Major League Baseball has its Opening Day on Thursday. We have the SI baseball braintrust gathered for a roundtable: senior writers Tom Verducci and Stephanie Apstein and editor Matt Martell. They’ll tell us what’s exciting about this season, what’s wrong with baseball, and what’s changed forever after the lockout.

Sports Illustrated MLB coverage | @si_mlb on Twitter

With the nightly implosion of LeBron’s Lakers, HBO lures us into Showtime-era nostalgia with their hit-in-waiting, Winning Time. We welcome Jordan Ligons of the Spinsters podcast and The Ringer’s TV critic Alison Herman to answer a simple question: Is Winning Time any good? And is anyone watching?

HBO Max | Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty (YouTube)

Dirk Nowitzki entered the NBA in 1998 with no shortage of hype. Twenty-one seasons later, collecting an MVP award in 2007 and the Larry O’Brien trophy with a Finals MVP in ’11, it’s safe to say he lived up to the hype and then some. Howard Beck had Dirk on The Crossover podcast and took a few minutes to ask about his history with SI.

SI Vault: Fast Developing After A Rookie Year in Which the Negatives Prevailed, the Mavericks' Dirk Nowitzki Looks Like a Budding Star by Jon Wertheim

The Great Nowitzki: Basketball and the Meaning of Life by Thomas Pletzinger