Heat beat, West Palm Beach, Fla.

The Palm Beach Post is seeking an experienced, dynamic, versatile and creative reporter to cover the Miami Heat.

This is not a traditional "beat writer' position. Given the high-profile franchise, this writer will produce reporting-driven analysis, enterprise and features. This reporter will break news beyond the routine and offer insight into the team, personalities and the NBA. This reporter will be expected to quickly develop sources within the team and the NBA.

This reporter also will be a must-read for Heat fans, including writing a blog and other forms of social media.

Candidates should have at least five years of reporting experience at a daily newspaper or major website. The best candidates will have a distinct, polished writing style, strong reporting instincts and three or more years of experience on a major professional beat.

Send cover letter, resume and clips to Sports Editor Dave Tepps, The Palm Beach Post, 2751 S. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach, FL 33405, or dave_tepps@pbpost.com.

 

Wow. The LeBron affect is already underway. Well, if you don't count the Heat ticket office employees that were let go this week.

 

inb4 Brian Windhorst gets the job

 

I thought Brian Windhorst did a great job and was very fair in covering LeBron. He's known him since freshman year of high school.
LeBron is a pretty powerful guy. He just got a story killed at ESPN.com. In that vein, he may not look on Brian in as positive a light these days. My guess is that would actually hurt him here, if Brian wanted to leave Cleveland. I have no idea if he does or not. He certainly won't have near as many readers at the Plain Dealer with LeBron gone.
Actually more important to know D-Wade on this beat. Obviously D-Wade is the guy on that team. He made both Bosh and LeBron his fools. He's steering the ship there.

 

Didn't that paper lay off Chris Perkins from this exact job, when it decided it didn't need full-time Heat coverage? Oops!

Seriously, has he moved on or could he be hired back?

 

He's been doing lots of freelance work on Mixed Martial Arts.

Yeah, sure you will. NOBODY breaks news with this tight-lipped franchise, not even reporters who have been on the beat for two decades. Well, perhaps once every total eclipse of the sun you might break something. And now you will be competing with national media that will be clamoring for every nugget (and hanging around every nightclub LeBron and Co. visits).

I won't hold my breath waiting for the first PB Post scoop on the Heat.

 

I understand this whole dynamic completely, but it really kind of sucks that any paper -- certainly not calling out Tepps -- would decide they don't have the resources to cover a certain pro beat and then, when it's apparently that team is going to be good for the next five or six years, decide maybe they do.

 

Perhaps if more sports sections took this approach their papers would be eminently more readable.

 

Windhorst is a great read. Unlike LeBron, he likes living in northeast Ohio. It's not like he's LeBron's mouthpiece. Doubt he'd even want to go deal with that team in that situation, though in reality, he could write a book off it.

 

Windhorst is a pro and unlike certain insecure basketball players, he doesn't uproot and relocate just to hang around someone he's known for a long time. Do we really want to get into a situation where superstar athletes have their "own" beat writers anyway? And would we want to become one of those, with what surely would be an attendant loss of credibility?

As for Scoop returns, way too much vitriol. You're kidding yourself if you think Brian W. isn't the equal or better of the writers you listed. Especially B.Wright, whose work on the Cavs beat seemingly was what made Windhorst's hiring from Akron so necessary in Cleveland.

 

No doubt that there will be some interesting books done on the whole story.

 

Chris Perkins is covering the Heat for FoxSportsFlorida.com.