Heat beat, West Palm Beach, Fla.

Yeah, adding that James guy won't change anything either.

 

(My boys who work at the Post want to ride with you, AK. Took me an hour almost every time to go 27 miles from Broward to 1HP during rush hour.)

As for LBJ's impact...you're right. I forgot he's the first star to land in Miami.
Miami-LA, Miami-Orlando, Miami-Boston. Those will be events. Miami-Milwaukee, not so much, and there are many more games like that. Too many. That's the NBA's problem.

 

Mileage and drive time to WPB are irrelevant for this hire, I'm assuming. If the paper is serious about working this beat, the person will be encouraged to live in/near Miami or wherever the Heat's HQ is (don't know if they practice at AAA or off-site). Being "near" the office/newsroom is a complete waste of time and tires.

If the claim is that "90 minutes" making the Heat less compelling of a story to cover for the WPB paper, less interesting to its audience, I don't buy that either. States all across the union have their sports fans' allegiances defined by the state's borders.

I'd be more concerned about the paper's decision not long ago to drop the Heat as a staff beat, only to revive it now. If LBJ suffers a career-ending injury in a year or two, does this staffer also suffer a career-ending event as well?

 

WTF are you smoking and can I have some?

 

There is no way in hell this writer will live in Palm Beach. All of the Post's pro writers usually live in Lauderdale or Miami. The commute is irrelevant.

 

Ethan lives in Boca Raton.

 

Impressive. A scribe in Boca.

 

Who cares/who's talking about where the writer lives?
I'm talking about people/readers in WPB making the trek to Heat games. Didn't happen when they won the title. Won't happen now. The Heat are a very distant third, at best, in the WPB market. Dolphins, college football are a clear 1-2, then you can argue Marlins-Panthers-Heat-golf.

Drip...I'm guessing you don't cover the NBA.

 

Well, I'm just glad 1HPGrad isn't running the PB Post. I applaud the Post for going after a writer of Ethan's caliber for a beat that garner tremendous interest in the next few years.

 

Gotta know your market and situation. PBP has greater needs (how could it not when it recently cut about 40 percent of staff), and its readers have greater interests. Great for Juice or whomever gets it. But it's a hire of luxury at a paper that is doing more with less. If I were the metro editor, I wouldn't like it. College editor probably wishes he had another body, too. Maybe Juice or whomever does a combo gig. That certainly would make more sense. I'd hate to think Heat travel money would reduce UF-FSU-UM travel, but every dollar spent on the Heat has to come from somewhere else. That's my issue.

 

Well, then, more questions:

Any chance that WPB could entice a Web site writer -- someone from ESPN.com, SI.com, Yahoo!, CBSSports.com, NBA.com, Fox, NBC, Hoopsworld, you name it -- to take this job? Would it be risky in 2010 to go from Internet to newspaper? Can anyone recall any sportswriters from major sites heading back to print? Seems like the migration is always the other way, doesn't it?