uniform Monday holiday act? I guess. I guess. I mean, I was out of grade school and high. I was out of, like, your kids are off from school. Oh, yeah. We're entering disrupted weeks ahead. I was beyond that. I was beyond going to school. I was either in college or whatever. And so I never affiliated in any way with President's Day. I never did. So I thought, I actually literally thought it was Valentine's Day. Another thing, I mentioned this before. I waited all day for the Quad God. You know, it's like, I feel like, what's her name? I waited all day for Sunday night. She sings. What's her name? Oh, Carrie? Carrie Underwood. Yeah. Carrie Underwood. Yeah, I feel like I waited all day for the quad got, and I missed it. I didn't get it. I didn't see it. Yeah. You know, and it's, well, you know, I want to see it. I want to see this guy. Are you allowed to watch NBC during the working day? I do watch. Okay. But yesterday they said he would be on at X, and he wasn't on at X, and then I kept watching, and I never saw him. I got one other thing. One other thing. My ear. Oh, no. My right ear. Oh. My right ear, I have not had any hearing in, in my right ear, since I took the plane ride from Florida. Yeah, you have to pop the ears. To Washington. How do you do that? You squeeze your nose and you try and breathe through. Right. I tried that. It didn't work. Do you have a golf tee? I'm not sticking a golf tee in my ear. Somebody at the show the other day said, take a hair dryer and blast a hair dryer into your ear and it'll melt whatever wax is in there. And then when we were done and he had left the room, another person came up to me and said, don't do that. What are you, nuts? Don't do that. ESPN does not sanction this. Don't light a match in the middle of your ear. That's insane. So it's still there. It's sort of partially better, but it's still there. I am still blocked. Somebody else said, go into the steam room. Yeah, have you gone to the steam room? I went to the steam room. Any luck? Maybe a little. I don't know. I have some, I don't have full hearing. I don't hear anything. Through Amazon or other stores, you can get one of those eucalyptus sprays that you can bring to your own shower, and that maybe will help clear up sinuses or ear stuff. Eucalyptus spray, don't they have that at Columbia? They do. That's that pleasant smell that you often get in steam rooms. So I should go to the steam room and- Or they also have little concentrated drops that you can put in the bottom of the shower. Other people must, this must happen all the time to other people. We're going to get 100 email by tomorrow. Oh, sure, sure. You know, I'm just glad. Homemade remedies to get healing back. Usually it clears itself like a day or two later. Mine does not. It's 11 days. But I think that's related to allergies. It's 11 days. I'm just glad that you're very sure that it's the flight result of this. Because how many medical shows have we seen where they're, hey, there's something wrong with my ear. And they pull like a spider out of it or something like that. Okay. It's not that. But that is when it's, I noticed it after the plane ride. Seems really. Was it just on the way home? or did you notice it when you got down there? No, just coming back. No, just on the comeback. Just on the comeback. That's all. That's it. And it's 11 or 12 days. It seems like too many days. Well, I wonder when you came back if the cold air had anything to do with it. Maybe. But now that we're out of the deep freeze. Well, yeah. But we're going back in tonight and tomorrow night. But then we're gonna be around 50. 50. For five straight days. You know, around 50. Charge up those carts for you. Yeah, a lot of this is going away. the snow and the ice. It's not going away at Columbia on the golf course. It's not going away. I looked at it the other day. You'll be able to play your Inter 12? I'm not going to be able to play anything Inter 9. I'm not going to be able to play anything. The course would be so soggy from all the melt, right? It's not going to melt until March. It's not going to melt. There's too much. It doesn't, you know, it's not we're not into melt phase. It's ice. Ice, refrigeration. It's not snow. Snow would melt. There's no more snow. It's just solid ice. It's not melting. Is melt phase waxing or waning? I think it's waxing. Okay. I think it's waxing if we get into the 50s. I know. You know, but I don't think that golf course is going to be played. All right. What are we going to do here? Who's first? Brian? Brian's first. Brian Windhorst. When we return, I'm Tony Kornheiser. This is the Tony Kornheiser Show. This is our friend, Midlife Crisis. It's actually our friend, Scott. Yes. But he goes as Midlife Crisis. We've played a variety of his songs. We like him. We very much so. We're happy to play his songs. This is called, and it's also Midlife, M-I-D-L-Y-F-E. Yeah. And you want to say, Scott. You know, come on. We love you. It was like the circle. Yeah, the circle. C-Y-R-K-L-E. Yeah, come on. How'd that work out? But he's really good. He is. No, we love Scott. Midnight Crisis, a little more time, plays in Brian Windhorst is up at 3 in the morning because he in LA and he got to do the Get Up show and the First Take show and all these other shows to talk about the NBA Because and I love ESPN they treated me very well over the years they don mention the Olympics Like, this is unbelievable. Like, most of the country is watching the Olympics. And I guess because, right, Brian, they don't have the video