For the first time in nearly half a century, former Syracuse basketball coach Jim Boeheim is starting a new job. After 47 seasons with the Orange, Boeheim began his broadcasting career earlier this week, after agreeing to a deal with ESPN, ACC Network, and Westwood One.
On the surface, it’s great news for basketball fans, who now get to hear what a coach who won over 1,000 games has to say. For others, especially those in the media, welcoming in this new voice comes with a little trepidation. Why?
I’m not sure that Jim Boeheim has the same assessment about how he treated the media. He felt like defending himself was necessary, but it went past that on many occasions. It’s hard for some in the business to understand why companies bring in people that treated their own reporters like crap in the past.
I know that Boeheim isn’t the only former coach or player who didn’t treat the media with respect and now becomes a member himself. Now, he’ll debate, I’m sure as others have, that they aren’t the media just because they’re on television or radio now. Here’s the thing: You are. You have now become what you once despised and loathed. Maybe you didn’t understand the impact or importance of the relationship when you played or coached, but now you’re one of us. It borders on hypocrisy. It makes me wonder how he decided to join ESPN following a long coaching career.
Former NFL receiver Randy Moss joined the ranks back in 2013. Moss had a mercurial relationship with the Minnesota media over his career. Some of it was not on him, but nonetheless, he was quick to distance himself from the moniker of “media member”.
He told Sports Illustrated, “I don’t like that term. I am not part of the media. That’s not my label, and I don’t want it to start now. I love the game of football, and this is just a new way for me to be part of the game.”
I get it, but when your paycheck comes from a media company, well, you’re the media. Maybe not in the same respect that a reporter or anchor is, but still the media.
Jim Boeheim surely had his issues with the media through several memorable run-ins over the years. He called out journalists for their questions. He’s questioned their integrity and seemed to enjoy belittling reporters when he had the opportunity. That’s fine, it’s his prerogative, and perhaps some stories run deeper than the surface level with the reporters. I don’t claim to know that. Maybe the parties came to an understanding after the press conference was over. Great. But again, why does it have to come to what it did with Boeheim?
Of the many clashes with the press, one in particular came in 2013 when Andy Katz, then of ESPN, tried to ask a question following a Syracuse loss to Connecticut. Katz asked what the UConn series meant to him, and Jim Boeheim refused to answer the question saying, “I’ll answer anybody’s question but yours.” Instead, he went all in on his feelings about Katz. Calling Katz “an idiot and really being a disloyal person.”
Katz later said he believed Boeheim’s feelings stemmed from Katz’s reporting on Bernie Fine, the former coach at Syracuse who was accused of sexual abuse by two former ball boys on ESPN’s Outside the Lines and was terminated.
There were many other ‘dust-ups’ with veteran reporters, but Boeheim seemed to save his worst venom for student journalists who are learning the ropes. Young aspiring journalists seemed to be better than a postgame spread for a hungry coach.
Just last season, student reporter Sam Corcoran asked Boeheim for the status of Benny Williams after the sophomore was absent from the game against Virginia. Media members had been told that Boeheim would address Williams’ absence after the game. When Boeheim did not discuss Williams in his opening statement, Corcoran asked, “Coach, what’s the status on Benny Williams?”
Boeheim immediately lost his cool.
“Is that your question?” Boeheim said. “Is that the most important question you have?”
The coach followed it up by telling Corcoran his attitude, “isn’t really good either.”
Come on. Syracuse is a ‘media school.’ This is where students go to learn and Jim Boeheim knows that. It didn’t stop another run-in with a student came after the team lost by four points to North Carolina and student reporter John Eads asked the coach why he thought the team couldn’t close out tight games. Instead of answering the question, Boeheim responded with, “We’re done,” and exited the press conference.
Other things have shown Boeheim’s distaste for the media. It has been inferred, though not proven, that he had a hand in the firing of Syracuse radio personality Brent Axe in March. Axe worked for Galaxy Media, a company that Boeheim is a partner in station ownership. Axe was let go because the President and CEO Ed Levine did not like the way Axe covered the Orange.
I’ve been in enough press conference settings and around many coaches who have suffered through bad seasons or bad games. Every once in a while, there’s a tipping point and things go sideways. But at the same time, I watched Michael Jordan answer questions, night after night, that were much worse than those, with class and dignity. Not trying to embarrass the questioner, of course not knowing that individual’s story or experience level.
We have a job to do. So does he. Look, I’m not intending to just pick on Jim Boeheim here. He’s the focus because he’s the latest that has clashed with the media in a previous life, only to become a member of the club. There are hundreds of these cases.
The late Bobby Knight was a nightmare for reporters over his time at Indiana. He often told reporters he hated the media. Knight was once quoted as saying, “All of us learn to write in the second grade,” he said of the media. “Most of us go on to greater things.” Knight made a good analyst though due to his personality. You never knew what he might say, so it was always ‘tune-in worthy’. But still, a man who made it known how much he despised media, joined the ranks.
Deion Sanders was one of the few to play in both the NFL and MLB as a pro. When he was playing for the Braves and Falcons at the same time, it was football season, and this meant that it was also the postseason in the major leagues. The Falcons had a regular-season game scheduled on the same day as the Braves’ playoff game. Sanders opted to play in the football game and received criticism from broadcaster Tim McCarver. As a response, Sanders tossed cold ice water all over McCarver. Sanders was a high-profile media star that critiqued many a player. There are and were many others as well.
Media training as these players and coaches are coming up the ranks would help this situation. Understanding the role of the media in the success of the league’s each is playing/coaching in, would provide some good perspective. Everybody has a bad day, but many of these individuals were repeat offenders and now are trying to extend their careers in a field they loathed.
I’m not rooting against Jim Boeheim. I wish him the best in his new line of work. His insight and experience level could enhance the broadcasts he does. That’s not in debate. It just makes me a little weary and causes me to shake my head in derision, every time someone that showed such disrespect to the profession, becomes one of us.
Andy Masur is a columnist for BSM and works for WGN Radio as an anchor and play-by-play announcer. He also teaches broadcasting at the Illinois Media School. During his career he has called games for the Chicago Cubs, San Diego Padres and Chicago White Sox. He can be found on Twitter @Andy_Masur1 or you can reach him by email at Andy@Andy-Masur.com.
