Will COVID-19 be the needle that finally bursts the sports bubble?

We have two sports guys - one is 73 and still comes in to help even as retired. One is 60.

Their stories are incredible. Because they have so much equity built up on covering thousands of athletes, they get all the scoops. We have grandmas shooting pictures and videos inside of nursing homes and sending it to them for stories.

All those years of covering HS sports pay off.

 

What if someone had said that to Jim Murray?

Or " Don't try to be Red Smith."

"Don't try to be AJ Liebling."

"Don't try to be Ring Lardner."

Within reason, the ambition to be great - and singular - should be encouraged, not stifled.

 

Depends on the beat, I guess. If you're a sportswriter with connections in Memphis or Oakland or Seattle, etc., use your relationships with those teams and sports to write about those places.

Plenty of C19 stories to write.

Also a great time to write analyses, or team and players histories.

 

If the mentor's words were intended to mean "don't imitate. Find your own voice" then well and good.

 

In a work setting, I probably agree. Especially if you're bad at it.

But I think in general terms you eventually find your own voice as a writer in part by imitating others.

 

Guarandamntee the editor who said this was a miserable failure who hated his own lack of talent and downloaded that onto others.

 

Then you say that without being a snark. This world is loaded with people who could have done great things but didn’t because they crossed paths with assholes like this.

 

I just think folks are reflecting on better times, and it wouldn't hurt anybody to write about those times.

The world needs humor and art right now, especially humor.

 

I found the Athletic’s story on the Kings last season in Kansas City Last interesting.

 

Anybody who has reached The Athletic level at this point will have shown Murray-type talent by now. I read it a lot. Haven't seen it.

Another bit of advice: Don't "guarandamntee" your assumptions because you know what happens when you assume. In this particular case, the guy was one NOT "a miserable failure," he was of the finest beat reporters of his era, was on staff with Murray and was highly qualified to make such an analysis. His analysis is spot-on, yours is not.

 

When was this published? I’ll pay the damn $3.99 just for this article.

found it. Hell yes.

I would give nearly anything to watch this game.