Bill Simmons once wrote about how Spencer Haywood exemplified many of the worst tendencies of the NBA's 70s/80s malaise, from the ABA split to the cocaine crisis. Is James Harden the Haywood of the "trade demand" era?
Yes! I don’t listen to him but saw the tweet and thought it was incredibly weird behaviour. I assume it was pressure from Klutch.
So just a aside for Ethan, has Klutch, or any other agency, angrily reached out to you about an article on HoS? If so, what kind of language did they use try and retract your statement? Any threats of litigation?
Secondly, why hasn’t there been another unflattering expose on Klutch (Woj wrote one pre-ESPN)? I am sure there is plenty of material from former clients, agencies, GMs, and league officials. I mean, it was pretty much in the open that LeBron was co-operating the business with Rich Paul.
What are your thoughts on media betting on awards they vote on, as well as “personalities” touting parlays that are obviously losers. Couple that with winning players becoming limited, this entire industry, that media and leagues have sold their soul to, seems like a total fraud and long term net negative for society. The days of settling up with Donnie at the end of the week seems like child play now.
More of a comment than a question. But, it was interesting to hear which of your pods and stories go viral, and which of your stories generate more subscriptions, and how they aren't always one in the same.
Your "Kyrie and the Bartlby" story, to me personally might be your most underrated story you wrote. It has mass appeal in it being a human interest story around the politics of covid, and how you steeped the story in literature.
I'm 3/4ths through listening to your latest Rob Henderson podcast. It is excellent! I'm gonna look through your catalog of pods, and find more like those (your Freddie's, your Chuck Klosterman...pretty much all your book review ones).
In my view your talent is in the intersection of sports and culture. I get you have a compulsion to write about the local sports teams, but I don't care about the 49ers. Although your story on the A's announcer/broadcaster getting canned was quite interesting.
You mentioned that you might try to get into golf as a hobby. How’s that going? Have you given tennis a shot? Golf and tennis are the great middle age+ sports to get into. Especially with the time flexibility of your job, I’d encourage it.
Also, you’ve mentioned that you’ve been intrigued about moving away from California to a place with better cost of living but the Bay Area is where family is so it’d be a tough move. Where would be on your short list if you did move?
Sincerely,
Native Californian living the dream in North Carolina (join us...)
You can take this however you want, but some questions I have...
How will we interact with them? Will history matter? Will the other sports finally cave, as they should, to stripping their season down less games? Will gambling be even bigger?
I was going to ask something along this line here so I’ll tack on to add this.
If non-football pro sports (this includes CFB) in the US is in somewhat of decline then what do you think the floor is for that in 20-30 years? I’m thinking in terms of revenue, game attendance and telecast ratings. I think the floor is actually pretty high but I’d love to hear Ethan’s take.
Unlike entertainment sports is an actual meritocracy and I gotta think that mentality flows upward to the C-suites.
All of this hand-wringing over the future of NBA wealth, with over-leveraged owners, dying ratings, etc... Can you explain the impact on the game if the future is as gloomy as you seem to think? Will NBA owners go bankrupt / be forced to sell to John Fisher types, will players' salaries decrease such that the best prospects will choose other sports for compensation reasons, or is there some other potential impact? I guess the question is, besides NBA owners and the league office in charge of growing the value of the NBA, why should we care?
I am a lateish subscriber to HoS (my weird sports media addiction and the occasional free Glasspiegel pods got me to subscribe). After the most recent Pesca pod I decided to go back and listen to the first DeBoer pod and read the accompanying deadspin/margary/defector/blogger post. I wonder if you have any thoughts on it two years later- what you predicted then vs what we are seeing now, Magary thoughts, Barstool thoughts etc.
I was a deadspin/ksk/with leather/fjm acolyte back in the mid-aughts. Mad about billionaire owners, mad about bad announcers, drunk athletes, shitty sportswriters. But weirdly now as I enter my mid 30s I find myself more attracted to the Barstool content than any of that stuff. The deadspin diaspora still seems mad about that same stuff plus politics, while the barstool content seems to be more let’s just goof around and be funny and try to make our readers/viewers laugh and have a good time while poking fun at the silly idiosyncrasies of sports and the people within the sports ecosystem. The Barstool content guys rarely take open shots at any other site or media member (minus Rovell) unless provoked first, while the deadspin/defector seem to jump at any opportunity to write a takedown of whatever another content farm is doing, whether it’s Simmons or barstool or whatever. I think portnoy is kind of separate from this as he is his own monster and barstool talent rarely join him on his numerous crusades.