rights, but it's like it doesn't exist. I mean, we do it on PTI, but I don't see it anywhere else. I don't. Look, I respect the Olympics. I love the Olympics and everything. Some of these events look like they're made up. I mean, I'm not saying they're not hard. I'm not saying they're not hard. But some of these events look like they've been made up of, you know, privileged stoner ski bums. I mean, like, I'm not talking about, like, you know, there isn't, like, life and death on the line. But some of them, they're just like, they're going down a mountain, going over bumps, and they're going over like railings. It's like a skateboard. And I'm like, what billionaire's kid made this up? Respectfully. I agree with you. I agree with you. And the reason that happened is because the television ratings were so good for the Winter Olympics for so long that somebody in production said, how do we make this bigger? How do we keep their interest? They seem to like young people flying in the middle of the air and occasionally crashing. They like it. Yes. So that they made up more stuff. Like once you have a bobsled run, you can put two people, four people, 10 people or an entire city bus on it. You can do it. Right. Right. Right. Anyway. And I will say, you talked about ESPN not having the rights. So during the Summer Olympics in Paris, this was my life because we're not allowed to do camera interviews inside the four walls of the arena. And so what would happen is Team USA, they understood the importance of reaching ESPN audience. So they would allow me to do interviews with me after they left the building. But Tony, for the first 10 days, they were staying two hours away in Paris. The first 10 days were at this football stadium way up north, you know, soccer stadium way up north. So I was doing interviews with, like, Steve Kerr and Kevin Durant, like, at train stations. And one night, like, we had to race the bus back to Paris to get them at the hotel two hours after the game. That's the life on that sort of stuff. I am not one of those people who, I'm not Wilbon, who thinks that the Olympics is built around the basketball. I don't believe that for a second. I believe that basketball was shoehorned in there the way hockey was shoehorned. I don't believe any of that Wilbon stuff. But I will say that to watch Durant, LeBron James, and Steph Curry win that game was, for me, the highlight of the Olympics. It really was. I mean, they were great. I didn't care about anybody else. They were great. But didn't you feel that way? That was fabulous. Yes, and I will just say, you know, being with them for six weeks, playing in the Middle East, playing in London, where they were like the Rolling Stones. Yeah. And you being aware that you're going to a basketball game on a Sunday night in front of 20,000 fans, and they don't get 20,000 fans for basketball in England. But on a Saturday night in London, going to watch Steph, LeBron, and Durant play. And in that particular game, LeBron, like, led this crazy comeback. And I promise you, like, no NBA fan will ever remember it. They don't even know what happened. But I promise you, if you were there that night, you had goosebumps watching LeBron do, like, peak LeBron things in the O2 arena. Like, that whole thing. And I will say that the night of the gold medal game, which, by the way, started at, like, 9 o'clock. So it was, like, approaching midnight in Paris with the French national team and the fans singing the national anthem and Steph Curry hitting those threes in the building. It's a top free experience, sports experience of my life. I can completely understand that. All right, let me get to the reason we called you. It's fun to chat, but the reason we called you, the Piston-Charlotte fight. I love Will Bond. We worked together at the Post, and we worked together for 50 years. I love him. He despises fighting in hockey. He goes on television all the time. There shouldn't be any fighting in hockey. Fighting is ridiculous. And then yesterday said, you know, I was sort of juiced up for that fight with Detroit and with Charlotte. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I sort of like that. And I went, how can you take this simultaneously held positions? You cannot take this. What, you know, are there punishments? Are there punishment? What is going to happen because of this? Yeah, both the Pistons and Hornets played today. So sometime this morning or late this morning, midday, they'll announce suspensions. And I expect basically the later into the fight that the people got in, they'll get suspended more. So, yeah, Jalen Duren started it. And so he will be suspended, I believe, you know, a game or two because he kind of escalated. I think it should be 20. I think it should be 20 without pay. You think, David, you are living in a world of David Stern being in charge. That's not the world of the NBA now. Well, that leads me to something. Does Silver have the guts to outlaw fights, really punish the fighters? No. He doesn't. They don't punish anybody for anything in the NBA. And frankly, fighting is not that big of an issue. These situations are rare. Yep. Actually, the interesting thing that I will see, you know, David Stern in the wake of that, you know, there was the Knicks fight, you know, Jeff Van Gundy and whatever. And then there was that one fight with the in the playoffs with the with the Suns. Yeah. And, you know, so the big thing, the big rule they have is you can't leave the bench. So obviously Isaiah Stewart left the bench. He's