Welcome to the “Screen Shots” section of The Show Notes! This is where I talk about stuff I watch. Could be TV shows. Could be movies. Could be current. Could be from the past. Who knows? I promise to always be entertaining though. If you like this, check out my show!

In this week’s episode of Beyond The Arc with Brandon Silvers (available on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube), I talked about JJ Redick’s comments about whether or not NBA fans want to be educated. Media companies, like ESPN, point to clicks as proof fans want angry debate shows, but I explain why clicks are a poor representation of what fans want.

I understand the appeal of debate shows, but ESPN used to produce shows that celebrated sports fandom. Sure, you’d have more lighthearted debate shows, like Pardon The Interruption and Around The Horn, but they were merely a slice of the programming the company offered. They also had a range of shows that, at least in my opinion, made us all better fans. Here are the top shows ESPN needs to bring back.

2 Minute Drill

Before reality TV became king, the game show was the preferred form of unscripted television entertainment. There’s nothing more pure than regular people like you and me on TV competing for the chance to win cash, prizes, or cash prizes.

2 Minute Drill had contestants going head-to-head to see who could answer the most sports trivia questions correctly in, you guessed it, 2-minute rounds. Whoever developed this show knew the key to game shows was ramping up the pressure. Clocks and competition were a great start, but not enough.

Enter celebrities and sports figures.

That’s right, contestants weren’t just answering any old sports trivia question. Longtime ESPN personality Kenny Mayne hosted, but contestants were being asked sports trivia questions by professional athletes and celebrities of varying degrees of fame.

You don’t know what pressure is until the clock is ticking down and former NFL CB Jason Sehorn is asking you who was the #1 draft pick in the 1983 NFL draft (John Elway). People at home could answer along and see how they would stack up if they were ever on the show. It was educational, entertaining, and awesome.

Stump The Schwab

Another sports trivia game show! Maybe the answer to all of our problems can be solved by sports trivia. This one had no celebrities or athletes involved. Instead, it had something even more menacing. it had Howie Schwab aka “The Schwab.”

Before we carried all the information in the world on our phones, people knew things. There was no more impressive thing to know than sports facts. Nobody was better at knowing sports facts than “The Schwab.”

Schwab began his career at ESPN as a freelance researcher who seemingly retained every piece of information he researched. The decision was made that they could no longer hide this absolute freak of nature. No, they needed to share him with the world, and thus, Stump The Schwab was born.

The late, great Stuart Scott hosted as contestants competed against The Schwab and each other with the lowest scorer in each round being eliminated until it was down to some poor soul and “The Schwab” in “The Schwab Showdown.”

The man was a machine. It didn’t matter the sport, the year the event took place, or how obscure that stat was, “The Schwab” knew it all. By my math, roughly 225 contestants attempted to stump him, but only 14 succeeded (two, Brian Sandalow and Joel Radwanski, defeated him twice).

According to this Awful Announcing interview with the legend himself, “The Schwab” would be open to making a comeback. It just so happens, I’ve been practicing for that very moment. Your move, ESPN.

SportsCentury

Before we had 30 for 30s, we had SportsCentury. Over the course of an hour, this program would put together a biography of the greatest and most interesting sports figures of our time using interviews, footage from their careers, golden hues, and the soothing voice of Chris Fowler.

While the 30 for 30s each have their own unique feel and style, every episode of SportsCentury followed the same format. It was a very serious affair, documenting the athlete’s life in chronological order, touching on the trials and tribulations of their journey.

I had no idea that the series was originally developed in 1999 as a way for ESPN to acknowledge the top 50 North American athletes of the 20th century (as determined by a panel), but this proves that you can have debates, rankings, all the stuff we love as sports fans while also educating people.

Down Low: Life in the D-League

Before the NBA sold a title sponsorship to Gatorade, its developmental league had a much more practical name: the National Basketball Development League. Since that and NBDL don’t exactly roll off the tongue, many called it simply “The D-League.”

Minor league basketball was not a new concept, but a minor league with a direct affiliation with the NBA was. Today, every NBA team has a G-League affiliate spread out all over North America. But the league launched in 2001 with 8 just franchises, all based in the southeast.

As luck would have it, one of those teams was the North Charleston Lowgators, who played minutes away from where I grew up. To say that I was a diehard basketball fan at this point would be a gross understatement, so getting to see a professional team up close and personal was the opportunity of a lifetime for me.

Up close and personal got even closer and more personal when my mom signed me up to be a ballboy. I touch on my experience a bit here in this conversation with Danny Foxworth. We also talk about the documentary series that followed that Lowgator team its entire first season of existence, Down Low: Life in the D-League.

When the average person thinks of a professional basketball player, they think of NBA stars, the glitz, the glamour. But those are the players who made it. Down Low: Life in the D-League showed what life was like for players trying to make it. They were fighting for their professional lives chasing this dream and doing so in a league that didn’t quite know what it was or what it wanted to be.

One plotline during the season was the saga of former University of Oklahoma big man Victor Avila. A native of Mexico, Avila missed extensive time because he didn’t have a work visa. The process took longer than anybody expected, but something had to be done. Everybody was fed up. Take a look at this recap from TheCubsFan.com:

That’s right. Yours truly had the kind of grasp on the immigration process you would expect from a 12-year-old. I contend that I understood it better than the average American citizen though. Knowing what I know today, I’d suggest a plan that would bring together Down Low: Life in the D-League and 90 Day Fiance.

While I struggled with his name, it’s important to note that Eduardo Najera was a little-used backup with the Mavericks at the time. This was an impressive pull on my part. You could see where my Stump The Schwab and 2 Minute Drill fandom was paying off.

I admit that it was a bit of a hot take to suddenly change my mind about Victor based on a few mid-range jumpers and blast our big men for not running the floor well, but we lost in the finals. Based on the rules of “ring culture,” I was right.

Also, let the record show that, until proven otherwise, that was the earliest documented mean-spirited, idiotic hot take in the history of ESPN. You don’t get Stephen A. Smith fat-shaming Zion without me. I’ve been doing this longer than anybody.

ESPN owes me. They never stumble upon the formula of trotting out talking heads to say ridiculous things to make people mad if not for me. All I’m asking for in return is to bring back these shows to help correct this toxic “hot take” culture we live in. Help me eradicate the plague I unknowingly unleashed upon the sports world. All I want is the chance to make things right.

Also, a boatload of money and my own TV show.