There he was, back on my radio Tuesday, dodging questions with attitude, pestering the host when he could and sounding at times self-righteous, at times sensible and at times silly.
Yes, it was David Stern as a guest on sports-talk radio -- this time with Jim Rome, the self-anointed king of sports interviews.
The two banter on a somewhat regular basis (with one visit good enough to last six months because Rome and his staff can mine the outtakes for all kinds of gems or all kinds of annoying repetitions), and the latest visit was more of the same.
When Rome prodded where Stern did not want to go, the conversation did not go there. Sometimes Stern interrupted Rome and sometimes Rome questioned back (but never too harshly) to keep the repartee moving. To his credit, Rome hit all the necessary topics -- including officiating in the NBA Finals and the future of LeBron James.
One one level it was good radio, a major professional league commissioner with a host of one of the nation's top sports-talk shows. On another level, it sometimes sounded like shtick or a show to make a show.
It's always hard to tell with both Rome and Stern, each of whom had a message to send and wanted to sound competent and strong without sounding either mean-spirited (in Stern's case, there's no need for him to be a bully) or overly aggressive (in Rome's case, there's no need for him to burn a bridge with topics that will not get answered but could make it difficult to get an on-air visit again).
Both sounded like they enjoyed the visit, and that's OK. At times listeners probably felt they were eavesdropping on two people having fun disagreeing with each other. Rome and Stern just might have enjoyed it a bit more than the listeners, though -- and that should not be something that a host lets happen on a regular basis because the shows should be for listeners.