Any analyst in the sports industry can sometimes get a text or a call from a player or coach to talk out why they disagreed with something said on air. For ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas, that was the case for him back in February when he criticized Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim for comments made about Jalen Johnson leaving Duke during the season to get ready for the NBA Draft.
“That guy was hurting them so they actually are much better now without him,” Boeheim said at the time on his local radio show. “He was just doing some things and keeping other people from playing that are good.”
Bilas was all over ESPN to voice his disagreement and displeasure with the comments.
This week, on the Sports? With Katie Nolan podcast, Bilas talked about how he deals with criticism of his comments when it comes from other coaches, including Boeheim (who recruited him back in high school). He said that he learned a great trick from CBS’s Bill Raftery.
“I always use a line that Bill Raftery used years ago when someone would complain, he would say ‘I must have missed all your thank you notes for the good stuff’ and he would just diffuse everything.”
For Bilas, he is never worried about getting criticism. He told Nolan that he accepts that if he will listen to compliments, he has to do the same when someone has something less than flattering to say about his opinion. He says the key is knowing that not every critique is right and you don’t always have to think your critic is right.
“What I try to do is the first question I ask myself was the criticism right and was it reasonable? If it is right, I need to act on it. If it is reasonable, I need to consider it. If it is unreasonable and wrong, I dismiss it and I don’t worry about it,” Bilas said.
Nolan complimented Bilas, saying that she appreciates that he doesn’t rely on hot takes to create content. Bilas explained that his goal is to be fair and honest. Relying on bluster to create content is not something he ever wants to feel like he has to do.
“I don’t need to rave about something because I am going to have the opportunity to talk about something similar tomorrow or the next day. We get a lot of reps at our job.”