NCAA Football

ESPN's Jay Bilas and Dan Le Batard Get Into It Over Race in Basketball

Posted Apr 08, 2008 5:18AM By Sportz Assassin (RSS feed)

Filed Under: March Madness, NCAA Basketball Media Watch, ESPN

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Hat tip to Awful Announcing on this one.

ESPN's Jay Bilas was a guest on Dan Le Batard's radio show and they got into it. The main topic of discussion was race in basketball (mainly at Tyler Hansbrough's pro prospects).

It didn't seem to be what Bilas wanted to discuss. I mean, it is only the national championship coming up and I'm sure that Jay was prepared to talk about that. Le Batard instead hit him up with weird questions about scenarios if Hansbrough was black or Michael Beasley was white.

After a heated exchange, Bilas got off this classic blast -- "Take offense ... it's stupid"

Tags: dan+le+batard, DanLeBatard, Jay+Bilas, JayBilas, Michael+Beasley, MichaelBeasley, Tyler+Hansbrough, TylerHansbrough

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

4-08-2008 @ 7:14PM

Barry said...

Le Batard stinks! He is the worst guest host PTI ever had and really it's amazing that they allow him to speak. He thinks he's funny but he's the only joke!

4-08-2008 @ 9:56AM

Richard said...

Bilas just earned a bunch of respect from me on this. I was not sure what I thought about Bilas from television but the courage he had to call out Dan LeBetard on this immediately was awesome. Bilas answered very intelligently and even was able to quickly name the names of previous players that would seem to discount Dan's theory. Jay then deftly caught Dan trying to mix race and nationality as both being factors. Dan was going for shock radio and Bilas would not be dragged into the gutter. The NBA wants stars and they don't care about anything but talent and the ability to apply that talent.

4-08-2008 @ 10:06AM

JC said...

LeBatard is such a dummy. He says the dumbest things just to get a reaction, and I'm glad that Bilas nailed him on this one. And PLEASE stop putting that idiot on PTI! I have to turn it off because it sucks so bad with LeBetard.

4-08-2008 @ 2:10PM

mascot41 said...

I thought that was awesome....I hate race talk when it comes to sports...either you can play or you can't. Sports should really be the last place for race talk. I'm black and my college roommate was white and I truly feel he could go to any playground in America and get "buckets". That the name of the game right?....to score. I hate UNC, but that kid Tyler can get it done...and he wouldn't be the first nor the last great college player to not be a great NBA player.

4-08-2008 @ 9:29PM

gate04 said...

I don't have a problem with Dan asking those questions, it's his show. Besides, Bilas is an awful college basketball commentator. It's embarrassing watching him Vitale and Digger sit around and kiss Bobby Knight's ass