Let's do a media survey/poll

Did I say this was for a story?

No.

 

Most polite: Vernon Gholston and Tony Richardson (tie)
Most difficult to understand: Zdeno Chara
Tallest: Zdeno Chara
Most coachspeak: College hockey players
Most open and easy going: College lacrosse players

 

Nicest: Paul Byrd

Funniest: Vermont coach Tom Brennan; Bob Knight had his moments, too.

Oddest: Charlie Coles (in a good way) or Mike Leach

Frendliest: Bill Self or, believe it or not, Charlie Manuel. Many college baseball players could go here too.

Surliest: Albert Pujols pregame, Augie Garrido after a loss.

Biggest dick: Ben Howland

Most difficult to understand: Tony Pena

Best quote: Honest to god, a high school kid I covered my first year in sportswriting. He was amazing.

Worst quote: I covered college football for a while. Take your pick.

 

Shaggy's right on Paul Byrd. Archie Manning, former Saints teammate Jim Wilks live in the same neighborhood.

We'll agree to disagree on Bob Knight. He's about as funny as Mussolini on a bender in Boys Town.

Thread starter mrbio is right on Joey Belle.

(Albert? Uh, yeah, whatever dude.)

I'll add this category:

Biggest tool box: Ditka, Mike.

It's a freakin' Home Depot.

Good call, Bumpy McGee.

 

Knight did make the monotonous bore of press conferences--particularly in the postseason when there were a lot of them--entertaining at least with his arrogance.

I'll never forget a young kid asking after a win how so and so was motivated to get more rebounds, and Knight deadpanned that the coaching staff unanimously agreed to shoot the player if he failed to grab more boards in that game. The kid wasn't sure if he was serious.

I would never want to deal with him day to day, but his pressers were a relieving dose of humor in an otherwise boring aspect of the job.

 

Nicest — Sean Elliott

 

Nicest -- Jim Larranaga
Classiest -- Jim Larranaga
Most polite -- Jim Larranaga
Most sincere -- Jim Larranaga
Most inspiring -- Jim Larranaga
Best quote -- Jim Larranaga
Most honest -- Jim Larranaga

 

Most intelligent: Good call on McEnroe.

Coolest: Chad Johnson. This was pre Ochocinco when he was better liked than he is now. I talked to him for an hour and it seemed like 10 minutes. I asked him about how he goes into every opposing team conference call with a script that barely changes week-to-week and he said, "Yeah, and you guys have been falling for it for about five years."

Funniest: Barkley.

Oddest: Barry Bonds. I got extremely lucky and got Bonds to talk with me for about 10-15 minutes. I was wearing a college World Series T-shirt and he said, "Hey, I played in that." and somehow we started talking about Oddibe McDowell and Dave Magadan. It was very, very strange.

Biggest asshole: Jeff Kent, Hal Mumme, Bill Snyder, Tom Asbury.

 

After covering the Bill Belichick years with the Browns, I can honestly say I've never despised anyone on a professional basis more than him. After the last home game in 1994, as Browns fans are in a near riot and the players are crying, Belichick was asked about his emotions. "I was just trying to win the game." Fucking moron, you're 5-11.

 

Agreed

When I covered the CAA it was great with personalities like Lefty and Sonny at media day.

 

The ACC's gain, then. And Frank Haith didn't exactly come across as awful.

As for Paul Hewitt, he's a fairly standup guy, though one incident in Raleigh didn't help. Julius Hodge completed an old-fashioned three-point play to beat Georgia Tech. He was asked about the play in the postgame presser and he quickly responded with "I haven't seen the tape" three times, probably trying not go into full meltdown at the presser.

FWIW, I had gotten word that Hewitt made a point to find out who had asked the question and apologized over the phone from Atlanta.

As for Jim Larranaga, I know that one year when George Mason was in Durham, a sideline reporter got him just before he ducked into the locker room at intermission (it was either Larranaga or one of Mike Krzyzewski's assistants, after all). Larranaga gave such an analytical, complete, honest answer to the question that when the talking heads sent viewers back to the Bristol studios, the talking heads there were visibly and verbally stunned at Larranaga's answers.

Could be a lot of fun in Coral Gables.

 

Lee Roy Selmon was probably the nicest guy I dealt with professionally, and I met quite a few after him. Doug Williams was a pretty nice guy when I dealt with him; obviously dating myself.

John McKay was certainly interesting, but so bipolar.