Episode 118: The power of Stephen A Smith; Can Amazon save the RSNs; and John Ourand’s long goodbye

Andrew Marchand published a list of the 25 most powerful people in sports media this year. Stephen A. Smith topped the list, followed by Lionel Messi, CBS’ Sean McManus, ESPN’s Jimmy Pitaro and Fox Sports’ Eric Shanks. Hosts Marchand and John Ourand debated the executives and talent who should be on the list; the ones who should be off the list; and the ones that were placed too high or too low. The two then talked about the repercussions from having Amazon potentially invest in the bankrupt RSN company, Diamond Sports Group. Marchand and Ourand handicapped the NBA talks and broke down Josh Krulewitz’ big promotion to run ESPN’s comms team. Ourand ended the pod by discussing his decision to move from SBJ to Puck Media. Sign up for SBJ 360, our free, daily newsletter. SBJ 360 delivers a concise, high-level overview of the most important stories shaping the sports industry. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.