going to get suspended the most. Will it be five? Will it be seven? I don't know. Honestly, this just hasn't happened that much under Adam Silver. And so I just don't, I honestly just don't know what to say. But LaMelo Ball actually came off the bench. And, like, if you're watching the frame by frame of what's going on out there, And under the Stern policy, if you left the bench, there was no it didn't matter whether your guy was getting beat to a pulp out there. If you stepped off the bench, you got fine. You got suspended. It was not negotiable. So actually, I'm more interested to see if how how aggressively they police that, which now kind of an old rule about if you step off the bench, you're suspended. So that's that'll actually be the minor drama for someone like me. One of the things that comes up in conversation, and Mike says, well, at least they played hard. You know, both teams played hard. My man, both teams played hard. Because not everybody in the league plays hard. The Wizards are not trying to win. They're trying to lose. The Utah Jazz, I am told, bench their starters in the fourth quarter. It's obvious they are trying to lose. What does Silver do about this? So far, nothing. Yeah, so this will be a big topic of conversation when he has his press conference this week here in Los Angeles for the All-Star game. So by the letter of the law, the NBA's sort of policy on tanking is they don't want guys deactivated who are healthy. If you're deactivated, particularly if it's for a national television game, they want you to be injured. So that is where they have policed. And I will also say that tanking, I think a lot of people believe, you know, they hear tanking and they think that, you know, they default to the idea that players are out there missing shots on purpose. No, players play hard. Players play hard. Correct. It's coaching and general managers who do it. Yeah. Yes, tanking is done on the inactive list. Tanking is done when players miss seven games due to the flu, which happened to Lowry Markin last month. I hope he's okay. Seven games due to the flu. I thought we needed to shut things down and have contact tracing. This was a terrible strain. And so what's happened now, and that's basically, you know, that's what the Wizards are doing. The Wizards are like, boy, that Anthony Davis hand injury that the Mavericks... He's never going to play a minute for the Wizards. Well, at least he has an injury. Right. And the Wizards are like, well, I know the Mavericks said it was six weeks, but we think it's ten. You know, it's obviously manipulation, but at least the guy has an injury. but as long as you played a player it the league you weren't in violation of the rules where the jazz have crossed the rubicon is that they are now taking inside the four lines yes where where they you know so there was a game last week where larry markson had 27 points in 27 minutes and jaron jackson their new pickup had 25 points in 23 minutes or 23 and 25 whatever it was and they sat them for the fourth quarter. And they were up by 17 and they blew the entire lead and lost. And their coach, Will Hardy, sat there with his hands in his pockets. You think I'm kidding. He sat there with his hands in his pockets and didn't call timeout. Like, just let the game go. And so that's where we have crossed the line. And you say, well, why are the Jazz doing that? Why are they, how are they, what's the point? Well, the reason they're doing it is because if their pick is not in the top eight. They don't get it. They lose it. Yeah. And so they're extraordinarily incentivized to lose these games. And if you're extraordinarily incentivized to do anything in life, if it's possible, which this is, you're going to do it. That's human nature. Okay. Let me get to another subject, which I wasn't aware of until yesterday. Jason Tatum is, he thinks, ready to play, at least in the G League, whatever, and get ready. Do you see him playing this year, even by the playoffs? Well, he's not ready to play. He's done some practicing. They brought the whole G League team from Portland, Maine, down to Boston so that he could practice because NBA teams very rarely this time of year can practice. And so it's definitely a step. It's basically an indication he's doing five-on-five. What I will say about Achilles injuries, Tony, is I've never had one, thank goodness, but I do know that I see people say, oh, yeah, I've covered players who've had them. And they always take longer than the players think. They always think that they're on a certain level and it always takes longer. So he is not quote unquote close. I think literally next week is the nine month anniversary of the injury. But we are in early February and he is already getting on the court. And so, you know, they're going to protect him. They're not going to let him say, oh yeah, I'll be back on March 1st or anything like that. But, you know, common sense is that unless he has a setback, he's headed towards playing. And I don't know how he'll play if he gets there. But this is the most wide open the East has been in many years. I don't even know. Like, I can make a case of for and against five different teams winning the East. And Boston is definitely one of them based on this development and the way that they're playing. All right. You have to go, right? You have to be on the Get Up show. You have to go? I do. I do. Get out of here. It's okay. Thank you. Thank you. I mean, I love having you on the show. Thank you. Literally, as we speak right now, Greenberg