Nash's divorce/family issues in spotlight - is this news?

This article makes a thin attempt to connect the primary topic (Nash's family issues) to the impact his decisions have on the short-term future of the Lakers.

Is this news? I think this crosses the line, and has no business (a) as the No. 1 story on the USA Today Sports website or (b) being covered at all. I don't see how this is connected to his public role as a member of the L.A. Lakers.

Nash fights to keep ex-wife from moving
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/2013/05/30/steve-nash-ex-wife-court-phoenix-suns-los-angeles-lakers/2373997/

 

Yeah, I don't know why that would merit a story. It's private stuff. There's nothing resembling news in the story.

 

It's a public court case involving a well-known celebrity. It's news by any definition.

It's also a fairly interesting story -- she is trying to move to California solely because she can't get child support in Arizona, and he is trying to stop her for that reason.

 

Why does Nash get a say in where Jason Richardson's son lives?

 

It was interesting that he doesn't pay child support. I wonder how he swung that unless he paid her a lump sum settlement.

 

Yeah, I think it was TMZ that said she got millions in the settlement and he pays for the kids' medical and I think their tuition. There is no earthly reason she would need child support beyond that.

 

Yeah, but most get it anyway...

 

He doesn't pay child support, but he does pay an unknown amount for child-raising expenses (private school in AZ among them).

I don't see how this impacts the Lakers at all, and as there is no comment from Nash or a Lakers rep (or a pundit) about whatever impact there might be (but isn't) on the Lakers, this isn't a story - and it certainly isn't a

He's a public figure, to an extent - but what a court approved regarding the care of his children is not generally for public consumption. Yes, it's a public court case, but good grief there ought to be a line drawn somewhere and this was way past it. There's no domestic violence or any other "hot button" issue raised and, for the sake of the kids, should not be in the sports pages.

 

Maybe in 1965. But nowadays that horse has left the barn, won the Triple Crown, come back to the barn and retired to stud.

"News" is an evolving concept. In 2013 there is no argument about whether it's news.

 

Yeah, it's news... I don't know that it merited the coverage that it got, but he is a public figure... It will be interesting if any of the LA papers write more than a brief on it...

 

I argued with a guy last night about this. He refused to consider that it was news, even when I pointed out, "Well, we ran a story about Kobe Bryant suing his mother, why wouldn't we run this?"

About six hours later, after he saw it all over the web, he acknowledged that, yeah, maybe we should have it on our site too. Uh, you think?