The big news of the week in the industry (whether it was the NBA or journalism) was the Memphis Grizzlies’ hiring of John Hollinger from ESPN.com as their new vice president of basketball operations. He has already made a promise to check out the quality of the concession stand hot dogs as a personal favor.
Hollinger and I were good friends back when we were both together at ESPN, though I found it curious how he morphed from a stat guru into a game reporter and columnist in his later years. But the thing is: Hollinger was as good as anyone out there at writing a fantastic column off of any game he covered, which is saying a lot because he often had to cover the Atlanta Hawks. It was a testament to his many talents. I wish him luck — especially in finding a shooter.
Hollinger did not burn any bridges in his farewell column for ESPN, a company which has now lost both Hollinger and Ric Bucher in the past few weeks. Is Marc Stein next? (The answer from afar is an emphatic ‘No!’ because Stein is one of the best in the biz and has been dot-com’s rock since its inception. Then again, Peter Gammons was that way for the four-letter network on baseball. Same with Len Pasquarelli on football.)
I have my own guess on who’s next, which I will keep to myself. But I’ll also pass a long a recent quote from a high-ranking NBA official: “Nobody I know at ESPN is happy there.”
Hollinger is picking a good time to leave. Money is being slashed all over the place, ESPNLosAngeles is about to suffer a major loss, and the penny-pinching has gotten so tight that there are more stories to tell, but I don’t want to put anyone’s job in jeopardy.
So there is your gossip report, and rest assured that Skip Bayless will continue screaming at you every morning for the forseeable future. And more screaming is available on an ESPN-affiliated radio station near you.
With that, let’s quickly shift gears and get right to the risers, fallers, newcomers and dropouts in this week’s Top 10 MVP Rankings.
Hmmm. Not sure why this is still a topic of interest, but it is a slow sotprs week .Fact: DC grew up in Fanwood, left St Pat’s for mutual reasons, and than decided to come back. Eventually, he was shown the door for ACADEMIC reasons he wasn’t going to qualify if he didn’t get extra tutoring at NDA in Worcester.Last, I checked Scotch Plains-Fanwood to St Pat’s is in Union County, not that I see the relevance.Fact: Young Gilchrist (Forget his first name this early) is choosing to matriculate as a FRESHMAN at Saint Pat’s. FACT: Saint Anthony’s has had multiple freshman, and TRANSFERS from other STATES, and nobody cared.. Basit, McCurdy, etc.I guess I side with not sonny vaccarro/vacaro on this one.When are you going to look at the Maurice Jackson situation..to get you started, he transferred from St Pat’s to St Ant’s over Christmas break without even a phone call between the two schools.Jerry Right on your beat, you have a recent Graduate from Seton Hall/St Pat’s who probably would not have made it to college for academics unless he had the special remedial program at St Pat’s and he was hardly a star at either place, but will lead a nice, productive life after getting his degree from SHU for free.Look forward to your microscopic piece on St Pat’s.relax everyone
gotta ask who is leaving espn la? adande? shelburne ? kamenetzkys?
Hollinger. He got a job in Memphis’s front office
I know a minority opinion. But I dont see Melo as a guy to take you to the championship. KD will, LeBron will and has, Dirk finally did, Rose will, Kobe for sure……but I dont see Melo doing that. Maybe i will be proved wrong. But Id love to see how they do if chandler goes out for a few games.
Well, there is a case to be made for these…..but……since I see defense as counting equally with scoring, Id have to drop david lee off the list. Melo…..I dont know. I think for now, fine, but I dont buy the Knicks as contenders. (also, will someone please write a column on the favorable scheduling for the knicks. Tired teams arriving at the garden, knicks always rested, etc). But I rank KD first. Second….ok, Id say chris paul. He just means so much. Blake has played great….better than i thought possible. Kyrie Irving deserves props. Tony Parker though i have three, Irving four, and who knows five. But ZBo deserves something…..again, defense defense defense. Faried, too….helps that team an awful lot. Lillard, ditto. Noah? Ok….1 KD, 2 Chris Paul, 3 parker, 4 Zbo, and 5 Noah.
No ‘Melo in Top 5? That team is No. 1 in East. Seriously?
Yeah, Ok…but I think Chandler is the MVP for the Knicks. Honestly. When Melo was down…..they didnt miss a beat. IF Chandler went down….would they still win?