Why do the Spurs local beat writers do such a terrible job of covering the off-season

[DPG21920]

Why are there absolutely no articles on who the Spurs are drafting, possible trades, or possible free agent acquisitions? I mean, the express news has a lot of people who cover the Spurs, yet none do any off-season work. If they can not find out any information, why do they not write an article saying what they think the Spurs need? They could ask fans to send in trades or free agents or draft picks they want, pick the best ones and write an article about that? It would at least let the fans vent and could get some good ideas out of it... just my two cents...

[ducks]

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[DPG21920]

Don't they get paid salaries? They should appease their readers. Like I said, even if they wanted to be lazy instead of being completely lazy, they could use my idea, and have fans register with mysa.com and be able to submit their trade, free agent and draft ideas. Then they could comprise the best ones and go over the pros and cons. That would at least give the fans something to do, while feeling like they get to be a part of the team. It would be easy for the writer and not only that, they get free marketing research data which is very costly...

[ChumpDumper]

You're acting as if there is a large amount of inside Spurs information available to journalists.

I'm actually kind of glad the local media refrains from Sam Smith columns.

[DPG21920]

I am speaking purely about the locals. I can understand no national publication coverage, but not no local coverage. There is no other sports team to cover here. They should have plenty of information. They cover the team all year, know all the personnel. Go do some journalism work and use the contacts you have built up over the course of your career.

[DPG21920]

Its just bogus, especially with the draft coming up, that I can not read the express news and find anything about it, yet they will write about Del Negro... wow

[ChumpDumper]

You're acting as if there is a large amount of inside Spurs information available to journalists.

[Galileo]

You're acting as if there is a large amount of inside Spurs information available to journalists.

I'm actually kind of glad the local media refrains from Sam Smith columns.

It's a media conspiracy to black out the SPURRRRS!

:p:

[DPG21920]

Whats your point CHUMP? How come other journalists know the Nuggets are shopping Camby or Melo? Or that Artest might opt out? Or that the Bulls are leaning towards drafting Rose over Beas. Do not tell me they have no relationships with any Spurs personnel decision makers, what a cop out... and like I said, if they are not giving you any information, make an educated decision and write what you think they should do or about discussions you have heard from being around players all year long.

[anakha]

Why are there absolutely no articles on who the Spurs are drafting, possible trades, or possible free agent acquisitions?

CIA Pop.

[Sway]

CIA Pop.

God Im tired of "CIA Pop" being the answer to everything.

I bet you guys also believe in black helicopters, JFK assassination conspiracies, aliens at Area 51, etc.

Come on people get real…

[Ocotillo]

Well obviously they don't have any decent sources to get what the Spurs FO is thinking. For example with everyone all over Chalmers, I for one fully expect Stern to be calling out another name after he says "The San Antonio Spurs pick........".

The least they could do though is have a series of articles on who is in the draft, what players realistically will be around when the Spurs pick, but then we get that here.

Heck, we don't even know if Horry is coming back or not. We all assume he is gone but he was saying he would like to come back so who the heck knows.

[T Park]

I am speaking purely about the locals. I can understand no national publication coverage, but not no local coverage. There is no other sports team to cover here. They should have plenty of information. They cover the team all year, know all the personnel. Go do some journalism work and use the contacts you have built up over the course of your career.

The beat writer for the Spurs is brand new and has not built up a relationship up yet.

Theres no news or anything wrong now anyways, so give it a rest.

[T Park]

God Im tired of "CIA Pop" being the answer to everything.

I bet you guys also believe in black helicopters, JFK assassination conspiracies, aliens at Area 51, etc.

Come on people get real…


Do you understand anything about the term "CIA Pop"???

[DPG21920]

The beat writer for the Spurs is brand new and has not built up a relationship up yet.

Theres no news or anything wrong now anyways, so give it a rest.

Don't tell me to give it a rest, do not comment if you do not like the thread. There is plenty of stuff going on to report on, just as we on this board talk about. These writers are more in the know than we are and I am asking for any coverage, not everyday, but some tidbits and insight.