That brings me to the Lebatard show. I was also a daily lebatard listener ten years ago and even earlier than that I believe when it first got syndicated. I feel like in the midst of the trump era there was a pretty big vibe shift of the lebatard show from being more barstool fun! to being more defector serious! and they were more entertaining and what I was looking for when they were fun and silly and less serious.
They still have a lot of fun and I do listen occasionally, but not as often as before. The vending machine still gives me what I want but recently started serving me sardines I guess.
I feel like the question here is: if you were a programming director for a sports media brand looking forward to 2024 and beyond, would you go with the barstool, defector, or lebatard strategy? Or would you just do a 57th Heat rewatchable podcast?
I don't know that among all your Doomer NBA/Silver takes I've ever gotten the one about officiating vis-à-vis instant replay, the 2:00 report, flopping and all the rest.
It would seem appropriate that Mark Cuban is in the news as he represents the inflection point: before him officiating was an old boys club that comically favored stars and big markets, afterwards it is a pedantic and artless job for unreasoning drones who can't tame foul merchants and lack the most basic judgement.
Regarding Draymond Green, what do the Warriors do? It's obvious he's in a rage spiral, lashing out and unable to contain himself on the court. During games when not choking people he's complaining about ticky-tack stuff long past time to let it drop.
Is there any turning that around or have the Warriors indulged him so much in he past (prime example being almost no punishment for knocking out Jordan Poole) that he'd view any discipline as unfair and become even more embittered? He's about half a step from convincing himself everyone's out to get him and at that point his productivity goes down the Suwannee. If Steve Kerr texted you surreptitiously and asked 'what do we do?' do you have any advice?
Do the warriors have a draymond problem? He's old (and suspended) and suddenly look like a contender with the recent winning streak without him available.
I can answer this one for you. No. Draymond is the 2nd best / most valuable player on the Warriors. This question is the textbook definition of recency bias.
Bill Simmons once wrote about how Spencer Haywood exemplified many of the worst tendencies of the NBA's 70s/80s malaise, from the ABA split to the cocaine crisis. Is James Harden the Haywood of the "trade demand" era?
Do you know what actually happened with Ime Udoka and the Celtics or Alan Williams and the Bears/FBI? Why do/don’t those things get out?
What was up with that Zach Lowe apology from a few days ago? Who was so mad at him that he needed to apologize like that? Klutch? Woj? Someone else?
Yes! I don’t listen to him but saw the tweet and thought it was incredibly weird behaviour. I assume it was pressure from Klutch.
So just a aside for Ethan, has Klutch, or any other agency, angrily reached out to you about an article on HoS? If so, what kind of language did they use try and retract your statement? Any threats of litigation?
Secondly, why hasn’t there been another unflattering expose on Klutch (Woj wrote one pre-ESPN)? I am sure there is plenty of material from former clients, agencies, GMs, and league officials. I mean, it was pretty much in the open that LeBron was co-operating the business with Rich Paul.
This is what's wrong with NBA media.
I thought that was weird too. It was like a hostage video. He didn't say anything close to being out of line.
What are your thoughts on media betting on awards they vote on, as well as “personalities” touting parlays that are obviously losers. Couple that with winning players becoming limited, this entire industry, that media and leagues have sold their soul to, seems like a total fraud and long term net negative for society. The days of settling up with Donnie at the end of the week seems like child play now.
More of a comment than a question. But, it was interesting to hear which of your pods and stories go viral, and which of your stories generate more subscriptions, and how they aren't always one in the same.
Your "Kyrie and the Bartlby" story, to me personally might be your most underrated story you wrote. It has mass appeal in it being a human interest story around the politics of covid, and how you steeped the story in literature.
I'm 3/4ths through listening to your latest Rob Henderson podcast. It is excellent! I'm gonna look through your catalog of pods, and find more like those (your Freddie's, your Chuck Klosterman...pretty much all your book review ones).
In my view your talent is in the intersection of sports and culture. I get you have a compulsion to write about the local sports teams, but I don't care about the 49ers. Although your story on the A's announcer/broadcaster getting canned was quite interesting.
Happy Holidays!
You mentioned that you might try to get into golf as a hobby. How’s that going? Have you given tennis a shot? Golf and tennis are the great middle age+ sports to get into. Especially with the time flexibility of your job, I’d encourage it.
Also, you’ve mentioned that you’ve been intrigued about moving away from California to a place with better cost of living but the Bay Area is where family is so it’d be a tough move. Where would be on your short list if you did move?
Sincerely,
Native Californian living the dream in North Carolina (join us...)