is looking at me on the screen, and I'm about to plug it. He's like, why aren't you talking to me? Tell him to eat it. Tell him. Kornheiser said, just eat it. We're doing a show here. Thank you, Brian. All right. Take care. Bye-bye. Brian Windhorst, boys and girls, who we love. We will come back with Barry Zverluga, who's further away. Windhorst is in California. Zverluga's in Italy. When we return, I'm Tony Kornheiser You're listening To the Tony Kornheiser Show The Tony Kornheiser Show Once again We have Midlife Crisis Scott, but he doesn't Say Scott, he says Midlife Crisis This is a song called Better Days, we like him Very much, Michael, if independent artists Like Midlife Crisis want to get their music played on the Show, how do they go about it? Midlife Crisis, getting a little Closer myself, please send us your music by E-mailing it to jingles at TonyKornheiserShow.com I have old age crisis. I don't know. Midlife, way out of midlife. Barry Zerluga joins us. He's covering the Olympics because this is what sports writers do. They go places and they cover them regardless of what's happening back home in terms of employment or newspapers or futures. No, they get an assignment and they go do it. You especially do the Olympics. The two biggest stories. Well, I would say three, but I can't. I'll get to the quad guard, but I didn't see him on television. I couldn't find him. I sat in front of the TV for hours and hours and hours and watched everybody else and never got to him. But I would say Lindsey Vonn crashing. And I would say Michaela Schifrin blowing a big lead in a combined event and the bugaboo of the Olympics lately, not in our first two, but lately. I think we have to start with those things. I'll start with Lindsey Vonn. Your thoughts on the attempt and your thoughts on the story of it, how it ended. Well, I just want to make clear, like, yes, she came back at 41 for the Olympics. And yes, it was a nearly six-year absence from the World Cup ski circuit from 2019 to last year, last season, when she really decided that her replaced right knee had her pain-free for the first time ever, or first time in her memory. and while it started slowly it built very methodically to the point where she wasn't just a skier out there going through the motions at 41. She was winning. She was the best downhiller on the circuit this season. She won twice. She never missed the podium in five races. She came here as an absolute medal contender. Now, she did tear her ACL, you know, 10 days before the downhill. You know, you can look at that all sorts of ways, and there will be people who say, like, well, she shouldn't have skied on a torn ACL. But then you consider that injury and what it means to a downhill skier, and it really is a stability issue, not a – You know, I quoted Stefan Diggs in a piece before the downhill because he had shredded his knee as a football player, you know, a year ago and missed a bunch of time and then come back. And he was adamant that, like, look, people who tear their ACLs, they can run and they can jump and they can walk in, you know, the next days. Sometimes you don't even know you did it. It the stopping and starting and quick motion and cutting that becomes problematic And as a downhill racer you don have to do it do that stuff So she did her two training runs It was set up for an amazing story on Sunday morning And I would say that she went out in the most Lindsey Vonn style possible in that she was going to point her skis straight down the mountain and figure out the fastest way possible. And if that was cutting it really close to the fourth gate, that was cutting it really close to the fourth gate. She said in her Instagram post, she probably missed it by about five centimeters. She hit her shoulder and her arm and then her pole and obviously calamity from there. But I think the thing I want to take away from it, Tony, is like she didn't crash because she's 41 and she didn't crash because she had a torn ACL. She crashed because she's Lindsay Vaughn And the only way she knows how to do things is at full bore. Full bore was going for gold on Sunday morning. The margins are impossibly slim. And this time it didn't work out. And it was, you know, a catastrophic crash. They're loons. Every downhiller is a loon. They're going 80 miles an hour on solid ice. They're crazy, aren't they? Well, and she's crazy among crazy, Tony. I mean, she just has always not only disregarded the risks, but disregarded the risks when she has significant scar tissue. And by scar tissue, I mean, like, literally all over her body, but also mental scar tissue, which she has an amazing ability to just outright dismiss. She has, for years, gotten back up and pointed her skis directly to the bottom of the mountain. I mean, in 2019, I remember talking to her before World Championships when she was getting ready to retire. And her last races were with a body that was fully broken. She had no cartilage in one of her knees. She would just beat up beyond recognition. What'd she do? She skied to a medal. Like, that's just who she is and how she's done it for more than two decades. This is why I hesitate to completely count her out, even though she'd be coming back at 45 in the next one. I hesitate to completely count her out because she is different than everyone, right? She's different. She is different. I would say that I spoke to her in November by phone, and she was adamant that February 12th, which would have been tomorrow's Super G, would be her last race. Like, she