Last week Ryen Russillo confirmed on his Twitter feed that he had re-signed with ESPN, a welcome move in these parts. I’ve written often how much respect I had for the show he and Scott Van Pelt did for ESPN Radio—not only were they authentic, they didn’t toke the easy drug of lowest common denominator sports talk. Russillo also fronted college football and NBA shows on ESPN and ESPN Radio and even if you disagreed with his analysis, you come away respecting that he does the preparation. Over the weekend, I emailed him some questions, and below is our conversation verbatim:

SI.com: Why did you decide to re-sign with ESPN?

Russillo: The obvious answer is that it’s ESPN. I’ve been here almost 10 years. I’m not sure that I’ve ever felt more appreciated than now. I wanted to live in L.A. and do something different. I wanted to challenge myself and get away from the east coast after a difficult two years for my family. One of my parents got sick, then they got divorced and I was dumped 30 minutes before my show, twice. These last two years have sucked and I wanted to go swimming. I’m not bull——– you. And I miss [Fox Sports host and good friend] Charissa [Thompson]. During my time here it’s been weird. I had one manager tell me to not talk on the air during the baseball show I hosted. My favorite quote was “we need Scott to talk more but don’t feel like you need to talk less.” So I was ready for something different. But these guys have been incredible. They made me feel like they really wanted me.

​SI.com: What was the deciding factor in the reason you are remaining at ESPN?

Russillo: I like it here. I honestly love coming to work each day.

Also, more television exposure, which has been an issue in the past. I love talking NBA and wanted a chance to do that more. I was the first person at ESPN to say that LeBron was going back to Cleveland that week. That was sourced information. I said all season Kevin Love was re-signing with Cleveland. I sit on all this info because it doesn’t always work well for a radio segment. TV will help with this.

SI.com: What has management told you about your role on ESPN Radio heading forward?

Russillo: They haven’t said anything except to keep doing what I’m doing. I know the numbers for Scott and I were really good the last few years. Maybe that continues, maybe it doesn’t. But I feel really lucky to be trusted to keep this going.

SI.com: Is it your preference to work solo at ESPN Radio, or to work with a partner?

Russillo: A partner. Solo radio is the hardest thing to do in this business. It’s harder than anchoring, play by play, writing for a deadline. It’s not even close. I’ve done all of these things. There are times I’d rather an interview be solo or a time I have something to say where I don’t want anyone else getting in. But for the most part I’m better listening to someone I respect and making it a conversation. [Colin] Cowherd doesn’t get enough credit for this. We don’t take calls because calls are terrible. Three hours solo is tough to pull off. In the past I think I was good solo for 1/3 shows and I wasn’t doing it regularly so that made it worse. The scariest feeling ever is being on the air and realize you are boring as “F” and you wish you could change the channel on yourself. When I get older I just want to take calls for five hours and tell people how tough my job is. Calls are a crutch.

SI.com: How much television will you do as part of this new deal?

Russillo: A lot. It took a long time. [Executive vice president] John Wildhack really changed things for me here. He pushed to get me on TV two years ago and I can’t tell you how thankful I am for that. I did TV for the Celtics for six years. I was doing post-game for the NBA Finals in 2008 sitting next to Tommy Heinsohn. [Comcast SportsNet New England news director] Kevin Miller in Boston took a chance on me and I’ll always be grateful for that. People were like “who is this guy?” But it worked, so I always wanted that to be part of my future.

Credit to Sports Illustrated who originally published this article