Mike Wise (columnist)
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Mike Wise is an American sports columnist, feature writer and sports television personality. He was most recently a senior writer for ''The Undefeated,'' a digital property of ESPN intersecting sports, race and culture, and before ESPN worked for a combined 21 years at The New York Times and The Washington Post.


Career

Wise was an award-winning sports columnist with ''The Washington Post'' from May 2004 to December 2014. In November 2014 he was plucked by ESPN to be a prominent voice and feature writer for The Undefeated, the network's new digital venture. He wrote the NBA column, covered the Knicks and four Olympics for The New York Times from 1994 to 2004. In addition, from 2009 to December 2012, Wise also hosted "The Mike Wise Show" on WJFK-FM. He is best known for writing about social issues in sports, including his outspoken advocacy against Native American mascots, especially the Washington Redskins, his
basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...
coverage, his portraits of athletes and their psychological pasts, and his personal revelation of childhood sexual abuse in relation to the Penn State scandal. At the ''Post'', the ''Times'' and ESPN, he has covered the
NBA Finals The NBA Finals is the annual championship series of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Eastern Conference (NBA), Eastern and Western Conference (NBA), Western Conference champions play a best-of-seven series to determine the league ...
,
World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB). It has been contested since between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winning team, determined through a best- ...
, multiple
Super Bowls The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...
, an
America's Cup The America's Cup is a sailing competition and the oldest international competition still operating in any sport. America's Cup match races are held between two sailing yachts: one from the yacht club that currently holds the trophy (known ...
in
New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
and seven
Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...
. During an August 2010 segment on his radio show, Wise delivered an inaccurate report about
Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. Founded in 1933 P ...
quarterback The quarterback (QB) is a position in gridiron football who are members of the offensive side of the ball and mostly line up directly behind the Lineman (football), offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually consider ...
Ben Roethlisberger Benjamin Todd Roethlisberger Sr. ( ; born March 2, 1982), nicknamed "Big Ben", is an American former professional American football, football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons with the Pittsburgh Ste ...
on
Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
. Wise defended his actions by claiming that he was attempting to mock the lack of sourcing and
fact-checking Fact-checking is the process of verifying the factual accuracy of questioned reporting and statements. Fact-checking can be conducted before or after the text or content is published or otherwise disseminated. Internal fact-checking is such che ...
in modern journalism. Because he had used his ''Washington Post'' Twitter account, the ''Post'' suspended him for a month.


Other media

Wise is the co-author of two books: 2001's ''Shaq Talks Back'', with
Shaquille O'Neal Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal ( ; born March 6, 1972), commonly known as Shaq ( ), is an American former professional basketball player who is a sports analyst on the television program ''Inside the NBA''. He is a and Center (basketball), center ...
, a ''New York Times'' bestseller; and 1999's ''Just Ballin' – the Chaotic Rise of the New York Knicks'', with ''
New York Daily News The ''Daily News'' is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, New Jersey. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson in New York City as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in Tabloid (newspaper format ...
'' reporter Frank Isola. His national television appearances include CNN, MSNBC,
PBS NewsHour ''PBS News Hour'', previously stylized as ''PBS NewsHour'', is the news division of PBS and an American daily evening news broadcasting#television, television news program broadcast on over 350 PBS Network affiliate#Member stations, member stat ...
, SportsCenter, Outside the Lines,
The Today Show ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'') is an American morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It was the first of its genre on American television ...
and
Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'', often abbreviated as ''GMA'', is an American breakfast television, morning television program that is broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends wit ...
.


Selected awards

Wise won the 2006
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...
Sports Writers first-place Feature Story Award for a portrait of
NBA All-Star The National Basketball Association (NBA) All-Star Game is an annual exhibition basketball game. It is the main event of the NBA All-Star Weekend. Traditionally, the All-Star Game featured a conference-based format, featuring a team composed of ...
Gilbert Arenas Gilbert Jay Arenas Jr. ( ; born January 6, 1982) is an American former professional basketball player. Arenas attended Grant High School in the Valley Glen district of Los Angeles, and accepted a scholarship offer to the University of Arizona l ...
and the mother who abandoned him. He also won the 2009 Associated Press Sports Writers first-place Feature Story Award for a profile of hockey enforcer Donald Brashear.


Personal life

Wise was raised in
Northern California Northern California (commonly shortened to NorCal) is a geocultural region that comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California, spanning the northernmost 48 of the state's List of counties in California, 58 counties. Northern Ca ...
and
Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...
and is a graduate of
California State University, Fresno California State University, Fresno (Fresno State) is a public university in Fresno, California, United States. It is part of the California State University system. The university had a fall 2020 enrollment of 25,341 students. It offers 60 ba ...
. In January 2008, Wise and his dog were running along a frozen canal in Georgetown when his dog fell through the ice. Wise also fell through the ice trying to save his dog and would have died if a stranger had not pulled him out. Wise later found the person, a
George Washington University Law School The George Washington University Law School (GW Law) is the law school of George Washington University, a Private university, private research university in Washington, D.C. Established in 1865, GW Law is the oldest law school in Washington, D. ...
student named Jason Coates, and wrote a story about their experiences in ''The Washington Post Magazine''. Wise's second cousin is David Wise who is a two-time Winter Olympic gold medalist in men's freestyle skiing on the halfpipe. He is the son of Roger Wise, who covered the nation's first heart transplant for the ''San Jose Mercury News'', later became an editor for the ''Honolulu Star-Bulletin'' and an Episcopal priest before his death in 2013.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wise, Mike The Washington Post journalists Living people The New York Times journalists California State University, Fresno alumni Sportswriters from New York (state) Year of birth missing (living people)