Mike Greenberg had praise for Jalen Rose this week. He said that no one but his ESPN colleague could have handled the interview with Ja Morant that has been airing on the network. Dan Le Batard has the exact opposite opinion of what he saw.

“What I saw was soft and didn’t seem to serve anybody except ESPN,” Le Batard said on his Thursday show. “This seems to be a lot of people around the economy of basketball and Ja Morant orchestrating an interview so Ja Morant can move onto the next stage of his branding.”

Whereas Greenberg thought the shared experience of an NBA career made Rose more likely to get answers from Morant, Le Batard said it created a problem. He accused Rose of letting Morant get away with using “talking points” in lieu of answering any actual questions about the string of erratic behavior and disturbing incidents the Memphis Grizzlies star has been involved with.

It wasn’t the only interview that Dan Le Batard pointed to. He noted that Pat McAfee’s interview with Aaron Rodgers may have drawn an audience of nearly half a million, but very little substance was offered.

“Does anybody in the audience, in sports fandom, or even, at this point, in sports media companies, care in a real and legitimate way whether the interview is done well or not?”

He added that the standard has changed for these interviews because the goal has changed. They are no longer about journalism as much as they are about branding, particularly in the case of ESPN’s exclusive interview with Ja Morant.

“An exclusive interview with Ja Morant, who hasn’t talked to anybody after his controversy, is going to get eyeballs, so it doesn’t matter how good it actually is,” Le Batard concluded. “All you need, if you’re the media partner, is please get me the famous guy to sit down.”

It isn’t unusual for a professional sports team to partner with a local radio station for weekly interviews with team personnel. Even though Jomboy Media is a digital outlet, it didn’t stop the company from inking a deal to have Yankees manager Aaron Boone on one of its signature podcasts.

In a move announced Thursday, Jomboy Media has signed a deal for Boone to appear on its popular Talkin’ Yanks podcast — hosted by founder Jimmy O’Brien and Jake Storiale — once a week throughout the baseball season.

“I thought it was a really interesting opportunity, and a cool idea. These guys have been innovators in this business and they’ve built a massive, young following,” Boone told The New York Post. “I think Jimmy and Jake are both really good guys. And they’re passionate about what they do, and they love the Yankees. And, sometimes they’re a little misguided and it’s my chance to set the record straight every now and then.”

Previously, Boone had a weekly spot on 98.7 ESPN New York’s The Michael Kay Show, which reportedly paid him six figures.

“It’s going to be really fun and it kind of goes with the changing landscape of media,” O’Brien said. “The fact that two fans can create a show and in five years get to the point where they get to ask questions to the manager of the Yankees and bring whatever insight we can get out of that to our audience — it is pretty wild, a little surreal.”

Aaron Rodgers joined The Pat McAfee Show for a highly anticipated interview. During the interview, Rodgers revealed he intends to play the 2023 NFL season with the New York Jets after a Hall of Fame career with the Green Bay Packers.

One of the other revelations given by Rodgers was the interaction he had with ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter.

Rodgers was asked about a report from ESPN’s Diana Russini that claimed the quarterback had given a list of names to the Jets he would like to see the franchise sign, to make his transition to the club easier.

“It’s so ridiculous,” Rodgers said. “Ask Schefter what I text him when he somehow got my number and texted me. I didn’t respond to Diana Russini — I think her name is? — she got my number as well. I would say the same thing I told Schefty: lose my number. Nice try. I’ll speak for myself, I’m sure there will be people that have their sources. But from what I’ve seen, I had a sheet of paper when I met with the Jets and I said sign these people? That’s not the reality. That’s so ridiculous. It’s so stupid to think that I would do that.”

After the statement from Rodgers, Schefter tweeted a screenshot of the response from Rodgers admitting that it was indeed what the Packers quarterback said.

After McAfee informed Rodgers about Schefter’s tweet, he took exception to the communication being shared publicly.

“I can share what he sent me if he’s gonna share my texts. He doesn’t want that, does he?” Rodgers concluded.

The interview between Rodgers and McAfee was a boondoggle for the program. Nearly 500,000 viewers were tuned into the show to hear what the quarterback’s future plans entailed, in which he admitted that before his “darkness retreat” he was 90% sure he would retire, but has since declared his intention to continue playing.