obviously i'll have something to say about this...

orville, the guy needed to disclose those details to readers so they could make a judgment about the impartiality of his position.

 

From the start, I had a problem with Whitlock lumping Stringer in with publicity hounds like Jackson and Sharpton. She came to the defense of her team and after being a coach for 30+ years, I don't think that she just wants attention. If you didn't know who she was before the Imus incident, you probably don't know much about women's college basketball and I don't think she's happy her team was insulted just because now people know her name.

 

To answer this point. A theory on why some minorities bypass the smaller papers. They can't afford living on that salary; are accustomed to living in decent sized cities.
Now I know some non-minorities who can afford to take lower salaries because they are subsidized by their parents. I know, because I met a lot of them. Not being bitter, just being realistic.

 

Damm, I watched that movie twice and I am still scratching my head!

 

Have you written your own column about the conference? (Not the one responding to Wojo ..) Why? Why not?

 

She didn't explicity do that, but I do think it's certainly possible to take her comments that Whitlock wasn't as famous as he is before this whole thing as a response to his comments that she used it to make herself more famous.

Now you can say that's not how she meant it, but based on this thread it's clear that a number of people took it that way.

 

the conference/panel discussion ended late monday night.... i flew back to kc early tuesday morning. spent most of the day at leavenworth prison speaking with inmates.... just finished writing my column about 2 hours ago.

 

Just curious, did C. Vivian or anyone who talked about you onstage say anything offstage?

If you would like to keep that private, totally understandable. Just curious what the reaction was offstage.

 

Yeah, JW ... fill us in.

 

Just saying that the most trustworthy source on an exchange is usually an observer, not one of the participants.

I don't know Wojo, either, but I'm assuming the entire staff of ESPN does not have a vendetta against you. Maybe that's naive of me.

 

the most trustworthy source is the eye in the sky, the tape. the whole thing was recorded by espn. i'm more than comfortable with what is on the tape.

and no one suggested the entire staff at espn has a vendetta against me. you're not so naive that you believe the entire organization has to have a problem with me for wojo to file a column that puts me in the most negative light while trying to create the impression that he respects my "fearless" approach.

 

vivian and i chatted for 15 to 20 minutes following the event. it was her desire. she was much more calm and rational and defensive.

etan thomas and i hit it off and probably talked for 30 minutes.

curtis bunn and i talked before the event. he's a good dude. i talked with claire smith before the event. it's the first time i've ever met her.

about 15 of us talked in spike's suite until about 1 a.m. dave winfield was there, too. jim brown dominated the post-panel discussion in spike's suite.