That was a joke. I can't imagine the Rockets doing that to one of their media guys... they don't make that kind of money.
It's a shame. I busted Friedman's balls a bit over his story about how Lin gave him some red Nikes, because it was so blatantly a piece of propaganda aimed at healing the rift with the LOFs after Lin didn't start in Manila. But all in all, I think Friedman has done a really good job as the team-employed reporter. So now can we expect only league-certified fluff from him? I'll say it again: It sucks. If they are really threatening to take it out of his salary, the league and the Rockets are doing a disservice to more serious fans.
OK, not taking it out of his salary (I hadn't realized it was $150,000), but straight-jacketing him as a writer. That still sucks.
I don't think they are threatening to take anything from his salary. But by the same token, I'm sure they are telling him not to say anything about other team's players (outside the context of a just completed game).
It is also short-sighted of the league, and limits the ability of people employed by the team to raise overall awareness of basketball. But it is what it is.
Oh well, I guess the free-form podcast days are gone. If the webcasts come back at all, they will be highly neutered. We'll no longer have the young prince of team reporters. Instead, we'll have the eunuch who treads carefully, fearful that he will offend Emperor Stern.
That's kind of what I thought. Hard to blame JCF after what happened during the off-season. I still think Stern sucks and is 100% to blame for this. There was absolutely nothing wrong with JCF's article, but like all things NBA, Stern is allowed to make up the rules as he goes along. JCF is doing a great job IMO and it's a shame Stern has essentially killed (at least for now) a great way for fans to interact with and enjoy the NBA.
The young prince of team reporters? You're getting confused because his hair is so similar to Chandler Parsons' hair. The real question is, is he reading this? The question arose and suddenly he tweeted forth upon the world. If so we can send him messages longer than 140 characters: Hi Jason! Sorry to hear about the Rocketscast problems. We may forget what your face looks like, but we'll still read the articles and enjoy them. Crap... so used to twitter with him that I can't break 140 characters. Oh well.
Sad to hear about the indefinite hiatus. It was a very good product that did bring me to the Rockets website more often. It made being a Rockets fan easier during times when it was difficult to see them on the TV.
Honestly, the Rockets website is another problem. They seem to be straight-jacketed into the nba.com format, which is basically crap. I cut and paste all the news articles there because they stretch too far across the screen for convenient reading. If only jason friedman were in charge, he could fix it. (That's a joke, Jason. I don't assume you are a web designer.)
