WHERE'S WILBON?: I thought I was lucky getting three weeks of vacation at my job, but I've got nothing on Michael Wilbon- apparently the noted sportswriter has gotten the entire month of July off from both of his employers, ESPN and the Washington Post. His last Post column ran on June 26; and he hasn't assumed his chair on "Pardon the Interruption" since a few days after that.
In his stead, on the real best damn sports show period, we first had a week of Tony Kornheiser and various co-hosts, then one of Tony and Norman Chad, then yet another week of both hosts out (and replaced by surprisingly funny NBA reporter David Aldridge and WCCO legend Michelle Tafoya). This week it's TK and Chad again. I don't mind the other people, but Norman Chad really drags the quality of the program down- he's not funny, and not particularly knowledgable about any sort of wide range of sports. But I do appreciate that, in his short-lived 1996 ESPN.com (actually ESPNET Sportszone) column, Chad included a letter from me, in which I made the wildly inaccurate prediction that Barry Switzer would be fired as coach of the Dallas Cowboys and replaced by John Madden.
Wilbon's perspective has been missed, on issues from the Kobe Bryant case, to the Sprewell trade, to the Pete Rose pseudo-trial, to the whole "hunting bambi" fiasco. So get back soon Mike- and in the meantime, why not give StatBoy a shot at the co-host's chair?