Beautiful man.

Tony Bruno and Harry Mayes reunited recently for a Sirius XM radio show which airs 3 to 6 p.m. daily on Dan Patrick’s channel. Tuesday they had on the very blunt and very frank Charles Barkley, who had some things to say about ESPN regarding the story of Michael Jordan reportedly not wanting Isiah Thomas on the 1992 Dream Team. There was apparently some confusion regarding Barkley and head coach Chuck Daly, which the former tries to clear up here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXh3YPl8lnc

You follow that, right?


This is the passage in question, from Tuesday’s ESPN story:

Old audio of Michael Jordan has surfaced in which he says he told NBA executive Rod Thorn, who was part of the USA Basketball selection committee, that he wouldn’t play on the Dream Team in 1992 if Detroit Pistons star point guard Isiah Thomas was also selected to the team.

“Rod Thorn called me, and I said, ‘Rod, I won’t play if Isiah Thomas is on the team,'” Jordan is heard telling reporter Jack McCallum in a 2011 interview, which was aired on his podcast “The Dream Team Tapes.”

“[Thorn] assured me,” Jordan is heard saying in the old interview. “He said, ‘You know what? Chuck doesn’t want Isiah. So, Isiah is not going to be part of the team.'”

Yeah, so technically what writers are supposed to do is put a full name in parentheses, within a quote, if that person has not yet been introduced in the story.

It would have cleared up the confusion if they did it this way:

“[Thorn] assured me,” Jordan is heard saying in the old interview. “He said, ‘You know what? Chuck (Daly) doesn’t want Isiah. So, Isiah is not going to be part of the team.'”

They do mention Daly by his last name later in the story, but you’re supposed to do it on the first mention. That’s why people thought Charles Barkley had the Isiah take, because they never distinguished who they were talking about. Now Barkley is pissed because people think it’s his opinion and not Chuck Daly’s opinion.