Cari Champion has steadily become one of the strongest voices at ESPN since joining the company in 2012, so it was no surprise she didn’t hold back about the racially charged comments Laura Ingraham made last week concerning certain political content on Champion’s show.
The “SportsCenter” anchor, who will replace Michelle Beadle as host of “SportsNation” on March 12, opened up Thursday about how Ingraham’s message to LeBron James to keep quiet about his non-sports beliefs — after James and Kevin Durant heavily criticized President Donald Trump during a segment on “Rolling with the Champion” — hit home for her as a black woman.
“I was furious. I was angry. I was pissed off. She essentially to me was saying, ‘Shut up, N-word,'” Champion said on the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast of Ingraham’s infamous “shut up and dribble” comment. “Like I really didn’t like how it came across. It hit my spirits really, really hard because that’s exactly what LeBron was talking about the entire car ride, that’s exactly what KD was talking about the entire car ride.”
Champion acknowledged she was particularly offended by Ingraham’s use of the pronoun “they,” which the Fox News host used when calling out James and Durant as unworthy of sharing their opinions, because of its racial undertones. Ingraham, a staunch Trump supporter, elicited angry responses from figures across the professional sports landscape when she questioned the legitimacy of the NBA stars’ platform, asking at one point, “Must they run their mouths like that?”
“She started off saying that [James] couldn’t speak well, like ungrammatical. What kind of nonsense is that?” Champion said. “And listen, they know that people view them as not eloquent, they know that. So for her to say that and reinforce whatever the stereotype is about certain athletes, OK, that’s disgusting in itself. …“What really, really bothered me is when she said, ‘Why must they…?’ Who the hell is ‘they’? I sat there and I was angry, and by angry I mean damn near tears in my eyes because it’s so disgusting and it’s so bold. … And I’ll call her a ‘they.’ Like you’re really not hiding anymore, you’re saying how you really feel, and that’s disgusting.”
Champion was referencing Dwyane Wade’s tweet after the incident that suggested Ingraham, following in Trump’s characteristically unfiltered footsteps, showed her true colors with her remarks.
“In 2003, I wrote a New York Times bestseller called ‘Shut Up & Sing,’ in which I criticized celebrities like the Dixie Chicks & Barbra Streisand who were trashing then-President George W. Bush,” Ingraham said in a statement. “I have used a variation of that title for more than 15 years to respond to performers who sound off on politics. I’ve told Robert DeNiro to ‘Shut Up & Act,’ Jimmy Kimmel to ‘Shut Up & Make Us Laugh,’ and just this week told the San Antonio Spurs’ Gregg Popovich to ‘Shut up & Coach.’ If pro athletes and entertainers want to freelance as political pundits, then they should not be surprised when they’re called out for insulting politicians. There was no racial intent in my remarks — false, defamatory charges of racism are a transparent attempt to immunize entertainment and sports elites from scrutiny and criticism. Additionally, we stated on my show that these comments came from an ESPN podcast, which was not the case – the content was unaffiliated with ESPN.”
Though Ingraham denied there was racial intent in her words, Champion — who caught up with each of the NBA stars during All-Star weekend in Los Angeles — said Ingraham’s rebuke just gave them more motivation to use their platform to say what they believe is right. James responded last week by saying he would “definitely not shut up and dribble.”
“I knew there would be people who would be upset about what he said, but quite frankly LeBron is very much ‘I don’t care,'” Champion said of James saying during the videotaped car ride that Trump doesn’t “give a f–k about people.” “He’s living his life like this is the time I have to say something, I have to say how I feel because I know there are people who feel the way I do who can’t speak out.”
Champion, 42, felt somewhat silenced herself during her first few years at ESPN as a moderator on “First Take,” a debate show that at the time featured Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless. The frustration she felt sitting mostly quietly in between two loud voices inspired her to petition for a larger role with the network in which she could show her personality.
“That was difficult. I called it ‘the middle seat,'” Champion said. “That’s the most uncomfortable seat on the plane normally, depending on who you’re sitting next to. No one really wants the middle seat. You can’t quite get in, you can’t get comfortable. …
“People didn’t really understand my value or what I offered or what I could do. And there were many times I was frustrated. … And I tried to share those frustrations, but the thing is when something is done the way it is done, it’s hard to change it. That show in my opinion already had a flow and this show was the most popular show.”
Champion has since become a popular ESPN talent of her own, and the move from “SportsCenter Coast to Coast” with David Lloyd to “SportsNation” with Marcellus Wiley and LZ Granderson will give her another chance to mold a show’s content to her strengths.
“We’ve been working on that now,” Champion said of the show’s prospects without Beadle, who will join Mike Greenberg and Jalen Rose on a new morning show, “Get Up.” “I think it will be a lot personality-driven, a lot of it has to do with our chemistry. They clearly had a way with Michelle, and so we’ll just have to develop a chemistry together.
“But I think the show for me will have to be about some things I enjoy, as well.”