Everybody knows that ESPN has an agenda and their east coast bias or super team bias is alive and well. Look no further than Steven A Smith's evaluation of Kevin Martin in relation to the possible Howard trade and the completed Harden trade. It was very clear that ESPN wanted nothing to do with Howard landing in Houston. Even for a while when the Rockets had the best offer on the table, they would go out of there way to talk about the Lakers and even making rumors up to link Howard back to Brooklyn at the trade deadline. Well when the Rockets had the best offer on the table and K Martin was the top player in the trade he was slighted and diminished to make him look less of a center piece and more a throw in. Steve A would say he could put points on the board, but he was fragile, not a leader, temperamental, and has just been a good player on bad teams. Not much respect there as the ESPN agenda had to lean away from the Rockets offer. Now fast forward to this week and somehow Kevin Martin has gotten better in Steven A's view. With OKC being a poster team for ESPN they aren't gonna bash them too much about a bad trade. Now according to him K Martin is a "baller" who is hungry to be on a great team and prove himself. No mention of being fragile or temperamental anymore. It just sad that our sports leader had such a big agenda now. Very much like how agenda based Foxnews and MSNBC have gotten. Thoughts?
ESPN's talking heads are devoid of any actual organic intellect. They all plug their heads into the master unit and download diatribes to spew. It isn't that they were biased, it was that everyone assumed Houston was trying to trade crappy players with a superstar, and now that Houston has traded said player for a perceived superstar, it makes it likely that only a great GM like Sam Presti could acquire such a stud like Kevin Martin. *****, please.
Stephen A. Smith says dumb stuff very loudly, that's his job. They also have a bunch of biased people, especially in their local divisions. ESPN is a mass-oriented network, and they want to attract as diverse demographic as possible. Just business. But they also have many good, unbiased analysts. Because there's a big audience for that as well. Also, just business. In the end, it's up for the fan to pick what he reads/ listens to. ESPN certainly provides for all tastes.
To be honest, he fits in a lot better with OKC than in Orlando. Going to Orlando would have been Martin in Sactown. With OKC he doesn't have to be anything but a scorerer.
it's true. you can expect martin to now get the calls he wasn't getting last year. It's all B.S. If it's not the rockets, i watch very little nba. (only watch the finals)
I can not imagine taking SAS seriously on any topic. He's just another Skip Bayless. They've created personalities and presented them as "analysts" hoping that they'll piss off enough people to have them tune in.
Yea i noticed that too and I agree with you in that there is bias in the sports world especially in ESPN. Don't get me wrong, I love ESPN but I remember when they kept bashing Morey and organization for not hitting the homerun when it came to acquiring stars like Dwight, Pau, Carmelo, Bosh, etc. Now that we managed to snag a guy like Harden no one seems to want to talk about it.
I think what makes it really concerning is that the NBA insiders namely Bucher seem very agenda based now too. I can take your basic analyst leaning one way or another, but the insiders are suppose to be just that...insiders with real info.
Totally agree and it's not just Steven Smith, everybody's looking at this from OKC's side in losing Harden, nobody's mentioning Morey and the fact the Rockets now have Harden.
Van Gundy being so numb to emotion allows him to exist amongst the other ESPN'ers without succumbing to the brainwashing. They assume he's already been broken.
Stephen A Smith is hilarious. I respect his and Kenny Smith's opinion more than anybody else. I just think giving his relationship w/ certain players he holds back on certain guys like Lebron. Skip's more outrageous than SAS
SAS is actually one the least reputable people in the business. He is basically a puppet for the CAA and the only useful thing he does is spill a few rumors every now an then.
