The Reign Man Redux?
By Zach
So the talk surrounding the Sonics the last two days (for the few people who have bothered to pay attention, what with the Huskies in the Sweet Sixteen and the Mariners about to start off another futile season) has been about newly acquired power forward Chris Wilcox. On Tuesday night, "Weezy" posted 16 points and grabbed a career-high 19 rebounds against the Kings, while last night he dropped a career-high 30 on the Bucks (and grabbed 14 boards for good measure). That meant today I woke up to a number of stories like this one comparing Wilcox to the greatest forward in Sonic history, Shawn Kemp.
Wilcox is certainly more athletic than anyone to play the position since the Reign Man, and only Vin Baker (pre-lockout) posted comparable numbers. I haven't had many chances to see Wilcox play, but he's certainly going to be a fan favorite for as long as he stays in Seattle with his ability to wow crowds with some specatacular dunks. Will he ever reach Kemp's level? God, I hope so. People forget, Kemp was for a while one of the best 10 players in the league. Look at his 1996 season: 19.6 ppg, 11.4 rpg, 1.6 bpg, 1.2 spg.
Coincidentally, Kemp is looking to make a comeback. Despite all he's been through, people forget that Kemp is just 36. There still good be a year or two's worth of good play left in those legs.
For those of you who don't realize who dominant an athlete the Reign Man was:
Blogger's Rights
As Bryan mentioned before, us bloggers don't always get a fair shake from the "mainstream" media. I may read ESPN.com, CBS Sportsline, and other sites regularly, but I don't view their writers as somehow better than me or my team. That goes double for sports radio. They may have slightly better access, and corporate backing, but they're wrong often enough to kill any intimidation we'd otherwise feel. For good or bad, blogging is revolutionizing the way that sports fans follow the sport, and jackasses like Colin Cowherd will have to realize it. If he'd stolen his bit from a magazine, or another radio show, he'd be in big trouble...but apparently, you can copy and paste from the web without anyone caring. I hope someone at ESPN explains that when you're too dumb to be clever on your own, you at least need to credit those who do show some signs of mental acuity.
Along those lines: Feel free to link to anything on the site, or to reprint it if you properly credit Sportszilla and the writer. We work hard on what we post, and while we want as many people as possible to read our blog, we also want our due credit for the occasional goodness we compose. Questions, comments, concerns? E-mail sportszilla AT gmail DOT com.
Update
This is the message I sent George Solomon:
I'm sure you've gotten about 100 of these, but I too wanted to express my outrage about Colin Cowherd blatantly stealing content from bloggers. As an aspiring sports journalist, and a current blogger, this disregard for intellectual property and proper attribution strikes me as sloppy and crude at best, and blatantly unprofessional as well. ESPN does some very good things for sports fans, but it owes the sports community an apology for the holier-than-thou attitude it allowed Cowherd to take when he was confronted with his wrongdoing.
Wilcox is certainly more athletic than anyone to play the position since the Reign Man, and only Vin Baker (pre-lockout) posted comparable numbers. I haven't had many chances to see Wilcox play, but he's certainly going to be a fan favorite for as long as he stays in Seattle with his ability to wow crowds with some specatacular dunks. Will he ever reach Kemp's level? God, I hope so. People forget, Kemp was for a while one of the best 10 players in the league. Look at his 1996 season: 19.6 ppg, 11.4 rpg, 1.6 bpg, 1.2 spg.
Coincidentally, Kemp is looking to make a comeback. Despite all he's been through, people forget that Kemp is just 36. There still good be a year or two's worth of good play left in those legs.
For those of you who don't realize who dominant an athlete the Reign Man was:
Blogger's Rights
As Bryan mentioned before, us bloggers don't always get a fair shake from the "mainstream" media. I may read ESPN.com, CBS Sportsline, and other sites regularly, but I don't view their writers as somehow better than me or my team. That goes double for sports radio. They may have slightly better access, and corporate backing, but they're wrong often enough to kill any intimidation we'd otherwise feel. For good or bad, blogging is revolutionizing the way that sports fans follow the sport, and jackasses like Colin Cowherd will have to realize it. If he'd stolen his bit from a magazine, or another radio show, he'd be in big trouble...but apparently, you can copy and paste from the web without anyone caring. I hope someone at ESPN explains that when you're too dumb to be clever on your own, you at least need to credit those who do show some signs of mental acuity.
Along those lines: Feel free to link to anything on the site, or to reprint it if you properly credit Sportszilla and the writer. We work hard on what we post, and while we want as many people as possible to read our blog, we also want our due credit for the occasional goodness we compose. Questions, comments, concerns? E-mail sportszilla AT gmail DOT com.
Update
This is the message I sent George Solomon:
I'm sure you've gotten about 100 of these, but I too wanted to express my outrage about Colin Cowherd blatantly stealing content from bloggers. As an aspiring sports journalist, and a current blogger, this disregard for intellectual property and proper attribution strikes me as sloppy and crude at best, and blatantly unprofessional as well. ESPN does some very good things for sports fans, but it owes the sports community an apology for the holier-than-thou attitude it allowed Cowherd to take when he was confronted with his wrongdoing.
posted by Zach at 5:20 PM
2 Comments:
Cowturd's his own man. He speaks for himself, have you ever listened to his radio. Yeah,his a jackass but he should have stole better material.
What up Zach? Been a long time...I've been reading your blog for a while now, since I saw it linked on Deadspin. Good stuff - reminds me of the sports convos we used to have in my dad's van on the way to Mercer Island every Tuesday.
1. Cowherd's an idiot. As someone who has spent a lot of time working in sports media over the last few years, I can say affirmatively that the shitty part of all this is that he will probably face no repercussions. Sports media people bite shit off the internet constantly and seem to feel that no attribution is necessary. Cowherd's a jackass, but I doubt he'll be reprimanded.
2. I was ecstatic when the Sonics got Wilcox, and I'm even happier with the trade now. I've been able to watch him a few times in person - he's no Kemp, but he's a hell of a lot better than any other post player the Sonics have had since Kemp started drinking his troubles away at Seattle-area Keg steakhouses. One other thing to note about Kemp: as Bill Simmons has pointed out, in the 1996 Finals series against the Bulls, Kemp was the most dominant player in that series, even more so than Jordan. He was hitting his peak, and he was the most explosive leaper and finisher in the league. The 1996 Finals should have been his coming out party, his vault into MVP territory. With all the discussion about the defections of A-Rod and Griffey, its often forgotten in Seattle that Kemp's complete fall into alcoholism and obscurity is probably the greatest tragedy in Seattle sports history.
Anyway - keep up the good work. Hit me up on myspace sometime.
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