An ESPN headline had Ryen Russillo cracking up. An ESPN headline had Ryen Russillo cracking up.

The current sports media age sees a lot of people reacting just off headlines. Sometimes, those reactions are quite notable. That included on Sunday night, which saw Ryen Russillo cracking up in the middle of a live episode of The Ringer’s The Bill Simmons Podcast with Simmons and Zach Lowe.

That reaction came while Lowe was talking about the importance of salary cap specialists. And Russillo quickly explained that his reaction wasn’t to Lowe’s comments. Instead, it was to a headline he saw on ESPN’s website referencing Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander with Michael Jordan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar:

There, around 0:20, Russillo explains his reaction while still laughing with “Sorry, I just saw a headline on ESPN, ‘SGA in the conversation with Jordan and Kareem.'” Simmons says “What conversation?” and Russillo says “I dunno. Tall, athletic?” Lowe then notes that there is some more context here, though:

“I see the headline and it’s a video clip, so I would watch the video clip. Maybe it’s a single-season accomplishment? I’m assuming, that’s the context I would assume it’s in. In which case it’s like ‘Okay, 30 points a game, 30 points a game in the Finals, Finals MVP, regular-season MVP.'”

Russillo then even laughs a bit at his reaction to the headline. He then brings up how he reacts to headlines or titles for his own podcast sometimes.

“Zach’s the journalist of the three. He brings up a great point. Like, I get mad whenever somebody else gives me titles. I’ll look at titles for my own podcast and go ‘That’s not what I said.'”

Lowe then provides a further argument that no one is trying to compare Gilgeous-Alexander to Jordan and Jabbar overall yet.

“There’s just no way that anyone would say he’s in that class of player for a holistic career. No one would ever say that. It has to be a single season.”

And, indeed, the video clip this headline was based on does make that clear. And it’s not even highly opinion-based. Indeed, it’s Stephen A. Smith noting (0:35) that Gilgeous-Alexander is just the third player ever to average 30 points per game during the regular season while also earning league regular-season MVP and Finals MVP honors. The other two are Jordan (three times) and Abdul-Jabbar. After listing that single-season stat, Smith says “That is the conversation he’s in, that’s the kind of season he’s had.”

The headline for this clip Monday morning on ESPN.com, as seen at the top of this post, does spell that out too. It currently reads “Stephen A.: SGA’s season in the conversation with Jordan and Kareem.” But it’s unclear if that crucial “season” word was in there when Russillo saw it Sunday night. If it wasn’t (as Russillo describes in what he reads on the podcast), his reaction makes a lot of sense.

“Stephen A.: SGA in the conversation with Jordan and Kareem” would be technically correct (for, as the podcasters note, a specific value of “conversation”). But it also would get many thinking it’s a career comparison. As Lowe notes, that would be absurd at this point.

But even if the headline was in its current form Sunday, it’s also understandable how Russillo might miss the “season” word. He is looking at this quickly while also podcasting, and obviously can’t watch the video at that particular moment.

Overall, this moment maybe is more interesting for its window into headlines and reactions than for criticism of either ESPN or Russillo. If ESPN didn’t omit that “season” initially, their headline’s fine. If they did, it’s a little deceptive in terms of what’s actually in the video, but it’s technically correct. (And Lowe is correct that it shouldn’t be assumed that even take-focused personalities like Smith would jump to career comparisons for Gilgeous-Alexander and Jordan at this point).

In either case, Russillo’s gut reaction makes some sense given the context. And this live podcast is notable for spotlighting that instant reaction (similar to other instant reactions we’ve seen lately). And the overall takeaway may be the importance of thinking about both what headlines literally mean and how they can be interpreted. That’s true for both for writers and readers.

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.