The Smithian

'What I've done on television is try to work hard, try to be factually correct, try to write creatively and compellingly. I want to be myself, and anyone who says, "Oh well, he's a hip hop anchor," well, that's what I grew up on. I grew up mostly on hip hop and show tunes. I grew up on West Side Story, The Wiz, Godspell, but also Public Enemy...What I do on television is part of who I am. I'm not trying to be anyone else. I've always been of the mindset: "Be who you are; just do the work and work hard."

Magic Johnson will not return to ESPN as an NBA studio analyst, citing...busy schedule.

It's this bio—a military brat with a white wife...an...ambitious 23-year-old black man who frequently mentions law school and post-football political aspirations but refuses to name his political orientation—that has fascinated so many people and confused not a few others. None more so, perhaps, than Rob Parker, a former commentator on ESPN's First Take. One day last December, after RG3 had given an interview in which he said, for about the millionth time, that he didn't want to be "defined" by his race, Parker shocked...when he said, "My question, which is just a straight honest question: Is he a brother, or is he a cornball brother?... He's black, he kind of does his thing, but he's not really down with the cause. He's not one of us." The comments leaped off the show and into the national conversation, sparking an ugly debate about RG3's "blackness." Parker was suspended and eventually let go.

Such are the rich possibilities for the Motor City—one of four finalist cities in competition for the ESPN X Games expansion in summers of 2014-2016.

My name is Jake Wrather, which doesn't mean much to you, and it doesn't mean much to me either. I never knew my father who gave me my last name, and my mother left two years ago to visit down south and never came back. I room with my Uncle Lenny and he doesn't care about anything except music. We get along fine because I don't care about anything but baseball. He plays his music in Detroit at night while I'm sleeping, and I play baseball during the daytime while he's sleeping, so it works out fine. I like being on my own. Nobody tells me when to go to bed, what to eat. I do what I want to do. I take what I want.

Heroes Work Here. That’s what Disney is calling its new companywide initiative, which includes ESPN, theme parks and resorts, ABC, consumer products and movies, to hire and train at least 1,000 military veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.