[ChumpDumper]

Whats your point CHUMP? How come other journalists know the Nuggets are shopping Camby or Melo? Or that Artest might opt out? Or that the Bulls are leaning towards drafting Rose over Beas.Because those have do do with the Nuggets, Kings and Bulls.
Do not tell me they have no relationships with any Spurs personnel decision makers, what a cop out...There are plenty of relationships with Spurs personnel decision-makers -- they just don't matter that much.
and like I said, if they are not giving you any information, make an educated decision and write what you think they should do or about discussions you have heard from being around players all year long.That's absolutely the worst thing they could do because readers go ahead and act like it is actually based on inside information. It happens pretty much every week in Chicago.

Look, you are basically saying you wish the people working for the Spurs blabbed to the press more. I wish they did too, but they don't. So what?

[DPG21920]

Now I am saying, that as a journalist that covers the team and watches them all year long, comment on things you have heard. To make a suggestion is not to infer that it is based on inside information. That is the great thing when you have the power of information, you can clear up any doubt by saying: The Spurs are tighter with their information than a virgin on prom-night, since I can not tell you what the Spurs are going to do, at least let me tell you what I think they should do and then let the fans send in ideas as well and put the best together and go over the good, the bad and the ugly,

[DPG21920]

My point exactly, if the Nuggets can get covered or the Kings then the town with 1 professional team should get covered.

[Russ]

The Spurs' MO is to keep quiet about off-season moves.

Therefore, any coverage (or speculation) about off-season moves is counter to the Spurs' policy.

San Antonio is a one-team town.

Therefore, the Spurs hold all the cards and the local media hold none. (Just ask Kevin O'Keefe.)

Therefore . . . :)

[DPG21920]

I would rather have Buck Harvey, Mike Monroe or Jeff McDonald give me insight than chump, no offense.

[ChumpDumper]

Now I am saying, that as a journalist that covers the team and watches them all year long, comment on things you have heard. You are assuming a journalist covering the Spurs hears anything worth reporting.
To make a suggestion is not to infer that it is based on inside information. That is the great thing when you have the power of information, you can clear up any doubt by saying: The Spurs are tighter with their information than a virgin on prom-night, since I can not tell you what the Spurs are going to do, at least let me tell you what I think they should do and then let the fans send in ideas as well and put the best together and go over the good, the bad and the ugly,Truthfully, we know about as much as anyone covering the Spurs (probably more this season), and we talk about what we think the Spurs should do all the time. Your problem is you want to see it in print.

[DPG21920]

I am cool with that fact Russ, but like I said to not make any comments or give any insight or speculation sucks.

[ChumpDumper]

I would rather have Buck Harvey, Mike Monroe or Jeff McDonald give me insight than chump, no offense.You want insight from Jeff McDonald? :lmao

[ChumpDumper]

My point exactly, if the Nuggets can get covered or the Kings then the town with 1 professional team should get covered.I agree I would feel better informed if the Spurs played the same games with the media as other teams.

They don't.

Now what?

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

I'm going to preface this by saying I know nothing of the inner workings, but this is primarily vacation time for SA sports journalists. Hell, I'm taking my vacation tomorrow.

[GooberNuts]

I'm new to these forums and I don't live in San Antonio, so is it always like this every summer where there is not much info on what the team is doing, or is the FO just being especially quiet this year?

[FromWayDowntown]

There definitely seems to be some sort of quid pro quo exacted by the Spurs brass with the local media -- if the media want access, they tell the stories the Spurs wish (mostly) and don't do things that the Spurs don't want them to. It's part and parcel of being in a town with minimal media covering an organization that cherishes secrecy almost as much as it does winning.

I don't see the point in wishing for any of the local writers to engage in speculation. Why would anyone want to read about things that nobody could ever be sure of? Does Buck Harvey speculating that the Spurs should draft Chris Douglas-Roberts amount to something newsworthy just because Buck thought of it and decided to write a column about it? If it's speculation, it must necessarily lack any foundation from any credible source. It's particularly a curious desire given that the local media guys aren't going to risk access to real information by engaging in any sort of significant speculation.

[Mr.Bottomtooth]

I'm new to these forums and I don't live in San Antonio, so is it always like this every summer where there is not much info on what the team is doing, or is the FO just being especially quiet this year?

Every summer.