was really giving it all into this. Okay. I don't know. You know, maybe being scarred from this experience has her come back again. It takes a lot of effort, and she has a lot of interest. I'll be curious about her going forward. It's disappointing. Not only that that happened on Sunday, but we lost the chance to see her compete in the combined yesterday. And we lost the chance to see her compete in the Super G tomorrow. So now we turn to Michaela Schifrin, who you know very well. And Michaela Schifrin always seems to be willing, much like John McEnroe. When John McEnroe lost a tennis match, he went on a couch in the interview room, not literally, figuratively, and explained everything in his life. and you would sit there like you were Sigmund Freud. You were just listening and you'd have to interpret it. Michaela Schifrin is that way. She talks about herself. She considers all the possibilities. She has not, she did poorly in this event yesterday where Breezy Johnson gave her a lead and she finished 15th out of 18 women doing the slalom. She won gold medals her first two Olympics. She got shut out in China. She's 0 for 1 here. Do we have, you know, do we have a story here? Do we have something you want to say about her? Yeah, we have an issue here, I think. And I think if you were willing to think that the performance in Beijing where she didn't complete the first run of slalom, she didn't complete the first run of giant slalom, those are her two best events, and then she didn't complete the slalom run of what was then the individual Alpine combined, a slalom run and a downhill run. There were a lot of weird factors at that Olympics. She had recently had COVID. It was a fanless, you know, supportless Olympics. It was in a venue that none of these people had ever skied. It was just strange all around. So you could, if you wanted to, dismiss that as just, wow, what a weird situation. Now we're in Cortina. The women stop here almost every year. She is extremely comfortable in Italy, with Europe, on the surface, all of it. But she, because as you addressed, like she will get on the couch and she has gotten on the couch for me a bazillion times over a decade or more and assess like why the Olympics are different. She is not someone who is able to say or wants to say because she doesn't believe it's truthful that you have to treat this like just another race. She doesn't believe it's just another race. And in truth, it's not, because winning Olympic gold is so much more meaningful to the public than any of her record 108 World Cup races. So yesterday was a really troubling start. She didn't need to lay down the best slalom rung of all those skiers to win gold because Johnson had been so good. Last year at World Championships, Johnson, her teammates, skied to the fourth-best finish in downhill, and Michaela crushed the slalom, and they won gold together. Chifrin's finishes in slalom, eight World Cup slalom races this year, are seven wins and a second. Wow. She finished 15th out of 18 skiers yesterday. The last time she finished 15th or worse in a World Cup slalom that she completed, there were five DNFs since this time, was 2012. So you tell me whether the Olympics are having an impact on her psyche. It's just fascinating. It's sad because there's a part of the American public who we know, Tony, you see these people every four years, and you kind of like get them back in your consciousness. And if you don't follow skiing, you only see them through the lens of the Olympics. That's right. She's the greatest of all time. All time, 108 wins. More than any man, more than any woman. Greatest of all time. Yeah. And by 30, not by a couple, like, I'm sorry, by 20-something, not by just like, oh, I edged out Ingemar Stenmarker. I just snows out. She buried him. She's the top of the pole. I mean, yesterday we talked about this on the air, and all I could do was say, I'm going to give you two names. Greg Maddox and Clayton Kershaw. I'm going to tell you how great they were in the regular seasons their whole lives. And I'm going to tell you, Greg Maddox with 355 wins and a 6-10 winning percentage is 11-14 in the playoffs. Clayton Kershaw with a 699 win percentage and a lifetime 2-5-3 ERA is 13-13 in the playoffs in the World Series. I cannot explain it. And you have to because that's your job, right? It's hard, Tony. I mean, I felt like in Beijing I was at risk of plagiarizing myself because the story became the same day after day. And how do you describe that disappointment over and over? And that was the case yesterday. Now, I mean, she has the giant slalom ahead of her. She has not been, you know, she wouldn't be considered the strongest medal contender for there because she had a big wipeout in GS last year. And she's kind of slowly built up. But you can't overstate, take yesterday aside, how big of a favorite she should be just on merit alone in the slalom. And that's the last event of the Alpine competition here. It's on February 18th. She's got to do two runs. She's got to lay them down so much better than she did yesterday. She's got to figure it out and deal with, and this is what I closed my column with this morning, Like some of these athletes are really able to see the Olympics as an opportunity and really rise to that occasion and be like, you know what? I can perform my best in this situation. And Breezy Johnson is one of them. She won the downhill gold on Sunday. She skied the fastest downhill in the combined. She is here and comfortable and confident. Michaela Schifrin, the