Sometimes, you never know how working together on a radio show or podcast can affect a friendship that could emerge. For Bomani Jones and Dan Le Batard, there was one incident in particular that caused the two of them to have a rare disagreement.

Jones was a guest on an episode of The Big Suey as part of The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, and the two of them recalled what Le Batard said is the only bad argument that they ever had. It came from somebody who worked with the two of them that somehow thought Jones was Stugotz.

“Dan and Stugotz were doing that thing where they are telling a joke amongst themselves like other people ain’t around and expecting everyone to know what’s going on,” Jones explained. “Stugotz’s response was angry and the guy on the phone says ‘Oh, wow, Bomani, what a surprise you are angry. That only happens in days that end in y.’ Then, it was the clarification that it wasn’t Bomani and then it was just chuckles. I was like, yo, this dude really tried to play me according to a racist trope.

“I said something to you about it and you told me that there must have been a reason that he thought that and I walked out. I didn’t say anything for probably a week and a half, which was a terrible idea because I was so furious. By the time I said something, I walked into the room and was so mad that I was crying in saying, don’t do that again. The trigger for Dan Le Batard is telling him to or not to do something.”

Jones went on to say what exactly hurt him about that situation.

“What hurt about that for me was it felt like I was hearing my white friends laugh at a racist joke except the racist joke was not just generally racist, but it was actually about me and then in trying to say that was kind of messed up, it was like, well, there must be some reason this person feels that way,” said Jones. “Interactions like those for me are part of why it’s hard for me to take people seriously. When people outside have things to say about me because there is so much trash out there, that it’s hard for people to tell.”

In the early stages of the two of them doing Highly Questionable, people thought that Jones was going to ruin Le Batard’s career, but then once they saw the show, people came up to Jones and said they were sorry they thought that:

“I remember that when we first started doing that show, you had your friends who thought I was going to ruin your career and everything else because I was going to be the worst thing that could happen,” Jones recalled. “Keep it real, best thing to happen actually. Guy came up to me at your wedding and told me I told Dan he was making a big mistake when you started working with him. I didn’t understand it. I thought it was going to ruin his career. I was wrong and it’s very nice to be able to meet you.”

Jones knows that he is more of an acquired taste for people because they are not accustomed to everything he might say sometimes:

“Just give them a second to get used to this,” he said. “This is not the same as they are accustomed to. I fully understand that. The moment is going to come where they realize I am more similar to them than almost anybody they are going to find on the air. It’s just going to take them a little while to see it. Once they do, they are going to ride with me forever.”

At the end of the show, Jones talked about what he wanted people to know about his time working with Le Batard and said chemistry was hard to pick up right away. But he misses the human elements of working with Le Batard.

“One thing I don’t think that people quite grasp is that Erik Rydholm created a television show that allowed us to do well when we actually didn’t have much chemistry,” said Jones. “I got to Miami on May 11th [2013], we did our first show on May 13th. That show never had us looking at each other. Dan would do that show, then jump into the car and go do a radio show. If Dan decides he’s going to be your friend, he’s going to be your friend right away. I operate in the complete opposite space. It was a bit of an evolution in figuring out how to bring that together.

“Figuring that out was more of a process than I think people would realize. That is one of the rare relationships in my life where there really wasn’t an option. I got a four-year contract, I moved, we are going to do this, and we did. I didn’t fully appreciate how much I appreciated the human elements of it until it came down to the end of it… We were just consummate professionals.”