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Professional Player Movements can be Nothing more than Media Speculation

Written by Bugeatersteve
Wednesday, 18 July 2007
Have any of you noticed that when the media, both local and national starts up a story regarding a certain player being traded (Kevin Garnett in the NBA most recently) or a free agent (Jake Plummer, NFL) moving to another team, that very, very rarely does the media have the move correct. Really, now think about it, from about 2-3 weeks prior to the NBA draft to just as recently as this weekend, Kevin Garnett was going to Boston, then to Golden State, to Phoenix, Dallas, Los Angles, these are just a few of the possibilities off the top of my head that I can think of. And what exactly happened? Well the Timberwolves owner coming out yesterday and saying that Garnett himself had never expressed any desire to be traded from the Timberwolves to begin with, that their own front office, had put out a few feelers to see if there was any interest and what Garnett’s value was and that as of now Garnett was not on the market and he was staying in Minnesota. Another prime example was in Denver and Houston right after the NFL season was over and the wide spread speculation was that Denver was going to trade Jake Plummer to Houston, or they were going to grant Plummer his release and then he would sign with Houston because of his relationship with his former offensive coordinator and current Texan head coach Gary Kubiak. So where did Plummer wind up? Denver traded him to Tampa Bay in March 2007, and he promptly announced his retirement. Yup, another media speculation that was right on the money. Back to the NBA again, where it was widely speculated that the Houston Rockets were going to draft either a power forward or a shooting guard, but what do they do, first, prior to the draft they acquire Mike James from Minnesota for Juwan Howard, so it looks like the power forward will be the draft route, right? No way once again, they draft a 6-foot water bug type point guard Aaron Brooks, who was on no Houston reporter’s radar. How is it that the media is always so far off on these issues? Isn’t it their job to know what the team they are covering is up to? Or is the team that good at concealing their true intentions that the reporter takes what the team feed him/her and runs with it as if it is total gospel. You would think that after 3-4 times where the team totally burns the reporter on their player movement that the reporter would “wise up” and not be so gullible at the next “line” that the team feeds them. But no, just like the fish in the pond, the reporter grabs that “story bait” hook, line and sinker, so to speak, and runs with it all the way to the print. Internet or TV. About the only good thing that does come from these false reports over and over, is that it does give the local communities sports radio talk show at least one to two weeks of great air time, speculating on how this particular player will improve or ruin the teams chemistry and enhance or destroy their chances at a championship. Just some food for thought. Set as favorite Bookmark Email This Trackback(0) TrackBack URI for this entry Comments (0) Subscribe to this comment's feed Write comment Name Email Website Title Comment smaller \| bigger Subscribe via email (Registered users only) I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.
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