[ChumpDumper]

Every summer.Yeah, we speculate all summer about what the Spurs are going to do.

No one ever gets it right.

If anyone does, I hear that earns the poster a Spur.

The best I ever did was saying the Spurs would trade away a pick.

[tmtcsc]

Don't tell me to give it a rest, do not comment if you do not like the thread. There is plenty of stuff going on to report on, just as we on this board talk about. These writers are more in the know than we are and I am asking for any coverage, not everyday, but some tidbits and insight.

Huh ? What makes you think the writers are more in the know. I don't think we'll see anything until a few deadlines pass. Let's have the draft and then have the free agency period began.

All the stuff about the Pistons and Denver possibilities is because the FO's are making bold statements and/or are being somewhat vocal. I seriously don't think that the Spurs are going to move Tony or Manu. So, what do we have left to do anything with ?

You would probably be better off checking this site for info. We usually get it here first before the writers.

[DPG21920]

So by your logic, we should not have ESPN or any other analyst by that matter, because what they say, for example, who wins a series and in how many games is purely speculation and has no merit. Yet millions of people log onto ESPN.com, SI.com, Yahoo.com and such everyday because they like it.

[ChumpDumper]

So by your logic, we should not have ESPN or any other analyst by that matter, because what they say, for example, who wins a series and in how many games is purely speculation and has no merit. Yet millions of people log onto ESPN.com, SI.com, Yahoo.com and such everyday because they like it.They certainly do.

[DPG21920]

They are more in the know because they talk and interview the players/coaches all year long... no one on this board does that or gets paid to talk about there opinions although there are a lot of good ideas and information sharing.

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

They are more in the know because they talk and interview the players/coaches all year long... no one on this board does that or gets paid to talk about there opinions although there are a lot of good ideas and information sharing.

Kori does.

[ChumpDumper]

They are more in the know because they talk and interview the players/coaches all year long...And what do you think the coaches and players tell them?
no one on this board does thatAre you sure?

[timvp]

They are more in the know because they talk and interview the players/coaches all year long... no one on this board does that or gets paid to talk about there opinions although there are a lot of good ideas and information sharing.

http://spurstalk.com/forums/member.php?u=6

[Mr.Bottomtooth]

I got an interview with RC a few days ago.
















Wait.




No I didn't.

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

http://spurstalk.com/forums/member.php?u=7

Not anymore, I don't, but thanks for the love.

[timvp]

Ludden from about 2000 to 2005 was great about writing offseason articles. It seemed like he'd find something to write about at least a couple times a week. And his information was actually good and reliable.

But then Ludden got lazy and he started to slack in the offseasons too and eventually left for the Yahoo gig. Now McDonald is in his first offseason and he's doing absolutely nothing. The problem for McDonald is he's obviously not getting any information and on top of that he doesn't know the game well enough to even speculate. We'll see what he comes up with in the days before or after the draft ... however Monroe might write about it because McDonald is so NBA knowledge limited.

The Spurs right now probably have less coverage than any team in the NBA. Even small market teams that have never done anything have a lot more coverage ... like the Grizzlies, for example. Then again, Pop would probably loves it that no information is getting leaked out at all.

[DPG21920]

So one person on this website actually talks to the Spurs on a consistent basis?

[spurs50_]

This is a good point, what gives? But, I'm still trying to figure out why Pop traded Scola to the Rockets the only answer I get is "CIA POP"........Anyway, my top five are: Rush , Batum, CDR, Lee, and Budlinger, if we get one of these I will call it a good draft.

[DPG21920]

Thats my point TimVP, that is what the thread was about, the horrible coverage. Just trying to bring it to light.

[Mr.Bottomtooth]

So one person on this website actually talks to the Spurs on a consistent basis?

yea. And?

[DPG21920]

What is Kori's job?

[DPG21920]

Keep in mind I am relatively new to this site.

[ChumpDumper]

This is a good point, what gives? But, I'm still trying to figure out why Pop traded Scola to the Rockets the only answer I get is "CIA POP".Luxury tax.

[Sherlock Holmes]

Why are they called 'beat' writers?

What's the point of having the word beat in that phrase?

[Samir Nagheenanajar]

Mother... shitter... Son of an... ass. I just...

