What happens in Vegas gets pulled from ESPN.com

WWL says reporter didn't make clear to sources that he was writing a story ...

http://www.ajc.com/sports/espn-com-removes-article-581445.html

 

FTR, Rob King is one of the good guys. I'm perplexed how Markazi would have just been partying with James if he WEREN'T there as a reporter, and if that's not a warning sign of some sort.

 

I don't know whether ESPN is an enabler or a stockholder of LeBron Inc. at this point.

 

A reporter? I thought he was just a sponging lapdog! My bad.

 

Markazi's M.O. is to party with athletes, attend the same social events and write about them.

He did it for SI.com, and now does it for ESPNLosAngeles.com. It would be interesting to find out if his method this time around was different.

 

OK so I hope so other journalist follows up by confirming everything the WWL.com reported.

 

But how would he "get inside the ropes" with LeBron if his people didn't know who he was?

 

according to richard sandomir's story in today's ny times, the writer got access through a chris bosh connection.

ESPN's version of events is detailed in the story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/30/sports/basketball/30sandomir.html

 

More along those lines:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/ESPN-won-t-republish-LeBron-in-Vegas-story-due-t?urn=nba-259278#remaining-content

 

Piotr Rasputin is right.

Markazi is a reputable journalist as in, he is known, in a social-media, publicity-machine kind of way because he has worked for nothing but major publications and Web sites. Seeing that, I was not surprised at his hiring by ESPN LA. He fits right in with the "culture" there, I'm sure.

From a journalism standpoint, though, it has long been hard to imagine how Markazi built such a fast-track career of moves from virtually nothing but one national destination-type outlet to another in the span of less than 10 years since I took (and had pull out of him, question by agonizing question/statistic, and had to write for him) a high school highlight that he called in on a football game in which David Koral set a national single-game passing record of 764 yards for Cathedral High of Los Angeles in 2000.

 

Didn't he go straight from USC to SI?

I seem to recall him having feuds with TJ Simers when he was at USC, which always is a good idea only in the mind of the college kid.

 

There is a term for a guy like Markazi who writes about Lebron's adventures in Vegas.