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This really sucks. He is a good, connected writer and he is down to earth, not like some of these other blowhards. Smart by him though as the Globe is going under. Got the link from Celticsblog.

http://www.celticsblog.com/2009/7/6/940 ... lobe-joins

Can't blame him for jumping off the sinking ship, though I'll definitely miss having him cover the C's. A very professional, thoughtful reporter, it was good while it lasted, thanks Marc.
Wonder who will take his place..

He's a good pro but honestly this doesn't make me feel sad in the least bit. He's a career journey man who's worked in various cities covering their respective home teams. The Celtics were just the latest. Two years may just be his limit.

I'd feel bad if it was a local guy who lived and breathed Celtics basketball. Not in this case.

Well, Spears was better than shira. So maybe the next person will be better than spears.

Gordon Edes did this last year, more and more people are going to do this. Smart moves in their case, just gonna miss reading them.

Yahoo sports really has a lot of good guys working for their site. Spears is very good and I can't blame him at all for getting away from the globe.

It would great if they could find a Reiss-like guy for the Celtics beat. Unfortunately we will probably get the verbose drivel of a Gasper or the cluelessness of a Benjamin/Springer.

Can't say I'm going to miss Spears that much. Don't get me wrong, I felt he was a good reporter with uncovering stories but as a beat writer I expect a certain level of analysis which mark just didn't cover. I cringed every time I heard him talk on Sports Tonight or WEEI. He just didn't seem that knowledgeable about basketball in general.

DorfonCeltics wrote:Can't say I'm going to miss Spears that much. Don't get me wrong, I felt he was a good reporter with uncovering stories but as a beat writer I expect a certain level of analysis which mark just didn't cover. I cringed every time I heard him talk on Sports Tonight or WEEI. He just didn't seem that knowledgeable about basketball in general.

Wow. I felt the exact opposite. I thought Marc probably has the best basketball knowledge at the Globe--and, having played the game at the collegiate level, he also seemed to understand players A LOT better than most writers. He also was an extremely hard worker--going to the practice facility on his off days, making the smallest update on the Globe's Celtics blog whenever he got new info, calling agents to get the latest word, etc. I thought he handled the TA situation (TA got upset at Marc for asking questions about the death threats in Chicago and they had to be separated) pretty well--he never went after TA publicly, or used his column to hit back, or anything. You know other, lesser writers would have taken that story and run with it. Marc's just a good guy and he loves his job and it showed in the way he went about his work.

Spears was a huge step up from the curmudgeonly Peter May, and we're going to miss him dearly. Too bad newspapers suck. Good move by Marc, though, Yahoo is the place to be.

Well, I can guarantee you TA is happy with this news.

ryaningf wrote:

DorfonCeltics wrote:Can't say I'm going to miss Spears that much. Don't get me wrong, I felt he was a good reporter with uncovering stories but as a beat writer I expect a certain level of analysis which mark just didn't cover. I cringed every time I heard him talk on Sports Tonight or WEEI. He just didn't seem that knowledgeable about basketball in general.

Wow. I felt the exact opposite. I thought Marc probably has the best basketball knowledge at the Globe--and, having played the game at the collegiate level, he also seemed to understand players A LOT better than most writers. He also was an extremely hard worker--going to the practice facility on his off days, making the smallest update on the Globe's Celtics blog whenever he got new info, calling agents to get the latest word, etc. I thought he handled the TA situation (TA got upset at Marc for asking questions about the death threats in Chicago and they had to be separated) pretty well--he never went after TA publicly, or used his column to hit back, or anything. You know other, lesser writers would have taken that story and run with it. Marc's just a good guy and he loves his job and it showed in the way he went about his work.

Spears was a huge step up from the curmudgeonly Peter May, and we're going to miss him dearly. Too bad newspapers suck. Good move by Marc, though, Yahoo is the place to be.

Like I said, I thought he was a good reporter and he was definitely a diligent worker. I just thought his stuff lacked depth as opposed to Mike Reiss for the Pats. I really like the analytical stuff. I could listen to BillfromBoston wax poetically all day. That's probably why I spend so much time here.

DorfonCeltics wrote:

ryaningf wrote:

DorfonCeltics wrote:Can't say I'm going to miss Spears that much. Don't get me wrong, I felt he was a good reporter with uncovering stories but as a beat writer I expect a certain level of analysis which mark just didn't cover. I cringed every time I heard him talk on Sports Tonight or WEEI. He just didn't seem that knowledgeable about basketball in general.

Wow. I felt the exact opposite. I thought Marc probably has the best basketball knowledge at the Globe--and, having played the game at the collegiate level, he also seemed to understand players A LOT better than most writers. He also was an extremely hard worker--going to the practice facility on his off days, making the smallest update on the Globe's Celtics blog whenever he got new info, calling agents to get the latest word, etc. I thought he handled the TA situation (TA got upset at Marc for asking questions about the death threats in Chicago and they had to be separated) pretty well--he never went after TA publicly, or used his column to hit back, or anything. You know other, lesser writers would have taken that story and run with it. Marc's just a good guy and he loves his job and it showed in the way he went about his work.

Spears was a huge step up from the curmudgeonly Peter May, and we're going to miss him dearly. Too bad newspapers suck. Good move by Marc, though, Yahoo is the place to be.

Like I said, I thought he was a good reporter and he was definitely a diligent worker. I just thought his stuff lacked depth as opposed to Mike Reiss for the Pats. I really like the analytical stuff. I could listen to BillfromBoston wax poetically all day. That's probably why I spend so much time here.

Well, three points here:

1. Analytical stuff doesn't get much play in newspapers, especially analytical stuff about sports. You and I and most everybody here at RealGM are NOT their target audience. Reiss gets a long leash because the Pats are King and football in general gets a ton more newspaper coverage. Basketball, historically, gets less day-to-day coverage because it doesn't sell newspapers as much as football. If Marc has much depth, I doubt he was given much rope to show it.
2. Hell yes, we could all listen to Bill wax all day. But that's because we're basketball nerds. But, hey, Bill, you should get your resume to the Globe...
3. After Peter May's tenure, I was happy just to read somebody who liked what they were doing and who put forth the extra effort to get stories. Peter May didn't like what he was doing and he was a lazy angry little man covering people he couldn't understand.