[ChumpDumper]

Why are they called 'beat' writers?

What's the point of having the word beat in that phrase?Back in the BAA days, newspapers hired thugs to threaten players and coaches to tell them about trades and draft picks, and beat them if they didn't comply. This practice faded with the proliferation of accredited journalism schools and the introduction of large black men into the NBA, but the name stuck.

[tmtcsc]

Back in the BAA days, newspapers hired thugs to threaten players and coaches to tell them about trades and draft picks, and beat them if they didn't comply. This practice faded with the proliferation of accredited journalism schools and the introduction of large black men into the NBA, but the name stuck.

:lmao

[Sherlock Holmes]

Back in the BAA days, newspapers hired thugs to threaten players and coaches to tell them about trades and draft picks, and beat them if they didn't comply. This practice faded with the proliferation of accredited journalism schools and the introduction of large black men into the NBA, but the name stuck.
:lol

Still I want to know what is the point of having the word beat in that phrase? Are they beatniks or something.

[ChumpDumper]

:lol

Still I want to know what is the point of having the word beat in that phrase? Are they beatniks or something.3 a: a regularly traversed round <the cop on the beat> b: a group of news sources that a reporter covers regularly

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

Back in the BAA days, newspapers hired thugs to threaten players and coaches to tell them about trades and draft picks, and beat them if they didn't comply. This practice faded with the proliferation of accredited journalism schools and the introduction of large black men into the NBA, but the name stuck.

That's going in my speech to HS journos tomorrow.

[stxspurs]

God Im tired of "CIA Pop" being the answer to everything.

I bet you guys also believe in black helicopters, JFK assassination conspiracies, aliens at Area 51, etc.

Come on people get real…

FBIpop?

[Sherlock Holmes]

3 a: a regularly traversed round <the cop on the beat> b: a group of news sources that a reporter covers regularly

There we go. Thanks.

[pooh]

Why are there absolutely no articles on who the Spurs are drafting, possible trades, or possible free agent acquisitions? I mean, the express news has a lot of people who cover the Spurs, yet none do any off-season work. If they can not find out any information, why do they not write an article saying what they think the Spurs need? They could ask fans to send in trades or free agents or draft picks they want, pick the best ones and write an article about that? It would at least let the fans vent and could get some good ideas out of it... just my two cents...


cause football season is coming up...more important right now.

[ChumpDumper]

Why did you become a Pacer fan?

[Kori Ellis]

Free agency hasn't even started yet and the Spurs never reveal much about what they are doing in the draft. So I'm not sure what you would expect to read at this point other than stuff about the NBA Finals and coaching moves, etc. This is usually the time when the Spurs beat reporter goes on vacation.

McDonald is new as the Spurs beat reporter, so I doubt he has any established hardcore connections for inside scoops. And the Spurs keep things on the downlow anyway.

Monroe isn't the Spurs beat reporter. He's the E-N's NBA writer and Harvey is the opinion columnist. Your best bet for inside Spurs news is through Johnny Ludden at Yahoo.

[DPG21920]

I read every major publication, especially Johnny... I was just hoping for more localized opinions, but oh well, can not wait until the draft.

[mrspurs]

heres a secret..ive seen it personally many times...During the week, while everyone is doing or going to their jobs that pay their bills, journalist do the same. During practices, ive had the chance to watch the journalist drive up, come sit down in their normal spots plus or minus a chair, pull out a pad and pen, and about 20-30 mins later, the days done. it doesnt matter which team it is, rampage or spurs etc., someone has got a tee-time set and that is where they go shortly after...what they write down i dont know, where they go play golf sometimes i do cos i hear them talk...somewhere inbetween the time when the journalist sits down and writes, and when the golf game ends, is where the news gets lost or doesnt make it to the back to the express news office and paper. and its exactly why i dont buy it........go spurs go

[objective]

It shouldn't take any inside secret info from unnamed sources or key relationships built over time to find out some simple things.

Like who will be coaching the summer league team. I's not like the Spurs don't know right now, it's less than a month away. Doesn't need an article, could be a simple note.

And that's something no one apparently either in print, tv, or online seems willing to ask.

[ChumpDumper]

Most folks don't care.

Have you asked the Spurs yourself?