[Syd Thrift]

I just don't see any personal value in drama purely for drama's sake. The older PTI with Wilbon and Kornheiser saw them joke around and occasionally make some hot-ish takes for the sake of argument, but I never get the sense that SAS is actually interested in argument but instead in making his opinion heard and then agreed to. He disassociated himself with Max Kellerman because, frankly, Kellerman was too smart for him, and I see the same sort of disassociation with Pat Bev (who will be a pretty popular analyst once he retires, I think) and JJ Reddick, all because they expose him as a blowhard and a hedgehog.

Fortunately there is lots and lots of sports media out there to consume that doesn't feature garbage like this. I listen to SI's Open Floor podcast, which has guys making... takes, but also a lot of relatively sane analysis. Real Ones with Raja Bell is another one I like - it's a little takier but a lot of the time at leas you can understand where the takes are coming from outside of I AM YELLING AND I DEMAND THAT YOU HEAR ME YELL. For the NFL there's Around the NFL and whatever Doug Farrar and/or Greg Cosell are up to nowadays.

TBH I find SAS/Skip Bayless to be sports for people who never played the games that are being tracked and who don't want to think too hard.