Jimmy Traina thought he’d invited a basketball analyst when ESPN’s Jay Bilas appeared on the SI Media Podcast Thursday.
Yet Bilas turned out to be a comedian and impressionist during the podcast, sharing stories about longtime ESPN broadcast partner Sean McDonough and former colleague Bill Raftery.
Bilas, McDonough and Raftery worked together many years on ESPN’s Big Monday Big East broadcasts.
“Sean McDonough on play-by-play with you and Bill Raftery was a tremendous, tremendous crew,” Traina told Bilas. “Give me your thoughts on Raftery … everyone comes on here and they just say, ‘What you see is what you get with Raft.’ There’s no TV Raftery and then non-TV Raftery. It’s all Raftery.”
“That’s true,” Bilas said. “What you see is what you get, you get way more off-camera than on. The joy of working with him was only one part of the greater whole of just being around him. Raft loves basketball, but I think he loves the people in the game more than he loves the game.”
And then, Bilas dropped a great Raftery impersonation.
“We’d walk into a room to see like [former Syracuse head coach] Jim Boeheim before the game,” Bilas said, “and we’d start talking about the game and in the middle, Raft would go, ‘Knock off the bull**** will you, give us something we can use.'”
It’s not the first time someone has done an impersonation of the legendary announcer, but Bilas just effortlessly dropped it into the middle of his story.
And Bilas was just getting warmed up.
He shared a tale of how he, McDonough and Raftery met for lunch years ago. Raftery was also working college basketball games for CBS with Verne Lundquist at the time.
Bilas proceeded to share the conversation between Raftery and McDonough, impersonating both men.
“McDonough says, ‘How was the game with CBS? How’s Verne?’ Bilas said in McDonough’s voice.
“Raft looks at him and he goes, ‘Oh, it was great, we went out to dinner the night before and we talked about the business and we talked about all the great broadcasters. Your name didn’t come up.'”
WATCH:
ESPN’s @JayBilas just crushes his impersonation of announcers Sean McDonough and Bill Raftery with @JimmyTraina on the SI Media Podcast.
It’s also a terrific interview.
Full video: https://t.co/IC5kO1wp8w
Full audio: https://t.co/aMsX2Af6WL pic.twitter.com/PhTnFugsYz— Brad Logan (@BradLoganCOTE) February 27, 2025
Both Traina and Bilas got a huge laugh out of the story.
“Even McDonough laughed his a** off,” Bilas said. “But that was Raft. Everything was fun.”
About Arthur Weinstein
Arthur spends his free time traveling around the U.S. to sporting events, state and national parks, and in search of great restaurants off the beaten path.