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TrueBlue
Posts: 29144
Alba Posts: 12
Joined: 9/20/2006
Member: #1172
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Posted by Andrew:
Posted by TrueBlue:
Did Sam Smith write this article? If he did and you didn't check the source ahead of time some of your UK privileges should be stripped.
What should happen to your UK privileges for not reading the original post carefully enough?
...K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune is reporting
It's an understudy. Could the ball washing be more apparent? He's showing K.C. the ropes.
Basketball not Smith's only game
Tribune's longtime NBA writer meshed hoops smarts with outside interests
By K.C. Johnson | Tribune reporter
March 28, 2008
NBA Commissioner David Stern clearly remembers his reaction when Sam Smith's revealing and candid book "The Jordan Rules" arrived in 1991.
"There goes Sam," Stern recalled in a phone interview.
Stern didn't mean there goes Smith's career, which, despite the unflinching look at Michael Jordan and the Bulls' first championship season, continued at the Tribune for 17 more distinguished and insightful years.
Stern simply meant there goes Smith—doing his job, probing beneath the surface, forever fulfilling his responsibility to inform and entertain as honestly as possible.
"The book wasn't designed to please anybody, which is exactly consistent with Sam's journalistic approach," Stern said. "Sam often would write about tough issues with insights that sometimes I didn't like, but that didn't mean they weren't true.
"I have enormous respect for his judgment and intelligence and journalistic skills. I'm sure he's going to continue to ply them for the benefit of basketball in some form."
Indeed, Smith, 60, insists he's not retiring after accepting a voluntary buyout to cap his 28-year Tribune career. But his run as this city's most influential basketball voice, which catapulted him to national recognition and a place among the game's true movers and shakers, officially ends Friday.
Michael Jordan and Shaquille O'Neal would tweak him by name in postgame news conferences. Mark Cuban would rant about him in blog entries. Kobe Bryant would return his call within hours and agree to be interviewed.
Smith's words, not to mention his occasional wacky trade proposals, rippled across the NBA landscape.
"Sam knows everybody," said Bill Cartwright, whom Smith covered as a player and as Bulls coach.
Smith started at the Tribune in November 1979 after serving as press secretary to Sen. Lowell Weicker (R.-Conn.) in the 1970s and also writing for the Ft. Wayne News-Sentinel. He covered business and local politics before moving to sports in April 1984.
Smith quickly gained recognition as the Bulls beat reporter as the team endured heartbreak against the Pistons and then broke through to defeat the Lakers for the 1991 NBA championship. He has served as the Tribune's NBA reporter since 1989.
With his omnipresent sweater vests adorned with some golf course logo and his trademark saddle shoes, Smith might have looked out of place. He wasn't.
"Sam's a listener who can start a conversation and let you expand upon it quite easily," Phil Jackson said in a phone interview. "He has outside interests to draw from and knows the difference between a good story and sensational one.
"He understands basketball's a game but also players' and coaches' livelihood. He keeps that balance well, writing in both playful and serious tones, which is why he can talk to anybody from the top of the organization to the bottom."
This generosity of spirit and engaging style extended beyond NBA-types. Smith mentored many young journalists, always found time to answer readers' e-mails and never wavered from his commitment to cover the sport honestly.
Brian McIntyre, the NBA's longtime senior vice president of communications, notes Smith held the longest tenure as president of the Professional Basketball Writers' Association. Among many behind-the-scenes contributions, Smith was instrumental in creating the Magic Johnson Award, presented annually to the NBA player who best combines on-court excellence with off-the-court cooperation.
"He's a real supporter at the core of the game," Stern said. "You can sense his pain when the sport isn't getting the respect it deserves or even when it receives the disrespect it does.
"We've had some heated disagreements about issues that affect the game where words like 'stubborn' passed both ways. But we'd talk them out personally because he's very much devoted to the game, loves it and wants it to succeed."
Cartwright said Smith's "fearlessness" and ability to talk beyond sports helped him earn widespread respect from players, coaches and executives.
"There are four or five guys from those Bulls teams who still call Sam and have friendships with him," Jackson said. "That speaks to his ability to report yet develop relationships that are lasting."
Writers come and go. Smith is fond of saying everybody is replaceable, which may or may not be true. This is certain:
"There's only one Sam," Stern said. "He's really an invaluable chronicler of the last golden age of basketball before the current one."
kcjohnson@tribune.com
Andrew I won't start another thread for the rest of the day.
[Edited by - TrueBlue on 03-31-2008 2:27 PM]
LMFAO @ the Bio [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephon_Marbury[/url]
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