We got an email out of the blue, asking us if we'd like to speak with the one and only Michelle Beadle, who has been covering sports (and her beloved San Antonio Spurs) as a reporter and host for decades. You may recognize her from being on ESPN, NBC, HBO or a random Spurs game, but Michelle spoke to us about her new show for FanDuel TV called "Run It Back." The show airs live Monday through Wednesday at 10am EST and goes up on YouTube if you didn't catch it in the morning.
I've been following Michelle's work for years, and I was personally very excited to be able to talk to her briefly, as "SportsNation" was one of my favorite shows ESPN ever produced. Here's a clip of her on that show if you want to get a sense of just how creative and fun Michelle's shows truly are.
This interview has been lightly edited.
Michelle Beadle: Hello! How are you?
Digg Editor Jared Russo: Hello! I'm great. I mean, I'm getting over a cold.
MB: Oh, wait, where do you live?
JR: I am in the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
MB: Okay, well, I won't say anything. I'm jealous. Go on. Hope your cold gets better [both laugh].
JR: Yeah, it was one of those that just came out of nowhere. Just like yesterday. I was like, sneezing I was like, “oh my god, I have a cold?”
MB: I know. And then you're like “This better not be COVID I swear to God.”
JR: No, no, thankfully it’s not, just a regular cold.
MB: We get those again. Yeah, okay. Ah, yeah, I feel better.
JR: Thank you. So the first thing I need to know is how in the world did you end up talking with [legendary NBA reporter] Shams and [former NBA player] Chandler Parsons on an almost daily basis, like, that kind of came out of nowhere. I was just like, “Oh, Michelle Beadle. She's back.” My YouTube algorithm showed me now she's on a show called “Run It Back.”
MB: It's totally random. It's the most rare, like — yeah, if you were gonna put a team of people together, I feel like that would have never happened. But yeah, Shams is, as we all know, the information fountain these days. So he's a no-brainer. Like, he's building an empire of his own right now, which is awesome. And so we'd had a few discussions, he and I privately, we're like, “Oh, yeah, I want to do it.” So I wanted to do it. I knew that and I agreed to do it.
Actually, before I even knew that Chandler and [co-host] Eddie Gonzalez were on board as well, which had been just a pleasant surprise after the fact. Like I [was] obviously very familiar with who Chandler Parsons was, and is, and he has not disappointed, to say the least. Eddie was new to me. Now, I obviously have, like, watched [the ETC podcasts] with him and Kevin Durant and all that. And I talked to him three days a week, and he is a just a basketball diehard. I mean, he his knowledge is seriously ridiculous.
So it's just a good random group. I like calling it a good random group of people to sort of hang out with for a few hours a week. And I love it. I love it. Because Shams brings the knowledge and, like, the input, he's very serious. And then the other two are not, so it's a good combination.
JR: Do you get Sham bombs early? Like, hey, guess who's getting traded tomorrow?
MB: No! That's the thing. I will not get those things. And we're just like, Bro, we — like we'll get off the air, and four minutes later, there'll be a tweet about something. I'm like, "Are you serious right now? You couldn't just give us a five minute heads up?" Like, I swear. And if it's something Spurs-related, I'm gonna kill him. I'm like, How do I — who are you talking to here?
That's the beauty of that whole world of insiders. Like, I will never truly understand the inner workings of how they get their stuff. It is quite fascinating. I guess none of us ever will. But it's fun to watch.
JR: I guess you don't want to play a game of telephone because like, he says something to you. And you text Coach Pop and Coach says “We’re trading who?” And it just becomes a whole thing…
MB: Oh, God, no. I don't want any part of that drama. I had zero that — that would make my life just not fun. And I don't want it.
JR: That makes sense. Do you have, like, a really good working relationship with Coach Pop still? Like do you like hit him up every once in a while? “Hey, did you see that movie?”
MB: That's the funny thing is, when I see it, because I do about half the games here in San Antonio and on the road. So I see him, like I saw him last night — I love it because he would rather talk about not basketball, and like, I get that sometimes. For a lot of us, this is work. It's great work and it's fun work and it's something we'd be watching anyways. But it's also work, and sometimes you just, there are other things we all have enjoyment in, and restaurants, and food.
So that's the thing — like, last time he quizzed me on where I've been eating here in town, which is a lot of pressure, and I don't have the heart to tell him that, like, Pop, I'm lazy when I'm at home alone. I'll eat like crackers and cheese and go to bed. So I have to come up with restaurants on the spot, and then I name — I mean, he's got a couple restaurants here that he's sort of involved with that are obviously fantastic. So you're just always, like, trying to make sure that you give him a good answer, because I don't you don't want Pop to be disappointed. That's a bad feeling.
