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• SportsCenter official site
• Dream Job official site
• Article on Mr. Scott in Black Enterprise

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Tavis: Stuart Scott has been delivering his unique and clever take on the world of sports for nearly 10 years as one of the anchors on ESPN's 'Sportscenter.' He's my favorite. I admit it up front. Beginning this Sunday night, you can catch him on the new ESPN reality series 'Dream Job.' Here's a sneak preview.

Charlie: Back to you, Stuart.

Stuart: Thank you. Thank you. All right. You buried the league. That's what I said about...-Don't be a sportscaster. Be Charlie. Charlie said, 'Dhani Jones would not say that.' So be Charlie in the interview. You say that to Dhani.

Charlie: OK.

Stuart: Dhani, I'd expect this from Warren Sap. Why would you make that statement?

Charlie: Right. Right. I shouldn't have gone into that. That's right.

Tavis: Stuart Scott, nice to see you, man.

Stuart Scott: Good to see you.

Tavis: I am honored to have you here.

Stuart: Honored to be here.

Tavis: When I say you're my favorite, I can't even lie about it, man.

Stuart: I appreciate it, man.

Tavis: There are so many folks in this country, and indeed the world, I really crack up when I see little white kids running around dropping the lingo that they saw you put out on the air last night.

Stuart: It's a trip. My 9-year-old daughter watches 'Kim Possible.' She said, 'Daddy, they say boo-yah on ‘Kim Possible'.'

Tavis: Boo-yah!

Stuart: She said, 'Did you get that from them?' I said, 'Well... Yeah. Yeah, I got it from them.'

Tavis: Yeah. I got it from them. What do you make of the fact that you really have, in the world of sports, become a lexicon yourself? But you certainly have generated a whole new language. You ever think about what you've really done here?

Stuart: Yeah. But, see, to me, it's not about generating a whole new lexicon. It's really about--I want to make sure that people--not just young black kids, but I'm talking about anybody, whether you're black, red, brown, whatever. You can be whoever you want to be, doing what I do for a living, as long as you do your homework, as long as you know your stats and your figures, and as long as you can write, you can do it any way you want to do it.

Tavis: Is that really true, though? The reason why I ask that, Stu, is because--

Stuart: It's gotta be true.

Tavis: I know it's gotta be, in theory, but here's the reality. There are only so many positions to do this. I mean, sports jobs--everybody wants to be a sportscaster. I mean, we love sports. There are only so many positions, number one. And can we be real about it? Ain't but so many positions for brothers.

Stuart: Right.

Tavis: So, everybody can't be a Stuart Scott.

Stuart: But everybody can be whoever they are. I mean, don't try and be Stuart Scott. Be who you are. That's why I tell people, look, I don't care what you do on TV. Whatever you are, be that. Here's the thing: You will run into resistance. You might run into resistance from your local news director. He might say, 'Know what? Don't do it that way.' Then you got a decision to make. Whether it's your integrity or reputation. Reputation, to me, is how other people view you. Integrity's how you view yourself. If you're doing the job, you can get up, look in the mirror, say, 'You know what? This is the way I'm gonna do it because I think this is the best way to do me.'

Tavis: Let me hit you hard on this thing. Let me hit you real hard. Is there a difference? Give me one difference, if you can think of one, between your reputation and your integrity. That is to say, is there something that you find that people tend to think of you that's really in direct contradiction to the reality of you?

Stuart: Yeah.

Tavis: What? Give me one.

Stuart: Stuart Scott is the hip-hop sportscaster.

Tavis: You don't like that?

Stuart: I don't dislike it. 'Cause it's part of who I am, but it's only part of who I am because it's the music that I grew up on. It's part of what I do. But more importantly than that, man, I'm a dad. I'm a husband. I'm a friend. I'm an uncle. If you really listen and watch a sportscast, you gonna get some hip-hop, 'cause that's there. But that's a really, really small percentage of what goes on. Catchphrases are a very small percentage of what it is we do.

Tavis: Have you ever appropriated the language of a song or anything else in pop culture and worked it into your sportscast, and somebody called you and said, 'Stu, I didn't like that'?

Stuart: Yeah.

Tavis: 'Leave my stuff alone'?

Stuart: Oh, you mean an artist?

Tavis: Artist, anyone. I mean, because, you find stuff in the most interesting places that you pull into your lingo for the 'Sportscenter' broadcast. You ever pull something from somewhere, put it in one of your sportscast, somebody said, 'Don't use my stuff like that'?

Stuart: No artist has said that.

