Adam Schein had fellow Syracuse grad Danny Parkins as his featured guest on his Rise and Schein podcast this week. Schein had high praise for Parkins, introducing him and saying, “I think he is, pound for pound, the best sports radio host on the planet, he is absolutely superb.”
Schein added as Parkins joined, “You are just kicking ass and taking names in Chicago, and I’ve been a fan of yours for a long time.”
The conversation started with the topic of Parkins’ new book, Pipeline to the Pros: How D3, Small College Nobodies Rose to Rule the NBA, a project he worked on with his best friend and co-author Ben Kaplan with a forward by Jeff Van Gundy.
Talking more about Parkins and when he first heard him, Schein said, “You have the gift to gab…I heard you when you were at Syracuse and I thought, ‘this guy is going to be a star’ and following your career has been frankly a pleasure for me. When [Barrett Sports Media President] Jason Barrett asks me to pick someone as the best sports talk show host in the country, I always pick my guy Danny Parkins…passion, opinion, knowledge, entertainment, the POKE scale, you are always number one and rate very high at the highest possible level on that list.”
Schein then says he knew he wanted to be a sports radio host when he was 10 years old and asked Parkins when he knew it was what he wanted to be.
“A little later than you but not much,” Parkins said. “At 10, I still thought I was going to be John Paxson and be the white shooting guard on the Bulls.” Parkins goes on to explain due to scoliosis his athletic career came to an end but he, “loved sports, was obsessed with sports.” He said he was aware of sports radio from listening to Chicago Bulls postgame shows but didn’t think it was for him. When a classmate suggested he check out the school radio station, Parkins said he quickly became hooked.
“My first [assignment] was play-by-play, it was girls high school volleyball, and I was just hooked. Might have been the shorts, I don’t know, but I was just hooked. And I was like this is so much fun.”
Talking further on his career path, Parkins said, “I did a show before school, more play-by-play, I went to Syracuse and joined WAER and realized very quickly that the talk show thing was me more me than play-by-play, because it was about me. I know that’s egotistical, but Ian Eagle and Jason Benetti and Mike Tirico can be the greatest play-by-play guys in the world, but the rating is dependent on the quality of the game. Whereas a talk show, people are tuning in to hear Adam Schein’s monologue. You know, at 2 o’clock they have options, but they are choosing to hear what I have to say about Caleb Williams. The money maybe isn’t as great, the glamor isn’t as great, but the money is still pretty good, and the glamor is still pretty good. And so, I love talk shows and opinions and commentary and being a voice that matters in the town that I love.”
Parkins, 37, then shared a personal story which might explain his love of sports. My parents told me I was conceived during halftime of the Bears Super Bowl [in 1986]…so it has been in my blood since the moment of conception here.”
The conversation moved to Chicago Bears talk and in addition to talking about the NFL Draft and Caleb Williams coming in as the new quarterback, Schein asked Parkins about the team dominating the sports talk chatter in Chicago.
“The shared suffering [of the Bears] is also a great connector in this city. Rich, poor, black, white, north side, south side, suburbs, city, everyone is a Bears fan, and everyone has the same Bears experiences.”
