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Hey Guys. Heat fan here but I like the thunder a lot and have a lot of respect for the organization and all they've achieved in the few years they've been together. I wanted to know what the reaction is with you guys to the Stephen A Smith rant against Durant. Personally I think Stephen A was lying from the start of this rumor and Durant called him out about it. I highly doubt hes thinking about going to LA of all places and I even doubt more that outside of him and his agent anyone else would say anything about it. I think Stephen A started this rumor to get clicks online or to make headlines and didn't think Durant would call him out as immensely as he did. I just wanted to know how you guys felt about it cause I'm pretty pissed at Stephen A about it.

Smith is:
1. A clown.
2. Lying.
3. Not even well reasoned (Durant hasn't signed an extension, no, because it costs him tens of millions of dollars).

*see sig

i actually don't mind the sas/bayless duo. i get all my sports news from this kind of show cuz it's more entertaining.

i think kd got way bent out of shape on this however, sas proved himself to be a **** when back in the corner.
here's what i think happened. i think sas was told a rumor and rather than verifying it with kd and possibly having the story shot down, sas decided to run with the story fu=iguring it's better to have the story than not.

and here lies my BIG problem with sports news reporting. lots of sports stories run on rumor and heresay,,,so much so that throwing up an unverified rumor is the norm. sports news reporting is much like the weathernews, everyone forgets when you're wrong because you're pretty much wrong A LOT. this kind of thing doesn't hold the reporter responsible,,,and that's why sas did it. he doesn't really care and said so. in other news fields like celebrity news etc etc, reporters ARE held responsible and get sued if they throw out bs news. but how often does an athlete sue?

thus, sports reporters don't care and are not held responsible. sas decided not to verify with kd and didn't expect the unexpected. i'd like someone to interview sas and ask him why he threatened kd.

I'm fine with sports broadcasters predicting where they think certain players will land, however, if you fabricate a story and are called out for lying - just relax and move onto the next story, don't dwell on it, take it as a personal insult and then threaten said player/all players. That's just pathetic.

miltk wrote:i actually don't mind the sas/bayless duo. i get all my sports news from this kind of show cuz it's more entertaining.

i think kd got way bent out of shape on this however, sas proved himself to be a **** when back in the corner.
here's what i think happened. i think sas was told a rumor and rather than verifying it with kd and possibly having the story shot down, sas decided to run with the story fu=iguring it's better to have the story than not.

and here lies my BIG problem with sports news reporting. lots of sports stories run on rumor and heresay,,,so much so that throwing up an unverified rumor is the norm. sports news reporting is much like the weathernews, everyone forgets when you're wrong because you're pretty much wrong A LOT. this kind of thing doesn't hold the reporter responsible,,,and that's why sas did it. he doesn't really care and said so. in other news fields like celebrity news etc etc, reporters ARE held responsible and get sued if they throw out bs news. but how often does an athlete sue?

thus, sports reporters don't care and are not held responsible. sas decided not to verify with kd and didn't expect the unexpected. i'd like someone to interview sas and ask him why he threatened kd.

Durant didn't really get bent out of shape. He was specifically asked about Smith saying that and responded that smith was lying.

Lol I didn't even know he said "you don’t want to make an enemy out of me". What an idiot.

miltk wrote:i actually don't mind the sas/bayless duo. i get all my sports news from this kind of show cuz it's more entertaining.

News is not meant to be entertaining, its supposed to be who, what, when, where, why and how.


As for this topic, whatever. SAS and ESPN in general, get called out on this every couple years. They then do their best to make it seem like its legit and some people buy it, some people dont. Myself, i think ESPN is a joke,

Here's the problem i have with this whole thing.

KD said that the people in his circle, dont speak to him.
SAS attempted to suggest KD was wrong, by saying he has contacts at Roc-Nation.
KD was very specific with who he said did not speak to SAS, basically saying if he was speaking to anyone at this juncture on the topic, it would be his family, not Roc. Roc does not come into play with KD until the post season. Now im sure they are doing their own thing and maybe someone there did say something along the lines as "KD will be traveling to different franchises in FA". But what KD is trying to say is that anyone who he would have spoken to on this matter, does not speak to SAS. Personally i believe KD in this situation. This is something he would have only spoken to his mother and brother about and it would have most likely been an ultra vague conversation about where they would like to live.

I cant stand ESPN anymore, specifically First Take. They do nothing but sensationalize BS and try to create a news story where there is none. And instead of SAS being an actual reporter and attempting to verify this, he just went on the air and started ranting... because that is what he does, and that is why he calls himself a commentator and not a journalist.