Tavis: They love it when you put their stuff out there.

Stuart: They love it. Yeah. All that means is--I guarantee you, that means that when I'm on my way to work that day, that's the CD I'm checking out. I'm checking out OutKast that day. I'm checking out my boys Sister Hazel, a rock group from Florida. I'm checking out Norah Jones. I'm checking out Alicia Keys. If that's what I'm thinking about that day, it's gonna show up on TV.

Tavis: I'm fascinated by this. I'm just too giddy right now. I gotta calm myself down. When you hear something, what's your process? How do you know that, 'I can use that, that right there, that right there, that's gonna work, and here's how I'm gonna take it and use it in a broadcast'?

Stuart: I don't put that much thought into it.

Tavis: You don't?

Stuart: I really don't.

Tavis: I'm trying to get all deep with it. And you're like, it ain't that deep, Tavis.

Stuart: Sometimes, it works. Sometimes, there's a lyric that has to do with what I'm talking about. Other times, it's nothing. Guy has a slam dunk, and, you know what? I'm just feeling old school. W-E-F-U-N-K. Wefunk. Just 'cause. It doesn't have to fit. It's just what I'm thinking about. But here's the thing, though. This is the most important thing. I can't do that without educating you and letting you know what's going on. I just can't start dropping lyrics and saying, 'Boo-yah, yo, man, you gotta put it down.'

Tavis: 'Just like butta. 'Cause I'm on a roll.'

Stuart: Unless I tell you that not only did Allen Iverson score 35 points, but he's averaged 38 in his last 14 games. Or Iverson dropped 33 today, but his last 6 games coming in, he was shooting 29%, been averaging under 20 points. It's only the second time in his career he's done that. I gotta do both. Because without that, the other part's just for show. And I won't do--I won't have--I won't do my catchphrases, I won't do anything if I'm not letting you know what's going on, too.

Tavis: I got so excited about talking to you, I jumped right on past the 'Dream Job' thing. Let me slow my roll, back this thing up, and ask you to tell me about this dream job show that's about to kick off. And then I got some things specifically in the world of sports I want to get your opinion on.

Stuart: 'Dream Job' is like 'American Idol' for sportscasters. It is that simple, and that complicated, and that fun.

We've got 12 finalists. Out of more than 10,000. We're gonna run them through what might happen on a show. They're gonna do highlights. They're gonna do interviews. Voters, people, the public, on TV, you can vote. We're gonna have 3 or 4 judges. Week by week, somebody's gonna get voted off. Whoever wins gets a job as a 'Sportscenter' anchor. I mean, right there. On 'Sportscenter.'

Here's the thing: people are like, 'Aw, man, you're not gonna find any talented people.' Yeah, you will, 'cause there's always talent. It hasn't been cultivated or didn't want to pursue the dream. It's like Big Reuben. I mean, Reuben--

Tavis: Big Reu!

Stuart: Big Reu! Reu is a singer. Was he a professional singer before this? No. Somebody's out there. One of these 12 people. They range in age from 21 to 40. But we'll find out. Sunday night. .

Tavis: I'm just mad at you because you wait till I get a show.

Stuart: Till you get a show.

Tavis: Now you do--you're doing 'Dream Job.'

Stuart: See, but here's the thing, see: they said, you know, 'You cannot do it if you've been paid on TV.'

Tavis: Still, I was at BET. You know I wasn't paid.

Stuart: Yeah. But I did hear about a severance check, though, now, come on.

Tavis: I did get a severance check. They did give me a severance check. OK. Let me throw some stuff at you, specifically, that I want to ask you about, in the world of sports. Tagliabue, NFL commissioner, 'Too much dancing, too much horseplay, too much celebrating in the end zone.' You say...

Stuart: I say absolutely not. Here's the deal: people say, oh, you gotta do it like Barry Sanders. Barry Sanders scores a touchdown, hand the ball to the referee. Cool. I loved it when Barry did that. But that's because that's who he is.

Tagliabue's stance does not allow any kind of diversity. Our culture, our society's supposed to be about diversity. There's none. There are people who do it like Barry. But what about the cats who love to celebrate? That's who they are. Why should we not do that? Because, you know what? Go to a black, Southern Baptist church. Preacher's preaching. We up jumping up, singing and dancing. That's the same thing.

Tavis: Are you suggesting to me there's a racial element here?

