Wilbon v. Feinstein - What the Hell?

They didn't crash their cars at 2 a.m.

The story broke as a Tiger Woods in a car crash. Then it was Tiger in the hospital. Then it was...

If he checks himself into a sex addiction clinic on Dec. 21st (without the hospital and the car crash), the story is 1/10th the story it is today.

Also, Jordan never put his family in front of the camera, right? Tiger did over and over. We knew what they looked like. I still have no idea what Jordan's wife looiks like.

 

Remember that Walter Iooss book, Rare Air, that showed Jordan with his then-babies/toddlers? That was a great propaganda piece for him.

 

Didn't Jordan ban talking to SI for years because they took a picture of his kids or gave their names?

 

Jordan refused to talk to SI - and still refuses - because of their 1994 story telling him to quit baseball and that it was an embarrassing pursuit. McCallum did a story on the Bobcats last year and wrote about how Jordan still wouldn't talk to him.

 

My own personal opinion, but as a regular Sun-Times/Tribune reader, Mariotti and Telander were only in the shallow end of the Jordan ass-kissing poo, while Wilbon was under the diving board. Just my opinion.

I've always loved Wilbon, but his bashing of Michael Leahy and his brilliant coverage and book about Jordan's time in Washington, showed what a fanboy Wilbon he can be.

We've all worked with people we perceive to be homers, but going out of his way to bash Leahy was just absurd.

 

SI tried to make up for it by doing a spoof of their own "Bag it Michael" with a "Don't bad it Michael" cover later.

I'd heard that he would talk to Reilly when he was still at SI. I think Reilly did a rare feature where he traveled with the Bulls, which was the first time he talked to SI since his second stint in Chicago. I remember a couple big cover stories on him when he was in Washington, but I don't remember who wrote them or if Jordan talked to them (I think he did though...).

 

I think they were referring to their fight in the press box.

 

Screaming matches between staffers have been SOP at the Post's sports department since the early '80s at least. But taking it public is unseemly, and both John and Mike, whom I respect professionally and like personally, should have known better.

 

Jordan bet the 'under' on his marriage.

 

The house won before he could fold?

 

It lasted pretty long, all things considered. I think I remembered reading that Juanita got the biggest divorce settlement ever. I think it's been topped since then.

Didn't Jordan get remarried? I thought I read that he did, or maybe that he was engaged.

 

"Someone should give him the "Almost Famous" speech about "these guys are not your friends." Because really ... they're not."

I could be a little off on the timeline here -- and I'm not sure how relevant it is -- but I believe Wilbon and Jordan and Jordan's family all became friendly while MJ was still in school. In other words, before Wilbon was WILBON and Jordan was JORDAN.

That might explain why their relationship is a little different than Journalist A happens to like Player A much more than Player B and that's how it plays out in his work. Perhaps the original Wilbon-Jordan relationship allowed him to forge similar ties with Tiger as he gained control of the universe?

Carry on...

LW