Bob Ley, Jay-Z Video: Watch SportsCenter Anchor Channel His Inner Hova

2011 NBA Finals Has Bob Ley in a Hip Hop Mood

Well, that sure was weird.

No, that wasn't a clip of the next installment of "This is SportsCenter" commercials...Jay-Z and Eminem and Dr. Dre aren't going to come out from behind the camera and critique Ley's delivery.

This actually aired live on ESPN as Ley dissected the growing feud between the Mavericks' DeShawn Stevenson and LeBron James.

Even prior to Stevenson declaring that James had "checked out" of Game 4,  the two had something of a rivalry long before this year's NBA Finals—one stretching back to the time when James was in Cleveland and Stevenson in Washington.

Apparently, back in 2008, Jay-Z defended James via a "diss."

On a side note, to SportsCenter's production department: "Diss? Diss? Look, you’re in no position to diss, or give props, or do whatever your MTV Real World sense of decorum tells you to do. You’re an amateur. You wasn’t sent here to make friends." (Anyone here a fan of Puff Daddy's cameo in Made?)

Showing no regard for the obvious awkwardness of a chubby 56-year-old white man doing so, Ley read the lyrics on the air, word for word (sans explicative, of course) in what had to be one of the most bizarre moments in his career, which is saying a lot considering he worked with a mustachioed Keith Olbermann and was often within three feet of Kenny Mayne.

But I do give Ley "props" for delivering the lines with no shame at all and trying his best not to laugh, which he does slightly at the end.

And it was especially nice to see him read the lyrics with the exact same dictation and deliberate rhythm he would as if he were reading a press release from Commissioner Goodell or a Senator decrying the use of steroids.

The volume raises, the pauses, the understated finish! Brilliant!