By now everyone is familiar with ESPN senior NBA reporter Brian Windhorst's viral video from last year breaking down a strange Utah Jazz trade involving Royce O'Neale.
The way in which he asked the question "What's going on in Utah?," became inspiration for plenty of memes on social media. Speaking to GQ Sports for an oral history of the moment, Windhorst talked about receiving a tip about the Jazz's eventual trade of Rudy Gobert to the Minnesota Timberwolves the night before he appeared on First Take. It was a sign in his mind that the team was preparing to retool its roster.
Windy spoke for a little over two minutes, and it was presented in such a captivating way that left more questions than answers about the situation in Utah. Gobert's name never came up, although later that day the trade became official. But Brian said he was inspired to speak like he did by not outright reporting on Kawhi Leonard ending up with the Clippers three years ago.
"A day before Kawhi Leonard went to the Clippers, I had a feeling that he wanted to play with Paul George, and I did a SportsCenter hit where I hinted at it but didn't go strong enough, and I regretted it because I liked my information," he said. "I did know that Paul George and Kawhi were talking, and I did know that Kawhi basically had told the Clippers, get somebody else to play with me. And I did a hit where I referenced, I came right up against it, but I stopped short. I always kind of regretted that. And so when the Jazz thing happened, I was like, 'Well, this time I got it.'"
Windhorst had put out a bunch of different puzzle pieces based on the Royce O'Neale trade for people to put together, but even on the set it didn't seem like anything was adding up.
"I think we were all trying to figure out what the point was," said Christine Williamson, who was moderating First Take that day. "But because he was trying to get to that point, and there was no concrete thing, it just seemed like there was no payoff in the end."
ESPN Radio host Freddie Coleman, who was also on the set when Windhorst spoke, said Brian was just in a rhythm and a mode that even though he asked plenty of questions about what was happening in Utah, he wasn't going to try and jump in.
"On that show, that was started by Stephen A. Smith, it's extremely unusual to get that space," Coleman said. "Very rarely does that happen with somebody else. But when you have those rare instances when somebody is doing that, they have you in the pocket, you want to stay in that pocket. I think you'd be a fool to try to get in the way of them and disrupt whatever rhythm and flow they've been able to create."
Windhorst said he wanted to capitalize on the fact that he was in territory he didn't typically find himself in.
"The key thing here is that Stephen A. Smith was out, Chris "Mad Dog" Russo was out. It was a Friday before a holiday weekend. So they didn't have the normal crew," he said. "I was in the lead position on NBA topics, which wouldn't normally happen on First Take."
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