Toughest interviews

I'll never forget this one as long as I live. I'm covering ACC basketball media day. There are maybe five reporters at a table with Ralph Sampson. We've got 15 minutes until they rotate the players to the next table. Here's how the entire conversation goes:

"Ralph, this year they've put in a shot clock and a 3-point shot. How do think that will affect your game? Do you think it might open things up a little inside?"

"I don't know."

(Long pause while we wait to see if there might be more)

"Uh, Ralph, do you like the rule changes? Do you think they'll help you?"

"I don't know."

(Pause)

"Ralph, there are a lot of expectations on your team. Do you feel you have to get to the Final Four for the season to be a success?"

"I don't know."


And that was it. We all sat there in silence for the next 14 minutes or so because we all realized there was no way Ralph wanted to be there and he wasn't going to say a damn thing other than, "I don't know."

They announce it's time to switch, and Ralph gets up, mumbles something and heads to the next table, presumably to pull the same act on someone else.

 

One of the few guys in the NFL that Marino legitimately hated.

 

Why was that, Cowbell?

 

Dunno.

A writer I know was once asking Marino about the toughest defenders he had gone against. Had nice things to say about everyone.... loved playing against Bruce Smith.

Asked about Cornelius, the notoriously milquetoast Marino spat: Fuck Cornelius Bennett.

 

Caught him with the Reds and didn't like him.

There was a time when MLB teams were hiring these grim, inarticulate managers who couldn't understand that the occasional complete sentence was part of the job: Eddie Haas, Vern Rapp, Russ Nixon. Nixon had a horseshit club, knew it was horseshit, but still went through the charade of acting like every loss just killed him.

Dick Williams went out of his way to be a prick, and he was good at it.

Tommy Lasorda was always sour after a loss, full of shit after a win.

 

I questioned Larry Brown's coaching in 1996. The Pacers were playing the Bullets and it went overtime. All of Washington's big men had fouled out, but the Pacers didn't feed to ball to Rik Smits at all, they settled for a bunch of Reggie Miller jumpers, he was off that night and the Pacers lost.

I was very young and after most of the media left, I asked Brown why Smits wasn't involved in the offense in overtime. Brown got up, closed the door to his office and went on a five-minute, profanity-laced screed basically calling me out for having the gall to question his coaching, pointing out that Smits was horseshit in regulation (he was), but failing to point out that Miller was horseshit in OT.

I just nodded and walked out.

I still have it on tape somewhere, but haven't listened to it in years. Maybe I'll lend it to Starman for spank material.

 

A local high school wrestling coach...his team loses a tough match to a county rival, reporters approach him, he says a couple of barely audible words and walks away in mid-sentence. Fun.

 

Former Mississippi State coach Richard Williams (now an assistant at UAB) refused to answer the leading statement form of non-question:

Q. "Coach, you guys got really hot in the second half..."

A. "Yeah..."

Q. "Uh, er"

I was a new reporter and actually appreciated it because it made you form a question. This is a running battle on the board, but I hate the "Talk about ..." non-question in press conferences. Williams wouldn't let you do that, and there were always guys that struggled around him.

I came to know him better after he'd left MSU and he admitted if he could do it over, he would have a better relationship with the media. He'd gotten burned (or what he perceived as burned) early in his tenure at State and never got over it.

 

I covered Albert "Joey" Belle during his high school and college career. Ditto for Will Clark as a collegian and partially as a big leaguer.
As you can imagine, we are not talking about All-Time Favorite Interviews here, both being less than cooperative, aloof, etc., etc.
So imagine when both are chosen for induction into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and we have the annual pre-induction, hour-long or so media conference for all honorees. We are all dreading it, wondering what in the hell they might say, won't say, etc.
Turns out that Belle and Clark were absolute joys to deal with, had funny anecdotes to tell, etc., etc. Totally opposite of what they were like during their careers.
But those of us who had dealt with these guys before and then during this HOF situation came to the conclusion that maybe some "mellowing" had settled in and they realized that maybe it was time to get their shit together, now that their careers were over. I don't know, does HOF honors do that even to the toughest of athletes/coaches to deal with in our profession? I am just asking.
Clark, in particular, was incredibly funny.
Have others found such athletes/coaches with abrasive personalities and all later mellowing somewhat or, at the least, given that impression (or simply bullshitting all of us into thinking they may have changed a little?).
Again, just wondering.

 

Oh, I've got a great Belle story. While working at my college rag, I finagled an Indians credential the year they opened the Jake ( Tribe playing Detroit, Tigers had a UC alum on the roster that I wrote about). Anyway, I head to the Cleveland clubhouse, cuz I'm a fanboy. Ask Belle a question, and he's a bit pissy, then asks who I am. I tell him, and he turns 180 degrees, because he's a college hoops fan and starts asking me all about U of Cincinnati hoops. Baerga got into it, too. Made my year.

 

Early in my career, I was filling in on a beat for a few months while the regular writer recovered from surgery. The basketball coach at the local school quit and they appointed an interim coach. The interim coach does a horrid job to finish the season out. A couple weeks after the season, the school announces that there are three finalists for the job, the interim coach, a hotshot assistant at one of the best hoops schools in the country and a veteran coach who for reasons still unknown to me, wanted the job.

My editor calls me and says he wants a column on why the interim coach should not get the job. I told him that I agree, but I thought there was a decent chance he would get the job and I'm not a columnist. One of our columnists was en route to Augusta and the other was on vacation and he told me if I wrote on the subject he wanted me to (I happened to agree with him.) I would have the Page 1 column the next day. I was about 23 at the time and I'd be lying if I said that didn't appeal to me on several different levels.

I write the column. I rip the interim coach. I rip the school for even considering him.

Next morning, my editor wakes me up. The good news is your column was great and we're going to let you write more of them (we had a rotation when the main columnists were off/traveling).

The bad news is the school hired the interim coach and we need you to do a takeout on him for Sunday's paper.

The coach reads part of my column during his introductory press conference. Afterwards, I asked the SID for an hour with the coach for a feature. He laughs in my face. I then walked up to the coach and asked for an hour for a feature. He stares at me for about a minute and agrees to it. The SID then whispers something in his ear and the coach looks at me.

"He just told me not to do the interview, but since you asked me yourself and I said yes, I'll honor that."

I then asked the coach what time I should meet him in his office. He says, "Right now, but first, I'm going to lunch and you're coming with me."

At lunch, people come up to him to congratulate him and about three times during the lunch he shows people the column and says, "This prick right here says I shouldn't have gotten the job."

There was a lot of that at lunch. The whole time we were there, I thought this was my hour, so I would ask him questions and he would blow them off.

We then bickered over who would pay for lunch. After about 10 minutes, I gave up and he paid.

We go back to his office and we start the interview. As I start asking questions, he pulls out scissors and cuts out my column. He cuts up Page 1, and even clips the jump. He tells me he's going to frame it.

After all this, he gives me about 10 minutes and throws me out of his office. As I'm walking to my car, I see one of the senior players who proceeds to rip the shit out of the hire and tell me how this guy holds grudges and how he was just stunned that one of the other two guys wasn't hired. He tells me a story off the record about something the coach did at his previous stop. I confirmed this on the record with a few phone calls.

Of the two other finalists, one has coached in a national title game and the other has been a coach at one of the best hoops schools in the country.