Brian Windhurst and Victor Wembanyama
By Sean Keeley on

Some might say that the big winners on Tuesday night were the San Antonio Spurs, who essentially secured the right to select generational prospect Victor Wembanyama with the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NBA Draft.

However, you could also argue that the evening’s biggest winner was ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, who got paid to hop on a flight to Paris, France where he ended up doing a 70-second interview with Wembanyama at 2:30 a.m. local time before, presumably, hopping right back on a return flight to rack up some sweet frequent flyer miles. 

Was it necessary for ESPN to have Windhorst in Paris to speak with the phenom? Certainly not, as he could have easily just done a satellite interview with Malika Andrews or someone else in the studio.

But credit is due to ESPN who, in the midst of budget-slashing layoffs, had plenty of funds laying around to get one of their reporters all the way out there for a generic interview with poor audio quality that didn’t tell us much of anything.

Naturally, the NBA world had plenty of comments about the interview and what was running through their minds while watching.

Hopefully, Brian has a safe and productive flight back to Bristol. But more importantly, we hope that his wife was cool with his European trip this time.

[ESPN, Awful Announcing on Twitter]

About Sean Keeley

Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.

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