In 1995, former Duke basketball player Jay Bilas was an attorney living in Charlotte who also moonlighted as a basketball broadcaster.
The money wasn’t great — $200 per game plus expenses to call Duke basketball contests on the radio. But he enjoyed it. With no grand plan in place, Bilas kept working his caseload by day and driving to Durham for games.
Then ESPN called, asking Bilas to broadcast a single game. It wasn’t a particularly glamorous assignment: UNC Greensboro vs. Charleston Southern in the Big South championship in Lynchburg, Virginia, on March 4, 1995. Bilas jumped at the chance.
“It was a blast,” he said.
“I really enjoyed it. And I guess I didn’t screw it up, because they kept asking me.” Now, almost exactly 30 years later, Bilas, 61, is ESPN’s top college basketball broadcaster and routinely assigned to the most prestigious games across the network’s TV inventory. That means he will broadcast No. 2 Duke’s 6:30 pm game at UNC on Saturday in Chapel Hill.
That also means he won’t be calling the ACC men’s tournament in Charlotte next week — the SEC is ranked so much higher than the ACC as a basketball conference this year that ESPN assigned Bilas to the SEC Tournament in Nashville instead.
I visited with Bilas this week at his home in Charlotte to talk about Duke, UNC and Cooper Flagg (who Bilas believes will leave for the NBA after this season). Here are excerpts from that interview, edited for clarity and brevity.
A: It would probably be in the range of 40 a year. It’s been over that for the last several years — maybe up to around 50 with the NBA (Bilas has now branched out into calling NBA games and has broadcast about a dozen of them so far this season).
A: I don’t think I fought it. I was mindful that people may have that perception. But my whole thing was: ‘Just be fair.’ I don’t think fair is difficult. …
My thing was: I don’t play for Duke anymore.
And when you go to all these practices and games, and you study how different coaches and programs do their thing, what I came away with is a deep respect for how they do it, and you wanted to kind of tell that story. … I’m too old now to care who wins, and I don’t think I’ve ever cared. You go into the game hoping for a good game.
You root for a compelling game. … Nobody wants a 25-point blowout. … So when North Carolina is a better team, you say it. When Roy Williams did the better job, you say it. When Hubert Davis is the better coach, you say it. And when Duke is, you say it. It’s really not that difficult.
A: They can win. North Carolina — and I’ve said this all year long — they’re far better than their record. They’ve shown that over the last five games or so. … (UNC has won six straight games entering the contest, while Duke has only lost once since late November). They’ve had more talented teams in the past, but they’re way better than they’ve played. … With RJ Davis in his last game in the Smith Center, my sense is that it’s going to be a really competitive, great game. … Do I think Duke’s a better team this year? Yeah, I do.
I think Duke and Auburn are the two best teams in the country. But Duke got beat at Clemson. They can get beat, and I think Carolina can really challenge them.
A: He is the most well-rounded, competitive freshman I’ve ever seen. And he’s the most well-rounded, competitive freshman Duke’s ever had, at least in my time. They don’t make them like him very often. I think he’s Christian Laettner-like in his competitive spirit. He never takes a play off.
He’s so alert to what’s going on on the floor. … There were a number of people who said, “C’mon, man, is Cooper Flagg really this good?” And you’re like: “Yeah. Watch it. And if you watch it and you feel otherwise, then call me.”
It was kind of like when LeBron came out of high school. They’re two different cats. LeBron was this physically imposing, super-skilled, high IQ player. You’re going, “As long as he stays healthy, he’s a Hall of Famer.” And you feel kind of the same way about Cooper Flagg, in a different way. He’s the complete package.
A: Not as impactful to SportsCenter. … Zion was just captivating. Cooper doesn’t check that box of the “I’ve never seen anybody that looks like this before” like Zion did. I’d never seen anybody like Zion on a basketball floor. You’ve seen people built like Cooper. But he’s the whole package.
A: He’s gonna be a star and the No. 1 draft pick. Barely 18 years old. … I happen to believe Grant Hill was the best player Duke’s ever produced. Grant Hill as a freshman wasn’t what Cooper Flagg is as a freshman.