I urge everyone to go back to the Jalen Rose and Skip/SAS/FT debacle that happened a few years back. We're basically told in that whole thing, that SAS can come up with whatever he wants, whenever he wants, and then its on the player to defend themselves or prove its wrong. Its disgusting.

People need to understand how lazy and bad ESPN is with their "reporting" and writing. Along the ESPN journey, someone decided that it was their job to help promote the "bigger" teams. SAS in his response kept going on about the Lakers, how maybe KD and Westbrook are going to the Lakers! What a great idea!Except no one wants to go to the Lakers because Jerry Bus is dead and that franchise is a disaster. But no matter what, he has to bring it up with every single FA. Same with the Knicks. Same with Miami.
Its almost like these franchises have a vested interest in ESPN, as if the owners of these franchises, also own stock in ESPN... oh, that's true? **** shocker.And by coincidence, the franchise owners who don't.... you never see them on these lists do you? Even if a player has said "im going to go to the Rockets", they will say "he said rockets, but i give it a 2% chance. 40% lakers, 40% knicks, 18% miami".

Pillendreher wrote:Lol I didn't even know he said "you don’t want to make an enemy out of me". What an idiot.

Yah i thought that was hilarious.
What is he suggesting he is going to do?
Start ranting more BS about Durant? Is he going to end KD's career in the NBA?
Good luck with that one little fella.
Im sure the GMs will be listening to you bad mouth KD and instead of signing him decide not to.

I'd love to see Roc nation stop talking to smith and all Thunder players refuse to do interviews with him.

Smith opened his "prediction" last week with "I'm hearing...". OK, hearing from who Stephen A? KD? Someone close to KD? Your mailman? Your inner-child?

Yesterday on a podcast with the Sports Animal out of OKC, Smith was asked, "hearing from who?" He sidestepped the question. If he has a reliable source that he doesn't want to reveal for fear of losing it, so be it, but if he refuses to reveal his source, then he has to own the comment and take the heat for it. That is how it works.

Claiming to be a professional journalist and then reacting like a 14 year old virgin that got felt up at the movies because someone called you on a comment you refuse to back up with a credible source and then finishing with a hollow threat against what basically amounts to your livelihood is beyond pathetic.

Soonerule wrote:Smith opened his "prediction" last week with "I'm hearing...". OK, hearing from who Stephen A? KD? Someone close to KD? Your mailman? Your inner-child?

I brought this up in the general discussion forums before it was locked, apparently... not sure why but whatever.

Anyway, ESPN has a real big problem, and this is all of ESPN not just SAS and FT. But they have a real big problem with citing themselves as a source and then when that person is asked about its always "i have my sources". Now, there's a few issues here.

These people claim to not be journalists. Its the same thing we see with Fox News. They stopped calling themselves journalists because they put so much BS out there and so much opinion. They take advantage of this unspoken notion that they are journalists, while also taking advantage of not being journalists so they can do sensationalist bull. So they can on one hand say they do not have to divulge their sources as a journalist, but they don't report news most of the time, they deal in rumor or conjecture or possibilities, with their own opinions.

Soonerule wrote:Smith opened his "prediction" last week with "I'm hearing...". OK, hearing from who Stephen A? KD? Someone close to KD? Your mailman? Your inner-child?

Yesterday on a podcast with the Sports Animal out of OKC, Smith was asked, "hearing from who?" He sidestepped the question. If he has a reliable source that he doesn't want to reveal for fear of losing it,

i'll bet it was a secretary from roc nation or maybe mail delivery. wahtever the case, if it's from that org., that gets dealt with right now. repping kd was a cornerstone move

miltk wrote:

Soonerule wrote:Smith opened his "prediction" last week with "I'm hearing...". OK, hearing from who Stephen A? KD? Someone close to KD? Your mailman? Your inner-child?

Yesterday on a podcast with the Sports Animal out of OKC, Smith was asked, "hearing from who?" He sidestepped the question. If he has a reliable source that he doesn't want to reveal for fear of losing it,

i'll bet it was a secretary from roc nation or maybe mail delivery. wahtever the case, if it's from that org., that gets dealt with right now. repping kd was a cornerstone move

But this is the biggest problem with this situation.
He reports these things and we are supposed to think that he has a valid source, telling him insider information. And this is why KD reacted the way he did. Because at this moment, the only people he would have this conversation with would be his immediate family members and that's it. Not even Roc nation or his lawyers or anyone else.