best to ever do it, needs to figure out how to get that mindset. Forget about the physical part of the skiing, but how to get that mindset between now and the following week from now. So I got to get to the quad god who I missed yesterday. Kelleher says to me at 12, we're talking at 11 o'clock. He says at 12, 15, the quad god's going to go, you should watch. I sat there for four hours. I never saw the kid. I never saw him because he wasn't on. And then he was on while we were doing, while we were taping the show. I missed him. I was going to watch him at night, but they weren't going to put him on until between 10 and 11. And I, it was not worth it. And I had said, because Wilbur doesn't watch skating. He doesn't watch any skating. And I said, he's David Thompson. He's David Thompson. He jumps up in the air higher than anybody. My friend David said, no, he's Michael Jordan. He's actually the best of all time. Have you seen him? Is he the best of all time? I've only seen him, I saw him the other night during the team competition. Where he won it. For Tina. Yeah, he won it. And I will say, I had, you know, obviously read about him. I had not watched him. I'm not a figure skating person. I'm eight hours away from Milan in Cortina, so I will never see him skate. But in watching him, it was like, you know, watching Simone Biles where I'm like, I don't really know what I'm looking at except it's unbelievable. Like you can take him against another skater and you have no idea what, whether it's a quad or a triple or whatever. Yeah, nobody knows. But you watch it and you go, that's better than the other guy. And that's what I take away from him. Like, the hype is worth it. And I don't know historical figure skating. I don't know anything about it. But holy cow, just viscerally, he jumps off the screen at you. And by the way, he owns it. He has shirts that say Quad God. I mean, there's a lot of people want to see him go down the drain. Me, personally, I want to see him set records that nobody will ever touch. I want him to be Usain Bolt. Do it. I mean, just embrace it. And, you know, I guess the controversy with him is like, you know, should you really be trying to do that many quads in a single routine? People can't do a single one in a single routine. You should be doing multiples. And this is like, what are the Olympics about if not pushing limits? Like this guy is pushing limits and setting a new standard that I just think that's what we're here for, man. Like, why should someone who doesn't need limits on them have them placed on them from the outside? He should do whatever the heck he wants. All right, we get to the last question. I saved the last question here because I wanted you to talk as you've been talking. I would have asked you about Snoop Dogg and his appeal, but I don't understand it, although it's incredibly appealing and everybody loves him. But we've talked about The Washington Post and what happened at The Washington Post on this podcast. We've talked about it. What do you come home to? I come home to, like, incredible gratitude for having my dream job for 20-something years, and particularly the last 10 when I was a columnist, the job that you had, a tradition that I really was honored to carry on. I'm confident that something good will come next for me. I'm much more concerned about my colleagues who are so talented and dedicated. And, you know, it's a little bit of a game of musical chairs and sports journalism right now. Like, we're all really trying to support each other. But there's a reality that, like, you know, those of us who have been laid off are in some level going to be going for the same job. So, Tony, I'm here because I feel like in some ways my career at the Post really took off in 2004 at the Athens Olympics. I've covered every Olympic since then. I was never owed the next one. But if the choice was, you know, go or stay home, I'll tell you it was really cemented for me on that women's downhill day when Breezy Johnson, who I've written about in the past and is a less known character, won, and Lindsey Vonn, who is an international superstar, crashed. And if I had been setting my alarm for 5 in the morning to watch it from my couch in D.C., I would have been heartbroken. So I'm thrilled to be here. This is how I would like to go out. And what's next can wait till what's next because I'm committed to doing this here. It's wonderful. If there's anything we can do to help, we will, of course, help. Thank you, Barry. Enjoy the rest of the Olympics. We'll talk to you before it's over. Thank you. Thanks, Tony. Appreciate it. Barry Sverlugo. It's great. He's a great columnist. Before we get out of here, I don't want to forget this again. This segment has been brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Make every moment more. We will take a break. We will come back, email and jingle. I'm Tony Kornheiser. You're listening to The Tony Kornheiser Show. Eat some for all of you folks. Biff God. Love it. Yes. Absolutely love it. You want to do the Bethesda Bagel ad? Yes, Bethesda Bagels. We love them. You will as well. Just go to BethesdaBagels.com for the location in the D.C. area near you. Then pop on in and you'll be thrilled. And before we get to the mailbag, let me just say come and talk of all the things we did today here and laugh about our funny little ways while we have a few minutes to breathe. Then I know that it's time you must leave. But darling, be home soon. I couldn't bear to wait an extra minute if you dawdle my darling