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SPORTS MEDIA THREAD DEUX


Dolfan in NYC

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Mixed feelings on Grantland. 

They had some great sports writing. I think Zach Lowe is the best sportswriter in the world right now. He has an amazing talent in making the stat nerd stuff human for both the reader and the subject. I really hope he gets to keep his word count alive, as well as his excellent podcast. I also really like Goldsberry a lot who dos a great job with graphics to explain basketball patterns.

 

They also spent a lot of time and resources on completely worthless garbage. I mean, if you think reality TV is something to spend time contemplating more power to you. But they had a ton of people writing or talking about human garbage in a not-so entertaining format. And they also had the whole Miss V fiasco. They calmed down a bit with my least favorite long-form writing trend of using first-person pro-nouns in feature stories on other humans.

 

It essentially was a vanity project (the weird dimensions of the outfield wall at Fenway isn't nearly that iconic) to add a high-end appeal to a large media property. The person who started it had a big ego and clashed with a bunch of corporate drones and parted ways. The site wasn't profitable and ended in a very brutal manner. It sucks all the good Grantland did couldn't turn a profit, and talentless goofs like Stephen A. Smith get to retain their world. But Grantland also wasted a lot of its talent on nonsense.

I agree with a good bit of this, but I think Grantland's legacy should be that it was a place where young talented people could go be talented.  Sure some of those talented people spent time writing about things I don't give a rat's ass about, but having a place where they get to work on finding their voices with good editors is really valuable.  It was a place where they could go, be themselves, and hopefully use that opportunity to maximize their talent.  Am I going to spend any time reading about wedding announcements from people I don't know in a city I don't even live in?  No, but that doesn't mean she shouldn't have the opportunity to write about it. 

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No way ESPN lets Zach Lowe out of their clutches, right?

Who knows at this point, but it would be cool to have him on Simmons podcast. What really sucks about this is that NBA just started up and they have the best NBA content by far.

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Keeping Grantland going never made too much sense to me after Simmons left. Maybe they could have rebranded it & started something new. Maybe they could have done what it appears they are going to do now and send the writers/people they want to keep to other ESPN platforms. Pretending nothing changed once the editor-in-chief/co-founder left was a bad option to choose. For better or worst, Grantland was the brainchild of Simmons in public perception. And while I'm sure there's something to ESPN executives liking the prestige of having award winning, critically-acclaimed writers for Grantland, the knock on Grantland was it is "a site for writers", I do thinks an element of ego in there where they kept it around to show it could be successful without Simmons. I'm sure they weren't surprise to see some Grantland people bolt but I don't think they expected this many exiting along with the strong largely negative press.

This probably means they're shifting their focus and support to their Undefeated site.

Edited by _MJ_
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And Connelly would not do any press.

I used to really like him back in his Premiere/MTV days.

 

I don't know if that's the problem. If you have listened to Simmons since he's been back, he's made it sound like they've drastically slashed the operating budget for the site before he left. He knew Connelly would take over when he left, but I have a feeling that Connelly's hands were tied to some degree.

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No way ESPN lets Zach Lowe out of their clutches, right?

Who knows at this point, but it would be cool to have him on Simmons podcast. What really sucks about this is that NBA just started up and they have the best NBA content by far.

ESPN is just going to move him to the NBA section of the site. No doubt...unless he wanted out of his contract and ESPN was foolish enough to allow him to leave.

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And Connelly would not do any press.

I used to really like him back in his Premiere/MTV days.

I don't know if that's the problem. If you have listened to Simmons since he's been back, he's made it sound like they've drastically slashed the operating budget for the site before he left. He knew Connelly would take over when he left, but I have a feeling that Connelly's hands were tied to some degree.

If you listen to Deistch's pod w Jim Miller, it sounds like Simmons and Connelly are not on good terms now.

