Prominent NBA Blogger Gets Ripped, Responds
UPDATE: The whole comment section was taken down over at SportsHubLA. I’m not really sure why. I think fair points were raised and nothing really seemed to get that out of hand. I’ve got the original post and its comments cached, but seeing how the original poster (David Neiman) wants it down I’ll leave it alone. I will post my particular comment I made at the site, though it is pretty out of context (it’s at the bottom of this post).
You know I just took down a post I had here sort of laying it on a blogger named Kelly Dwyer. Here is the post I was referring to over at SportsHubLA. The blogger in question basically wrote a piece that followed the same old tired “Player X vs. Player Y” formula. In this case is was Kobe vs. LeBron and it has sort of touched a nerve to say the least. Kelly Dwyer responded in the comments section and I think the whole thing is sort of an interesting story. Granted some people are just pissed that a noted blogger took a shot at their guy (in this case Kobe), but the real story here is that many people in the audience of RSS feeds - “alternative media” I guess is a more appropriate name - are not really that into it when certain media outlets start to look like the ones they’re all running away from.
That or people are just really pissed off that a writer who a lot of people read had an opinion that differs from theirs. Maybe a little of both.
Love them Internets.
UPDATE: Here’s the comment I made in the middle of all this at SportsHubLA.I still think it’s a little lame that it was taken down. Anyway… I’m just putting this here because I still think the overall point is valid, even if the poster decided to change the original post and remove all the comments.
Sharky Mar 4th, 2008 at 5:38 am
Kelly, It’s not an outrageous assumption that someone in your position would write something to gain eyeballs. The assumption also isn’t really “rotten to the core” if the intention is to hold someone’s feet to the fire as to their motivation. As a paid blogger I think one would have to expect these sorts of things to a certain extent. I think the bigger narrative here (and the one the poster is putting forth) is that sportswriters tend to pull off this “Star X vs. Star Y” shit all the time. It was a big theme at the Worldwide Leader today (Kobe vs. LeBron). We all know why they do it. Ratings (or hits in the case of ESPN.com). If a blogger (and a very well known and popular blogger) like yourself seemingly does the same thing, I don’t think it’s out of line to say boo.
Of course, if you say it ain’t so, I for one will take you at your word. And there isn’t anything wrong with thinking a bunch of people chanting “MVP” are wrong and writing about it. However I think it’s important to note that the beauty of the RSS medium is that it allows good, insightful writing to be put out there neck and neck with the larger sports outlets and institutions. At its egalitarian best people can expect good stuff (or at least a shitload of stuff that can be filtered to get the good stuff). When someone pretty exclusive and known in the medium seemingly acts like the institutions we’re running from (or at least sidestepping) I think it can be expected that there will be some skeptics.
Again though, at the end of the day you’re just throwing your opinion out there like the rest of us idiots on the Internet, and it would be too bad if people forgot the common decency to take a man at his word and give him the benefit of the doubt.
