EL BARRIO, EL FALLS – Happy Monday, sports fans. I try not to get political but with this Perplexing Pandemic, I am watching daily press conferences from the Mayor of NY, the Governor of NY, the President of the USA and a couple random ones a week – like Erie County NY Executives or The California/Michigan/Ohio Governors. This got me thinking about some of the Memorable Press Conferences in Sports History. My choices may surprise you, though, as the top 3 are a given and therefore excluded: Jim Mora’s “Playoffs!,” Allen Iverson’s “Practice?” and Dennis Green’s “They are…” With that, I give my next tier choices.
LeBron Storms Out: This was the press conference after the loss that should have been a win for Lebron LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals. Game 1 in 2018 and somehow J.R. Smith forgot how much time was on the clock and forgot to go for the score forcing OT and the Cavs lost in OT. Reporters being Reporters would not let it go and were waiting to pester James about it in the press conference. Lebron LeBron started well and took some of the questions, then declared the conference over and stormed out.
BeastMode Avoiding the Pink Slip: Only Marshawn Lynch could become legendary for saying 10 words repeatedly. Lynch’s “I am just here so I don’t get fired” media day for the Super Bowl in 2015 was a classic. Lynch didn’t care for media day and often finds himself in the spotlight when he is doing something silly. In 2015, he didn’t want to do interviews so he sat there and no matter what the question, his answer was I am trying not to get fired. It was simple and honest and real. It made Lynch a cult hero to neutral fans and definitely grew his brand.
Leon Hess Wants to Win Now: This is subjective, so I will say this as a Jets fan: The press conference where Leon Hess says “I want to win now, so we hired Rich Kotite.” will never be forgotten. I mean, the guy put Kotite and winning in the same sentence. Of course it didn’t work out and Kotite bombed horribly. Hess passed away never winning a title with his Jets. Looks like one of the Johnson brothers may meet him at the 50 on St. Peters Sports Complex in Heaven.
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