At this point, Pat McAfee has become well-known for not only putting his foot in his mouth but also kind of, sort of antagonizing his own employer, ESPN. On his program, The Pat McAfee Show, it’s the worst of both worlds.
McAfee seemingly continued these bizarre antics during a weird interview with NBA reporter Shams Charania on his show Thursday.
After the Los Angeles Lakers officially fell out of the Dan Hurley sweepstakes, McAfee had Charania on (again) to discuss the latest in L.A.’s coaching search. As Charania bragged about staying consistent in his reporting about the situation — namely, the suggestion that Mr. “Ethical Scorer” JJ Redick was the favorite for the Lakers’ job all along — there was no pushback from McAfee.
None whatsoever, even though it sure felt like Charania was taking a shot at fellow NBA scoop master Adrian Wojnarowski, who had the Hurley revelation first. You know, the very same Wojnarowski who is McAfee’s teammate at ESPN. In fact, McAfee made the awkward decision of actually praising Charania on air after only the slightest, vague referral to saying he’s “Completely OK with other NBA guys being our [ESPN’s] guy.”
This was certainly a choice:
Shams Charania takes a victory lap on ESPN after new reports from Woj listing JJ Redick as a top Lakers HC candidate.
Then Pat McAfee comes in:
"Shams is our NBA guy. Completely OK with other NBA guys being our guy, but Shams has been our guy for literally half a decade." pic.twitter.com/eBtZokq2s3
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 13, 2024
I’m not going to pretend to know what’s going on behind the scenes at ESPN. But I can’t imagine the higher-ups were happy to see this apparent Wojnarowski slight enabled by McAfee … live on one of their shows.
After everything, it’s so odd but completely unsurprising to see McAfee essentially feed this NBA scoop reporter beef.
Featured image courtesy of The Pat McAfee Show