Hollinger makes sense and the Daily Dime continues its tradition of suckitude in mass quantities
by pookeyguru on Jan 11, 2008 4:41 AM PST
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PrintOkay the first part I already wrote. But perusing the Daily Dime link gets me angry at ESPN's NBA coverage for some reason. First the John Hollinger stuff. Also, at the bottom is a 2 pronged poll. Make sure you read the answers carefully.
I'm going to make a short diary here on John Hollinger's Free Insider column that popped up today.
To make a long potential look at what Hollinger said I'm going to agree with much of what he said about the Center position be amptly stocked. The notion that there are no Center's in the NBA anymore I think is because people see Shaquille O'Neal as a true Center. Well I call major league bullshit. O'Neal is bigger than any athlete EVER. Nobody compares to that guy in any way.
As far as Center's aren't as good as they were 10 years ago well no shit sherlock. I'd rather have Hakeem Olajuwon than Marcus Camby too. It doesn't mean that Camby isn't a quality C by any realistic standard.
I'm glad that Hollinger wrote this today. I was beginning to wonder some of the thought process' that went through his head. I'm also glad Kelly Dwyer chose to link to it also.
Now for my 2nd part of this has to do with the title if you haven't figure out. The Daily Dime is a disgrace. It really is. First off I have no patience for Jon Barry, whom I totally find to be a corny pissant version of his father. And what's worse about him is he's the mean snob at a college fraternity who snickers about how rich and important he is. If Jon Barry never played in the NBA, and mouthed off about how brilliant he is, he probably wouldn't be on ESPN. At least he fits in with the other tools ESPN employs to talk about basketball.
For example from Jon Barry's "writing" tonight:
1. Boston Celtics -- 29-4! It's not surprising they are far better than last season, but the degree of improvement is the big news. This is a team that was in the early stages of an 18-game losing streak at this time last season. Umm, okay who was on the Celtic's roster now who was also on the roster this time last year? Rajon Rondo, Kendrick Perkins, Brian Scalabrine and Tony Allen to my relocation are the only players who were even on that roster last season. And whom amongst those are playing worthwhile ball for the Celtics this season? Rondo Perkins and Allen are in my estimation. Especially seeing as how Rondo and Perkins start. Where the fuck is the correlation between a team that lost a ton of games last year and a team with 3 all-star players on it's roster this season? Not to mention the acquisition of 3 veteran players who have added intensity and shooting to the roster (Posey, Pollard and House) and a young player who has exceeded expectations (Big Baby Davis). This is a different team. And that's a surprise why? Jon Barry is a tard and a half. I'm glad his smart ass resides in Atlanta. I'd love to clock his worthless ass every day if I could. You can count me as one of the few people who will never ever ever EVER say I think Jon Barry being traded was a bad thing. Ever, which was said just in case you didn't think the 3 ever's held enough emphasis.This of course ignores the fact that he knew they would be improved but he didn't think they would be 29-4. What the fuck was he trying to say? Yeah, if you can't figure it out because I've just realized that too. The guy makes absolute no sense. Whoever told him he can write really should dip their bread in cyanide for even allowing this dumbshucker of an ex-basketball player to think he has knowledge of the game. Editing is a lost art and apparently too difficult of a task for those "journalists" currently residing at Bristol.
Then there is the non-analysis of the Portland Trail Blazers. I'm amazed he was able to type 100 words and not say a damn fucking thing about them. But I'll highlight this point just for posterity sake I guess:
There are good things around the curve, too. Most everyone thought this was another lottery season for the Blazers after No. 1 overall pick Greg Oden was lost for the season with a knee injury. Now, it's a whole new outlook. Umm, okay what does Greg Oden have to do with this? Other than you're a worthless tool who knows little about the Blazers. Let Dave of Blazers Edge take ya the rest of the way. (I do suggest you read that column. For what it's worth it was written in September long before the winning streak. I even wrote something similar and far less readable in May.) The point is that the idea that Greg Oden would solve the Blazers problems is stupid. Greg Oden is a nice piece to have, and something that I'm sure alot of teams would like to have (no shit huh?), but to sit here and say that the team is overachieving because they don't have Greg Oden is just, uhm, toolish. The more intelligent of folks who are in the know about the Blazers would have told you that Oden's absence has helped create: A) Brandon Roy's emergence as a leader and scorer, and B) helped LaMarcus Aldridge establish himself as a main scoring option inside. If Oden was there do you think this would be going as smoothly? If you said yes slap yourself at least a million times. I repeat, again, that Jon Barry is a tool.Here's another favorite of mine:
3. Orlando Magic -- The first thing that impresses about this team is its 16-6 road record. Dwight Howard is proving he's an All-Star type of player, pulling down a league-leading 15.2 rebounds per game. Dwight Howard is PROVING he's an all star player? Who the fuck in their right mind can take Barry seriously after this statement? He was an All-Star a year ago, and a legitmate one at that. It's not like he came out of nowhere like Ike Austin did. This is a guy who was drafted 1st overall in 2004 remember? And Ben Wallace was voted an All-Star for how many years for grabbing down that many boards with absolutely no offensive game? Sigh. I really expected from the way Kobe came in, there would be major distractions. Instead, they've been tremendous offensively, and Phil Jackson is doing the best coaching job he's ever done. The first part of this, which I'm letting it go, and deciding not to kick the jerk-off as many times as I could easily do so, I'm just ignoring on the basis that many other national nitwits said similar things to that sentiment. What gets me is this is the best coaching job Phil Jackson's ever done. That may or may not be true but this team is hardly a wonder. Is it that big of a shock that this team started quickly after last year's start?Another stupid oversight:
5. New Orleans Hornets -- In the best division in basketball, the Hornets are only 1 game out of the Southwest Division lead at 23-12. Winning is not a tremendous surprise, because this was a team on the cusp of breaking through already.They had been hampered by injuries last season, and still nearly made the playoffs. Chris Paul (averaging 21.7 points per game and 10.2 assists per game, which is third in the league) is becoming one of the premier point guards in the league in a West conference loaded with them. This is a Hornets team that no one really talks about much, but they bring a great road record (14-5) to the table
Okay wasn't this the point of the 5 MOST surprising teams in the NBA? Maybe I'm a bit over zealous here, but how does contradicting yourself directly, by simply saying that it isn't a big surprise thry're winning, and even in dumber fashion indirectly pointing out they've been healthy, when in season's past that WAS the achilles heal of this group, contribute to them being a surprise at all? Sigh, again.What's the saddest part of all this?
