im tired of fran blindbury/bitterbury. he used to be a columnist and now he is reduced to a partime writer and full time blogger. takes the easy way out...bashes everyone when things go poorly, over does the praise when we win...he is as fickle as any fan...he provides no genuine analysis...he is a bitter old man. he hated jvg. he hates tmac. he hates rafer. no matter what yao does its great. he loves bonzi. he loves any young player who has no track record. he just writes two blogs. "they are going to win it all" or "they are going to the lottery"...and you get paid for that...what a world, what a country, what a city, what a paper.
his last article claims the rockets are giving up, and so should the fans. i hope he'll do us a favor and gives up on the rockets also so he'll stop writing such garbage. the only player he praises consistently is yao and never blames him for anything. and like u said, he trashed JVG last yr. and he ALWAYS trashes tmac.
I've told this story before, but: I can't remember which year it was ... 2000 or 2001 maybe? But I was at Rockets training camp in Austin. I was real nervous ... really didn't feel comfortable approaching players. So I went up to Kelvin Cato and asked him if he had a minute for a few questions. As rude as he could possibly be, he barked out "NO!". He wouldn't even look at me -- just stared off. I said OK and moved on. Unbeknownst to me, it turns out Blinebury had written an article that TORCHED Kelvin, and it was published that morning. Kelvin had decided not to speak to the media any longer... and guess who the first one to approach him that morning was? I do wonder what it's like for these guys to speak to Blinebury when he's shredding them. Was he ever able to speak to Kelvin? Don't know.
I'd have an easier time dismissing Blinebury if Jonathan Feigen hadn't posted a piece which pretty much said the exact thing about the Rockets and their problems, in language that's just as harsh or even harsher. Check out the video interview on the Chron's web page where he says "pitiful" is the best description of the Philly loss. Also, there's the whole "sinking ship" quote from Yao Ming. Clearly all is not well in the land of the Rockets.
Fran is awful, but I would take him ANY time over Feigen and Justice... These 2 are the 3rd worst thing that's happened to sports after Bill Walton and Screamin' A.. now what do you guys think of that guy Solomon (or whatever his name is)?? I think that guy is pretty cool and he is middle of the road: not a homer, yet not a basher..
i think it's completely fine for journalists/writers to criticize athletes b/c well, that's what they're getting paid to do. but fran just downright kills them. i mean he absolutely kills them. in 04-05 after our loss to the mavs, he proposed that we trade tmac right then and there, after he had a series reminiscent of michael jordan (outside of game 7). how unreasonable is that? he keeps making statements about our team when he's never around our team; he rarely speaks directly to our players => therefore, he never gets a pulse of our team. i think it's unfair for writers to writer based on what they see on TV (the same way the tmac rumor runs wild when there is absolutely zero proof of it and you just see writers from cities other than houston doing it). but what can u do?
i like fran's pieces since he's the beat writer of the rockets. i like his grumpy and sarcastic style. and i agree with most of what he writes over time.
I've said this here about a dozen times over the years, but I've hated Fran since 1986, when he dismissed the Rockets chances against the Lakers (long before the first game), said they were toast, and then jumped on the bandwagon when the Rox destroyed those same Showtime Lakers, champions the year before, in 5 games. Fran never owned up to having put his head up his rectum, and he's still the same chump now that he was then. Anyone who takes him seriously is making a mistake.
I don't he never criticises Yao Ming, even when Yao does it himself. He always trashes T-mac, even when we are winning. Sometimes I think he just pulls trash talk from this board and just posts it on his blog
My signature praising him used to be sarcastic, but I've grown to like him. I looked back and a lot of what he says ends up being right. If we had traded T-Mac after his "jordan-esque" series, we could have sold high for somebody that wouldn't be breaking down, somebody that'd care at least. His negativity might be hard to interpret, but it's pretty clear to me now where he stands. He's not paid to be a fan, that's our (payless) job. His job is to call it like he sees it. His blog is meant to be his voice, not some robotic medium of objectivity. I'm sure he'd like to see the team do well, he's got to watch all their games, who wouldn't want to see winning basketball? You can tell he's got respect for some of the players, even if he trashes some of their performances. When he says to give up on the season, it sounds pretty definitive, but it's a grand statement for a reason: it's not meant to be taken at complete face value. The season goes on, of course you'll keep watching, you're a fan. He's criticizing the Rockets for being mediocre, what's wrong with that? That said, I don't imagine I'd get along with him in person. Also, I like to troll his live chats.
And then there's more, somebody in his comments once mentioned that a GM punched him out? I gotta hear that story!
Trip down memory lane, the article... http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=22751&highlight=blinebury+cato
Yep, Toto was a classic headcase. Would you get Good Toto or Bad Toto, Spirited Toto or Listless Toto, Motivated Toto or Lazy Toto. Man, we got fooled by that fool!
Blinebury comes across as bitter, and his blog updates are boring and obvious. He writes like he's tired and washed up. The truth is, if you want hard hitting in depth sport's analyse, the Houston Chronicle isn't the place to find it. Justice is the worst. He flip flops more than a politician and seems more concerned with trolling for blog hits than actually proving any insightful commentary. The Chronicle's sport section really has hit an all time low in my opinion.