But, this is the mislead by SAS.
If we are to assume he was actually told this by someone at Roc Nation, this is most likely how the conversation went:
SAS: "Can you tell me who KD might sign with?"

RN: "Right now its too early for this conversation, but as his representatives we will attempt to hold meetings with the Knicks, Lakers, Miami, Chicago and Houston ".

Which without being specific and attempting to raise his value through undefined and unstated assumptions, SAS makes the average viewer think he has some kind of specific inside information that the rest of us, cannot guess for some reason.

Bravenewworld wrote:

miltk wrote:

Soonerule wrote:Smith opened his "prediction" last week with "I'm hearing...". OK, hearing from who Stephen A? KD? Someone close to KD? Your mailman? Your inner-child?

Yesterday on a podcast with the Sports Animal out of OKC, Smith was asked, "hearing from who?" He sidestepped the question. If he has a reliable source that he doesn't want to reveal for fear of losing it,

i'll bet it was a secretary from roc nation or maybe mail delivery. wahtever the case, if it's from that org., that gets dealt with right now. repping kd was a cornerstone move

But this is the biggest problem with this situation.
He reports these things and we are supposed to think that he has a valid source, telling him insider information. And this is why KD reacted the way he did. Because at this moment, the only people he would have this conversation with would be his immediate family members and that's it. Not even Roc nation or his lawyers or anyone else.

But, this is the mislead by SAS.
If we are to assume he was actually told this by someone at Roc Nation, this is most likely how the conversation went:
SAS: "Can you tell me who KD might sign with?"

RN: "Right now its too early for this conversation, but as his representatives we will attempt to hold meetings with the Knicks, Lakers, Miami, Chicago and Houston ".

Which without being specific and attempting to raise his value through undefined and unstated assumptions, SAS makes the average viewer think he has some kind of specific inside information that the rest of us, cannot guess for some reason.

no doubt this is all about sas making a rep for himself. breaking a story is huge, and everyone forgets the bs stories. that's why the risk ratio is all on sas's side...he don't give a sh** because people will forget. except this time he got called on it.

miltk wrote:no doubt this is all about sas making a rep for himself. breaking a story is huge, and everyone forgets the bs stories. that's why the risk ratio is all on sas's side...he don't give a sh** because people will forget. except this time he got called on it.

Even worse, just like Lebron, he will toot his own horn when he is right.
People don't seem to see through his buckshot style sourcing.
With a major free agent if you are to say "Rockets, Lakers, Clippers, Spurs, Knicks, Heat, Chicago or resign with OKC", there's a good chance youll be right with one of those. Which is exactly what he does.

Bravenewworld wrote:

miltk wrote:no doubt this is all about sas making a rep for himself. breaking a story is huge, and everyone forgets the bs stories. that's why the risk ratio is all on sas's side...he don't give a sh** because people will forget. except this time he got called on it.

Even worse, just like Lebron, he will toot his own horn when he is right.
People don't seem to see through his buckshot style sourcing.
With a major free agent if you are to say "Rockets, Lakers, Clippers, Spurs, Knicks, Heat, Chicago or resign with OKC", there's a good chance youll be right with one of those. Which is exactly what he does.

this is endemic of a lot of sports writing, it's just that sas has a platform and a big mouth. if players started suing,,,you'd see less of it,,,,but players don't. aside from sas being a total d**k, i wounder how other shotgun reporters would react if a player was to react as kd did.

miltk wrote:

Bravenewworld wrote:

miltk wrote:no doubt this is all about sas making a rep for himself. breaking a story is huge, and everyone forgets the bs stories. that's why the risk ratio is all on sas's side...he don't give a sh** because people will forget. except this time he got called on it.

Even worse, just like Lebron, he will toot his own horn when he is right.
People don't seem to see through his buckshot style sourcing.
With a major free agent if you are to say "Rockets, Lakers, Clippers, Spurs, Knicks, Heat, Chicago or resign with OKC", there's a good chance youll be right with one of those. Which is exactly what he does.

this is endemic of a lot of sports writing, it's just that sas has a platform and a big mouth. if players started suing,,,you'd see less of it,,,,but players don't. aside from sas being a total d**k, i wounder how other shotgun reporters would react if a player was to react as kd did.

Sadly i dont think they can sue.
Its not slander and these reporters are journalists when it suits their needs, so they have a right to keep their sources hidden.