Cabral Richards, from the street to the studio: NPH catches up with ‘Cabbie’

Follow Charles Blouin-Gascon on Twitter @CeeeBG

NPH scored an exclusive interview with Canadian television personality Cabral “Cabbie” Richards this past week. Since this year’s 2011 March Madness is in full swing, the interview opened with both NPH and Richards reminiscing on the previous year’s failures.

NPH: How are you, man? It’s been a while.

C: Good, I’m very good. It has been a while. I’m doing well, my man. I’m doing well.

NPH: It’s been almost a year since I saw you, because last year was with the March Madness. And it’s starting this week, too.

C: It was that long ago?

NPH: Yeah, I think so, because we were talking about the Final Four and whatnot.

C: Oh wow, ok. I’m sure I got every single one of those picks incorrect.

NPH: Yeah probably. Me too!

C: Yeah, I’m horrendous at picking, at accurately picking any score of any games.

NPH: Yeah, you had The OSU though, obviously.

C: Yeah. And they’re back again, I got Ohio State again.

NPH: Ok. Ok. I’m going to roll with Duke, especially if Irving comes back.

The main focus of the interview was Richards’s move from The Score Television Network, where he had worked for many years, to CTV’s new daytime talk show, The Marilyn Denis Show.

NPH: What have you been up to since you moved from The Score?

C: Well, I’ve been working on a daytime show called The Marilyn Denis Show, which is a huge departure for me, because it’s a lifestyle show-lifestyle and entertainment-and my focus, obviously, before was sports. So I’ve joined the show as a correspondent, and I’m doing stuff that kind of focuses on material that a predominantly female audience is into. So, it’s 180° on the other side of the spectrum.

NPH: Is it better this way?

C: I wouldn’t say it’s better. It’s just (that) it was a natural step… Sorry, it was a necessary step for my growth. You know, I want to be able to do all kinds of things in broadcasting, so I recognized this opportunity presented itself with some cool stuff.

NPH: I don’t know if you can or can’t say and talk on this subject, but did you have an offer before you quit The Score?

C: Yeah. There was definitely some dialogue between my camp and CTV and, you know, they made it work just before the launch of Marilyn’s show and, here we are.

 

Here we are, but NPH still brought back Richards’s previous experiences at The Score.

NPH: Ok. How do you think The Score might or might not replace you, because you were one of the most recognizable faces of the network?

C: I don’t know, dude. I honestly have no idea. I keep in touch with some of the guys, but I don’t know what their plans are. I don’t know what their plans are for the future. But, everybody’s replaceable, dude. I’ve learned that a long time ago. Where was I? I don’t know if it was high school or if it was university but someone said that to me, that everybody’s replaceable. I was like, “Oooh.” That’s an important thing to keep in mind. Even though some days you’re feeling good about yourself, nobody is bulletproof.

NPH: Last year when we talked, you spoke about eventually moving toward more serious stories.

C: Yes.

NPH: Do you think that moving on to The Marilyn Denis Show was working toward that?

C: It’s definitely moving me in a different direction to be able to do some different material, which is what I desperately needed to do. The show is still in its infancy; it’s still in its launch stage, because it’s only two months old. So if I’m still into it, if the producers and the executives at the network still feel like I can be a large component of the show, then hopefully I’ll be able to do that. I definitely want to move in that direction. Charles, I won’t do it right away, because everybody is still kind of figuring out their roles and a lot of things but I definitely would like to do that. And the other day, I interviewed Donny Osmond, who was a huge star in the 70s. He was a singer and he’s done some television stuff. I never would have been able to do that at The Score. Albeit, that’s a totally different audience, but I had the opportunity to do so and I interviewed him. We didn’t get into anything really serious, but I’ll be exposed to different types of people to interview.

NPH: Yeah, it’s not just flying in to Kobe’s helicopter.

C: Right. Right, I mean that was… If I never interview Kobe Bryant again, then I went out on a pretty high note.

NPH: Yeah, that’s pretty true. Maybe a last few questions. How do you feel about your New York Knicks?

C: They have the star power; they just don’t have the answers. Did I tell you, last year, that I’m a Knicks fan?

NPH: Yeah, you did.

C: Wow okay, good. Ok. Yeah, they have the star power, but (are) looking for the answer. For any sport that is star-driven… Basketball definitely is, hockey definitely is, baseball is kind of borderline and the NFL is just a machine so it’s not necessarily star-driven because you don’t even see the players’ faces, but you see the players’ faces in basketball and hockey. So, that’s a roundabout way of saying it’s important for the big markets to have successful franchises in basketball. And to have the Knicks over .500 and entering back into some level of relevancy is important for the league. They’re obviously a couple of players away, one big point guard away. It could be Deron Williams, it could be Chris Paul -who knows- it could be Tony Parker, I don’t know.

 

To wrap-up the interview, NPH focused on Richards’s desperate love of the Knicks while he had some choice words for superfan Spike Lee.

NPH: And, did you get your Amare jersey?

C: Not quite, not quite.

NPH: You’re more a Melo guy or Fields guy?

C: Am I an Amare guy or a Melo guy? I guess I’m more of a Melo guy than an Amare guy, but I really like Amare.

NPH: Yeah. Not like Spike Lee with your Landry Fields?

C: No, not that fanatical. Spike Lee should tone that down a little bit, people are starting to pick on him a little bit for his blatant love of the New York Knickerbockers. He needs to tone that down just a little so people can respect him again.

NPH: Yeah. Do you have anything you want to add or shout out to or whatnot?

C: Hmm, you know I just appreciate you hitting me up, man. I mean, thank you for that and the conversations and sports comments that we have. They’re regular, so thank you.

NPH: Yeah, it’s always cool.

C: Shout outs to you, man. Shout outs to you and NPH, (NorthPoleHoops.com).

 

PHOTO COURTESY: CTVGLOBEMEDIA