Stuart: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, is it intended? No. But it's the same thing as saying, well, you know what, you just hand the ball to the referee, no celebration. Culture is culture. Culture isn't color, but it is culture. If you take the whitest kid in the world and bring him up in a Southern, black Baptist church, when he grows up, what's he gonna do at church? He gonna jump up and down, sing, and dance. That's just part of who he is. So, don't squelch that thing.

Tavis: Speaking of Barry Sanders, speaking of old school, I'm getting old school on you since you mentioned Barry Sanders. I'm still crying that Barry left the game when he did.

Stuart: I don't get it.

Tavis: I don't get it, either. And I tried to talk to Barry about it 2 or 3 times. You know how Barry is. Barry's just real like...

Stuart: And that's it. You know what? Sometimes, you hear about the athlete, you know, he's not concerned about this or that, and you think, oh, yeah, he ain't concerned. He really wasn't concerned.

Tavis: He straight walked.

Stuart: He straight walked.

Tavis: And ain't looked back.

Stuart: 'Cause you kept thinking, all right, all right. This year, Barry'll come back. Tonight's lead story on 'Sportscenter.'

Tavis: Barry Sanders is gonna come back.

Stuart: You know what? 5 years later, he's in the Hall of Fame. I think it was just like, you know what? Passion's not there. And that's cool. I respect that. But it's like--because we get all wrapped up in, you know, trying to break this, trying to break that. I'm from Chicago. I was glad he retired, 'cause Walter Payton's my man.

Tavis: Sweetness.

Stuart: Sweetness is my man. So I was like, man, don't break it.

Tavis: What is the problem with these cats in the NFL who are so stuck on stupid on this black coaching thing? Or coaches who are black who can do the job? Come on. Don't hold back on me.

Stuart: What's the problem?

Tavis: Yeah.

Stuart: It's this whole idea of, 'You've been there before so let me give you another chance. You've coached here, I'm gonna give you another chance. You've coached there, I'm gonna give you another chance.' You see all kinds of talented men of all colors. I just think it's a matter of no one wants to give a shot to some of the young minds of football, on the college level, offensive and defensive coordinators. Now, the whole idea is I'm gonna require you to interview an African American. OK, so what's that gonna do if you know that you want that coach right there? You know you want him, so I'm gonna go ahead and play the game and I'm gonna call up this brother, call up that brother and bring 'em in.

Tavis: And hire that guy over there.

Stuart: And hire that guy over there. What the problem is the coaches know that guy over there is getting hired. So they know already, 'I'm going up here and--'

Now, here's the flip side. The flip side is if you are determined and you know that guy's getting hired, go in, sell yourself. Shine anyway. Shine. Make 'em change their mind.

Tavis: I'm at a 2-minute drill. You know how this works. Um, if I told you that I love the game, I love the NBA, Kobe's back. Maybe the Lakers can make a run at this after all. But since Mony retired, I am just not feeling the game. They've got a lot of talent out there. Even with LeBron in the game now, I'm just not feeling like I did with Jordan and with Earvin and Bird and Julius. I haven't been feelin' it for the last couple of seasons.

Stuart: Jordan, Bird, Julius, Magic, they all won championships. They won multiple championships. Every year you had the teams fighting--these few teams were battling for the championship, and the teams had superstars. Now, there's a lot of talent, a lot of young talent, and young talent doesn't necessarily know how to win a championship. You can be talented as you want to be, but you have to learn how to win a championship. Everybody. Shaq had to learn how, and learning how to win is learning how to lose. Shaq had to learn how to lose. Kobe had to learn how to lose. The pistons taught Michael how to lose, and then Michael started winning.

Tavis: Yeah. The SEC--we have 30 seconds. The SEC finally got a brother down there.

Stuart: Finally! I mean, did it take a while?

Tavis: Ha ha! It took a minute.

Stuart: Uh, look, it's number one. It's the first. Is it overdue? 40 years overdue. But you know what? Even if it's overdue, let's go now. Good. It's there, quit crying about how it's overdue. Let's go from there. LetSylvester do his thing, and let's at least open the door. If you crack the door a little bit anywhere, we can get in.

Tavis: See, I could talk to you a lot about this. I could talk to you, but I'm sure you'd rather me remind people that 'Dream Job' premieres this Sunday night. Would you rather me do this?

Stuart: I liked the conversation, but go and hit 'Dream Job,' too. This is gonna be a hot show.

Tavis: 'Dream Job' premieres this Sunday night on ESPN.

Up next, financial columnist Michelle Singletary has some advice that could put you on 'The Road to Wealth.' We're gonna talk about how you can make your money work for you, so stay right where you are.