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Dan Le Batard Says Adam Schefter and Adrian Wojnarowski Have Become Bigger Than ESPN

““Does it matter to you in any way that Brian Windhorst is doing that meme thing of pointing for 2.5 minutes because it would appear that there is a culture of fear at ESPN where it’s got to be the reporting is Woj’s. Woj is our lead guy. Everyone fears Woj.”

Ricky Keeler

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On Wednesday’s edition of The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, the topic that was discussed in the first hour of the program was about how sports news is broken by some of the top insiders in the business. This was in response to the feature that was done in The Washington Post about Adam Schefter.

During the segment, Le Batard mentioned that he believes there is a lot of fear at ESPN. Plus, he believes that both Schefter and Woj have become bigger than ESPN itself:

“Does it matter to you in any way that Brian Windhorst is doing that meme thing of pointing for 2.5 minutes because it would appear that there is a culture of fear at ESPN where it’s got to be the reporting is Woj’s. Woj is our lead guy. Everyone fears Woj. Everyone fears disappointing Woj. Everyone fears running askew of Woj’s sources or preventing Woj from doing his job correctly.”

“There is no disputing that however it is Schefter and Woj get their information, they’ve become bigger than the network. That power can be abused if indeed it’s so that everyone is fearing so much. Windhorst, there’s not a story like Windhorst in the history of ESPN. Windhorst has been great at his job for 20 years. He’s very careful about how he reports his news and he makes sure that he’s got the proper context on it.”

In fact, Le Batard also said that information in this day and age in journalism has become currency and it has allowed Woj and Shams Charania from The Athletic and Stadium to be the two people that are mostly associated with breaking NBA news:

“Information is a currency like we’ve never seen before in this realm where Shams and Woj and whether someone wins by 43 seconds makes them the only 2 guys you think of in this sphere because somehow Woj, who does his job in a way that I’ve never understood. I’ve marveled at how that man could be that good at the acquisition of information and have wondered how he does that?”

However, in the opinion of Stugotz, there are not many who care how the information pops up or who is the one that gets to break the news first, he just cares about the actual news itself:

“I just want the information. I don’t care how the sausage is made. Just give me the information that’s important to me and give it to me as quickly as possible. In fact, I don’t even care about how quickly you give it to me. I don’t do the thing oh Woj got to it first, Shams got to it first. When it shows up in my timeline, whoever sent it out sent it out. I’m not comparing the two and I think most people who care about sports and the information and don’t care about how these people get their information, that’s all they care about.”

With that being said, let’s just say Stugotz had strong feelings about Woj towards the end of the segment based on something he used to see while he was at ESPN:

I am tired of people being intimidated by you. I am tired of people being scared of you. I am tired of people walking around eggshells on the Bristol campus….You do not have a monopoly on NBA news. If other people want to report it, feel free to report it. I am tired and I felt this a bit when I was there of people walking on eggshells around Woj. They can’t report NBA news. Their jobs are to be reporters, to be journalists and they aren’t doing their jobs because Woj is getting in the way.”

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Dan Le Batard: ‘Does Sports Media Care if Interviews Are Done Well?’

“An exclusive interview with Ja Morant, who hasn’t talked to anybody after his controversy, is going to get eyeballs, so it doesn’t matter how good it actually is.”

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Mike Greenberg had praise for Jalen Rose this week. He said that no one but his ESPN colleague could have handled the interview with Ja Morant that has been airing on the network. Dan Le Batard has the exact opposite opinion of what he saw.

“What I saw was soft and didn’t seem to serve anybody except ESPN,” Le Batard said on his Thursday show. “This seems to be a lot of people around the economy of basketball and Ja Morant orchestrating an interview so Ja Morant can move onto the next stage of his branding.”

Whereas Greenberg thought the shared experience of an NBA career made Rose more likely to get answers from Morant, Le Batard said it created a problem. He accused Rose of letting Morant get away with using “talking points” in lieu of answering any actual questions about the string of erratic behavior and disturbing incidents the Memphis Grizzlies star has been involved with.

It wasn’t the only interview that Dan Le Batard pointed to. He noted that Pat McAfee’s interview with Aaron Rodgers may have drawn an audience of nearly half a million, but very little substance was offered.

“Does anybody in the audience, in sports fandom, or even, at this point, in sports media companies, care in a real and legitimate way whether the interview is done well or not?”

He added that the standard has changed for these interviews because the goal has changed. They are no longer about journalism as much as they are about branding, particularly in the case of ESPN’s exclusive interview with Ja Morant.

“An exclusive interview with Ja Morant, who hasn’t talked to anybody after his controversy, is going to get eyeballs, so it doesn’t matter how good it actually is,” Le Batard concluded. “All you need, if you’re the media partner, is please get me the famous guy to sit down.”

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Jomboy, Aaron Boone Partner For Weekly Podcast Appearance

“I thought it was a really interesting opportunity, and a cool idea. These guys have been innovators in this business and they’ve built a massive, young following.”

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It isn’t unusual for a professional sports team to partner with a local radio station for weekly interviews with team personnel. Even though Jomboy Media is a digital outlet, it didn’t stop the company from inking a deal to have Yankees manager Aaron Boone on one of its signature podcasts.

In a move announced Thursday, Jomboy Media has signed a deal for Boone to appear on its popular Talkin’ Yanks podcast — hosted by founder Jimmy O’Brien and Jake Storiale — once a week throughout the baseball season.

“I thought it was a really interesting opportunity, and a cool idea. These guys have been innovators in this business and they’ve built a massive, young following,” Boone told The New York Post. “I think Jimmy and Jake are both really good guys. And they’re passionate about what they do, and they love the Yankees. And, sometimes they’re a little misguided and it’s my chance to set the record straight every now and then.”

Previously, Boone had a weekly spot on 98.7 ESPN New York’s The Michael Kay Show, which reportedly paid him six figures.

“It’s going to be really fun and it kind of goes with the changing landscape of media,” O’Brien said. “The fact that two fans can create a show and in five years get to the point where they get to ask questions to the manager of the Yankees and bring whatever insight we can get out of that to our audience — it is pretty wild, a little surreal.”

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Sports Media Reacts to Aaron Rodgers Telling Adam Schefter ‘Lose My Number’

“Here are some of the best responses from Schefter’s sports media colleagues to the tweet.”

Jordan Bondurant

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Quarterback Aaron Rodgers appeared on The Pat McAfee Show on Wednesday and revealed that if he gets his way, his time with the Green Bay Packers is done. He intends to play for the New York Jets in 2023.

Rodgers told McAfee that the hang-up lies with Green Bay, which is trying to determine the appropriate compensation for trading for a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

Rodgers also revealed that he had an interaction with ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter. Schefter, who was obviously digging as much as he could to get the scoop on what was going on with Rodgers’ future, texted Rodgers trying to confirm the information he had.

“I didn’t respond to Dianna Russini I think her name is,” Rodgers said. “But I would say the same thing that I told Schefty. Lose my number. Nice try.”

Upon hearing Rodgers’ account, Schefter followed up with a screenshot of Rodgers responding exactly how he said, and that sent social media into a whirlwind.

Here are some of the best responses from Schefter’s sports media colleagues to the tweet:

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