ESPN Hoops Broadcaster Has Legal Sideline
As college basketball fans start withdrawal after the University of North Carolina’s victory over Michigan State, Bitter Lawyer has posted its interview with Jay Bilas, an Emmy-nominated college basketball analyst for ESPN who still keeps a hand in law practice as an of counsel at Charlotte, N.C.-based Moore & Van Allen.
The 6’8” Bilas played for Duke University as an undergraduate, and after being recruited by the Dallas Mavericks and playing basketball in Europe, he returned to Duke to be an assistant coach for the team while attending law school. He told Bitter Lawyer that he got into broadcasting for fun, and things escalated.
“I started doing radio games, and really only did it to stay close to the game and my friends in the game,” Bilas said. “As I went along, some people heard me, and I got some offers to do television games.”
After nine years of being a lawyer who dabbled in broadcasting, he decided to flip the script. Now college basketball is on the front burner—he says he is on the road five or six days a week during the season—and law is truly his second job.
“I had to make a choice, and I chose the job that got me better seats to games,” Bilas said.
Hat Tip Wall Street Journal Law Blog.
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