I'm not sure I deal with death well in that I always either look to, or admittedly hide, in humor. On a day of immense sadness I look to humor for comfort once again so I'll tell a story to everyone I've only told a few people because Stuart Scott made me laugh as hard as I've laughed in almost 5 years at ESPN.
Before ESPN moved its NBA coverage to LA, Stuart Scott anchored our coverage from Bristol and one of the first shifts I did was prompting the pregame and halftime shows for Stu. Our game was the Magic-Lakers and right before halftime the producer comes on the headset and said, "Stu, obviously you can't say this on air, but apparently Kobe has a stomach virus and had bad diarrhea and was late to the arena." So Stu is getting ready to toss back to the game and our shot going to break is of Kobe scoring and Stu says,
"Kobe and the Lakers down 11 at the half. Kobe probably telling his teammates they are going to have to go on some RUNS to get back in this one."
The producers weren't listening to him at the time and the analysts on set didn't know Kobe was sick so I was the only person in America who heard Stuart Scott make a poop joke on television and I laughed my ass off.
Stuart Scott was a man who loved his family, sports and his job. He's a reason so many of us loved sports and ESPN growing up and made so many of us want to work here. And MAN was he good. To see that look no further than my proudest highlight shift at ESPN. The Ravens-49ers Super Bowl highlight was a 19 minute effort that took about a dozen people to produce and Stu and Steve Levy FUCKIN NAILED the read of it. To this day I've never heard a better read of a highlight I've worked on.
He was one of a kind for sure and he will be missed by all. RIP.
