Wilbon

Is it just me, or has Mike Wilbon aged twenty years almost overnight? The guy who was once interesting, insightful, relatively young and great at his job(s) is now overly conservative, old-sounding and more or less a first rate curmudgeon. Rather than focusing on sports analysis, Wilbon spends most of his PTI time at least, ranting against things or people that are in his opinion, "a joke," "a dope," or "junk." These things include Toronto FC fans throwing streamers on the field as celebration, any player (OJ Mayo being a recent example) who appears young and brash, or really anything that doesn't fit his particular set of beliefs. He is unabashedly supportive of all teams Chicago, which isn't a bad thing. However, Wilbon takes it to the nth degree by asserting that any player or coach who is from Chicago (Candace Parker, et al) are destined to be great because of their being from Chicago. He also name drops like it's his job, particularly when it comes to NBA conversations. We all know that big time writers are well connected, they wouldn't be big time writers if they weren't. But we don't need to hear about a round of golf with Charles Barkely or eating sushi with Michael Jordan. And we especially don't need to hear about all the "hip" clubs and restaurants he goes to. You never know how riches will change a person but Wilbon appears to be an example of someone who has allowed it to go to his head and affect his ability to even remotely cover sports without biases.

Isn't it also weird that Wilbon, a married man, would talk so openly on tv about wanting to have been invited to Matt Leinart's hot tub party? Those girls weren't even of legal drinking age and are less than half of Wilbon's age. Seems so contridictory to preach about the morals and right ways to go about living in the world of sport and constantly talk about the girls he'd love to share a hot tub with.