Wilbon vs. Steinberg: Who ya got?

Could he have mean it's last among those cities?

 

He's not insufferable on any level. He is tremendously gracious with time and advice when people (young writers) approach him. I'm sure he has a healthy ego, but I wish all of the big-timers were as kind and patient with others as Wilbon is.

 

I don't know if someone put the question to him as compare these cities and only these cities, I suppose that's theoretically possible, but it sure would sound stupid to do that.

"It's terrible" doesn't require a lot of context, though. That's the opposite of "pretty good."

 

The reason I ask is because nobody on the planet thinks DC is "last" in the country as a major sports town. I think the six cities that were mentioned and a few others would be ahead of DC... But as someone already mentioned, it's not like DC is Atlanta...

 

I've lived in both LA and DC and agree with Wilbon that LA is the much better sports town. Yes, Steinberg is correct in that DC sports fans are more passionate than given credit for. But their teams, both college and pro, have been collectively anemic over the last two decades. Many DC Sports fans are self-described as tortured, yet LA seems to celebrate a championship or two every few years.

That being said, I think it was fair of Steinberg to be critical of Wilbon comments, because it appeared as though Wilbon was trolling a bit with his initial comments. Then of course he backtracked, which didn't help. But Steinberg did come off as though he was pandering to DC sports fans a bit. Having noted DC Sports homer Bram Weinstein backing him certainly didn't help in that regard.

 

D.C. is perfectly fine as a pro sports city, but the college scene -- at least in terms of quality -- is terrible. The college football is especially horrifying, especially if you spent your formative years in SEC country.

As someone mentioned earlier, D.C. has so many non-D.C. residents that it's never going to have the type of fanbase you'd see in places like Chicago, Boston or Philly.

 

Haha, Washington is such a shitty sports town it's worse than Cleveland!

http://www.cleveland.com/datacentral/index.ssf/2012/10/clevelands_record_is_second-wo.html#incart_river

 

I don't know Wilbon. I am sure he is a really nice guy personally. I was referring to his work professionally. And when I read or observe it I feel that I am frequently being lectured.

 

That about sums up 2012 Michael Wilbon. He's a prattling moralist who is also a tremendously nice person. His problem wasn't his opinion, it was his unwillingness to back up that opinion with anything beyond it being his opinion.

 

Nothing like a little internecine royal rumble involving civic pride or lack there of.
DC IS a humdrum sports town. The only sizzle it has is due to the politicians who attend the games, and the fact that so many people in DC are from somewhere else and haven't spent decades living and dying with the local teams is probably the biggest reason.
You would think Wilbon accused DC of being the Viagra capital of the World.

The Bleacher Report-ization of "journalism" continues...

 

wilbon was free to say dc was a terrible sports town. some evidence might have helped. acting like "he wasn't going along the company line" and taking a stand is risible.

trying to argue he's not a pedantic prick these days is pretty tough, especially when he insists upon calling magic johnson "earvin" and not talking to jon barry or chris broussard on the nba roundtable.

also, the only time you see him with a column on espn.com is when it's about chicago, which i guess is his right, but it's usually fanboi whining, such as trying to blame derrick rose's torn acl on the lockout-shortened schedule without evidence and not changing his tune when doctors debunk the theory.