I'll get back to the ESPN Radio Host Power Rankings when I can, but I want to explore something that has really been bugging me lately. Since every single player in the NBA is a free agent this summer, there has been a lot of speculation about where they will all go and what they're thinking and why they will do whatever it is they've already decided to do. A name that keeps popping into conversations is "World Wide Wes." Although I'm not sure what it is that he does, (other than know a lot of people) he seems to have great influence over both the players and owners alike.
When I was in about the second or third grade, I played Boys Club basketball and enjoyed it very much. One of the reasons it was so enjoyable to me was because we dominated pretty much every game. The reason for this was partly because of the talent that we had, but mostly because our coach (my dad) who is the County Prosecutor, was a little over qualified for the position. As a quick example, most teams at that age play man to man defense because everyone can understand the concept of finding a number on the other team and staying next to him. We ran a 1-3-1 zone defense, effectively. If you've ever seen a group of eight year old boys do anything, you understand what an accomplishment this is. Needless to say, when you're forcing eight year olds to take jump shots, you're going to win a lot of games.
Anyway, back to the story. One game we were winning by about a hundred points and my dad called a time out. We all gathered around in the huddle and tried to understand what he started to tell us.
"We're not going to press anymore. Back up to half court and wait 'till they come across to start playing defense."
We were all kind of confused. My good friend, and the leader of our team, Scott Cline voiced our concern. With all the innocence of an eight year-old, but as serious as he could be, he sternly asked a simple question.
"Why?"
I honestly don't remember what my dad's response was, but I know we backed off the full court press and managed to hold on for the win.
I think of this story when I hear people suggest that teams should consult William Wesley about the intentions of Lebron James. My immediate question, with the same honesty and sternness of an 8 year old, is "Why?"
I'm not saying that he doesn't have the influence. It's the job of these people to figure out what's going on. My question is simply why. I just don't have enough data to compute the following statement:
"If teams think they want a chance at Lebron, they better be getting in touch with World Wide Wes."
What part of the equation does he factor into? At what part of the process does a GM, or an owner say, "You know, I'd like to know what a completely dissociated person thinks about this."
It's kind of like when people quote Movie Stars on political issues. I don't care what Denzel Washington says about politics anymore than you care what I think. He's an actor. Why would the owner of a multi-million dollar organization care about the approval of World Wide Wes just because he happens to know Lebron James and Jay-Z. It's not relevant. I mean, why don't they call me about it? Or, you?
Maybe someone can explain this to me. Or, maybe after all the dust settles, I'll understand why his role is so important. But, one day away from open season on free agents, I only have one question about the gravity of World Wide Wes.
"Why"
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Sunday, June 6, 2010
That don't make no sense...
Yesterday I posted the Power Rankings of all the ESPN radio hosts. I’ve already had a couple of questions about the scoring system so I wanted to expound on that a little bit. Before I go on, I’d like to say that ESPN radio is by a mile the best sports radio there is. The least engaging and most unreasonable segment on ESPN radio is way more compelling and interesting than any other brand of sports talk radio. Sometimes, when our ESPN is usurped by local high school sports, I’ll switch it over to another sports station. I can only stand to listen to it for about 45 seconds at a time. It might as well be college radio. That being said, here’s a look at the different categories and how they’re evaluated.
Interestingness
This has to do with the topics that are chosen. For example, tomorrow, everybody will be talking mostly about the second game of the NBA finals. Whether or not it is interesting depends on what about the NBA finals they decide to talk about. Excessive game analysis or a ton of personal stories, is just not fascinating, especially if I’m just running some errands and happen to get in my car mid conversation. I’m not going to keep thinking about that stuff when I get out of the car.
Reasonability
This has to do with how much plain sense the host makes. Some radio hosts, sports talk and others, try to generate ratings by being as outrageous as possible. This category tries to offset the tactic of getting tons of exposure by taking extreme positions on every issue. It brings to mind one of my favorite movie quotes of all time, which I've hollered at the radio more than once.
Just because a radio host is loud, demanding, well spoken, or clever, doesn’t mean that what they are arguing for actually makes sense. In fact, the louder voice in an argument usually has more to prove or to gloss over.
Engagingness
This is different than interestingness because it has to do with how well the material is presented. Some things are inherently interesting. Some people are inherently boring. No one on ESPN radio is boring, but this category measures just how captivating the host is. It really comes down to how good the host is at being a host. It does go hand in hand with what they choose to talk about (interestingness), but some people can make anything fascinating. The better they are at that, the higher they score in this category.
Hangability
That word is the most made up of all the categories. All it means is how easy it is, or would be (theoretically) to hang out with the host. Of course, this category is all about perception, but at the end of the day, all they’re doing is talking about sports. And with me (and you) as a listener, we’re just a bunch of guys sitting around talking about sports. How willing I am to hang out with a guy has a lot to do with how seriously I take what he tells me, and by extension how effective he is as a radio host. As an example, Donald Trump is a wildly successful real-estate mogul who obviously knows what he’s doing as evidenced by his wealth. But, judging by what I’ve seen on the TV, he’s not a guy I would want to meet at the Wing Stop to watch a game with. Not that he cares anything about that, but hangability does have some importance when grading radio hosts.
Humor
This one is mostly cultural. For whatever reason, a person’s sense of humor has been lumped in with other character traits like honesty and integrity. If a person is funny, we automatically start to give them the benefit of the doubt. Conversely, if a person is socially awkward, we’ll naturally question whatever they say. Because we appreciate humor so much, it’s included here as a partial measurement of how effective a radio host is.
Next, I'll go into detail about each show and why they scored the way they did. Hopefully these will make more sense when you see how they're applied to each show.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
ESPN Radio Hosts Power Rankings
I’ve been listening to the ESPN radio a lot lately. I decided to put together a ranking system to see which show/host(s) are the best. Here is what I came up with for a scoring system.
Scoring
Interestingness: 1-10
Reasonability: 1-10
Engagingness: 1-10
Hangability: 1-5
Humor: 1-5
The categories pretty much speak for themselves, but I may go more into that later. In the next couple of days, I’ll post about each show and why they scored the way they did. For now, here are the results.
AllNight with Jason Smith
Interestingness: 7
Reasonability: 7
Engagingness: 6
Hangability: 4
Humor: 3
Total: 27
Mike and Mike in the Morning
Interestingness: 7
Reasonability: 8
Engagingness: 7
Hangability: 4
Humor: 4
Total: 30
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
Interestingness: 9
Reasonability: 8
Engagingness: 10
Hangability: 3
Humor: 4
Total: 34
The Scott Van Pelt Show
Interestingness: 7
Reasonability: 8
Engagingness: 7
Hangability: 5
Humor: 4
Total: 31
The Doug Gottlieb Show
Interestingness: 8
Reasonability: 8
Engagingness: 9
Hangability: 4
Humor: 4
Total: 33
The Brian Kenny Show
Interestingness: 7
Reasonability: 7
Engagingness: 7
Hangability: 4
Humor: 3
Total: 28
Rankings
The Herd with Colin Cowherd: 34
The Doug Gottlieb Show: 33
The Scott Van Pelt Show: 31
Mike and Mike in the Morning: 30
The Brian Kenny Show: 28
AllNight with Jason Smith: 27
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