Jemele on Larry Johnson

See also:
Sowell, Thomas.
(Occasionally) Crouch, Stanley.
Murdock, Deroy.
Not often in sports, though, if only because, 30 years ago, there weren't a whole lot of black columnists.

 

Enlightening column, save for the "e-mails/race card in the cryogenic chamber" bit. (Was that really necessary? It didn't serve any true purpose in the story.)

"Studio gangster" needs to become part of the lexicon. Fast. I'll forever credit that term to Jemele's Larry Johnson column.

 

I fully agree with D-3 here. This is the best phrase I've heard in a long time. Outstanding, Les.

And a perfect application of the term by D-3. Who better than "my studio gangster ass would be in jail if not for that witness dying in my perjury case," wanna-be gangster Webber to use the term on. Great work, fellas.

This country has a real problem with its enormously large "Eminem from the 'burbs" young male population. I'm not sure what the fascination is with 'street cred,' but its certainly doing a lot of real damage to young men's (and the women who associate with them) lives. This has been one of the chief reasons I sided with Whitlock against Scoop, et. al. Stop glorifying the gangter crap and you'll end up with fewer Larry Johnsons, Chris Webbers, and Jason ("You don't have to go nowhere, homeboy!") Williamses.

On Hill's overall article, however, I can't really comment. For some odd reason, my will to read Page 2's columns has seen a consistent decline since before Hill arrived there. I just can't bring myself to give the WWL many click-throughs these days. But it sounds like it was good. Good for her, sincerely.

 

Bullshit. Saying this is no better than the piece she wrote on NBA groupies is total nonsense. Sorry, some columns are better than others and this one is better than that one.

 

Bullshit back at you.
It is no better argued -- or written -- than that one was.
The topic is more serious, I grant you.

 

What's funniest about the Studio Gangster term is how many members of the media is applies to...

 

Fenian --

I don't think the writing is any better, but the reasoning has improved greatly.

 

Again, I can't compare the two Hill columns not having read the one on Larry Johnson, but the NBA groupies column was utter trash. Brutal. A symptom of the 'stripperization' of America. Anything would be better than that odorous glorification of someone nicknamed 'Superhead,' and the brush-aside of adultery, etc. If I'm Allen Iverson's wife, that article would've put me through the roof.

Scoop never wrote a column that bad. Whitlock wrote something about 'Superhead' once, too, but at least he tried to take a critical look at her. Hill's 'Superhead' piece read to me like a frivolous, worthless Maureen Dowd fluff piece which just happened to have as its subject NBA groupies.

 

*Boo - yah!*

 

I'm little too young to remember those guys (I'm 30), though Sewell I've a few times when my paper carried his columns and I never got to read Crouch. He was never in my hometown paper. Pitts is someone I've read from time to time but the more I have read him over the past year, I like his writings.

I didn't think about the fact that there wasn't many columnists then. That tells you how much us little peons know about the history of the business, other than the glorified versions we read and watch on t.v..

A good friend of mine suggested I should write since I normally can spell out what I think on a non-SportsJournalists.com sports message board. I told him no way. I didn't major in journalism, never had a job in journalism, and it would be an insult to all journalists if some idiot publisher decides to stick a pen in my hand and tell me to write a major column as a no-experience hack. I enjoy writing on my free time, but I appreciate reading the pros better.

 

I wasn't commenting on Jemele's looks, necessarily. Female sports reporters have enough hoops to jump through without anonymous people like me commenting about their figures or "hotness."
I just figured between Jemele, Screamin 'A and Rob Parker together, I was going to hear a lot more bojangling and baby-mama talk than I cared to at that point in my evening, quite frankly!

 

Dunno ... I guess I consider providing actual insight as opposed to simply throwing out a bunch of bullshit about what it's like to suck the dicks of famous people struck me as a higher form of the profession. You say tomato ...