The only anchors I like now are Van Pelt, Anderson, and Flores.

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I don't get that. He never seemed genuine. Homewood-Flossmoor meet "hip hop" from a safe distance....but he did it well.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

I don't think I looked at him like he was "street" or anything like that. It was kinda cool as a kid to hear someone deliver sporting news using rap lyrics and using phrases that I was using at the time. I personally don't think I realized how he changed things. He paved the way for a lot of blacks that are on television today and he made "us" feel like we were a part of it.

Hearing some of the tributes made me appreciate him more. The man would memorize his lines for the night because he was afraid his vision may go out while reading the prompter. That's dedication.

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Right. I would credit him with bringing a mainstream white understanding of what a black perspective should be to ESPN, but that's about it. Nevertheless, he was talented and seemed like a nice guy.

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I have often had similar thoughts.

I find that my enjoyment of sports is inversely proportional to the amount of time I spend listening to sports talk radio. The less I listen, the more satisfying I find a given contest or season.

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There is a sweet spot of casual interest with being a sports fan.

When you follow it fanatically, everyone is going to sound dumb or repetitive because you've heard everything they're saying before. It's easy to become cynical (not Sini-cal)

I respect the career Stuart Scott made for himself. I respect how hard he is said to have worked. I respect how good a guy he apparently was. I wanted him to succeed, but back then I wanted anyone new on ESPN to succeed, the old guys were then getting really old. Even Olbermann & the Great Dan Patrick.

I just never liked him. I thought he ultimately was contrived, pandering and at his worst minstrel-y. But then again, I thought the same things around the same time about that jackass Tupac. I never have really shared those opinions before, out of respect... to Stuart Scott. As far as the tributes go, ESPN lost all credibility with me when they beatified Jim Valvano (cheating scuzzy bastard that he was). I really stopped expecting much from that group when they made him a sports elder & all around good guy.

As for his paving the way, I disagree. Bryant & Greg Gumbel, Tom Jackson, Irv Cross, Fred Hickman and countless others were there well before Stuart Scott joined the tiring & on it's last edgy leg frat house that was ESPN.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

Those guys were conventional though. Stuart brought the suburbs to the hood even after being threatened with termination.

I'm surprised you didn't like 2pac.

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Be well

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Minutes after I posted this, they're playing a "Texas Sized" version of Beer Pong on ESPNU.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

I've never cared for the suburbs.

I hated Tupac. He was a hell of an entertainer, but a fraud, a pussy & a jackass.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

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i know i've talked to you about this before because there was a thread some time ago that i said i thought the whole V foundation and all that seemed forced and phony for some reason...it never set well with me. i remember you saying i was in the right for thinking that but i can't remember what you said he did that made you feel that way. and when or if this guy will ever be properly identified as a cheat? i know it can't happen now because the V foundation has its heart in the right place...just not its central figure i guess.

The entirety of ESPN is very creepy and has been for a long long time. They'll do anything for a buck, and I mean anything. Exploit dying cancer people? Great! Where can we get more of it?

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

I'm with you on Tupac. Digital Underground introduced him with Same Song. Digital Underground was not exactly gangster rap. Tupac piggybacked off the success of other West Coast rap groups. The irony of it all was that while he was screaming west coast he actually hailed from Baltimore. In terms of being street I never considered him to be particularly street. Ironically Biggie Smalls rap lyrics were more authentically street. Biggie Smalls became identified with champagne and parties but his other stuff was far more credible than the stuff Tupac was spewing.

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I never thought 2pac was trying to glorify the streets. Similar to Scarface I always thought that he used street tales as a means of getting his audience to listen so he can deliver a bigger message. It was a great sales job. I believe that if he were alive he would have done some good with the power he was given.

This video is kind of long but it gives you an idea of what spaces vision was even at 20-21.

Watch "UNHEARD Tupac phone conversation with Sanyika Sha…" on YouTube
UNHEARD Tupac phone conversation with Sanyika Sha…: http://youtu.be/BO0mI5AbTc4

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He actually did try and glorify street life. I actually didn't have a problem with that. I just never found it to be authentically him. He had a tattoo which said "Thug Life". How was he not trying to glorify it with a tattoo like that? He is the person from that era who is most identified with that lifestyle.

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I never found his street tales to be authentic. He began touting West Coast affiliations that he never really had. I never found his music to be a true depiction of ghetto life. It wasn't gritty enough for me and on some level he attempted to romanticize a lifestyle that he was only superficially familiar with.

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We're talking about Tupac and not Stuart Scott here, right?

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As I said he used street tales to try to deliver a bigger message. He never said he sold drugs or shot someone. If he would have led with the positive message no one would have listened. Because he had the ears of the street he was able to deliver some power messages. Some listened and others didn't. His lyrics and Scarface lyrics were far different from Biggie's whose only message was about the spoils of the street life.

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Yes. Stuart Scott was far removed from this lifestyle and it's no knock on him. There is a bit of revisionism going on now with respect to him. I dont remember his sportscasts to be particularly polarizing. I actually thought of him as a token black guy doing sports.

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It wasn't a true depiction? Wow! I was still a kid then and EVERYTHING he raped about I either saw or heard about. That's why the streets loved him.

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The people who were there did. All of them aren't lying. Listen to what Keith Olbermann said.

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Watching Deadspin glorify a guy once thought to be among ESPN's more annoying personalities because he "brought the sensibilities of the black church" to narrating football highlights has been pretty cringe-y. Like you said, I don't think he was ever polarizing, per se, just more of the "sigh, this shit again" that Berman and Patrick and all the other tired Booyah guys all got.

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As I said he used street tales to try to deliver a bigger message. He never said he sold drugs or shot someone. If he would have led with the positive message no one would have listened. Because he had the ears of the street he was able to deliver some power messages. Some listened and others didn't. His lyrics and Scarface lyrics were far different from Biggie's whose only message was about the spoils of the street life.[/quote

In Bomb First, Hit Em Up, and 2 of America Most Wanted he spoke about shooting people and drugs.
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He came across to me as the black alternative to Chris Berman. That is how I remembered him in the beginning.

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Just because he got hate mail does not mean he was polarizing. There are racists and bigots in this world that will write stuff regardless. Mike Greenberg has talked about how he has received anti semi tic hate mail. He says it occurs on a daily basis. Is he polarizing? I don't recall there ever being a movement to get Stuart Scott off ESPN.

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He was like the anti-Craig Kilborn. which is a positive I guess.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Olbermann told a story about how an executive told Scott to can it with the hip-hop references that nobody got, or else, so he passive-aggressively wrote a column about how gracious his bosses had been to let him use the language of the black church in his copy, and then Olbermann piped up to say that no one was telling him to stop making office-politics references that nobody got.

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It was a sales job. People will listen to people that they can relate to or understands them before they listen to anyone else. He appeared to understand that. Even in the songs that you believe is glorifying street life he's delivering positive messages. I still listen to all of his music. There is still a lot of truth to it 20+ years later. I would suggest that you listen to the link I shared earlier in the thread but it's unlikely we are going to agree on this.

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"Keep Your Head Up" is an exceedingly good song. I liked "Waterfalls" and "Too Hot," too. There were a ton of great rap/R&B songs in the '90s about not being an asshole and not getting AIDS.

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