excellent point. wish i could change the thread title to reflect your astute observation. Maybe i should have said, "hack journalist"; actually that's still too kind. How about "NBA gossip whores"?
Pretty much this. Plus Alex Kennedy. And what Ric Bucher did on draft night...that was beyond laughable. Honestly, I am not sure if he will be able to recover from that. I bet his peers were looking at their twitter timelines and just shaking their heads in horror. Honestly, Ric Bucher used to be pretty solid in the mid 2000's when he worked at ESPN, but completely went off the rails. One of the worst falls I have seen.
Simmons is just spread too thin. He is the head of the Grantland site, does podcasts with Jalen Rose, shows up on TV for the basketball games, and then has to write columns, too? Anyone's work would suffer. Realistically, he should quit half of his duties, but it's more likely that he'll take on more and that his work will get worse and worse. At least he was smart enough to hire Lowe to do just one thing at a time. I just hope that Lowe's podcast duties don't start draining his time out too.
David Aldridge comes off as arragant to me. He seems like a big city (NY, LA, MIA, CHI) type media guy who just laughs at the thought of Melo coming to Houston. All they guys don't know much basketball outside of New York, Miami or LA. Whens the last time you heard something insightful they said about a team like Charlotte?
This. Simmons is actually quite knowledgeable when it comes to basketball. He will say crazy things sometimes and is an extreme boston homer but in general he knows his stuff.
Broussard seems awful without any real information, but I don't feel he isn't credible, he just never really says much. He has whatever little knowledge about Lebron and he speaks on that and pretty much only that. Bucher loves to push his own agenda when he reports and Kennedy is a moron.
1. Bill Ingram 2. Alex Kennedy 3. Chris Sheridan 4. Ric Bucher 5. Ramona Shelburn 6. Sam Amico I include Shelburn on there because, even though he has information & sources in LA, she's maybe the most un-biased LA fanatic reporter out there. EVERYTHING is seen through the eyes of an LAL/LAC (pretty much the same team now) fanatic. Ingram & Kennedy are the worst though. Kennedy regurgitates info that comes from Woj within seconds and claim that its coming from their sources. He also does this thing where he'll put out a report like "X player (that is terrible & under-producing their contract) is being made available in trades".... um.... duh. Of course they are available... they were always available... douche. And the douchiest of them all is Bill Ingram. A self-proclaiming former Rockets fan who trolls them with BS reports about how "nobody wants to trade with Morey", and how "nobody wants to play for Morey" etc. as if he's a pissed off Clutchfaner trolling the GARM. Nobody pulls crap out of his A#$ more than Billy Boy.
He has a witty writing style. He is opinionated. That's pretty much all you need for selling sports "analysis" these days. That said, he's not as bad as some of those other guys. As long as there is a public consumption of their stuff, these guys will still have a job. It's entertainment. Substance is not a priority.
Bill Simon is just the same as Jim Carrey. He used to be one of the best basketball writer and his stuff was very funny and enjoyable. Now, he is just a washed up Jim Carrey.
As long as Lowe sticks to the NBA, I don't foresee his work suffering. Podcasting is just a different medium for his focus. Simmons was never the brightest mind, he was just first to market and parlayed that into his tremendous rise. Good for him, but for people who want to listen to someone who knows what he's talking about, Simmons is easily the most overrated and just downright horrible sometimes. He's got to make that money, so good for him. The second Zach Lowe leaves Grantland, alot of NBA readers will too.
All of them except for WOJ. This: <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Carmelo Anthony met with the Bulls earlier today. Now, source says he's at dinner with Joakim Noah and Derrick Rose among others right now.</p>— Alex Kennedy (@AlexKennedyNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/AlexKennedyNBA/statuses/484142409140277249">July 2, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> now this: <blockquoteclass="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>“<a href="https://twitter.com/Chris_Broussard">@Chris_Broussard</a>: DRosewas not part of Bulls' official recruitment of Melo. Just happened to b working out at UC. Was shocked to see Melo”</p>— King. (@TheBlackestGod) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheBlackestGod/statuses/485123864653877248">July 4, 2014</a></blockquote> <script asyncsrc="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>