be home soon. It's not just these few hours, but I've been waiting since I toddled for the great relief of having you to talk to. That's the best song the love and spoonful ever did. Just great. I'd say darling be home soon. That's their triumph. That's their triumph. Thanks to our guests today, Brian Windhorst and Barry Zaluga. Both great. Thanks as well to today's sponsors. Remember, you can listen to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Odyssey. Get the show through Apple. Please leave us a review. from Moshe Lander, professor of economics at Concordia University in Montreal in Canada Chuck and Roxy 337 interviewed and insulted on Chuck and Roxy 338 As Canada preeminent sports economist i Canada only sports economist I thought I would weigh in on a debate you had with Wilbon about skating. I hate to admit it, but he is right that skating is not a sport. To be a sport, a necessary but not necessarily sufficient condition is that you have to have objective scoring. Therefore, skating, gymnastics, ski jump, and diving are definitely athletic, just not a sport, while darts, bowling, golf, and hot dog eating are. It's a good explanation. That is. But what is boxing? Because boxing can have a result where you don't have to go to the judges. That's right. What is boxing? From Doug, who's an Olympic equestrian. Yes. I've got to be a stickler. The Budweiser pony is not a pony. Perhaps you should ask Michael to refer back to some VHS where he was riding an older pony. Unfortunately, it's not possible for a pony to grow into a horse. Ponies are 14.2. Hands are smaller. One hand equals four inches. Full-grown Clydesdales are typically greater than 17 hands. Most appropriately, you could identify the baby horse as a weanling, colt, or filly, which would then grow up to any full-size horse. Love the show, but by the way, if Astronaut Association is still ongoing, we were great friends with John Schauffman. We were lucky enough to watch the launch from Cape Canaveral on a Falcon 9 for his journey to the space station for 10 days. This is from Doug, who is an Olympic equestrian. How about that? which is pretty impressive, in Rogemount, I think. Roguemount, maybe, North Carolina. From Michael Ferranti in Wethersfield, Connecticut, who sends along a picture. He says, I just returned from a cruise to Costa Maya, Mexico, aboard the Norwegian Jewel. We cruised with the sixth-man group who were hosting Nate Bargatze and friends at Nate Land on Sea Excursion. Wasn't Greg on that? Nate brought his hand-picked crew of top comedians for exclusive shows and live podcast tapings. There were game shows, question and answering events, and pop-up comedy shows. At the talent show event was winding down, I exclaimed to my girlfriend that I had to get to the stage to say hi to Greg Garcia. Yes, that Greg Garcia. I explained to Jerry that Greg was a friend of Tony Kornheiser. She shook her head and begrudgingly mumbled, yes, I know. As he was walking off the stage, I shouted out, hey, Greg, LaCeeserie. Stopped in his tracks, smiled, walked over to shake my hand, couldn't have been nicer. We chatted for a bit. I told him how Jerry and I met Tony in Cruz. attached photo on a visit to the now defunct chatter how I met the socialite Nigel Michael and others I mentioned I had my own David Aldridge moment as I met David himself Greg smiled and said I should write Tony an email he'll read it on air he mused I said yeah I doubt it although he's read two of my other emails on air we chatted a bit longer I thanked him for taking the time to talk and turn to walk away just then I shouted hey Greg and he glanced back I gave him the TK salute he laughed gave me a thumbs up and proceeded off stage just wanted to share with you guys and give yet another example of the connective tissue of the show runs deep. Isn't that great? A lot from Curse. That's big. That's fantastic. Hi, Mr. Tony. This is John Chadwick. I'm a retired dermatologist from Battle Creek, Michigan. Chuck and Roxy, number I only wish. Last weekend, I attended mass at my parish. While walking in my seat, I heard my name called out. I turned and spotted a former patient and friend, Randy Nye. He motioned me over, and as I approached, he held out his hand and said, congratulations. As a loyal Indiana fan, this has occurred multiple times as a result of Indiana's national championship. Randy said that too, but I'm talking about getting your email read on the Tony Kornheiser Show. It was my first David Aldrich moment. I laughed and told him I was thrilled to have it read and mentioned that another little told me he would choose having his note read on the pod over receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature. Randy hardly agreed. This is an example of how your podcast has become the most important three hours of our week. The woman I'm related to by marriage thinks maybe I'm carrying this a little too far and should consider getting a job. Thank you for hours of entertainment. I hope you will consider me for being the official retired dermatologist of the Tony Kornheiser Show and tell Tom Hamm to eat it. Yeah, because Bud Giblin is the official dermatologist of the show. Not yet retired. From Bill Masters in L.A. I asked A.I. to write a script about a character named Breezy Johnson who was mentored by a woman named Peekaboo Street, and it wrote me an adult film. That's funny. That's funny. From Ben Thies, maybe in Salt Lake City, the amount of measurable snow in Salt Lake City this entire winter thus far is 0.0 