ESPN analyst Jon Barry is a regular contributor to the Daily Dime. This fucker gets paid to write something a 3rd grader could write all because he played in the NBA. It's no wonder I don't hardly read ESPN anymore. I miss the old days when ESPN had the 4 divisions covered (you know when there was still only 4 divisions) by local columnists who coevered teams in each division. One was Frank Hughes, who writes for the Tacoma News Tribune covering the Sonics. One was Marc Stein, when he covered the Mavs for the Dalls Morning News. Another is the late Jeffrey Denberg, of the Atlanta Journal Constitution, who covered the Hawks. The 4th spot on the east coast was Jackie McMullans, who appears on the craptastic talk show "Around the Horn", who is a columnist for the Boston Globe. Either way it was a much better covering of the NBA by ESPN in those years. With idiot tards who have no business writing about basketball (at the very least) it's no wonder sports blogs rose to such prominence. It's not very hard to garner interest when so many media wags are so entirely in-consequential.You know why I originally wrote this? Because I'm angry that ESPN entirely ignored the strong Grizzlies-Kings game tonight. If I was a fan of basketball, and I am, there wasn't a single mention of a fun entertaining game that between the other 2 games didn't exist completely. If I was a Grizzlies fan I would be angry too. If I was a hoops junkie in Florida who missed the night because other obligations took importance then I would be mad too. Was there even a mention of that anywhere on the blog? Nope, not even a shout out to John Salmons near of John Salmons near Triple Double (28 pts 11 boards 7 assists) or Rudy Gay's great showing (31 pts on 9 of 13 shooting ,with 4 from 7 from downtown,7 rebounds and 2 steals. I've already said ESPN is awful but they robbed fans of any knowledge of the game because of the combined 23-43 record for the Grizz/Kings coming into the game. As a fan is this acceptable? I could understand if there was 12 games going on and something got dropped. But there was 3 friggin games on the docket. This doesn't even mention that Salmons or Gay's emergence surprised how many people? ESPN's suckitude is yet again clear, and sadly, just points out exactly why they're so inconsequential. I'm perpetually amazed at how these people can call themselves the sports leader without even showing a credible nod to Gay or Salmons (who really played the best out of anybody on any floor tonight). To say it's frustrating to not even see a single mention of anything that went on (except for seeing Salmon's name as a top 3 performer on the list in the scoring section--and not to see Gay's was just stupid) is beyond frustrating. I don't take ESPN seriously and why should I? After craptastic Daily Dime's like this one no one should.
(This is a FanPost from a member of the Sactown Royalty community. The views expressed come from the member, and not Sactown Royalty staff.)
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Wha?
Yeah section it was a shameful performance
Section if you want to get off ESPN's suckiness
Thanks for the link, pookey
Echo the sentiments below regarding TrueHoop, too.
Finally, I had my wires crossed between ESPN's NBA Tonight TV show and the written Daily Dime. I watch/read neither.
Yeah it's that map that tripped me out
As far as agreement/disagreement that's just a given Section. Nobody can agree on everything clearly. It's like the drawing of the 2 circles and you start with the gray area and hopefully keep expanding it. Or some such.
Yeah.
True Hoop is cool
There's a reason for this.
Did crunchberry spend his four years in college studying journalism or english? No. He spent it playing basketball.
Did crunchberry spend time covering all the different levels of the game as he aspired to become a writer for a major news source? Has he covered High School, NCAA, and finally the pros on his career-long path to earn a position as a WRITER? Obviously not.
I think its plainly-obvious why he is not a good writer and offers no insight. He hasn't been doing it long enough and learned from his prior mistakes/coverage.
On the flip-side someone who has been playing the game their entire life may have extensive knowledge of the game, he just doesn't know how to write about. That's why I don't lose it when I see players in the booth, because they have been talking about basketball their entire life: on the playground, in high school, college, the pros.
Though, speaking of atrocious writing...
I used to like ESPN a whole lot, but with the advent of blogs I've been readin it significantly less. ESPN is trying to sell advertisements, the blogs are trying to gain readers and have them conversate - and since it's such a competitive market, they try harder to bring something unique. Plus, it's easier for a fan to read a fan's point of view.
Shizzles, I've even stopped watching Sportscenter - I only watch it if I have tv access but no internet. A large part due b/c the bastards never play the Kings game.
Perhaps so but...
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