Chad Ford changing and editing his draft boards for past years?!

[Blame Rasho]

...so ok, is there any news station that's credible in America

There is the BBC...

[Doctor MJ]

It's so weird to me that he, or anyone else, would feel a temptation to do this given that Ford isn't supposed to be giving his opinion, he's supposed to be going by what teams actually think.

So, when MCW gets moved up from #9 on Ford's actual board to #7 on the fake version, he's actually getting further off the mark from what was actually thought at the time (#11). WTF?

I wonder if we'll ever know the story here. It won't shock me if it turns out to be someone other than Ford who is responsible for this. Regardless, it obviously make him look bad...but realistically, if Darko couldn't kill Ford's career, it's hard to imagine this would.

This is what I was thinking as well.

The gut-reaction is to point the finger at Ford, but (and I admit, I have no real knowledge how ESPN content submissions work) I highly doubt that Chad Ford just logs into some ESPN account and submits/edits/removes content from the website. I would imagine all content appearing on the website is controlled by some editor(s).

That said, I'm really happy someone caught this because it's shady as hell regardless of who is doing it.

I tell you what. If it wasn't Ford and he had no knowledge of it, I'd be seriously considering my legal options. Him coming out and denying it won't really be convincing. Him suing ESPN would. Very drastic step to take though obviously.

[Blame Rasho]

This isn't some wiki edit, there are only x amount of people that have access to edit those changed web pages. I honestly believe that Ford must have some part in this given what he said in this week's chat on espn.

[oaktownwarriors87]

The company I work for has several large content sites. You can log in and edit any piece the administrators give you access to. Chad Ford likely has permission to edit all of his content, and I highly doubt anyone but he and the chief editors have access to it.

I'm sure he knows nothing about the edits like Tom Brady knows nothing about the deflated balls.

[Blame Rasho]

It's so weird to me that he, or anyone else, would feel a temptation to do this given that Ford isn't supposed to be giving his opinion, he's supposed to be going by what teams actually think.

So, when MCW gets moved up from #9 on Ford's actual board to #7 on the fake version, he's actually getting further off the mark from what was actually thought at the time (#11). WTF?

I wonder if we'll ever know the story here. It won't shock me if it turns out to be someone other than Ford who is responsible for this. Regardless, it obviously make him look bad...but realistically, if Darko couldn't kill Ford's career, it's hard to imagine this would.

This is what I was thinking as well.

The gut-reaction is to point the finger at Ford, but (and I admit, I have no real knowledge how ESPN content submissions work) I highly doubt that Chad Ford just logs into some ESPN account and submits/edits/removes content from the website. I would imagine all content appearing on the website is controlled by some editor(s).

That said, I'm really happy someone caught this because it's shady as hell regardless of who is doing it.

This might or might not be relevant, but Dan Rafael from ESPN boxing posts directly to the website without editors double checking everything. You know he posts a fight recap like 30 mins after the fight is over. What the editors do, is post like the stats from the fight from compubox as an aside within the recap hours afterwards and check for syntax errors. I am not sure if that is universal in the other sports or how the whole insider ESPN protocol is.

[floppymoose]

There is certainly a web tool that Ford uses at ESPN to edit his rankings pages, and that tool will have logs that indicate the login used and the IP address of the host. The log retention is likely not long enough to still have the earlier edits, but they will have the recent edit to revert the rankings back. ESPN absolutely can know who did that and they should start making with the transparency on that.

[HotelVitale]

I could be wrong but wasn't Chad Ford getting looked as a possible gm candidate a few years ago? Could have just been some of his buddies at ESPN trying to push his name out there, but I swear I remember hearing that somewhere... I'm guessing this doesn't help his personal "stock."

Chad Ford is a reporter, not an analysts. When he says "the top 3 are players X, Y and Z", he's not saying "I think the top 3 are X, Y and Z", he's saying "I've talked to a bunch of NBA contacts and I think the NBA consensus is that the top 3 are X, Y and Z".
Given that, the idea of him being a GM is pretty laughable. He could be a high level exec that advises an owner on GM hirings or things like that... but I wouldn't want him have actually decision making authority.

He definitely plays the role of an analyst also. Heck, his bio blurb even says so "ESPN Insider NBA Draft Analyst since 2002". Besides his mock draft and big board, Chad Ford puts out a bunch of articles about who he thinks is a sleeper, who is worth their current ranking etc.

That's true, but he also states repeatedly that the big board isn't his own rankings and that they're based on how GMs/scouts are feeling. He plays at being an observer of the whole process; even when he says 'so and so looked awesome today in workouts,' I understand him to be conveying the opinion for the whole audience and not giving his own take.

At the same time it's true that he's not at all clear about what he himself thinks, and there's a lot of ambiguity when he hypes someone up. Either way there's no reason to change the board rankings after the draft--if it's officially a pre-draft ranking of prospects according to GMs/scouts, then it becomes irrelevant the minute the draft begins.