JR: He has that father-figure, teacher-like thing where I don't want to make this man angry.
MB: I never want to make him angry, ever.
JR: I also don't know how I feel about getting randomly quizzed.
MB: I know, it's like, ah, Chipotle, I don't know. I don't know where I'm eating. Forget it.
JR: So you work with FanDuell TV. Do you play fantasy sports or do you gamble or is that like against the rules?
MB: No, not against the rules but against the rules in Texas, which you know, don't get me started, but hopefully before I die. No, I do, I gamble. I gamble when I go to Vegas a little bit, I'm — when we did the show or when they came to us about the show my my first question was like, do they know I'm not a gambler per se? Like I don't — I'm not an expert. I can't even tell you what straight face that I truly understand all of the lingo. I'm learning it as, like — and they were like, No, that's 100%. Okay, it's the shows about basketball. We do like a three-leg parlay at the end of every show, which has become now just a comedy routine, because we're all three really bad at it. But yeah, they knew that which made me very comfortable in saying yes, because you know, if they were like, we need an expert, I was not going to be the one.
But I like it. It's funny because I I've now learned a lot more than I obviously knew at the beginning of the season. And I'm watching people make these like crazy $15 parlays that turned into like, $65,000 and it's just, I'm, I'm blown away by opportunities. I get it now. I cannot wait till I live in a state where I get to do it.
JR: Yeah, the ads here are there plastered everywhere, like the new Moynihan station. I'm in New York, for anyone reading or listening. Caesars with JB smooth just plastered everywhere, everywhere.
MB: Everywhere! Yeah, yeah, because guess what, I don't know if any people know this. Money is not a problem for these guys. At all. So they've got the resources.
JR: Yeah, it's also fun to see on Twitter, people who send screenshots of “I had this Jokic 40 point, triple double. And I bet $10 and I won this much.” It blows my mind.
MB: I love it. It's like oxygen for me to watch. Because it's like, I'm sure I'm jealous. But I'm also just in awe. First of all, the idea that you put like seven of these ideas together and then put 50 bucks on it. And now here you are — $100,000. I'm like, That's awesome. It's the American dream.
JR: When clicking completely unrelated things together watching the whole night and just hoping that they all sort of hit back-to-back.
MB: That's the kind of gambling I think I like. I like the sort of randomness of that. That's wild.
JR: Another thing I wanted to add, I've always wanted to ask you this. There was a story that Colin Cowherd told about SportsNation — which I love. I love SportsNation.
MB: Oh, thanks.
JR: Within 10 seconds of meeting you, he was like, “Hey, you have the job. Just don't even worry about this interview.” I was like, There's no way he hired you within 10 seconds. Is that true?
MB: Well, it was I was the last one to go in. And now mind you, at this point, I've been auditioning for jobs and been told no 1,000 times. So I went into this one just like, whatever, who wants to get told no again? And we had they had such makeshift game ideas for us to kind of do as our as our audition, and we have like a chalkboard, or a blackboard. And it was ridiculous, right? Which SportsNation ultimately ended up being in good ways.
So yeah, I remember him, like sort of leaning over and saying that. But then again, I remember this is a business, where people tell you all kinds of things you want to hear, and you realize quickly, like, that was that was BS. And it turned out it was true. The funny thing is I almost blew it because they were the boss at the time. John Walsh was like, I want you to write a list of I think 10 things that you would do to improve SportsNation. Well, okay, but SportsNation wasn't a real show yet. So I didn't understand the assignment. So I took it sarcastically, and I responded sarcastically, and literally had the producers come back to me and be like, “No, this was a real assignment. We need you to do that for real.”
So they actually gave me the heads up to do it again. I was like, “Oh my god, I'm so sorry.” So yeah, but we got it. But yeah, it was it was a good audition. It was a good group from the start. Just very easy to fit in. And I'll say this, I've said it all along — it was Colin's show that was his show. And for him to sort of allow me to come in there and ultimately, kind of be more equals than anything, was — that's a big thing. That's a big thing for him. Because I know a lot of people wouldn't have been able to do that they wouldn't their egos wouldn't allow it. So I will always say that about Colin Cowherd. [When] people want to say bad things? I'm like, “No, listen here. It's not that guy.”
JR: It was so wild just to see a show or someone wanted to be like a 70s game show host. Like, have fun. PTI [Pardon the Interruption] does that, where like they wear the fake masks, props… I loved it.
