Brilliant Sports Reporters (July 30)

Actually, it's only 10 mins in, but Whitlock said what i've been saying for years: Sports are just entertainment, nothing more. I think his exact quote was, "There is no integrity in sports."

Agree 1000%.

Of course, Albom and Lupica flipped out, and i believe steam was emitting from their ears. Lupica countered with this: "I think there's a seat for you on an Entertainment Tonight set."

Whitlock, who was calm, cool, and collected throughout, said, "The E in ESPN stands for ..."

And Saunders ended the bloodbath.

Great work, big fella. I enjoy watching Mcgrady come down the wing and dunk all over Mutombo; love Reggie Bush killing every defense in college football. I stopped being a fanboy, though, before high school ended (actually, i think the last exact moment may have been the Robert Horry 3-pointer against the Kings in one of the best finishes in sports history. I remember it all - at the beach, with friends, rushed to a TV at the bar to see the final moments. Then, when it was over, it was boozing and working chicks).

We can keep hanging on the every word of these drug-using, money-grubbing athletes ... but if you graduated high school, you know these guys aren't heros, never were heros, and shouldn't be put on any pedestals.

 

Good work Jason.

The stunned looks of Lupica and Albom were priceless.

"How dare the ..."

The look on Saunders' face suggested he really didn't want to intervene .... the time thing.

Good stuff.

 

I agree with you. Sports is entertainment and there's nothing wrong with that. I recently graduated from high school and no,I don't look at most athletes as heroes. Terrell Owens playing on a bum leg? That shows how tough a person is but I don't think it's really "heroic". But there are some sports figures that should be looked at as heroes. Alonzo Mourning, for example, has played with life threatening kidney problems after doctors said he would never play again.

 

With the exception of more athleticism and rampant free agency, sports is the same animal it has ever been.

That assholes at ESPN try to make it more than that... doesn't make it so.

A Scoop-ishly simplistic, short-sighted and ill-informed take.

 

Sorry, but Lupica and Albom (as much as I don't like them) were right. There is a difference between saying that we often over-glorify athletes and make stories bigger than they really are - which is absolutely true - and what Whitlock inferred, which is that sports are essentially fixed, the same as pro wrestling. If it is, we need to find another business.

 

Jason: In my humble opinion, that was your best TV effort I've seen. Well done!

 

Lupica and Albom -- aren't those two the ones who have used the sports world as a launching pad to get into TV and novels?

 

A home run by Whitlock? Nope. More like a 2-run double. Here's why:

First, props for saying what he believes and what needs to be said.

Second, sports is (are) ENTERTAINING, not entertainment. There's a difference between an athlete and an actor. An athlete doesn't know the outcome and can change the outcome. An actor knows the outcome and can make it better or worse through his performance.

What is entertaining about sports is that we never really know what we're gonna see.

It's all about perspective. Lil' Loopy and Big Ears have little except when it comes to fattening their bank accounts.

 

Can we just dub this the running Whitlock ass-kissing thread?  : Wow, sports as entertainment. That's pretty revolutionary stuff, J-Dub. Keep working those corners.

Hahahaha. Slam dunk.

 

So, the argument here is what?
Sports=entertainment. And because sports=entertainment, therefore there is no integrity in sports?
Didn't see the show but based on AF's summary, I have to say that I don't think this word "integrity" means what JW thinks it means.
There is no integrity in entertainment?
There is no meaning to the phrase, just to pick one, "artistic integrity" in say, the ,movies, or music, or any other form of performance art?
All due respect to Jason, but this is the same old tired cynicism masquerading as wisdom. That it pissed off the right people is the only thing that can be said for it.

 

The celebration of Whitlock's realization and ensuing announcement that sports is entertainment reminds me that one man's news is sometimes another man's rehash. It further reminds me of the late, great Dick Schaap. Rudy Martzke, the erstwhile USA Today sports-TV critic (to use a word loosely), used to hand out laurels for "best lines of the week." The celebrated lines were more often than not lines worn thin by years of clichehood. "But they qualified as 'best lines,'" Schaap said, "because Rudy, alone among all civilized people, had never heard them."

 

I don't know if they've changed it, but initially, didn't the E in ESPN stand for East or Eastern?