It must be something going around? Friday night, Bill Walton called his co-announcer Dave Pash, "a midget", live on air, covering the PAC-12 basketball tournament on ESPN. ESPN was swamped w/ complaints via social media, and officially by "The National Association of Little People", Saturday morning. (To be honest, Pash is a bit short and Walton still hovers around 7 ft. in his old age.) Walton is known for saying wild things on camera, that's why ESPN has him doing color commentary, if a game is a blowout, Bill still holds viewers sticking around to hear what he'll say.
That's why outspoken ex-players and coaches get jobs as color commentators and analysts. TNT keeps Barkley and O'Neal in separate green rooms before "The NBA On TNT". Why? They want all the spontaneity between the two of them to come out on the set, not in the dressing room.
I can't imagine the trash talking that went on when Barkley was with Philly and Bird and Walton were with Boston in the 80's? All three of them were forwards, down in the low post, before the zone defense was legal in the NBA, and notorious trash talkers. It must have been akin to The Three Stooges? At least Lineker was going on about something important