MB: A little stick mic, the tiny little mic, I loved it. Well, I loved it, because we weren't… not every executive at ESPN was like in love with the idea of SportsNation, which ultimately is probably why I'm like, Man, I'm glad we got to do it. They genuinely left us alone. And it was like, do whatever you want. And it works great. That was a freedom that in hindsight, especially then having spent many many years at ESPN after that, that's not a freedom that exists very often. So I am grateful for that.
JR: I would be remiss if I didn't ask about the NBA and trade deadline stuff.
MB: Oh man…
JR: Are you just going with the flow and just, whatever happens?
MB: I’m like, getting impatient. I know that the most drama is going to be in the final 24 hours, and I know that there's a lot of talking going on, but I have the attention span of a gnat. Just like everybody else, I want constant stimulation. Where are we? Where's Jae Crowder gonna go? Like, he's been sitting out for so long. What does it even look like right now? I know John Collins has been teased for years — I thought the other day, I was like, Oh, where does he go? Myles Turner. We've talked about him and then he signs this huge extension. The NBA is drunk this season. And I love every second of it. You know, here in San Antonio Jakob Poeltl has been teased as a trade guy for now a couple seasons, is he leaving?
That's the sad part of the business, because you don't want to see people leave that you like, but it's the business side. I don't know. I feel like I'm gonna be like everyone else come Wednesday into Thursday. Like, what's happening? And so many teams are are seemingly a piece away from some pretty big changes.
JR: "Everyone's a piece away."
MB: A piece away. Some, multiple pieces away. Like nine.
JR: Yeah, every day I read “Cam Reddish is leaving the Knicks” and I'm just like, “Is he going? Where’s he going?”
MB: Yeah, we're getting — "What? Where's — who's coming here?" I know. It's frustrating. I always — we had Nazr Mohammad on last night as one of our guests during the game. And, you know, he had a couple good trades, and one of them going from the Knicks to the Spurs when the Spurs won. And I was like, “What's it like to be a player leading up to a possible trade?” Like, he was so honest, honestly, I was pissed because you're basically being told you're not wanted by your town, by your team, by the people. I'm like — that's how I would feel, I think. It's kind of be nerve-wracking, plus the whole change, I gotta get all my stuff and move. Like, just a lot of unknowns in about three days.
JR: Yeah, I'm trying to remember, I think Shaq, when he went to another team, and he just went to a Walmart and just bought like $50,000 worth of stuff for his house. And the credit card company called — “Hey, are you buying stuff at Walmart?” He's like, “Yeah, yeah, I have things for my new house.”
MB: Yeah. By the way, that's the dream, too — just leave everything and start over fresh.
JR: Just walk into a Walmart and just go “I want that that bed, I want those pots and pans…”
MB: [Laughs] That’s done, it’s perfect.
JR: Do you have a Finals prediction?
MB: My boring prediction is Warriors–Celtics. I think the Warriors about to do Warriors things. But my hope is that we get like, like a Nuggets–Cavs… well, Cavs have kind of fallen off at this point. So that's probably not going to happen. And it might still be the Celtics on the east, but I wouldn't mind two fresh teams, I wouldn't mind seeing Jokic… like it's one thing to get MVP awards, and there's no disputing how fantastic he is. But it certainly would do a lot for the argument moving forward to make it to a Finals and possibly win a Finals. So if Memphis could pull off the unlikely. Oh, I would love, I would love that unlikely — for them to make it, but they've pissed off the whole league with their arrogance. And I'm here for all of it. I love it.
JR: It wouldn't be fun to see Jokic and Embiid go up against each other in the Finals. That would be drama.
MB: I wouldn't hate that. I would not hate that. All right, Denver, Philly. Two good cities, I'm in.
JR: Do you have a Super Bowl prediction? Speaking of Philly.
MB: I personally I do not like either team. But it's only because I have people in my life who I do not care for anymore who love both teams, and I want them all to be miserable. Okay, let's just put that out there right now.
JR: That’s fair.
MB: But I like the idea of Patrick Mahomes being the next possible Tom Brady — because if not, we're going to be stuck with Tom Brady on this mountain by himself for a really long time. So I need Mahomes to speed up the train and start getting these rings so we can have at least a conversation with somebody else.
JR: That makes sense. Is there, in San Antonio, like, summoning circles and sacrifices to get Winless for Wemby? Is there like a city wide thing? Like, “We need to get Victor Wembanyama to come to this team?”
MB: I think, like — I think the fans are obvious. I mean, we're obviously fully aware of what's coming, possibly, what could happen for some team in the NBA. But you know, what's crazy is that the games are still fun here. I mean, I know, I know what the record is. But I also have seen all of the games. And I know how hard they fight, and they've been in so many of them, up until the last four or five minutes of each game.
