Hunt Calls Out Kohl Again

[crkone]

Mike Hunt Keeps It Coming

FIXED for better innuendo.

[nwy2211]

Wow, Mike Hunt is burning and seems ready to explode

[MickeyDavis]

The Packers, Brewers, Badgers and Warriors are all winning so that leaves the Bucks as the team to get kicked. I love it.

[TheGhostDog]

Well, it is good that Hunt is putting forth the effort but he always gets too many things wrong for me to get behind what he writes... and engages in spurious implications... And I find it ironic that anyone would excuse Hunt's mediocre (I'm being kind) journalism considering the target of his criticism lately is the source of the Bucks mediocrity quagmire.

I completely agree with putting the mediocre tag on Hunt, but in a way he is fulfilling a role - the misinformed gadfly who gets to vent the frustrations of the average fan. I just wish he was a lot better at it. I equate Hunt to a poor man's Jay Mariotti (of the Chicago Sun Times) or Sparky on WSSP, who continually and deliberately - and often obnoxiously - spout emotional, semi-irrational statements just to stir the pot and get readers/listeners animated.

Too bad for the Journal Sentinel and Wisconsin fans that we don't have someone in Hunt's role even more incendiary and relentless, someone provocative enough to galvanize local sports fans and expedite change. Mariotti, obnoxious as he is, is enough bull-in-a-china-shop on a daily basis to have running feuds with all sorts of Chicago sports icons - Ditka, Urlacher, Paxson, Reinsdorf, Ozzie, Lovie, etc. Someone like Hunt should be throwing molotov cocktails at inept organizations like the Bucks on a regular basis, at least weekly this season. If he was doing his job well he should be banned from locker rooms and front offices.

Another reason Hunt seems so mediocre, particularly concerning the Bucks and Brewers, is the lack of another good, thoroughly analytical writer at the paper to dig into the emotions Hunt dredges up and illuminate franchise problems with calm, reasoned analysis. Don't think "Good cop/Bad cop"; instead think "Good cop/Crazy cop", a la the Lethal Weapon movies, with Hunt obviously in the crazy role.

For example, at the Sun Times, Mariotti's ranting is balanced out in editorials by the wonderful writing of Rick Telander and in team coverage by a stable of reporters not too polite to ask tough questions. When it comes to the Packers, Hunt is free to be emotionally obnoxious because writers like Bob McGinn, and to a growing extent Tom Silverstein, do the heavy analytical lifting. It is baffling to compare the Journal Sentinel's excellent Packers coverage to its timid, inept Bucks coverage, and sad to realize how much it reflects the public's apathy towards a long-ago relevant Bucks franchise.

So what I'd really like to see at the Journal Sentinel is someone editorializing and voicing the frustrations of the average fan even more frequently than Hunt, but paired with a real Bucks beat reporter, like McGinn, that sees the big picture of a franchise gone to seed and does more to connect the dots than just quote mindless "we need to play smarter/harder/with more effort/attitude/efficiency/selflessness/assertiveness" blather from the players and management. I have a dream.

[trwi7]

Somalia has better weather.

Very true. Mogadishu is going to be in the mid to upper 80's with sun for the next 10 days.

[ErvinJohnsonFan]

Michael Hunt is terrible. He never gives any new insights he just rehashes things we already knew. For example his groundbreaking column on how Butler basketball is actually pretty good. He completely ignored the Bucks until about a week ago when he seems to write about nothing else and has nothing to say other than "blow up the bucks" and "the bucks are a mess." At least Enlund and Woelful actually go to the games and have a clue.

[MickeyDavis]

Michael Hunt is terrible. He never gives any new insights he just rehashes things we already knew. For example his groundbreaking column on how Butler basketball is actually pretty good. He completely ignored the Bucks until about a week ago when he seems to write about nothing else and has nothing to say other than "blow up the bucks" and "the bucks are a mess." At least Enlund and Woelful actually go to the games and have a clue.

You have obviously never ready any of Enlund's stuff.

[ErvinJohnsonFan]

I think you guys are too hard on Enlund. He is the beat reporter and he has to maintain relationships with these guys. He can't just trash Gadz in the paper even if he might want to. His job is to watch the game and tell people what happened not give his opinion. If he did start writing columns like Hunt I'm 100% positive they would be far more compelling than Hunt's ignorant ramblings.

[MickeyDavis]

Yes Enlund is the beat reporter. He reports games the same way games were reported 30 years ago before there was an Internet and at a time when only 10 games a year were on TV. If you see him at games he can barely keep his eyes open. Especially since they moved him out of his cushy courtside seat. Now he sits 25 rows up. He might as well stay home. He could write the same thing by watching on TV. He never, adds anything that a fan couldn't see for himself. And while a beat writer isn't suppose to be as opinionated as a columnist he should AT LEAST show some insight into the game. Enlund never does.