What will sports look like in 20 years?
You can take this however you want, but some questions I have...
How will we interact with them? Will history matter? Will the other sports finally cave, as they should, to stripping their season down less games? Will gambling be even bigger?
I was going to ask something along this line here so I’ll tack on to add this.
If non-football pro sports (this includes CFB) in the US is in somewhat of decline then what do you think the floor is for that in 20-30 years? I’m thinking in terms of revenue, game attendance and telecast ratings. I think the floor is actually pretty high but I’d love to hear Ethan’s take.
Unlike entertainment sports is an actual meritocracy and I gotta think that mentality flows upward to the C-suites.
All of this hand-wringing over the future of NBA wealth, with over-leveraged owners, dying ratings, etc... Can you explain the impact on the game if the future is as gloomy as you seem to think? Will NBA owners go bankrupt / be forced to sell to John Fisher types, will players' salaries decrease such that the best prospects will choose other sports for compensation reasons, or is there some other potential impact? I guess the question is, besides NBA owners and the league office in charge of growing the value of the NBA, why should we care?
How long can MLS/Messi get away with his lack of media/lack of doing it in English before Apple get pissy at them
I am a lateish subscriber to HoS (my weird sports media addiction and the occasional free Glasspiegel pods got me to subscribe). After the most recent Pesca pod I decided to go back and listen to the first DeBoer pod and read the accompanying deadspin/margary/defector/blogger post. I wonder if you have any thoughts on it two years later- what you predicted then vs what we are seeing now, Magary thoughts, Barstool thoughts etc.
I was a deadspin/ksk/with leather/fjm acolyte back in the mid-aughts. Mad about billionaire owners, mad about bad announcers, drunk athletes, shitty sportswriters. But weirdly now as I enter my mid 30s I find myself more attracted to the Barstool content than any of that stuff. The deadspin diaspora still seems mad about that same stuff plus politics, while the barstool content seems to be more let’s just goof around and be funny and try to make our readers/viewers laugh and have a good time while poking fun at the silly idiosyncrasies of sports and the people within the sports ecosystem. The Barstool content guys rarely take open shots at any other site or media member (minus Rovell) unless provoked first, while the deadspin/defector seem to jump at any opportunity to write a takedown of whatever another content farm is doing, whether it’s Simmons or barstool or whatever. I think portnoy is kind of separate from this as he is his own monster and barstool talent rarely join him on his numerous crusades.
That brings me to the Lebatard show. I was also a daily lebatard listener ten years ago and even earlier than that I believe when it first got syndicated. I feel like in the midst of the trump era there was a pretty big vibe shift of the lebatard show from being more barstool fun! to being more defector serious! and they were more entertaining and what I was looking for when they were fun and silly and less serious.
They still have a lot of fun and I do listen occasionally, but not as often as before. The vending machine still gives me what I want but recently started serving me sardines I guess.
I feel like the question here is: if you were a programming director for a sports media brand looking forward to 2024 and beyond, would you go with the barstool, defector, or lebatard strategy? Or would you just do a 57th Heat rewatchable podcast?
Quit tiptoeing when it comes to Meadowlark Media. Take the gloves off.
I don't know that among all your Doomer NBA/Silver takes I've ever gotten the one about officiating vis-à-vis instant replay, the 2:00 report, flopping and all the rest.
It would seem appropriate that Mark Cuban is in the news as he represents the inflection point: before him officiating was an old boys club that comically favored stars and big markets, afterwards it is a pedantic and artless job for unreasoning drones who can't tame foul merchants and lack the most basic judgement.
Regarding Draymond Green, what do the Warriors do? It's obvious he's in a rage spiral, lashing out and unable to contain himself on the court. During games when not choking people he's complaining about ticky-tack stuff long past time to let it drop.
Is there any turning that around or have the Warriors indulged him so much in he past (prime example being almost no punishment for knocking out Jordan Poole) that he'd view any discipline as unfair and become even more embittered? He's about half a step from convincing himself everyone's out to get him and at that point his productivity goes down the Suwannee. If Steve Kerr texted you surreptitiously and asked 'what do we do?' do you have any advice?
When are you going on the Commentary podcast?
I subscribed and emailed them a couple of times requesting Ethan as a guest host, using the Steve Kornacki connection, but got no reply.
How has Substack changed the sports media landscape?
Do the warriors have a draymond problem? He's old (and suspended) and suddenly look like a contender with the recent winning streak without him available.
I can answer this one for you. No. Draymond is the 2nd best / most valuable player on the Warriors. This question is the textbook definition of recency bias.