Bad enough that we awake this beginning of the new year to news of another very, very potentially ugly and scary gun incident involving the Washington Wizards Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton, according to the NY Post.
Worse yet, both ESPN.com and SI.com both IGNORED the story. Not a mention. Not a word. ESPN and ESPN News? Nothing, nada, and Happy New Year, did you see our exciting and lovely Sun Bowl and Chick-fillet Bowl?
Could it be that ESPN pays hundreds of millions of dollars to the NBA and doesn't want to rock the boat, much like the fact that the World Wide Leader essentially buried the Tim Donaghy allegations? Ditto SI.com, which is owned by a division of Time-Warner, which owns TNT Network, which coincidentally broadcasts NBA games on Tuesday and Thursday.
The Post story has been confirmed by multiple sources and Arenas himself already acknowledged he stored three unloaded handguns in his locker at the Verizon Center in DC on Dec. 21st. The Post' story involving a betting dispute between Arenas and rookie teammate, Javarius Crittenton, during a Christmas Eve practice is disturbing enough. Worse yet is the complete bury job perpetrated by two of the NBA's biggest TV distributors.
And you wonder why the NBA has some very empty buildings around the league. Look at the situation in Philly, Sacramento, Indiana, Milwaukee, and yes, Washington too. Both of the NY teams have half-filled buildings at various games. This can't help.
And ESPN? Not that they care, but shame on them. They are merely confirming what we all know went out the door many moons ago. Credibility.
They can have all the "Outside the Lines" they want. They could send Jeremy Shapp and Bob Ley to Oakland to sniff out an obscure Tom Cable-hits-ex-wife story from 20 years back.
But a major gun expose hitting a big star and a teammate involving one of their biggest TV partners? Asleep at the wheel. I wonder why.
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as of 10 am this morning it is the top story listed under "headlines" on ESPN.com
ReplyDeleteyeah, they finally ran a story at 10 EST many, many hours and minutes AFTER the story ran the on the NYP web site. The story broke at 6PM last night.
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