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Grantland was always a weird beast even when Simmons was still there. Some good stuff, but a bunch of non sequitor bullshit too, like how many oral histories of semi-relevant stuff does the world need? Since they are going to move all the sport writers to ESPN(I assume), most of the talent I enjoyed reading ought to still be available. I'm not too broken up over it.  The internet is a worse place for it being gone, but you could have said that for alot of websites. Frankly I'm surprised that waited this long to put a bullet in it given the bitterness of the Simmons divorce. . .

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The four editors’ exits were coordinated, and Simmons, according to this source, told the editors who jumped ship with him that a condition of their employment was that they couldn’t warn anyone at ESPN they were leaving, in order to hit the site as hard as possible.


“He put his beef with [ESPN president John] Skipper above the jobs of dozens of people,” one Grantland staffer said.


 


From http://deadspin.com/how-grantland-died-1739682579


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Oh gee, no more tournaments to crown Will Ferrell the best SNL cast member or articles about how Above The Rim is the best Hip-Hop soundtrack. How awful.

 

 

 

 

Seriously man, even setting aside the fact that everybody knows that Menace II Society is the best Hip-Hop soundtrack, Above The Rim isn't even that good. It's not top ten all time.

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Oh gee, no more tournaments to crown Will Ferrell the best SNL cast member or articles about how Above The Rim is the best Hip-Hop soundtrack. How awful.

Seriously man, even setting aside the fact that everybody knows that Menace II Society is the best Hip-Hop soundtrack, Above The Rim isn't even that good. It's not top ten all time.

Um, Deep Cover would like a word with you. As would Juice.

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I don't completely absolved Simmons.   Anyone who has listened to him knows he is definitely the type to hold grudges, so I wouldn't put it passed him to do the whole "if you join me, you can't tell ESPN until the last minute" move.  Consequences be damned.

 

And while more than a few Grantland writers have obviously enjoyed working for him, I'm sure it's a completely different story being his boss. The one who has to rein him in and tell him "no" at times.  Plus, as that Deadspin article notes, not every Grantland staffer appears to be pro-Simmons now. 

 

I'm not on ESPN side of this thing, but I don't think Simmons made it easy.

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How many times last week did ESPN play that insanely stupid "Grantland Presents" ten-minute feature on that really old guy at Brooklyn Nets games who jumps and dances around in the lower bowl and is clearly pissing off the "corporate" season ticket holders who have to sit next to him?

 

30 times?  40?

 

I mean, they played it twice per hour.  

 

And the last time Grantland did a "special look" at a Nets superfan (Justin Gamblero) the dude killed himself less than a year later due to mental illness and getting kicked out of a Knicks game.

 

So yeah, Grantland deserves to die a horrible death and I hope to God this "getting out of the pop culture business" comment means no more Frank Caliendo and no more "guest appearances" by celebrities plugging their movies on SportsCenter.

 

---------------

 

And to explain my hatred of Andy Greenwald, it's something that Patton Oswalt talked about at one of his book signings for "Silver Screen Fiend."  

 

This seeming need by white liberal hipsters to go on social media and defend minority groups who can defend themselves thank you very much.

 

Ava DuVernay didn't need Andy banging the drum for why she didn't get nominated for an Academy Award, Ms. DuVernay could do that herself no problem.

 

 

That and I really wish I could break into the recording studio during one of his podcasts, grab him by the hair, and start slamming him face first into the console table.

 

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

 

Me: NARCOOOOS!

 

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

 

Me: NARCOOOOOOS!

 

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

 

Me: NARCOOOOOOOOOOOS!  SEE, THAT ISN'T IRRITATING AT ALL, IS IT ANDY?

 

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

 

Me: NOPE!  NOT IRRITATING AT ALL!  YOU CONSTANTLY SHOUTING "NARCOS" IS NOT IRRITATING AT ALL AND HASN'T BEEN RUN INTO THE GROUND SIX WEEKS AGO!

 

-----

 

This is my next to last post here, excluding the Fred Thompson thread, thank you and goodbye.

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