And Coach K is usually on once or twice a year for the "5 good minutes" section, which is exactly what it sounds like: 5 minutes of Q&A with a featured guest. And Dr. Wine is absolutely right, they are always very warm and welcoming of K.
I am a decent lip reader and that is exactly what coach K said to the officials, and the repeated again to Frank Haith as he walked towards mid-court: "it sounds like the horn"
^Yeah, I'm very surprised more people aren't understanding that. When wathcing it, it was pretty obvious to me that was the reason Coach K pointed it out to the ref. Even the on-court mics picked up Coach K saying "it sounds like..." This is just another example of the 24 hour sports news cycle and these shows on ESPN needing something "controversial" to talk about to fill up a minute or two.
Kornheiser and Wilbon do a good job IMHO. I like Kornheiser a lot. He is funny to look at and funny to listen to. I don’t take his Duke digs very seriously, he cuts on everyone sooner or later, and that is his style. BTW, there are lots of worse shows on ESPN, most of which have already been named.
I listened to him on the radio in the DC area when I was stationed up there back in 1996-1999. He would often have John Feinstein on the show and they had a very good rapport together. The show made the 1 hour (15 mile) afternoon commute from Bethesda to Gaithersburg tolerable.
Kornheiser was a great features writer and general interest columnist long before he became a sports guy. He has a number of his columns collected into books http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...rds=kornheiser His columns that ran for awhile in the Washington Post about the illness and death of his father were incredibly poingnant, as was his book about he and his wife's struggles with infertility. Unlike Wilbon (who I do enjoy) he is far more than a one trick pony.
TK's original radio show was laugh-out-loud funny, and he'd go off on all these tangents about his Woody-Allen like neuroses. (His fear of flying, however, was never a joke -- it led him to jump ship at Monday Night Football).
Then he got a radio show on ESPN, and it didn't work as well. The station managers were looking for him to have star athletes on the program, which he refused to do. "Mo-rons," he said. "All they can say is, 'I gotta step it up to the next level.' What the heck does that mean?" His guests were mostly journalists and media folk who were used to speaking on the radio and TV.
PTI was a revolutionary program, in that it zipped from topic to topic so fast that you needed the scroll bar on the side of the screen. I like it, but not everyone does. Probably a generational thing. Tony and Michael, however, do have access to some of the most knowledgeable people in sports, including Coach K.
Mr. Tony now has a program from 10-12AM on ESPN 980 in the Washington area. It is far better than the adjacent programs like Mike and Mike, but not as good as the original show. I think PTI is a a big workload, and he uses three other folks as foils and to help carry the show.
sagegrouse
Tony started as a sportswriter in high school, both for the school newspaper and a county rag called The SouthShore Record. He then functioned as a sportswriter for LI's Newsday, then the NY Times, and then late in his newspaper life for what he now calls the Wall Street Post, where he also started his weekend Style columns collected in his books. Tony really knows sports, and often has understandings/perspectives that astound. Now the schtick often eclipses getting anywhere deep into the event he is discussing. However, in the course of his rants, you will hear a few words that nail it on the sweet spot; he just doesn't hang with it. Also, in case you haven't noticed, he has a photographic memory and understands and can use what he takes in. Scary smart dude.
As a good deal of the disputation regarding eidetic memory comes from an overgenerous application of the term to many occurrences of outstanding memory skills, please provide a citation or link to your assertion that Tony has photographic memory.
...
Best regards to Duke fans
Blueprofessor
Last edited by -jk; 02-19-2010 at 10:08 PM. Reason: Irrelevant material
I've known him since high school and reconnected after he moved to DC. We played golf together weekends for a year and a half twice a weekend, and used to e-mail frequently. Scared me with his recall of facts, information, words of songs, movies, books, etc. At some point one understands that there is something different going on with this person. Met only a few people like him in my life. I've lived with two such people, one all his life and the other who gave him life. I consider myself an expert.
Last edited by greybeard; 02-19-2010 at 11:30 PM.
I really like Tony Kornheiser, and I fully believe that he has an outstanding memory. Mike Wilbon, on the other hand, is not at all on Tony's level. His comment about Coach K was thoughtless, and saying that they should hand out conchs at the game was stupid.
Missed it.
Tony reads or hears it, he owns it. Extraordinary. Serves him tremendously in his professions, even as a yodeler.
Never met Wilbon. Think he writes wonderfully, and is tremendously quick and entertaining on PTI. Big time talent, who seems to bring out the best in people. Certainly the case with T. Everybidy screws the pooch sometimes.
It was not weak. As BD80 stated, the conch was incredibly loud and resembled the same deep tone a scorer's table horn makes. Yes, when players are shooting free throws or even during mid-game, this kind of inadvertent sound could disrupt a contest.
Also as stated above, artificial noise such as "conches," whistles, air horns or thunder sticks are not allowed in college basketball arenas.
Coach K did nothing weak here. He was following protocol.
I wonder why the officials or for that matter, Coach Haith, didn't take care of this to begin with? Why did they allow it to go on until Coach K said something?
Bump.
Kornheiser suspended from PTI for 2 weeks for remarks made on his radio show regarding a female Sportscenter anchor's wardrobe. Anybody know what exactly was said?
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=4939740