Michael Wilbon has never been one to hold back when it comes to criticizing the media industry, and in a brutally honest conversation with Bobby Burack of OutKick, the veteran broadcaster lit into ESPN and the broader sports media world for what he called shameless pandering over its coverage of Bronny James.
While others have danced around the issue, Wilbon delivered his unfiltered take, calling the incessant Bronny discourse a “disaster waiting to happen.”
“Look, I am a father, too. Let me let you in on some inside baseball, Bobby. And you probably know this. But “PTI” did not talk about Bronny. We never did. All the Bronny talk that our network did was pandering. It was for clicks and eyeballs. I refused to participate.”
“You can go back and look, “PTI” didn’t cover him, except for maybe the real news, like the day after he was drafted. Those other shows, it was every day. Bronny. Bronny. Bronny. What the hell is this? It was a disaster waiting to happen.”
“I have a 17-year-old son, so this matters to me. I am particularly sensitive to it. I’d do anything for my kid, and I would hug LeBron for what he did for his kid.”
“I am a father first. That’s how I see this story—not as a columnist or a talking head–but as a father first. So, I get what LeBron did. And LeBron has also been great to my kid.”
“But as far as coverage, no. There were shows that talked about Bronny every day. You know what shows I’m talking about. I don’t care if my bosses get mad. They would try to get Tony and me to talk about it. No, we were not going to do it.”
For Wilbon, who co-hosts Pardon the Interruption, this wasn’t just a professional stance—it was personal. As the father of a 17-year-old son himself, he expressed deep empathy for LeBron James and the way he’s supported his son. But that empathy doesn’t extend to how sports media has covered Bronny’s journey.
The criticism stings even more coming from inside ESPN’s own walls. Wilbon made it clear that while “PTI” might exist within the ESPN ecosystem, he and Kornheiser set their own standards. And those standards didn’t include turning Bronny James into a daily storyline while MVP candidates like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander were being ignored.
“That’s right. I didn’t even think about that. It’s true. They talked about him more than Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. That’s pandering. It’s all pandering.”
“Let me be clear: our business is a piece of shit a lot of days.”
“There is nobody enforcing standards or having tough conversations. This is what happens when you no longer have functioning newsrooms, because everyone is working from hotel rooms, from their bedrooms, and maybe even from their beds.”
“People are not in newsrooms anymore or a studio, where you can call them out on their bulls**t. That’s a problem.”
“Instead, there are a bunch of 20-year-olds pitching stories while spending all day on social media and reinforcing each other’s bulls**t. It’s 100% pandering, and I hate it. You know this, Bobby. You see it.”
“But again, I was not critical of LeBron as a dad, at all. I feel differently about this than most. I get it. However, Tony and I didn’t need to talk about it publicly. Tony understands it too. His son, Michael, works for him. But we aren’t talking about Bronny every day. Hell no.”
“This isn’t about Stephen A. It’s the entire industry. That’s what I want to remind LeBron.”
“Our business is just s**t some days. It just is.”
Wilbon made sure to separate the media’s actions from LeBron’s intent. He didn’t criticize the elder James, whom he praised as a father and a figure of major influence. What Wilbon refused to do, however, was indulge the media circus surrounding Bronny.
In a time when narratives often matter more than nuance, Wilbon’s honesty serves as a rare moment of clarity. It wasn’t just a rant—it was a father, a journalist, and a veteran of the media business drawing a line in the sand.
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