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2021 STUFF ABOUT SPORTS MEDIA THREAD


hammerva

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4 minutes ago, Zimbra said:

Absolutely, and I wonder if tennis is in for the same kind of talent boost from delayed integration. 

I really thought it would happen with golf after Tiger, but the decimation of public golf courses pretty much killed any chance of that happening at scale.

Golf is one of those things where it takes an absurd amount of practice and playing various courses is fucking expensive. Not only that,  golf is brutally difficult and a decent percentage of people are going to quit before they put the kind of time and money is going to take to become great at it. Getting on the PGA Tour means you're a fucking great golfer. Not good,  not very good,  but great.  Getting a kid to jump off a springboard into a foam pit is fun even if they're bad at it. Getting a child to fight through the frustration of being bad at golf until they get good at golf probably isn't very fun. 

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On 6/15/2021 at 1:58 PM, supremebve said:

 Getting on the PGA Tour means you're a fucking great golfer. Not good,  not very good,  but great.  

When I was in college (very long time ago), I spent a summer caddying for a guy who was hoping to go to Q-School and get his tour card.  My dad was a scratch golfer who knew a lot of club pros and a couple PGA pros, so growing up, I got to see a lot of excellent players close up and even occasionally played rounds with a few of them.  21-year-old-me thought the guy I was caddying for was the best player I'd ever seen close up and would get his tour card and then some.

Never happened.  Never really came close to happening.  The guy didn't even choke in qualifying.  Just showed up and got an education in just how good guys on the fringes of the tour are, and how much better than that you are if you actually get on the tour (never mind win).

On the plus side, the guy made a decent bit of money the summer I caddied for him and was more generous than he needed to be sharing his winnings with his green-as-grass caddy (I was a decent player back then, and thought I would be a good caddy.  Later realized being an excellent caddy required instincts I didn't have).

Edited by Eoae
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The most confusing thing about the Rachel Nichols thing to me is of all the people that you would ask to maybe hold Maria Taylor back why would you choose someone working with Lebron James.  I mean there has to be hundreds of white people in ESPN that would have loved to hold her back.  And she thought Lebron would do it? Granted he is way more powerful but does he really look like the guy to do the dirty work for Rachel Nichols?

 

 

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I know this is a hard concept to understand, but shutting the fuck up is always an option.  If you want to tell someone how you're all for diversity unless you know a black person gets hired instead of you...you can just shut the fuck up and no one will ever know.  As soon as you decide that you are going to say that dumb shit out loud, you get whatever it is you get.

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I was just thinking the other day that she hadn't been on Zach Lowe's podcast (which is my only interaction with ESPN's NBA coverage) in a while so I checked and the last time was... right around when the tape came out the first time.

I can't see her lasting long at ESPN after this, I wonder if she'll lean into the skid and end up at Fox or barstool.

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There is so much going on in this particular situation.  

  1. Maria Taylor was given the NBA Countdown job, but for some reason they contractually promised Rachel Nichols that she could do The Finals.
  2. Maria Taylor's contract is up and somehow there is a leak saying she's asking for Stephen A. money.  
  3. Rachel Nichols was put in a position to apologize on television...which was about 10 seconds, but then the 2 black cohosts spent about 2 minutes defending her which is a terrible position for everyone
  4. How much of this controversy wouldn't be a controversy if we didn't decide as a society that only one woman can be on a sports show at a time?
  5. We're glossing over the part where Rachel Nichols pointed out that all of this is a product of EPSN's toxic management...(see evidence presented in points 1 thru 4)

Another thing about this is how many of these people are interchangeable.  Seriously, how many of these people are exceptionally talented? When I think of the most talented people in the industry I can think of Olbermann, Dan Patrick, Stephen A., Bomani Jones, Jemele Hill, and Barkley.  I'm sure I'm missing someone, but there aren't a huge number of uber talents in this industry.  Another huge problem is that the talent is fighting against the talent when management is who actually has the problem here.  They put both Rachel Nichols and Maria Taylor in a terrible position.  Taylor is the host of the show, except when it gets to the Finals, which is bullshit.  They promised in writing that Nichols can be the host in the Finals, and no one in their right mind would give up that position.  Rachel Nichols comes off as the villain because she doesn't want to give up a position that was promised to her.  Taylor looks terrible because they leak that she wants more money during a time that she isn't even on TV, because ESPN inexplicably gave her job to someone else during the Finals.  It's the classic case of trying to make everyone happy, but ultimately making everyone unhappy.

 

 

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19 hours ago, Tabe said:

Can I just say I never thought she was any good to begin with?

I'm assuming you're talking about Nichols.  If so, I agree.  She's always had a very unnatural delivery.  Also, at least earlier in her ESPN career, someone must have told her that she should always include something from a conversation she had with someone in the story.  She'd end every segment with a "folksy" anecdote about something LeBron told her after the game or whatever.  I mean, she did it in EVERY segment.  

"I asked LeBron what the key to the Cavs winning the series was, and he just winked and said, 'If you figure it out, let me know!' In Cleveland, I'm Rachel Nichols."

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18 hours ago, Log said:

I'm assuming you're talking about Nichols.  If so, I agree.  She's always had a very unnatural delivery.  Also, at least earlier in her ESPN career, someone must have told her that she should always include something from a conversation she had with someone in the story.  She'd end every segment with a "folksy" anecdote about something LeBron told her after the game or whatever.  I mean, she did it in EVERY segment.  

"I asked LeBron what the key to the Cavs winning the series was, and he just winked and said, 'If you figure it out, let me know!' In Cleveland, I'm Rachel Nichols."

Not defending Nichols but from what limited viewing I have of ESPN doesn't EVERY ONE of their reporters do this?  Like, I thought that was the approved style of ESPN. 

I swear every ESPN reporter does that little nugget which is super-annoying if you are stuck watching that cursed pre-game show.

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The other side part of the story is Amin Elhassan on the Dan Lebatard show basically running over Adrian Wojnarowski multiple times calling him a hypocrite for his opinion on this issue and has been stepping on black reporters in ESPN for years.  but was vague as hell in doing it which apparently is his thing.  

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 7/4/2021 at 2:40 PM, Stefanie the Human said:

Rachel Nichols appears to have let her inner Karen flow last year re: Maria Taylor hosting NBA Countdown instead of her, and not realized she wasn't on mute as she did it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/04/sports/basketball/espn-rachel-nichols-maria-taylor.html

Unsurprisingly Maria Taylor is no longer with ESPN and is possibly close to a deal with NBC.

Apparently her contract ran out on Tuesday but they were able to work out a deal for her to work game 7.  I hope she negotiated an absolutely extortionate check for that.

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Guest Stefanie Without Stefanie
1 hour ago, Zimbra said:

Unsurprisingly Maria Taylor is no longer with ESPN and is possibly close to a deal with NBC.

Apparently her contract ran out on Tuesday but they were able to work out a deal for her to work game 7.  I hope she negotiated an absolutely extortionate check for that.

And NPR paid so much attention to it that they used a photo of the wrong person in their article about her leaving. There's absolutely never a good time to get that wrong but... come on.

 

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