Blazers Beat Writer Jason Quick Discusses Leaving the Job

He was going to out him as a Frenchman.

 

It's one of the first rules you learn to break when you get out of journalism school. If you are covering a beat (as opposed to general stories) you need access to do anything, and pissing off players loses you access. It's all a trade-off.

Players learn early on in the NBA that it is a business. Doesn't mean they have to treat everyone like jerks, though. Just because teams lie to them doesn't mean they should lie to the people they are interacting with. I don't know that it should be a suprise to the reporter, but you kind of hope for better from people.

 

How many hands does Batum have?!?!

 

Interview with Batum

I don't know if you read this interview with Jason Quick, the Blazers beat writer for The Oregonian. He talks about how he was pretty disappointed with the players and he mentions you specifically. Any comment on that?

NB: I heard about it. I don't really care about that. If he wants to talk about us like that... I don't really care, I don't focus on that. He's just a guy who left and got a job somewhere else. He's not with the team, I don't really care what he says about this. It's not my problem.

Did you have a good relationship with him?

NB: Yeah, yeah, I try to have a good relationship with every guy in the media in Portand. He left and got another job and now he talks about us... I don't really care.​

Also talked about Aldridge

There have been these rumors that he has privately demanded a trade from Portland...

NB: I heard that too and I laughed when I read that. He doesn't want to get traded, he wants the team to get better. LaMarcus is a winner.

He has told you that?

NB: I mean, I know that's what he wants. We had two bad seasons and missed the playoffs and wants the team to improve. I think he didn't ask for a trade. He wants to stay and win with the Blazers. He just wants a better team around him so we can get back to the playoffs.​

 

Nic Batum doesn't know **** about Aldridge..

what was Quick referring to in the first place? Batum cheating on his gf? is that why Quick was upset? I didn't understand.

 

As I understand, Batum and Quick were talking; Quick apparently first had the story on Batum wanting to play for the Timberwolves. Batum and his agent told Quick not to run the story. Quick didn't and Batum told him he'd be the first person he'd call when it'd come time to run the story. Turns out he went to David Aldridge first and Quick was upset. Batum basically admitted to doing Quick 'wrong' and laid the blame on his agent. ("My agent was telling me this.")

UNLESS...

He was (one of?) the guy Quick was talking about -- player(s) talking about kissing his kids goodnight and cheating on his wife the next road trip.

 

It's possible that Quick is even more sour about Batum going to Aldridge.

 

Those Frenchmen...well it just can't be helped I guess.

 

Journalists just can't win. They are seen to be one of the least trusted professions up there with Politicians, yet something like this happens, and suddenly they are stupid for being ethical and sticking by their word. WTF seriously?

 

I am a journalist myself, I have done my share of stories where i sensed a person is talking ****, but at the end of the day as long as I report things the way I see them I feel I am doing things right and can carry myself with pride.

This guys seems like a real bigot

 

Ive seen this movie before....

 

The butthurt is strong on this one.

 

If he was ethical he wouldn't have let his "relationship" with a player stop him from reporting. He's a groupie

 

Someone at work hurt my feelings, now I'm going to quit my job.

 

Someone has thin skin

 

I thought you was my best friend? I'm quitting now and before I leave, let me put your business out there for the entire world. I hope your wife ane kid leaves you. That's what you get for not keeping your promise. You treated me like some breezy and I can't be around you anymore. But I'm a strong person with thick skin, even though you did me wrong, I haven't said a thing. Your lost.


J. Quick

Former blazer beat writer

 

This writer needs to pull his head out of his butt (much like every other sports media person) and get a grip!

While I was in college I used to work for the schools Sports Marketing group. We would plan out all of the events before and during the games. Football, Basketball, Baseball, etc. It was fun! You know when I became disheartened with it? When everyone took the $hit too seriously! This is sports! It's supposed to be lighthearted and fun! It's a freaking game! A game! Get that through your head dummy! None of this stuff matters. It's empty fluff! It is PURELY for entertainment. If people take it for anything more than that then they have lost sight of what they are doing. The ONLY people that these games effect are the players, coaches and front staff. Period. No one else should be all that emotionally invested in it. It's lunacy.

I remember coming into the office in the Sports Marketing Dept. only to hear the same conversations on BSPN being held by the employees in the office and it was completely inane! I couldn't believe they would sit there and get all worked up and literally lose their minds and say, "If he had just got on base we would have won that game. If he had just caught that pass we would have won that game. If he had just made that shot . . . . Why did so and so not give me a high five, etc." I started realizing how unimportant all of it was and it actually had begun to spoil my love for the game. I realized that at that point, it was not the career direction I wanted to go in. I think it takes a certain kind of dumbass to work in sports as a career. You basically have to maintain the intelligence level of a 10 year old. Look at all of the people who work in sports journalism. I'm sorry, but not one of them impresses me with what they have to say, and frankly, I didn't want to hear what they had to say in the first place. I don't CARE about your opinion man in a suit!! Shut up and go get a real job! Put some kids out there with a microphone and lets hear their opinion on the game. I would be far more entertained.

This is where sports conjecture belongs. Amongst the fans. If there was never another "sports analyst" or journalist, the game would not be hurt. In fact, sports would probably prosper. There would be less B.S. and more entertainment.

 

Agreed- that's the problem with the sports world in general. People get so angry and worked up about a game. I love the Rockets and up to 5 years ago, I would get so worked up and invested in a game that it would be exhausting. Over time, though, I grew out of it and figured that emotionality was something younger people do. I was wrong though- you'll see 45 year old dudes losing their minds over a possession at the Texans game. Makes no sense how invested people get over a GAME. Even players treat it as a job and have life outside of it. There are people who love a team so much that their life revolves around it, and that is absurd.

 

Haven't read the whole thread but just want to add Jason Quick has been my favorite Blazers writer at the Oregonian for a while. Admittedly, I haven't followed the team closely since Paul Allen turned into a flake of an owner and the franchise went dysfunctional.

I doubt Quick will like covering Oregon football because if Mark Helfrich is anything like Chip Kelly, he will be a borderline jerk with the press and never say anything worth printing or reading.