Miami Marlins team president turned sports media personality David Samson is determined to keep a beef with former ESPN host Bomani Jones over the low viewership for Jones’ HBO sports talk show Game Theory.
The two got into a contentious argument over racism among sports leadership in a roundtable on HBO in 2022, Jones apparently blocked Samson on X (formerly Twitter), and they have gone back and forth publicly since. When Game Theory was canceled by HBO last year, Samson joked at Jones’ expense online.
Thursday on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, Samson went a step further when asked about if the WNBA can hold onto sky-high viewership that will come in the early part of Caitlin Clark’s rookie season.
“It was almost like a Bomani Jones situation, where a quarter of the people stayed for the second game,” Samson said, comparing Game Theory viewership to the drop-off from Clark’s debut to the second game of ESPN’s slate on Tuesday night.
David Samson takes another shot at Bomani Jones over his HBO show viewership while arguing the WNBA is in "fake it til you make it mode" with record TV viewership
(h/t @LeBatardShow) pic.twitter.com/IkNVfaaUr7
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 16, 2024
Le Batard then asked Samson to stop taking shots at his former Highly Questionable cohost’s expense on-air, and Samson responded petulantly, refusing to cut it out.
“I’m allowed to respond, Dan,” Samson insisted. “On the air, just like he does.”
"Don't do that with Bomani anymore."
Later, Dan Le Batard and David Samson argued over Samson's diss and things got a little tense pic.twitter.com/OsqQQ2dx9W
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 16, 2024
The disagreement traces back all the way to early 2022, when both Samson and Jones appeared in a roundtable on an episode of Back On the Record with Bob Costas, in which the two disagreed over the extent to which sports coaches’ and executives’ personal beliefs on race affected who they signed to their rosters.
Samson insisted ousted Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden would not make personnel decisions based on the race of a player. When Jones pushed back, Samson (again, petulantly) chided Jones’ credibility because he had not run a sports franchise like Samson had.
“You ran a team, dude, I know the team you ran,” Jones said. “You could break out that ring right now, but we saw the rest of them. You’re not going to sit up here and try to flash that in my face like you’ve got some superiority over it.”
Here’s the back and forth between @bomani_jones and @DavidPSamson from Bob Costas last night https://t.co/EXbx5WafdD pic.twitter.com/f56FS8y5sy
— Mark (@lebatardshowfan) April 2, 2022
More than anything, this all seems like a result of Samson feeling embarrassed, both on Costas’ show and on social media in the years since.
That’s not to say either sports media personality was right or wrong, but Samson clearly crossed a line with Le Batard bringing this years-old grudge against Jones up out of nowhere while doing a hit on Le Batard’s show.
[The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz on YouTube]
