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Phelps Calls Le Batard An 'Idiot' After Cutting His Interview Short

Posted: Sep 26th 2008 11:01AM by Shane Bacon (author feed)
Filed under: Sports Media

462 COMMENTS
Michael Phelps might be the best in the world at winning gold medals and drinking Corona Light out of a can at NFL games, but one thing he isn't great at is handling a few "tough" questions.

Yesterday Phelps appeared on the Dan Le Batard Show and in typical Le Batard fashion, was thrown a few random and awkward questions that didn't seem very relevant to anything people would really care about. (For example, the first question was, "Give us a story that involves your agent calling you and you saying "holy bleep I can't believe they're giving me that much money.")


The interview was cut short because Le Batard and Phelps had this exchange and Phelps wasn't in the mood for games (audio here).
"What is the single coolest thing to happen to you since the Olympic Games," Le Batard asked.

Phelps replied that the his biggest thrill since Beijing was setting up a charity through one of his sponsors, Kellogg's. And in a stunning coincidence, Phelps was only doing the interview to promote his appearance on the boxes of various Kellogg's food products.

Le Batard (predictably) pressed Phelps after his pat response, saying, "That was a nice move there Michael because you just segued right into what you were selling there, when that can't be the coolest thing to happen to you since the Olympics. I'm sure you're very happy about it, but the coolest thing, the thing you tell your friends about, when you're out getting a beer?"

Continue Reading Phelps Calls Le Batard An 'Idiot' After Cutting His Interview Short

EliteXC: Kimbo Slice Described on ESPN as 'An Incredible Celebrity'

Posted: Sep 25th 2008 11:35PM by Michael David Smith (author feed)
Filed under: EliteXC, MMA Media Watch, MMA Videos

1 COMMENT
Kimbo Slice talked to Tony Kornheiser and Dan Le Batard on today's Pardon the Interruption:

Kornheiser doesn't know much about MMA, but he did tell Kimbo, "You are an incredible celebrity all around the country now. Everybody under the age of 30 knows exactly who you are."

Kimbo replied, "I never considered myself a celebrity. Celebrities don't go to K-Mart. Celebrities don't go to McDonald's. ... I do things the average guy does."

Le Batard is knowledgeable about the sport and has interviewed Kimbo several times, and he asked good questions about how the hard-core MMA fans view Kimbo. Kimbo's not much of a salesman, but the mere fact that a popular ESPN show is featuring Kimbo has to be good news for EliteXC.

Dan LeBatard Rips Tony Kornheiser for Saying Matt Millen Was Qualified to Run the Lions

Posted: Sep 24th 2008 6:25PM by Michael David Smith (author feed)
Filed under: Lions, NFL Media Watch

5 COMMENTS
One of the strange things about the Matt Millen reign of terror over the Detroit Lions is that he was even hired to run the team in the first place. Most of the time, a guy who gets full authority over a football team has to have experience as a scout or executive or coach, not just as a player and TV analyst.

So it was bizarre to hear ESPN's Tony Kornheiser claim on today's Pardon the Interruption that Millen was qualified.

"I know him a long time," Kornheiser said. "I think he was qualified for his job. I think that his years of being a player, and his years of being on television, helped him evaluate personnel. I'm stunned by the totality of his failure because I like the guy a lot."

Dan Le Batard then proceeded to tell Kornheiser he's nuts.
Continue Reading Dan LeBatard Rips Tony Kornheiser for Saying Matt Millen Was Qualified to Run the Lions

Dana White on Kimbo Slice: 'I Want to Banish This Guy Back to YouTube'

Posted: Jul 5th 2008 8:32AM by Michael David Smith (author feed)
Filed under: UFC, Elite XC

4 COMMENTS
UFC President Dana White appeared this week on Dan LeBatard's radio show, ostensibly to promote UFC 86. But thanks to LeBatard's persistent questioning, they spent more time discussing Kimbo Slice than they spent discussing Quinton Rampage Jackson or Forrest Griffin.

White was clearly annoyed that he even needed to discuss Kimbo, and he repeated his assertion that his own lightweight champion, B.J. Penn, could defeat Kimbo. White said he would like to arrange a Penn-Kimbo fight, "So I can start watching him on YouTube again. ... I want to banish this guy back to YouTube. That's where he belongs. He belongs on YouTube."

In other news, White acknowledged that UFC's heavyweight division is in a rebuilding phase, but he said the reason he hasn't signed Fedor Emelianenko is that Fedor doesn't want to fight any high-quality fighters.

