John Wall is a class act. Completely exceeded my expectations.

[Cheeky]

Always liked John Wall. Kid was awesome at UK, and he is awesome in the NBA. Just love his game.

Always like Cowherd. Guy is one of the very few guys in sports radio who actually has some insight on occasion and who has original thoughts. Listening to Mike and Mike is like drinking maple syrup.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Cowherd's show basically goes like this:

1. "If you don't have palm trees on campus your football program is about to die because it's a 'new era' and 'modern athletes' refuse to play in cold weather."

2. Throw in a mix of management-speak and finance jargon, generally used incorrectly, to draw ostensibly profound but actually nonsensical insights about sports.

3. Say "liberal", "conservative" and "coastal elites" a couple times.

Repeat.

And yes, he's still vastly preferable to Mike and Mike.

 

[UconnU]

Cowherd's show basically goes like this:

1. "If you don't have palm trees on campus your football program is about to die because it's a 'new era' and 'modern athletes' refuse to play in cold weather."

2. Throw in a mix of management-speak and finance jargon, generally used incorrectly, to draw ostensibly profound but actually nonsensical insights about sports.

3. Say "liberal", "conservative" and "coastal elites" a couple times.

Repeat.

And yes, he's still vastly preferable to Mike and Mike.

A lot of what cowherd says is true, especially when its not politcally correct. When he made these statements about wall, they were true. To walls credit he has proved him wrong. Mike and mike are just politically correct espn talking heads who never ask tough questions and are frankly boring and predictable.

 

[Cheeky]

I'll give an example.
When the whole Carmelo Anthony grade thing broke and he had 4Cs and a D, there was a lot of noise in the sports world essentially saying that Anthony was some sort of derelict. At first, I sort of bit into that line of thought.

Cowherd came out and said, "4Cs and a D as a 1st year student while playing DI ball, being on TV every week as the centerpiece of your school's team, and leading your team to a NC? Sounds damn good to me. Well done."

And I thought about it and how I had, IIRC, a 2.3 or some crap GPA after my first semester when I had no responsibility at all, and I thought, "good point."

There are a lot of others like that. Where he makes a point, I hadn't really thought about it before, and I think, "yeah, good perspective." So I like him for that.

Here's my take on the other shows:
Mike and Mike - these guys are salesmen for the NFL. They're the sports radio version of Dick Vitale. Intolerable.
Jim Rome - drills the same point for 10-15 minutes. Guy could make a point about cheese on a taco and then rehash the same damn point for 15 minutes. Barely tolerable. Also, crap load of inside references that I haven't taken the time to learn, which makes the show difficult to follow at times.
Cowherd - like. Good.
Andy North and the other guy. Like. Like listening to your two uncles talk sports. Get nutty sometimes, but I like the fact that they're willing to say, "Peyton Manning is overrated," and things like that.
Tiki, the guy who sounds just like him, and Dana. Like Dana, don't care for the other two. Tend to drift off on boring side stories. Tolerable, but just barely.
Gottfried. Like. Tends to have reasonable opinions. Occasional insight.
Guy who used to be a comedian - entertaining, but the Shoot It segment and some of the inside jokes detract from the overall experience.
Dan Patrick - meh. Tolerable, but barely.
SVP and Rusillo - horrible. Like eating toast with nothing on it. I didn't realize what the hell SVP was until I just looked this up. Slow moving.

 

[champs99and04]

SVP and Rusillo have the best show on ESPN, IMO.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

A lot of what cowherd says is true, especially when its not politcally correct. When he made these statements about wall, they were true. To walls credit he has proved him wrong. Mike and mike are just politically correct espn talking heads who never ask tough questions and are frankly boring and predictable.

When he said Wall had a low basketball IQ, was not a sharp guy, would never be a leader because he didn't have a father, and mimicked him by saying "Yo dawg look at me"?

I mean, you might agree with his opinion, but that doesn't mean what he was saying was "true."

Agree on SVP and Rusillo although - and I'm going to sound like my 67 year old father here - there are too many damn commercials.

Mike and Mike can be counted on to take the most white-bread, vanilla, company line position on virtually everything. I have no idea what their demographic is. Minivan driving dads in the mid-west I would imagine.

 

[jibsey]

Just a point re Carmello's 4 C's and a D. Based on what we know about the course content offered athletes at major universities like NC the letter grades are meaningless. They could represent electrical engineering or no show 1 term paper courses, we'll never know, but I'll bet against the EE. He knew he was 1 and done so why wouldn't he ask his academic advisor to put him in the easiest gaff courses in the university? This is why the whole APR thing is a crock.

 

[Dynasty]

So Cowherd attempted to "apologize" to Wall recently. Instead, he made himself sound like a bigger asshat.

http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2014/12/10/7367941/john-wall-wizards-colin-cowherd

"If you play real defense in this league, you've got character. John Wall works hard on the defensive end. He grinds people. [...] Do I think John Wall has grown up? Absolutely! Do I think he was immature when he broke into the league? Absolutely. First couple of years he was a turnover machine and couldn't shoot because he took lousy shots. Do I think he has evolved? Yes. Do I think he has matured? Absolutely! Do I think he has character? Yeah. You don't play defense like that without deeply caring about teammates. Defense is about your teammates. That is why Melo doesn't play any. Offense is about you. Defense is about caring about your teammates. John Wall plays real defense. Definitely has real character.

Was I too harsh on him? I host a radio show. I do basically 30 columns a day. But if you are looking for apologies you are off the wrong pier. I said what I mean, I mean what I say. John Wall has grown. Hopefully over five, six years, so have I."

 

[CallMeBruce]

What a choad.