Power blogger: Tim Kawakami, 'Talking Points', SJ Merc, moves the meter; Monday AM pulse

Tim Kawakami is a columnist for the San Jose Mercury News, but his "Talking Points" blog is a must-read and has earned him high marks as a hallmark Bay Area sports blogger.

No one has any real number of readers that look at Kawakami's posts, but word-of-mouth buzz and industry chatter says his site gets thousands of hits at any given moment. He often has been called the "knocker" because he's known to rattle a few cages, but he's at the top of his game and is often dead on with his sources of information.

His relentless Warriors coverage/criticism has garnered him a ton of loyal readership from the Warriors legion of fans, even those that detest him, but begrudgingly look at his every post. He correctly surmised that the Oakland NBA team would eventually be up for sale and just a few weeks ago, indeed, it was fact.

His Raiders posts have become notorious around the 'RaiderNation, but even his detractors, (like me, at times) concede that he's infinitely right more often that wrong, and that's saying a lot. He doesn't have many friends in the respective front offices', but you get the feeling that he pretty much likes it that way.

I'll say this about Kawakami: he is dogged and yes, again, relentless. But he's fair. While his anti-Warriors/Raiders rants are numerous, he can, and is equally prickly about the other Bay Area teams, so while you can ridicule his selective shots, you can't fault his mass degree of 'rip-art-tee across the board.

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