Is Doyel dissing Reilly here?

Thanks, Frank, that's what I meant. The examples of overhearing politicians planning to fuck over an opponent, that is newsworthy. If a writer overheard two players talking and one says, "I'm gonna kick the crap outta that guy next time we play," that's something you can use in describing what happened in the game to warrant that kind of feeling.
I never said we should limit ourselves to what is provided in news conferences. But, again, locker room bullshitting shouldn't be quotable material, especially when everybody knows it's just joking around. In this case, if the "source" claimed that his comments were taken out of context, I'd have to agree.

 

I gotcha Gregg. Like I said, didn't read the conlon stuff

Still, I have no problems with Reilly asking Dorsey straight up if he thought Oden was overrated. He must have had a reason for asking... no?
Unless of course, all Reilly does nowadays is around asking all players if they think their opponents are overrated (LOL).

I can see preferring your approach over Reilly's--especially since your subtle question won out. But, the two of you were both serving the same end: to get Dorsey to start blabbing. So I didn't see the point of bringing up Reilly the way you did, "a reporter who shall be unnamed--ok, it was Rick..." unless you were deliberately trying to jab him. Which, I guess, is fine if you have a legit beef with the guy.

But that's just me.

 

Three things on this:

1. Gregg wasn't dissing Reilly, and I don't think Reilly took it that way. But I did think it was hilarious that after trying to get Dorsey to talk trash, Reilly wasn't in the breakout room two minutes later when Dorsey went off.

2. There is no problem whatsoever with quoting Douglas-Roberts in that situation. He's been around, and he's pretty media-savvy. He knew there were reporters there when he said it. And in fact, you might argue he said it for their benefit -- one of those "Screw them guys" kind of things.

3. As for the question about printing conversations players have in huddles/locker rooms -- this one is a lot simpler than some folks are making it out to be. In most NBA arenas, and many college gyms, there are fans sitting as close (and usually closer) to the bench as we are. So if the players say something they don't mind Joe Fan hearing, it's damn sure fair game for the newspaper. And in the locker rooms? When the doors open to the media, there's always a p.r. flak to make sure the players know we're coming in. They know we're not in there just to block their view of the TV and watch them listen to their iPod. So if they want to call someone a fag and not have it get out, they can go hide out in the training room and do it there.

The only issue on something like that is, as a beat person, to make sure the whatever tidbit you're using newsworthy enough to risk the ramifications of putting it in the paper. If not, then it's probably not a good idea to run it. But it's not a question of ethics. Just a question of how to best get your job done.