Майкл Кей и Дон Ла Греча: как отказ от Джона Макэнруи создал легенду спортивного радио

If John McEnroe gave ESPN what they wanted, one of the most successful pairings in sports radio history never would have come to fruition. ESPN New York celebrated their 25th anniversary with a two-hour reunion show featuring Michael Kay and Don La Greca Thursday afternoon. 25 years ago, La Greca was the first local voice heard on 1050 ESPN Radio, with The Michael Kay Show launching the next summer in 2002. La Greca eventually joined as full-time co-host at the request of Kay, but not before ESPN sought to put John McEnroe on the show. “It all might not have happened,” Kay said of teaming up with La Greca. “Because they were secretly setting up meetings, their dream was to have ‘Mac and Kay.’ They wanted me and John McEnroe to do a show. And they set up a secret meeting at a place near the Garden, and they had us enter through different entrances to go into the basement, as if Bob Raissman and Phil Mushnick were camped out to break this story.” Kay recalled talking off the cuff during the meeting, casually telling McEnroe the name of an MLB player he thought was doing cocaine. McEnroe immediately said, “That’s the kind of stuff we’re gonna talk about on the show!” to which Kay said, “No, it’s not!” Confused as to why not, Kay explained to McEnroe that talking about stuff like which MLB players might be doing cocaine will get them kicked off the air in minutes. According to Kay, the station negotiated with McEnroe for several months. But with McEnroe wanting to do shows from his house in the Hamptons and needing time off around every tennis major, the four months of negotiations broke without a deal. La Greca recently labeled not signing McEnroe one of the top five “defining moments of ESPN New York.” Because according to La Greca, Mac and Kay never would have worked. Maybe it would have received more attention when the show launched, but ESPN needed a host who could pick up the slack when Kay had a Yankees game or when the line dropped while he was doing the show remotely. And that person was never going to be John McEnroe. Even though La Greca wasn’t ESPN’s first choice, the listeners always liked him. As he became part of the show, La Greca eventually became the co-host who picked up the slack when Kay was gone, even though he never got his name on the show.