Michael Wilbon on The Jim Jackson Show Photo credit: ‘The Jim Jackson Show’ on YouTube

Michael Wilbon still approaches each day with the same work ethic he cultivated at the Washington Post, even as the sports media world shifts around him.

As the longtime co-host of Pardon the Interruption since 2001, Wilbon has always had deep journalistic roots. He’s never strayed far from his original craft, even recently revealing that he had to be talked into joining the show.

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But, as the sports media landscape leans more into hot takes and sensationalism, Wilbon finds himself increasingly at odds with his employer. In late March, he blasted the feud between LeBron James and Stephen A. Smith, along with the overall state of sports media, calling it “a piece of sh*t a lot of days.” He also criticized ESPN for its “disgraceful” coverage of Bronny James.

Wilbon might not be thrilled with sports media’s current direction, but the 66-year-old told Jim Jackson that he remains committed to staying true to his journalistic principles.

“I still wake up every day and go about this as if I was at the Washington Post, and that’s my bar,” he said on The Jim Jackson Show. “So, I have a personal bar. And it’s not to say that everybody else – many people have a bar and they’re great storytellers, some of who are professionally trained, and some who are not. Look, my favorite, I tell people all the time. They’ll say, ‘Who are your favorite people to talk to?’ Sometimes they’re professional storytellers, sometimes they’re just people who know how to do it. One of the things that I liked about when Charles [Barkley] was a player, and we sat around and got to know each other. It’s like, ‘Dude, you love telling stories; you gotta figure out how to transition this when you get ready to retire. Why look for something you don’t love when you love the art of storytelling?”

“I try to apply the fundamentals and the values — I don’t try; I do that,” Wilbon continues. “Like, multiple sides to a story. Sometimes when you see me at games after all these years, I still love it, but I need to be in the locker room listening to people. I need to hear their stories, and they need to see me. Like, I don’t want to get into dust-ups with people. I rarely, if ever, have, because people see you and say, ‘Hey, wait a minute. That’s not what I was thinking. Here’s what I was thinking.’ ‘Hold on, what about this side?’ I have to have that. I need that.”

This past week, Wilbon was at three different NBA playoff series. He shared with Jackson that he spent an hour and a half with Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green, and Stephen Curry, with whom he has longstanding relationships.

“And sometimes it’s just a matter of getting perspective and letting them see you, with Draymond saying, ‘Hey, look who the wind blew in? I got to talk to you,” Wilbon said. “Some people are offended. Not only am I not offended, that’s the fabric of that’s how you have meaningful conversation. The two sides should be engaged. I still want to apply the standards from all of that.

“If I can’t get a call from Gary Williams after all these years I’ve known Coach Williams. I playfully call him now. He’ll tell me to shut up, he’s not ‘Coach’ to me, but he is. If I can’t get a call from Gary, or see Gary Williams on the golf course and him saying, ‘Have you lost your mind?’ or ‘Have you and Tony [Kornheiser] gone crazy today?’ or ‘I really like what you guys did. I need to see more of that,’ then you’re not engaged. You’re not evolving. And, so, to me, all of that is required.

“It’s back to the Clippers tonight. I need the locker room and the assistant coaches, and the head coaches. I’ve known [Ty] Lue since long before he was getting stepped over by [Allen Iverson]. I’ve known T-Lue. There’s just a lot of people I look at and just respect tremendously… I’ve known these guys that long, and luckily, I have people to help me in that evolutionary process. If you try to do it alone, it don’t work. You have to have great producers… but you also have to have people that, what’s the phrase now? ‘Hold you accountable.'”

And Wilbon will do that in his commentary, but there’s a line he won’t cross.

“There’s a difference between criticism and ridicule,” he says. “I’m not into cheap shots. First of all, I’m too old to care about clicks; I don’t give a damn about clicks. And people, probably bosses, hate me saying that, because I’ll say that all the time. But I don’t, because I’m too old. I come from another world. And so, my world is, do I have the respect of the audience and the people I’m covering? And I think really the highest compliment I can get is… ‘I heard you on so and so. We disagree, but I get your point,’ or ‘I respect your opinion,’ or ‘You didn’t try to go after me.’ I don’t want to go after you.

“I tell young, aspiring media people. They say, ‘Wait a minute, you and so and so are friends? And I heard you be critical on TV last week?’ Criticism and ridicule are two different things. I’m not taking cheap shots. I don’t care about that. I’m not interested in it. I don’t really want to hear it. I want to hear discussion that can be critical, but can also be fair.”

“[Social media] scares me, brother,” Wilbon adds. “The direction of all this scares me.”

Wilbon mentioned a few run-ins with Michigan State head men’s basketball coach Tom Izzo, who’s repeatedly urged him not to leave the industry.

“That’s high, high, high praise,” Wilbon said. “And from Tom? Oh my goodness. And I get it, man. It means something to me. Maybe I’m not ready to roll out just yet, but, to me, there are standards that should be in place for any public discussion… The storytelling is important, no matter whose voice it is. And since I got a platform, I may as well do this right, or get out.”

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.