[ufsports]

Ok, so I don't really care who did this. What I care about is that we have to pay to view stuff like this.

[DeBlazerRiddem]

Hahahaha. This is friggin' awesome. Good catch to whoever discovered this. Them changing the rankings back is the most damning part of all this. Whoever did it knows they were trying to slide one under our noses and had no valid excuse when called out.

Also, if Ford does not come out with righteous anger then we know he played a part and was complicit in this.

[NashtyNas]

There are numerous people on Twitter calling Ford out directly and others messaging @ESPNNBA to get him fired.
I personally have had enough with BSPN's bullish. Get rid of all these moron reporters and find some credible guys. I will not be renewing my insider... ever.

[amcfad27]

most of the media guys suck. not news...

[Knosh]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/richarddeitsch/status/559430098722766848[/tweet]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/richarddeitsch/status/559430938590195712[/tweet]

Guy seems to work for SI, don't know him though.

Restoring the rankings doesn't really adress the issue. Hope that won't be all..

[Cycklops]

There are numerous people on Twitter calling Ford out directly and others messaging @ESPNNBA to get him fired.
I personally have had enough with BSPN's bullish. Get rid of all these moron reporters and find some credible guys. I will not be renewing my insider... ever.

How do I find the people calling Ford out?

[ColdBlooded]

http://espnmediazone.com/us/press-relea ... -rankings/


After reviewing the post on Reddit today, we have found that changes were made manually to Chad Ford’s NBA Draft prospects rankings. We have not been able to determine who made the changes, or when. We have talked to Chad Ford, who strongly denies any involvement, and based on his past work and professionalism, we believe him. Our review will continue but it is unclear at this time if we will be able to ascertain who was responsible.

[Knosh]

http://espnmediazone.com/us/press-releases/2015/01/statement-on-changes-to-chad-fords-nba-draft-prospect-rankings/


After reviewing the post on Reddit today, we have found that changes were made manually to Chad Ford’s NBA Draft prospects rankings. We have not been able to determine who made the changes, or when. We have talked to Chad Ford, who strongly denies any involvement, and based on his past work and professionalism, we believe him. Our review will continue but it is unclear at this time if we will be able to ascertain who was responsible.

So we are supposed to believe that the ESPN content management system lacks basic functionality like seeing by whom and when changes were made?

[NashtyNas]

There are numerous people on Twitter calling Ford out directly and others messaging @ESPNNBA to get him fired.
I personally have had enough with BSPN's bullish. Get rid of all these moron reporters and find some credible guys. I will not be renewing my insider... ever.

How do I find the people calling Ford out?

Go to his Twitter and look at the replies for the past few tweets he's sent.
Most of them have used hashtags like #fraud and #fraudster or #hack.

This guy needs to go. So do guys like Sheridan, Broussard etc. who live off fabricating lies.

[Blame Rasho]

http://espnmediazone.com/us/press-releases/2015/01/statement-on-changes-to-chad-fords-nba-draft-prospect-rankings/


After reviewing the post on Reddit today, we have found that changes were made manually to Chad Ford’s NBA Draft prospects rankings. We have not been able to determine who made the changes, or when. We have talked to Chad Ford, who strongly denies any involvement, and based on his past work and professionalism, we believe him. Our review will continue but it is unclear at this time if we will be able to ascertain who was responsible.

Please, you can find the IP address on anything posted on the net. I mean seriously ESPN doesn't know who goes in their context website? No log in times and log off times? I call bull.

[Cycklops]

There are numerous people on Twitter calling Ford out directly and others messaging @ESPNNBA to get him fired.
I personally have had enough with BSPN's bullish. Get rid of all these moron reporters and find some credible guys. I will not be renewing my insider... ever.

How do I find the people calling Ford out?

Go to his Twitter and look at the replies for the past few tweets he's sent.
Most of them have used hashtags like #fraud and #fraudster or #hack.

This guy needs to go. So do guys like Sheridan, Broussard etc. who live off fabricating lies.

Thanks, I'm not well-versed at Twitter.

[Domejandro]

http://espnmediazone.com/us/press-releases/2015/01/statement-on-changes-to-chad-fords-nba-draft-prospect-rankings/


After reviewing the post on Reddit today, we have found that changes were made manually to Chad Ford’s NBA Draft prospects rankings. We have not been able to determine who made the changes, or when. We have talked to Chad Ford, who strongly denies any involvement, and based on his past work and professionalism, we believe him. Our review will continue but it is unclear at this time if we will be able to ascertain who was responsible.

Please, you can find the IP address on anything posted on the net. I mean seriously ESPN doesn't know who goes in their context website? No log in times and log off times? I call bull.

They cannot say anything else though, that would be foolish.

What will happen is that they will let this blow over, he will run out his contract and fade to the background.

[Guest202]

Honestly, who cares? (Except malcontent bloggers than make $18K a year and are jealous of anyone working for ESPN or other losers desperate to generate a "story".)

ESPN is a joke. I couldn't care less about any of their content, especially some draft prediction BS from years ago.