1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Adrian Wojnarowski piece

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Dick Whitman, Dec 17, 2014.

  1. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Last edited: Dec 17, 2014
  2. JayFarrar

    JayFarrar Well-Known Member

    Lots of inside baseball, I thought.

    The parking lot anecdote was weird. Competing reporters talking shit to each other on the beat? I need my fainting coach as I seem to have been overcome by the vapors.

    He hasn't had much right on LeBron, but has been right on most everything else NBA-related, I guess. I quit paying attention to the NBA at least a decade ago. Probably closer to two decades ago.

    I'd also like to note that when I want introspective, factual, named quote-based reporting on sports commentary writers, I always turn to The New Republic. [/sarcasm]
     
  3. MisterCreosote

    MisterCreosote Well-Known Member

    "Opinion columnist, who is also adept at breaking news, judiciously chooses on whom and what to opine." Tear up the front.

    I think my favorite part is when this dipshit writer holds up ESPN as an example of strict guidelines on anonymous sourcing.

    Also, why can I find not one mention of this $500,000 fine levied on Joe Dumars anywhere except in the linked piece? The writer says it's "publicly known."
     
  4. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    How does where the piece ran have anything to do with an assessment of its merits?
     
  5. MisterCreosote

    MisterCreosote Well-Known Member

    I'm calling bullshit on that Dumars fine, unless further explanation is given.
     
  6. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    That's interesting. I can't find it, either. That would be a pretty big mistake to make in a piece partly about another reporter's pretty big mistakes.
     
  7. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    So this is the new The New Republic.

    Guy from Deadspin gets hard-on for well-known reporter. Not news. Not really very interesting except to confirm the psychosis and inferiority complex that are part and parcel of working for Deadspin.
     
  8. cranberry

    cranberry Well-Known Member

    I'd say the quality of TNR was going down but it's been awful for years. Why was this guy stalking Wojo again?
     
  9. Dan Feldman

    Dan Feldman Member

    That's not what the article says.

    Draper:

    "In 2010, the NBA fined Dumars $500,000 for leaking multiple confidential league memos to Wojnarowski, according to multiple sources. This matches the third largest publicly known fine the league has ever handed down."​

    He cites multiple anonymous sources and compares the fine to publicly known ones. He never claims the Dumars fine was publicly known, which is why you won't find record of it elsewhere.
     
    Versatile likes this.
  10. Small Town Guy

    Small Town Guy Well-Known Member

    I thought it was a strange piece.

    The LeBron stuff. In his columns, yeah, he went after him pretty hard. Which is okay. That is allowed. As much criticism as LeBron gets, there are also many people who pounce on anyone who rips him. Appreciate him! Best player in the game! He's done things that deserve to be ripped (he has been too passive at times; his free agency was weird; he did disappear against Boston). What the piece doesn't mention is, from 2012-2014, when LeBron took his game to an even higher level, Wojnarowski has written more fawning pieces on him than just about anyone. Almost as if you can write different things based on different performances. Lakers fans actually have these same beefs with Woj about Kobe. He ripped him at times post-Shaq, and then when the Lakers were winning titles again, wrote columns praising him (which he still does). It'd be like getting mad at someone for ripping Magic after the 1984 Finals and then praising him for his effort in the 1987 Finals.

    I also got a kick out of Craggs, of course, being quoted for ripping Woj for ripping LeBron. When Kobe scored 81, Slate--#slatepitches--wrote a piece criticizing him. Because he didn't pass the ball enough. While rallying his team from nearly 20 points down. And scoring the second-most points in NBA history. The byline on the story, which could have been ghostwritten by Smush Parker? Tommy Craggs. It was a piece Deadspin would usually mock.

    He maybe didn't rip Dumars enough. Okay.

    He gets things wrong sometimes. Like, Ric Bucher, quoted in the piece on the record at least, saying that Kobe would never, ever, ever wear a Lakers uniform again? That was seven years ago.

    He ripped Hollinger. I know it's a sin in the analytics community to do that because he's proof that PER rules and he built the Grizzlies, but...he had nothing to do with bringing in the three pieces that have carried the Grizzlies these past years: Gasol, Randolph, and Conley. That was the old GM who didn't know anything. And for a franchise that's been as solid on the court as they've been, it has been a bit chaotic off. Getting rid of Hollins. And then nearly losing Joerger after one season. Is it out of line to criticize some of the new people in the front office who contributed to that uncertainty on the bench?

    He now has more sources than he did when he first started at Yahoo. That's bad. Bad Woj.

    The Dumars fine: If true, are we supposed to be upset at that? Woj convinced a source to leak him things. Gawker has built an entire offshoot website based just on the Sony leaks, they're loving them so much. But Wojnarowski getting a few memos is...bad? (not to mention the image of the NBA bigwigs altering memos to catch a leaker is funny. "No, no, in that one say that we honor the accomplishments of Earvin Johnson, but leave the Magic part out.").

    Aside from LeBron--who can't be criticized--a few of his other targets include "the New York Knicks management, the “Carolina way,” John Calipari, Larry Brown, college basketball coaches, former player’s union executive director Billy Hunter, agent David Falk, and Boston Celtics executive Danny Ainge."

    God forbid anyone target those concepts or people. Seriously? Is he not supposed to target Knicks management, Larry Brown's travels and rivalries, power-hungry college coaches, and Billy frickin' Hunter? Huh?

    And this:
    Did the Irony Police make it over to the new board yet? That's a Deadspin writer writing those words.

    Am I putting Woj in a LeBron category where you can't criticize anything he does? No. He's fair game like anyone else. But this piece just didn't make much sense to me.
     
  11. Dyno

    Dyno Well-Known Member

    Thanks, STG, for saying (much more eloquently) what I didn't have time to.
     
  12. Dan Feldman

    Dan Feldman Member

    I think you're reading this as a hit piece, trying to understand why every point is critical of Woj and whether that's fair. I don't think it's intended as a hit piece, though there are certainly points of criticism. I think it's a look into a writer so many of us read religiously -- good, bad and neutral.

    If there are elements of the story that you can't figure out how they bash Woj, they probably don't.
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page