Ben Strauss, who is The Washington Post‘s sports media reporter, was Jimmy Traina’s guest this week on the SI Media Podcast. During the episode, the pair began talking about the NBA Playoffs and the way it has been covered. Traina noted that the biggest story might be Charles Barkley’s repeated on-air invitations to Lebron James to join him and the rest of the Inside the NBA cast.
Strauss responded “LeBron is so good when he wants to be. Barkley might be the most valuable sports media TV personality in sports. And it would be great TV. It would be must watch.”
The idea of Charles Barkley bringing an appeal to the show that no one on any other network can match was a continuing theme. When Traina suggested that The Round Mound of Rebound may be untouchable, short of saying something really outlandish, Strauss noted that that very thing actually happened earlier this month and Barkley felt no reprecussions for it.
“Barkley, it wasn’t on TNT, but he went on a radio show and said he can beat any woman in any sport. Like within the last few weeks. During the NCAA Tournament, I think. And somebody said to me, ‘If that had been anybody else, people would’ve been calling for a suspension.’ But not Barkley. It’s the same in politics. There’s like a level of authenticity — if people think they’re getting authenticity — the leash that people will give you, the space to sort of say outlandish things is is immense. And Barkley takes advantage of it and and sort of delivers that authenticity better than anybody.”
Traina noted that there should be a lesson in that for other networks. The whole conversation is very much worth a listen and can be heard below.
