The Athletic keeps growing .......

You may be right. (Not about Roethlisberger; a league didn't give up on him).

Rose was a starter for three years after coming back and averaged 18 a game for the Knicks as recently as 2016-17, though, and I don't think it was really until the rape allegations and other off-court controversies around that time that fans and NBA folks left him for dead. That's why I think all of it is a relevant part of the narrative.

 

With the Knicks he could still score on a bad team but he wasn't the same player. His time in New York ended when he tore his meniscus and had his fourth knee surgery in nine years. He also had vision problems.

He signed with the Cavs last year and hurt his ankle -- he actually left the team for a few weeks to decide if he wanted to just retire because of all the injuries. He came back, wasn't any good, and was a salary throw-in in the Utah trade. Utah cut him. He appeared to be physically done.

There was no reason to think he had a 50-point game in him. It's a great story... for a player that many people will understandably refuse to root for.

 

Wouldn't a new round of funding be a positive? Surely the people kicking in fresh money have done some due diligence.

 

The Athletic has gotten formulaic lately.
I mostly read the hockey stuff. They started down the nerd road, with lots analytics about. I think they wanted to be the "thinking man's" sports publication. But this is sports. Not rocket science.
So they seem to have backed off nerdstuff for more traditional sports journalism with some pseudo-longform journalism thrown in.
At some point, all their bluster about a "new way of sports journalism" was just a bunch of BS when all they did was go out and hire all the journos who took buyouts or early retirements from the dailies.
Does anyone really think the 20-year beat writers are going to revolutionize sports journalism?

Lately, the Freep and the Detroit News have been kick the crap out of Athletic Detroit and making my wonder if I'm spending my money in the wrong place.

 

Nerd stuff. Lol.

 

I've noticed the quality drop off considerably recently. It's like the writers feel they have to write something so they do.
Couple of local examples:
They had a feature a few weeks ago about the Kings' Nate Thompson converting to Judiasm during the summer. And then after the Pittsburgh tragedy, they had to revisit this (same photo on top of the story). Thompson has been Jewish for 15 minutes, yet he is the go-to guy for Judiasm affairs. Same, too, with the Ducks' John Gibson. He is from Pittsburgh, so they had to do a story on him relating to what happened in Pittsburgh. "We didn't live in Squirrel Hill, but we drove through it a lot. Sad situation." Uh, yeah. This is sad.
They have a new writer who played a few seasons below the NHL level, so he is writing features. "I played with Brandon Montour in San Diego. He is great. He is going to be a really good player." This guy is too rah-rah for a site supposedly dedicated to strong journalism.
A lot of the stories are too involved and way too long, most of the stat stories are so confusing you can't even follow what they're trying to prove.

 

Let’s dumb it down for the dinosaurs, right?

Which writer are you talking about?

 

Josh Cooper wrote the Thompson stories. He also did a reader Q&A where he asked for questions about the Kings and Ducks that he would answer in three days. There were 50+ on the file. I thought he would seek out answers and give some depth. All he offered was his opini0ns. Who gives a crap what he thinks about Dustin Brown returning to form or not.
Eric Stephens did the Gibson/Pittsburgh story. Stephens has been a friend and co-worker for more than 30 years. Me and others think his stories are too long.
Jordan Samuels-Thomas did the Montour story and others that I stopped reading after the first couple of grafs. He writes "based on his experience as a hockey player." I have never heard of him. He wrote that he was on the San Diego Gulls. I kind of keep track of that team and am aware of who the Ducks have in rookie camp and training camp.
Dom Luszczyszyn's stories are jam-packed with stats, graphs and charts. Very hard to decipher. Same with Corey Pronman.
Sean McIndoe with Down Goes Brown, updating the power rankings every day. EVERY FREAKING DAY!!. Come on, man.

There is a lot I like, too. I check it daily. The stupid stuff and the bad stuff seem to stand out.

 

I have noticed a steady stream of articles on the web citing The Athletic's original reporting. For example:

REPORT: Cavs' Veterans Believe First-Round Pick Collin Sexton Doesn't 'Know How to Play'

I have seen the same in Deadspin: Summary of the story with a few block quotations, but nothing added. My response is to be thankful I get it without having a subscription.

Shouldn't The Athletic have something in its terms of service prohibiting this?

 

Prohibit aggregation? Prohibition itself might stand a better chance.

 

I absolutely despise aggregation services. Every time someone links to an aggregator as a source, I immediately look for the true original source to find what was actually said or reported.

 

Showing restraint can be tricky when a writer no longer as limited space. Incredibly important, though, particularly for a site that promotes itself as a step above the local newspaper's coverage.