inches. Come on, man. What are we even doing out here? Now, from Brian, from Eric's, Eric's Zemelis. The mention of the Beatles' Ed Sullivan debut on the February 9th episode of Mr. Tony watching reminded me of another metro area fan most likely watching. They're no Jim Steinman, but have reached some level of fame. You might have heard of her, Meryl Streep. Streep was at Shea in 65 and was part of a group of young people being interviewed by the old man, late 20s, early 30s, from the local CBS channel, whose premise was that these Beatles are a fad and they've had their 15 minutes. There are full-length clips on the story on the interwebs, but here is a short clip from the story. The looks of disbelief from a young Streep are Oscar-worthy, and then he sends me what I can see on YouTube. Did you? Yeah, I watched it. It's Meryl Streep. It's Meryl Streep. Meryl Streep. Unbelievably young, and you're like, oh, yeah, that's her. Yeah. Okay, from Matt Genovese in Jackson, New Jersey. I'm pretty sure there was a game in the past about the most famous person from your high school. After this weekend, I want to resurrect that game because we have a new leader in the clubhouse at my alma mater. Prior to Sunday, Christian Brothers Academy in Lincroft, New Jersey, He had a couple of minor itinerant players in the NBA and an Olympic bronze medalist swimmer. But hands down, our most famous alum was none other than Tony Reale. Yes. But with his meteoric rise on the PGA Tour this past year, culminating with his win at the Waste Management Sunday, I'm pretty sure Chris Goddorup is surpassing even stat boy level fame. Just figured I'd share with the group, seeing if there's a PTI tie-in. We're thinking about calling him. We're thinking about seeing if Chris Goddorup would be on the show. but he you know you gotta know is a guy good at that yeah he's great at golf as michael says ball speed doesn't lie he's great at golf but maybe maybe we'll try that yeah we don't usually do that no maybe we'll try that and one more from jeff vreeland in carmel indiana with the super bowl over the commercials unanimously declared the best over by people who say that every year and the halftime show somehow is still being discussed we can now say it out loud it's baseball season. Pitchers and catchers report this week the NBA season continues its slow, eternal march towards something resembling importance, and the Nationals are once again rebuilding, which is reassuring because consistency matters. Love it. If you're out on your bite, I'd like everyone, as always, to wear white. What's that, chicken? Every night it's the f***ing chicken. Holy God almighty. Is it possible just once, if you get something to eat for dinner around here, that's not the... I hope it's the public's chicken. Hey, dad. I'm just saying. Dad! All those years at a desk Taking on those standing tests Could have been my best With a little more time Maybe pick a different path Better job studying math Make moments last with a little more time A little more time to figure it out A little more time to twist and shout A little more time to rock and roll A little more time to find my soul Everything I owe is late Baby, sit and work today I'll get them paid I need a little more time I need a little more time Wanna be your guideline Baby, help us get it right How to fortify, I need a little more time A little more time for a second change A little more time to sing and dance A little more time to hope and care A little more time to just be there I need a little more time I need a little more time guitar solo Sing and dance. Little more time to hope and care. Little more time to just be there. I need a little more time. I need a little more time. Always try to be my best. Still proving quite a test. Could be a lifelong quest. I need a little more time Looking back when it's all gone Last verse of a favorite song The final long for a little more time A little more time till the next door closes A little more time to steal the roses A little more time for a higher calling Little more time Keep from falling Little more time Figure it out Little more time Twist and shout Little more time Rock and roll Little more time To find My soul I need a little more time I need a little more time I need a little more time I need a little more time A little more time A little more time He grew up fast on the streets back in a different day As drunk as dad, made it clear, knew he wouldn't stay By the time he turned 14, he had himself a master plan All the day in his school, packed all the stuff and off he ran Pointed south with hope at me Although it wasn't clear All the things that we might face Someday might do to that again She was house to house to house Never had a home Grew up fast and a little sad She'd always be alone Then one night she had enough Back to things that drove off in the dark Had to leave this life behind From when a unison post can stop Pointing south with hope and fear Excitement in her heart No way she could know Her part in the show And her flight in the dead of night Might lead down a path to Better day guitar solo Talked all night about the lights To the morning light Although they never met They felt what they had said about Then they cried, then they laughed They sighed, hey, why not try? Both worked hard to tame it Until you finally made a home Ten years old, still going strong Since they met, they're not alone Now they know that all they faced Has finally led them here to better days Better days Better days Better day. Better day.