Vetting Ailene Voisin

why less people read them and turn to the “Terrible, mothers basement, unqualified” blogs, but its right there in front of them. Both Biegler and section are right on about her column. I put more on the editorial staff for not putting any incentive on accuracy or support. I can say “LeBron will be a King next year, making him the King of Kings.” No one buys it. But there is no difference between my last statement and the one she’s getting paid tens of thousands of dollars a year to make.

1) A co-worker once joked that ever since the energy crisis every column Dan Walters has written has been identical, only substitute energy for whatever current crisis we’re in. Voisin is the same way, only her columns also have a Beetlejuice like quality wherein she’s convinced herself that if she says Bill Laimbeer enough times he’ll go from being a wacky idea she had after a few glasses of Rombauer at Riverside Clubhouse to a legitimate coaching candidate. Only Bob Ryan doesn’t have that kind of traction and, with all due respect, Voisin isn’t Bob Ryan.

2) Voisin’s repetitiveness would be a non-issue if her work was staggered by other columns or her ideas were countered by the opinions of other columnists. But this paper no longer has other columnists or their columns. So not only are we getting the same column every week, it’s the ONLY column we’re getting every week. I know this blog was never particularly enamored with Marty McNeal but this is why he was a necessary evil.

3) More substantively, when did hiring Eddie Jordan become settling? I realize he’s not the Association’s most sophisticated defensive coach but Jordan turned a team with limited talent into a perennial playoff contender. No, he’s not Van Gundy, but his success in comparison to other coaching candidates listed is comparable. He’s certainly preferable to Fratello, who has a history of combining outsized ego with mediocrity in a way that would make Reggie Theus blush.

4) I’m not fond of the Ainge and Kupchak comparisons. Could Petrie have handled the rebuilding process with more grace and efficiency? Without question. Am I admittedly entirely too much of a Petrie apologist? Yes. But this team’s success was built on high profile trades and free agent signings. The sort of personnel moves that inevitability lead to lean years. Additionally I feel this organization, more than most, has been subject to circumstances beyond its control. They couldn’t control Billy Donovan deciding to go back to Florida. They couldn’t control the housing bubble bursting in a town where a good deal of expendable income was tied to said bubble. I admire Kupchak and Ainge’s current success, but both fiddled while their Romes burned and got lucky sifting through the subsequent rubble.

Why, when decent reporters are being let go by this newspaper, Ms. Voisin still has a job.

She pushes her own agenda, not based on what is best for the Kings, but based on Whisenant’s twinkling blue eyes. She writes glowing columns about Kenny Thomas and Beno Udrih during the season, then slams them in her effort to bring down Petrie, whose only real sin seems to be not hiring Whis.

Her arguments about trades and signings are completely ignorant of any real knowledge of the business of basketball, and while I’m sure this column was intended to be a “hard-hitting piece of journalism,” it really only has served to cement her reputation as a pseudo-reporter who has her own axe to grind.

And the only thing I thought was that Voisin was being Voisin. Using sensationalism to add controversy and get people to buy the newspapers. Add another dimension to an already intriguing summer with a High Draft Pick and a new coaching search.

It will have no influence on Mr. Petrie, I am fairly convinced after seeing their previous interviews that neither Joe or Gavin read their press locally, and given my distaste for the sour bile that drips through the keyboards of the usual SacBee.com/Kings commenter, they deserve each other.

If you hadn’t brought this up I doubt I would have given it another thought.

So truly – Griffin or Rubio??

Makes me wonder how much choice did the Bee have in Scoop’s leaving? After all, in a matter of weeks he was working for Sports Illustrated. I think he left voluntarily because there was little money left in the business he was working for, and he just got out ahead of time.

Could be a decision based on the need to show improvement now, before talk of a next contract for the GM.