Watch: Best athlete interviews from The Daily Show
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart comes to a close on Thursday night.
Since Stewart took over the program in 1999, it's been nearly impossible to escape clips of the show's biggest moments.
Stewart, a lifelong New York Mets and New York Knicks fan, often ventured into the sports world on The Daily Show. In addition to his commentaries on the NCAA or Lance Armstrong, he also welcomed many athletes as guests. Here are some of the best interviews Stewart conducted with notable sports stars:
LeBron James
Stewart welcomed LeBron in the fall of 2009 as James promoted his new book, Shooting Stars. The interview managed to touch on topics both serious and silly: The two discussed LeBron's admission of trying pot, dealing with the spotlight from a young age and James' then-upcoming free agency. And before James ever took his talents to South Beach, Stewart made an almost-convincing pitch for New York:
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Marion Jones
Jones, the former Olympic champion who was stripped of all her medals in 2007, joined Stewart to promote a book of her own. Stewart starts the interview with a pointed question about Jones' performance-enhancing drug use, then steers the conversation into an interesting discussion about life in prison. Of course, humor is eventually worked in, but the interview's honesty is the highlight:
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Charles Barkley
Sir Charles was a three-time guest on The Daily Show. His first interview touched on racial and socioeconomic politics. His third discussed Shaquille O'Neal and the NBA lockout. But Barkley's second interview is the classic, specifically because of Barkley's hilarious tangents about the movie The Perfect Storm and Gilligan's Island:
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Phil Jackson
The New York Knicks president spoke with Stewart in 2013 about managing Shaq and Kobe, communicating with Dennis Rodman and which of his 11 coaching championship rings are his favorites. Stewart came very close to revealing Jackson's interest in the Knicks toward the end of the interview. You can hear Jackson, who at the time was mulling job offers, offer a pretty big hint about what step he wanted to take next in his career:
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Matt Harvey
Stewart welcomed the Mets phenom in 2015, and Stewart's fawning interview with Harvey was a testament to his Mets fandom. The interview starts with Stewart setting up a special resting place for Harvey's right arm, and Stewart was pretty serious about protecting the Mets star, telling Harvey that after he leaves the show, "you're all I have left."
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