Dan LeBatard Doesn't Think Tiger Woods Is an Athlete, Golf a Sport

Posted: Jun 18th 2008 2:29PM by Ryan Wilson (author feed)
Filed under: Golf, ESPN

14 COMMENTS

I like Dan LeBatard. He doesn't take himself too seriously, he's a solid writer, and he seems to annoy the hell out of Mr. Tony. But while chatting it up with the The Big Lead yesterday, he gave quite possibly the most ridiculous answer to an honest question since Phil Mickelson insisted he's grown an inch in the last year.
Q: LeBatard, what's your views on Tiger and whether or not he's an athlete and if he is, where does he rank among other greats?

LEBATARD: not an athlete.....what he does is a skill, not a sport....it is like being a brain surgeon or a seamstress.....golf isn't a sport....you can't be eating an apple during key moments of athletic triumph.....that said, he's a better athlete than everyone else doing that.....but it isn't a sport when someone carries your stuff and the most grueling thing you do is walk
Wow, that's short-sighted. Maybe LeBatard was joking (Mr. Tony plays golf!), but let's assume he wasn't. What makes an athlete? That's kinda tough to answer, but does anybody consider Dmitri Young more of an athlete than Woods? And is baseball more of a "sport" than golf? I mean, didn't Manny take a water bottle with him to left field a few years ago? Is that any better than eating an apple (or in Young's case, a pizza)?
Continue Reading Dan LeBatard Doesn't Think Tiger Woods Is an Athlete, Golf a Sport

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

Posted: Apr 8th 2008 5:18AM by Sportz Assassin (author feed)
Filed under: March Madness, NCAA Basketball Media Watch, ESPN

6 COMMENTS



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"

Heat Owner Was Heavily Involved in Shaq Deal

Posted: Feb 10th 2008 8:00AM by Will Brinson (author feed)
Filed under: Heat, Suns, NBA Gossip, Miami, Phoenix

1 COMMENT

Everyone has been fawning the past few days over Pat Riley's ability to shed big, ugly contracts, particularly the 40 additional million that Shaquille O'Neal was owed over the next two years. But it turns out that Miami Heat owner Mickey Arison had a lot more to do with this trade than anyone knew about at the time; he also was determined to send Shaq to someplace where he would either be close to home or have a chance to contend, acting on the close personal relationship that the two had developed during Shaq's time in South Beach.

Initially, according to Dan Le Batard, it was a phone call from Mavericks owner Mark Cuban to Arison that brought the possibility of moving O'Neal to the forefront and moved the Heat owner into a more prominent role in trade discussions. Well, that and the fact that Shaq was clearly unhappy half-playing for arguably the worst team in the NBA. And now, Barry Jackson, also of the Miami Herald, reveals through a conversation with Arison that the owner not only contacted Suns owner Robert Sarver directly but that more than usual, he took this deal out of Riley's hands and ran with it.
Continue Reading Heat Owner Was Heavily Involved in Shaq Deal

Bill Bavasi Returns Fire on David Samson

Posted: Jul 14th 2007 12:58PM by Tom Fornelli (author feed)
Filed under: Miami, Seattle, Mariners, Marlins, MLB Gossip

1 COMMENT
You may remember that after the new contract extension Ichiro Suzuki just signed was announced, that Marlins president David Samson wasn't too shy about his feelings towards it. If you need a reminder what it was that Samson said, well, here it is.
I would say it's the end of the world as we know it. If Ichiro's worth 20 million a year, I am speechless by that contract, I'm hoping that that report is false. Because there's no chance that a top of the lineup, forget that, there's no chance anybody's worth that. And Ichiro, who's led his team to zero? Nothing? I hope you're wrong, Dan.
Dan being Dan LeBatard who asked him his opinion of the deal. Well obviously the Mariners have heard about Samson's comments, with Mariners president Chuck Armstrong openly questioning why Samson felt a need to make those statements publicly.

Seattle General Manager Bill Bavasi is none too happy with Samson as well, and it's safe to say the two probably won't be eating dinner together anytime soon.
"My mother always taught me that if the only thing you have to say is `[expletive] David Samson,' you shouldn't say anything at all. So I'm not going to say anything at all.''
I know that a lot of Mariners fans arent' exactly big fans of Bavasi, and I myself have openly questioned some of his moves, but that quote just gave me a new found respect for the man and his mother. That's some good parenting right there.

Previously at FanHouse:
Ichiro Signs His Extension
Will Ichiro's New Contract Ruin Baseball?

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