I thought ESPN was on to a pretty good idea when it hosted its “
ESPN broadcast live what was supposed to be a two-hour long discussion about racial equality in the realm of sports, how far it has come and where it needs to go. Instead, we mostly got a group of panelists who appeared intent on pushing their own agendas.
“Pardon The Interruption” co-host Michael Wilbon seemed to be the only panelist who truly understood the spirit of the “Town Hall” discussion. Without him, the show would have gone from a disappointment to a disaster.
Wilbon repeatedly bailed out other guests who either couldn’t quite articulate their thoughts, or were starting to dig a hole that would have gotten deeper had Wilbon not intervened. He was terrific.
I was also impressed with Marion Jones, who was serving prison time just a couple of years ago for check fraud and her role in the performance-enhancing drug scandal that cost Jones her Olympic medals. Now, she’s playing in the WNBA and seems determined to share her fall-from-grace story as a cautionary tale to others in the hope that they might avoid making the kind of mistakes that derailed her career.
That’s about it for positives. The other guests seemed either unprepared, unsure why they were there, or some combination. Instead of trying to figure it out, they relied on a popular fallback position: They made it all about themselves.
John Calipari used the show as an infomercial for the
Film director Spike Lee – in hindsight, an awful choice for this discussion – lamented the lack of opportunities he’s been given in his career. Really? Someone agreed to put “She Hate Me” on camera and in a theater, and Lee is whining about which opportunities he isn’t getting? What a shame.
Former NBA player Jalen Rose, who now works as an analyst for ESPN, reminded viewers that player contracts aren’t quite as big as they appear. He reminded us that an athlete with a $5 million contract only takes home about $2 million after taxes and paying his agent and public relations people. He went on to say that his point was that “the world tends to read the headline instead of the story,” which has some merit in basic principle, but nothing to do with his salary analogy.
As former athletes and coaches go, guys like Michael Strahan and Tony Dungy would have made much better panelists. They are both gifted and experienced when it comes to discussing issues that are bigger than themselves, a quality the ESPN crew seemed to be lacking.
From being in the media, I understand that live television is difficult, and it’s not easy to articulate what you want to say in a limited amount of time in front of a captive audience. In that regard, I’m willing to cut the panelists a break.
That’s why experienced commentators like Wilbon and Bob Ley did their best to move the conversation along and stay on point. But they shouldn’t have had to do so nearly as often as they did.
It’s just too bad. The “Town Hall” concept for this particular topic had a lot of potential, but the panelists failed to realize it.
Did anyone else see the show and have any thoughts on this?
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