Hey everybody, this is Richard Ditch and welcome to the sports media podcast. My producers are Patrick Antonetti and Sean Cherry. Two guests this week, two excellent guests. First up is Jeff Pearlman, the author of Three Ring Circus, Kobe Kobe Shack, Phil, and the Crazy Years of the Laker Dynasty.

He is followed by Donovan Bennett, a senior writer and host for SportsNet Canada.

That's where I work as well.

And in the podcast, Perlman discusses his reporting on Kobe Bryant, what it was like to report and write critically on Kobe Bryant.

All the people he interviewed for his book on the Lakers, which covers 1996 to 2004, very formative years with

Kobe Bryant, obviously played with Shaq, et cetera.

Shaq, one of the people, Jeff and I talk about regarding his interviews for the book.

And then Donovan comes on to discuss how he sees the

differences and similarities of Canadian sports coverage versus the U.S., the intersection

of the sports media and social justice and race when it comes to the two countries,

what he thinks of the NBA finals this year,

regarding Lakers Heat and viewership possibilities.

It's a really interesting sports viewership conversation for sure.

And then Donovan's take on American College football.

Donovan played a Canisius before he played for Western, which is a big college in Canada,

and he's just got a really unique perspective on how he sees

the U.S. playing this year. So two great guests, Jeff Perlman, Donovan Bennett, both coming up on the

Sports Media podcast. All right, as I said at the top, very excited to talk to my former

Sports Illustrated colleague. probably sort of a former athletic

colleague as well, I guess, but I think of them, of course, it's Sports Illustrated. It is Jeff

Perlman, a very, very well-known bestselling author. Why is he here? Why is he doing my podcast?

I believe the 15,000 podcast he's done this week. Well, it's to promote three-ring

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