Sam Smith: Nothing to see here, folks!

[WaylonJennings]

Maybe he's right. Maybe people are making a mountain out of a molehill with the Donaghy situation.

But at least to me, this treads dangerously into protecting the league you cover instead of covering the league you cover territory. Much like baseball writers in the early days of steroids suspicion:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/columnists/cs-070722smith,1,2178930.column?coll=chi_sports_util

 

[Moland Spring]

What a freaking homer.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

Smith's more than capable.

Trib's lucky to have him.

But believe he'll regret having transmitted this one.

 

[Clever username]

****er's delusional.

 

[JayFarrar]

Hard to believe he drew these parallels

And there are bad people everywhere. Some are in pro sports, allegedly arranging dog fights, using steroids and playing in the NFL on occasion.
Some get us into wars.
And in Los Angeles last week, it was hard to miss stories about the Catholic Church making payments in the billions of dollars to settle claims of sexual abuse involving priests.
So the Donaghy case sounds like a witch hunt for now, with a crazed rush to judgment.

Yep, not his best work

 

[Ben_Hecht]

Sam's clearly not hip to the scene.

You're hip to the scene, you can smell the blood.

 

[Left_Coast]

Completely out of touch.
A league in which officiating has been called into question for MANY MANY YEARS and ... one of them is being investigated for gambling on the spot -- INCLUDING GAMES THE GUY OFFICIATED -- and Sam says, basically, "No big deal."
Again ... completely out of touch.

 

[Clerk Typist]

Rick Barry said the same thing on radio the other night, and I couldn't believe it. When a ref shaves points, or tries to, nothing is bigger.

 

[Colton]

Surprising, coming from such a solid pro. He swung and missed here.

 

[playthrough]

In the middle he talks about "bad people everywhere", including "some get us into wars." That's completely unnecessary and massively irrelevant. Not good stuff.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

In the middle he talks about "bad people everywhere", including "some get us into wars." That's completely unnecessary and massively irrelevant. Not good stuff.

Wholly agree.

I don't need Sam Smith or Loopy to tell me Dumbo's a horse's ass. I could figure that out for myself, thanks.

 

[write then drink]

I heard he's writing "They're only dogs" for Sunday

 

[brettwatson]

Sam throws a bunch of crap against the wall and hopes some sticks. That's his modus operandi.

If a writer can personally "jump the shark," he did so many moons ago.

Fella needs a good editor, for ideas as much as content.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

I heard he's writing "They're only dogs" for Sunday

I kowtow to talent.

 

[broadway joe]

This is a case of nearly everyone being of the same opinion, so a contrarian comes along and takes the completely opposite viewpoint. Happens on this board all the time.

 

[Clever username]

Completely out of touch.
A league in which officiating has been called into question for MANY MANY YEARS and ... one of them is being investigated for gambling on the spot -- INCLUDING GAMES THE GUY OFFICIATED -- and Sam says, basically, "No big deal."
Again ... completely out of touch.

Simmons' -- Yeah, yeah. I know. Blow me -- column about this on espn.com today was fantastic. The jokes were toned down in what amounted to an incredibly astute analysis by someone who watches a lot of NBA games. He may not cover any, but I don't think you can hold that against him in this case.

Edit: This might help: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/070722

 

[Kevin Morales]

Surprising, coming from such a solid pro. He swung and missed here.

Maybe, but at least he swung. If that's what he really believes, I give him credit for writing it. I'm sure he knew he would get blasted for it.

 

[buckweaver]

Very strong column from Simmons, especially this part:

For honest referees still working games, it doesn't matter what happens from this point on -- their collective integrity will always be questioned, their collective track record won't matter, and that will be that.

So that's one problem. The second problem is more complex. When news of the scandal broke on Friday, as J.A. Adande pointed out in his column on ESPN.com that day, every diehard NBA fan had the same reaction. They weren't thinking, "I can't believe it!" or "Oh my God, how could this happen?" They were thinking, "Which one was it?"

 

[Clever username]

Very strong column from Simmons, especially this part:

For honest referees still working games, it doesn't matter what happens from this point on -- their collective integrity will always be questioned, their collective track record won't matter, and that will be that.

So that's one problem. The second problem is more complex. When news of the scandal broke on Friday, as J.A. Adande pointed out in his column on ESPN.com that day, every diehard NBA fan had the same reaction. They weren't thinking, "I can't believe it!" or "Oh my God, how could this happen?" They were thinking, "Which one was it?"

Absolutely. That was exactly what I thought when I first heard about this. I was not surprised at all that this happened, though I had no idea who Donaghy was before this.

 

[markvid]

May I throw this out there for your thoughts:
Why IS this a big deal as of now? Is the NBA doing the right thing by addressing it head on tomorrow or are they just in damage control and calling too much attention to it before the courts get hold of it?
Baseball didn't die from the Black Sox, which involved players in the World Series.
Now, I am not saying this isn't a bad thing that happened.
But is one person going to ruin the reputation of the entire officiating staff of the NBA?