Move over Roger Bannister, Muhammad Ali and Arthur Ashe, Dwyane Wade in da house

They made the Final Four

They made the Final Four and guaranteed that the committee will over-seed Bradley and Butler and a bunch of other schools in this year's tournament. Then they got smoked by Florida.

 

Terry McDonell just popped on Mike and The Mad Dog to defend Wade decision. A good example of why "suits" should not branch beyond their comfort zone.

You all must hear the tape when WFAN pops it up on their web site. I mean talk about clueless. A few gems:

Dog: "if Bennett Salvatore does not make the call that allows Heat to win Wade is not your Sportman of the Year/

TM - which game was that ?



TM - You guys have my name spelled wrong on YES screen

Mike - we took it off your web site .

TM -Oh

 

Perhaps the biggest crime in sports.... The NBA regular season.

 

Yikes!

 

No offense, but you should be banned from this site for a week for listening to those 2 assholes. Don't you feel your brain cells dying by the hundreds everytime Mike the Madbitch opens his mouth. And everytime the other dolt opens his, the brain cells that aren't dying are escaping through every orifice

 

Anyone hear the Mike & the Mad Dog show yesterday? They were interviewing one of the editors at SI responsible for picking Sportsman of the Year. They were trying to pin him down on one of the criteria being the winner actually has a chance of showing up at the big awards party/photo OP/PR show SI holds for Sportsman of the Year and the editor was saying no, but tap dancing around the issue. One of them tried hammering him saying that they wouldn't pick someone who won't show up for all the media/pr blitz around the selection (citing Federer as an example as he's currently halfway around the world in southeast Asia getting ready for a tournament) and the editor was saying they don't consider that when naming the Sportsman of the Year.

 

Re: Move over Roger Bannister, Muhammad Ali and Arthur Ashe, Dwyane Wade in da h

What a crock. The SOY award has clearly become a PR-driven gimmick for SI. They're just looking for celebrity athletes now, preferably young ones like Wade and Tom Brady who will create some buzz. They probably have their short list of candidates for next year already -- LeBron James, Reggie Bush, David Wright, Derek Jeter, etc. They would probably give it to Maria Sharapova before Roger Federer.

 

That probably hurt Buck O'Neil's chances as well.

 

I work at Sports Illustrated, and I was very upset by the selection. I debated whether to post on here, but I--along with many of my co-workers--are so angry at the way things are going lately, it seemed worthwhile. Around the office, I would say no more than three or four editorial staffers thought Wade was the right choice. Roger Federer was the clear favorite, and with good reason.

However, we happen to work under an editor who knows absolutely nothing about sports. This is true: The editor of Sports Illustrated has almost no working knowledge of sports. Among other things I have heard Terry ask (or have been told he asked in meetings I was unable to attend) were: What league do the Phillies play in; What team does Kevin Garnett play for; Who holds the record for consecutive hits in a season; etc. It is a joke around the office, but not a funny one. Truly, it would make an excellent article for someone: The Sports Illustrated editor who knows nothing.

I arrived during Mark Mulvoy's term. I did not especially like Mark's style, but he was a man who was passionate about sports and knew everything that was going on. Bill Colson was that way as well, although to a lesser extent. But Terry knows almost nothing. It was his decision to pick Wade over Federer, primarily (and this is me reading in, but an accurate take, I believe) because Wade would sell magazines and Federer would go flat. Also, he may well have heard of Wade. But I guarantee you, until the piece was written, he didn't know what position he played, what college he attended, where he was from. He just knew there was a guy named Wade who the kids like.

It's sad.

 

Holy jeepers. This should be good.

 

Wow Moger thanks for your post. You have really shed light on a mysterious decision.

Your editor sounded beyond clueless yesterday when he called in to Mike and the Mad Dog.

It was obvious that decision was based on marketing instead of credibility.

 

Re: Move over Roger Bannister, Muhammad Ali and Arthur Ashe, Dwyane Wade in da h

Wow. Fascinating stuff, Moger. Confirms much of what I've heard over the last few years.

I hope for your sake that no one figures out your identity.