And it's crazy, the fans, like, they love them. I mean, Jeremy Sochan comes into this town, and just, he's — for every reason he is my favorite. I haven't seen a kid like that in a while who doesn't give a damn, not disrespectfully. Just because he's so comfortable in his own skin. I've not seen it.
JR: One-handed free throws…
MB: Yeah! And Pop loves him. If you watch them just on their own, it's just such a, like, a hand around [the shoulder] just walking around. I'm like, “I love this for them.” So it's cool. It's like, the fans get it. It's like, sure, we're not winning the championship this year. The record is not great. But they're at the games. They're cheering them on. They love them. And I guess somewhere above us, we sort of are also like, what's going to happen in the next few months? Like, it could be franchise-changing. It could be Tim Duncan all over again. And we know how that ended up, so it wouldn't be bad.
JR: I think for fantasy basketball, the most fun players to have are the Spurs players, just because they put up great stats and they're, like, young, and you want to root for them. You want to root for Tre Jones and Keldon Johnson. You want to root for everyone, and it's like, someone's got to get those fantasy points. Why not Jeremy Sochan?
MB: Yeah, they're so lovable there. And again, I've said this — I've been a part of bad teams where the team was not even very lovable, so it sort of made for a long miserable season, and we don't feel like that. I mean, we were calling these games, like, I'm having a blast. Yeah, it sucks, like, nobody wants to lose, I don't want to see these kids lose because I, you know, it weighs on them at some point. That's not fun. But I don't know, there's something about it that they're just in it, and they're fighting, and I respect it and I like it.
JR: There isn't drama — there aren't, like, horrible — it's not like OKC, like we're just gonna put anyone out in the street onto the court. It feels like there's something going on there.
MB: Yeah, they've earned it. The Spurs as a franchise has earned enough equity. I think in the books of sports fans, I think they know what they're doing. And we put all of our faith and loyalty in that, and time will tell, we shall see. But yeah, this draft coming up. That's gonna be insane. Insane.
JR: Sometimes you want to root for certain teams, like it was here: “Zion, come to New York!” and it didn't happen. But like, I don't know what everyone on Twitter feels like we need to root for, because we just kind of want to see what happens with Scoot and the twins.
MB: Yeah, I don’t know. It's a great point. Like, I don't know who's rooting for who to get what. I mean, I obviously don't care, because I want them to get here [points down to San Antonio]. I want everything good here. But yeah, I don't know who we're rooting against. I'm sure we're rooting against someone collectively. I just don't know who unless it's the Spurs, and no one's told me, which could be possible.
JR: No, no. Usually like when Cleveland gets the number one pick. Everyone's like, “Again?”
MB: “Boring.” Yeah, you're right, right. Yeah, Oklahoma City. I feel like although they played the game, that was — the whole point wasn't to cumulate all those, the stash of picks and then do it there. I think at five, four or five years, that team might be something.
JR: I want to see SGA, like, in the playoffs.
MB: I know! When we've been doing these parlays they've actually hit more for me on my parlays than anything else, because they've had a nice little run here in the last couple of weeks where I'm like, “Who are you beating? What's going on here?” This is weird.
JR: I can see SGA pulling off like a Donovan Mitchell Jamal Murray bubble situation where he just puts up like 50.
MB: Yeah, I’m in. I mean, I'm not rooting against them. That's the thing. There are teams I root against, teams I root for, and teams I don't care, and I'm rooting for them. Like, I think this is fun to watch.
JR: One final question. Thank you for your time.
MB: Thank you.
JR: Do you need a Grogu to go with the Yoda? [JR points to the Yoda action figure on a shelf behind MB]
MB: [Laughs] I know, that's him. I know. I think he's out of batteries too. He also has an interchangeable lightsaber. So I don't have to just only have that. Which is obviously amazing. He's so cute. And when he has his batteries he's like, kind of creepy-realistic. But yes, I do. The way he moves… he’s quite adorable. I know, he's made the move from city to city, like not everything does! Very Shaq-like in that regard.
JR: The most sage, wise person we know, it's either Yoda or Shaq.
MB: Those are the two. Those are my — those are my lords, who I look up to.
JR: Thank you so much.
MB: Thank you.
JR: This has been awesome.
MB: I’m not dead yet. That's all that means. I’m still here.
JR: Still here. I'm still taking my cold medicine.
MB: I know, right? Go get some orange juice fresh. Not that can shit. Make it happen.
JR: Thank you so much. This has been a pleasure.
MB: Thank you.