Cheers -- but that's the thing, I never wanted to be a reporter. I just want to get it right. I'm not interested in being the first guy or gal to point out where someone's going. I want to be the one that watches every minute that I can and get it correct after 82 games. July doesn't matter to me. June does. And Marc Stein's a good guy that works his ass off, breaks stories, and isn't in it for the show.
I guess we've all been hard on Stein. It just seemed like he had an agenda going into Dwightmare part II from the get. Every time he would tweet or report news on the Dwight decision, it was like he would make it a point to remind us all that "you can't forget about Dallas". That's probably more me being biased as a Rockets fan and hating the Mavs as well. But you vouch for the guy and I'll leave it at that, Stein is off my sh** list.
If anyone is interested in some of Kelly's recent work, I was about to recommend it in a thread after the whole free agency thing. He and his comrades post to the site Ball Don't Lie. It can be kind of silly (and well, we're in the silly part of the offseason), but check out Kelly's post on Dwight's decision. I thought it was excellent and to-the-point. http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/dwight-howard-picked-houston-rockets-now-230848156.html (It's an old link and the title is screwed up a little, but I think all the content is there.)
I think Yahoo is usually really good with their sports coverage (including KD). I noticed they have disabled comments on their stories. Probably something that should be done everywhere. From local TV stations to reporter's feeds on FB, Youtube, etc....the comments section brings out the worst in people...or the worse people? Sorry off-topic.
I feel bad cheering for somebody losing their job, but Palmer seemed out of his depth a lot of the times.
You're good people, KD. Keep fighting the good fight against hacks like Chris Palmer. There's very few "must-reads" out there on the NBA, but "Ball Don't Lie" is DEFINITELY one of them.
Stein just seems like one of those guys that has his favorites, and when you're in his good graces, he makes sure to give you plenty of kudos in his pieces. I'm betting that he and Cuban have a very good working relationship, and that's why he was pushing the "Dwight to Dallas" angle so hard. Either Cuban himself or someone close to Cuban was probably giving Stein some tidbits on what the pitch to D12 was going to be, and Stein decided that it would be very hard to say no to that. I completely believe you when you say that he's a hard worker, and isn't in it for the (as Ziggy would say) pee-pee games, but he definitely had an agenda he was working during the Dwightmare....that much was clear.
I think it is more likely that Cuban or one of Stein's Mavs contacts told him that Dallas really impressed Dwight and that the Mavs feel great about their chances and Stein reported their optimism. Could well be that Dwight acted positively in their Mavs meeting, could be that Dan Fegan (friend of Cuban) was pushing Dwight that way. Stein is enough of a pro to state what is his own opinion and what is info from sources. Anyhow, we pretty much have to read all these tidbits in context-- they are not objective truth but rather statements given by people with their own agenda to reporters for their own reasons.
This for sure. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. But, isn't part of a reporter's job to not be blatantly or obviously biased? His EXTREME Kobe nut-hugging was downright embarrassing. I get today's NBA is different, as are the fans (and society in general) - and the whole "comparing" era is hard to not get into. But, this guy.... he was extremely annoying and often just out of left field and WRONG with a lot of his BS. Then, throw in the basic guaranteeing Dwight will re-sign in L.A.... and he was easily a guy that caused more "SMH's" than most others out there. I'm pretty sure it was him who, several years ago, went on a rant about how he didn't want to hear about how much rougher it was back in the day regarding tougher defense in the NBA - and proceeded to try to explain how far defense has come and how much more advanced AND BETTER it is in today's game. More advanced scouting? Sure. But, there's no way in hell anyone will ever convince me it's TOUGHER to score in today's NBA than it was when the Pistons were knocking Jordan down nearly every time he set foot in the lane.... or when the Sonics were raping Dream with their illegal defense and excessive fouling. Looking back now, it's easy to see WHY he was taking that stance - didn't realize back then how his love for Kobe was so over the top. It's never good to wish bad things or fortune for someone, but there's without question a bit of "I knew it" or "it's about time" regarding his ESPN departure. Just last night I checked out his twitter to see where's he's been or what he's been saying since the Dwight signing and thought to myself "Why aren't any of his tweets showing up on the ESPN/NBA page like they used to?". Few out there who come across as much of a "know it all" as this guy.
The most bizarre aspect of Palmer's charade was how no one else at ESPN even acknowledged it. Dwight's decision was a HUGE story, and you had an ESPN reporter claiming it was basically a "done deal" what Dwight was doing. Yet there was never an article on the website about it. The more credible reporters (Stein/Broussard) never acknowledged it. The main ESPN NBA account never even retweeted any of it. It felt like they were treating him as the village idiot. When your credibility is so low that no one at your own organization even acknowledges you when you claim to have a huge piece of news... that's probably the end of the line.
He was, on the surface, a "reporter" for ESPN Los Angeles who was a known and admitted fan of kobe bryant. He kept tweeting that he had sources and he knew Dwight was going to stay in LA, etc. Exactly why he got fired, we don't know. Maybe he pinched someone's butt in the office. But most of us are assuming it's because he tweeted bald-faced lies while under the ESPN rubric.
One of the few reporters/writers I can think of who has consistently refused to indulge the Kobe Myth. He tells it like it is about Kobe, good or bad. We need more like KD.
Stein has some connection with the Dallas area, this has been speculated in other threads. I guess that if we want to figure it out, we should be able to do it. To me, Stein wants Howard to join Mav, there is no much question for that.
This guy is something else.. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Kobe Bryant will win the 2013-14 scoring title, finish 2nd in MVP voting and make his 16th All-Star Game.</p>— chris palmer (@ChrisPalmerNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChrisPalmerNBA/statuses/359558411119099904">July 23, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> Someone needs to pull kobe's shaft out of his mouth before he suffocates
