I've publicly loathed Fran Blinebury's writing and 'voice' forever, but I am sorry that his career at the chron ends this way. Good luck Fran, thanks for your efforts and your sense of Rocket history. Take care, best regards...
I also wish him well personally. Though, for a writer who displayed so much disdain for the job he performed and the people he was paid to cover, maybe getting sacked wasn't the worst possible fate. In searching "Blinebury + 'Random Metaphor Generator,'" CBrownFanClub, I missed your excellent 2002 round-up of Blinebury's misfires. Here is heypartner's critique , from that thread, in which he notes Blinebury tended to recycle his articles, or at least the structural metaphors within. In much the same way a college student hastily rewrites his year-old essay, then submits it to a new professor: Elsewhere, Launchpad does an excellent parody of Blinebury, spending about as much time/effort to ape the columnist as Blinebury does writing the the real deal: That captures the odd metaphors, constant negativity, & short, choppy sentences that masquerade as paragraphs (to fill out column inches) that are the hallmarks of his style. But, most tellingly, from the compendium thread above, is an excerpt from Blinebury himself: Other than putting in the allotted metaphors/fillers, in a column ostensibly about the stagnant style of team play, Blinebury reveals what plagued him for so long. He no longer seemed to care about covering the Rockets. Though the iso offense he describes may not have been entertaining (to an outsider who wasn't paid to watch/report upon it), Blinebury doesn't seem to add any significant insight as to why that is, or what could be done to remedy it. More notably, Blinebury's curmudgeonly, "Get off my lawn" sensibility didn't seem to change in later years, when the offenses were more exciting, and the team won more. After the championship years, after Olajuwon left, and with him Blinebury's meal ticket, Blinebury seemed, in a word, bored.
And while I'm piling on: Maybe not, even when it was staring him in the face: The man spent a considerable amount of his career at the Chronicle diagnosing his own condition. He complained about professional athletes who underachieved, who didn't seem to have passion for their chosen professions. He did what many of us would consider a dream job, and either through lack of ability or dedication, did it poorly. At any given point, this board calls for trading or cutting 3/4 of the Rockets roster, for flaws major, minor & imaginary. Yet we should support mediocrity in another field? I have no illusions that Blinebury made as much as a player he consistently ripped, a McGrady or Cato. Though, I think in a career spanning some decades, he was probably closer to the rookie minimum than the unnamed copy editors and stock boys laid off along with him, or the copy editor(s) and stock boy(s) who kept their jobs because he was let go.
i never really understood the disliked for Fran from the GARM Fran's writing was unique, hard holes in them, but they were always opinionated, which is exactly what everyone is in the GARM..... he was at time critical of favourites, which again happens here alot but when he did it no one liked it his articles provoked a response, a nod from some, and rebuttal from others, a but what about this from some, but they certainly weren't bland....... for me i'll miss him, his firing is certainly a HALLUCINATION
Well, I guess people don't dig bitter, lazy hacks. He was reduced to blogging games he saw on tv. It was time for him to go.
As much as I disliked him as a writer, he did an excellent piece on Landry recently. For that, I will forever be grateful. It's not like he's completely out of a job, though. He moved up to NBA.com.
Fran is a polarizing figure, but Murph is undisputedly a good guy and good writer who loves basketball. Tough to see him laid off, too.
I agree and although his animosity towards McGrady might be too much at times, Fran is not afraid to give his honest opinion which is why most posters on this board either like or dislike him. I wish him the best in the future.
Wow,they did that? Maybe they should write better articles instead of trying to kill of legit competition, if they are afraid of their readers being taken away.
I guess it depends what you want, but people like Blinebury and Charley Rosen who write (seemingly) for the sole purpose of being provocative irritate me. I like reading stuff that is truly insightful and tells me something I didn't know already. When the motives and attitude of the writer are as important as what he writes, I'm turned off. I feel the same way about talking heads on TV. Writers and talking heads who practice their craft with style are fine as long as what they say is more substantive than it is self-promotional pomp or arrogance. It's easy (and lazy) for a member of the media to making a living being a gas can.
Let's face it; Fran hasn't been a quality journalist since about the time we changed jerseys...INTO the pajamas, not OUT OF them. Lots of ya'll are feeling nostalgia about the old days, but once that subsides you'll realize the Chronicle was just giving Fran what he always wanted in the first place, the opportunity to spend his entire year having a margarita on the beach with nary a thought in the world for that tiresome basketball coverage. This is probably retirement for him, and who knows, maybe he'll re-discover in another modality the passion he once had for writing. Because it certainly had not been present in his journalistic work of the last few years.
Thanks Fran for the years of contributions about the Rockets. From the start of my involvement with the Rockets, you were a fixture with them. Good luck on your future endeavors. *So, anyone think Jason Friedman's better?
Just found out that Fran is hired as a correspondent by a Chinese sports paper "Sports Weekly". Maybe from now on we have more "credible" stories from Chinese source covering the Rockets,
