ESPN, machups to watch

Is he a Kings fan? I know once he said he wasn't a kings fan on one of those gameday chats on espn but he may of just said that after an opposing fan accused him of being a homer lol
 
Jechtsphere said:
Is he a Kings fan? I know once he said he wasn't a kings fan on one of those gameday chats on espn but he may of just said that after an opposing fan accused him of being a homer lol
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Yeah, Harper's actually a T-Pups fan (and like all other sane Wolves fans, he openly despises David Kahn, only his opinion gets shared with the thousands who read ESPN.com). He's the Kings blogger on the ESPN network though, and he seems to know his stuff well enough to recognize that the team he's covering is extremely promising. Lucky him :cool:
 
Dr. Spaceman said:
Yeah, Harper's actually a T-Pups fan (and like all other sane Wolves fans, he openly despises David Kahn, only his opinion gets shared with the thousands who read ESPN.com). He's the Kings blogger on the ESPN network though, and he seems to know his stuff well enough to recognize that the team he's covering is extremely promising. Lucky him :cool:
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No, he's a Kings Fan. Like I said before, he runs the blog Cowbell Kingdom.
 
Dr. Spaceman said:
Yeah, Harper's actually a T-Pups fan (and like all other sane Wolves fans, he openly despises David Kahn, only his opinion gets shared with the thousands who read ESPN.com). He's the Kings blogger on the ESPN network though, and he seems to know his stuff well enough to recognize that the team he's covering is extremely promising. Lucky him :cool:
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Yea, But Kahn is easy to despise. First of all he is the most Basketball ignorant GM I have ever heard speak in public. The more he speaks the more You realise he has no business running an NBA franchise. Secondly, he comes off as arrogantly stupid. A really easy type of personality to dislike. It is bad enough when someone is not so bright. It is even worse when they try to pretend how much better they are than those around them as they are openly mocked. I think we should count our blessings that we do not have an UTTER BUFOON like Kahn running the Kings. That would be a disaster that would look like...well the T-PUPS! How the ownership group of the Minnesota franchise puts up with the Exponentially bad leadership comming from the IQ Proof mind of Kahn is baffling!!
 
venom_7 said:
No, he's a Kings Fan. Like I said before, he runs the blog Cowbell Kingdom.
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He's a Timberwolves fan who just happened to be hired by ESPN to write for the Kings blog. Cowbell Kingdom is an ESPN product. He also runs the T-Wolves fan blog for them. Zach Harper. T-Wolves fan.
 
kennadog said:
You mean ESPN can't find a Kings fan to write about the Kings? That's weak.
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I actually prefer that the writer is a non-homer. As long as said writer is knowledgeable about basketball and the team's context within the sport, it keeps the perspective more balanced (if you're hiring well). If the other side of the coin is someone like Jerry Reynolds, then I'll take the non-Kings fan for whatever analysis I'm looking for.
 
Dr. Spaceman said:
I actually prefer that the writer is a non-homer. As long as said writer is knowledgeable about basketball and the team's context within the sport, it keeps the perspective more balanced (if you're hiring well). If the other side of the coin is someone like Jerry Reynolds, then I'll take the non-Kings fan for whatever analysis I'm looking for.
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But I bet this is a large part of what kennadog was referring to regarding being a "fan"..... Some writers don't even seem to know who the players on the team are or their strengths, etc.
 
Warhawk said:
But I bet this is a large part of what kennadog was referring to regarding being a "fan"..... Some writers don't even seem to know who the players on the team are or their strengths, etc.
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Sure, you're gonna find that to be true with writers whose work focuses on the broader NBA picture, so it becomes understandably difficult to know the top to bottom rosters and nuances of every team in the league. But we were talking in context about a writer for a site focused specifically on one team, so I would expect nothing less of Harper to be extremely familiar with the identity of the Kings. I don't always agree with his player analysis, but his views on the team are generally in line with much of the hardcore following here (e.g., Reke is a PG, Spencer Hawes is a ninny, etc.). I'm not saying this is what's going on, but the implication that he's less qualified to write about the Kings because he's not an outright fan in his off-time is wrong in his case specifically. The guy knows his stuff.
 
Harper apparently writes for the team he is a fan of, too. I don't subscribe to the theory that just because a person is a fan of a particular team, that means they are automatically a "homer" and unable to write an unbiased analysis. We have some pretty fine writers here, who seem pretty clear-eyed about the strengths and weaknesses of the Kings and have no trouble criticizing aspects of the Kings when its called for or praising aspects of it when it is deserved.
 
kennadog said:
Harper apparently writes for the team he is a fan of, too. I don't subscribe to the theory that just because a person is a fan of a particular team, that means they are automatically a "homer" and unable to write an unbiased analysis. We have some pretty fine writers here, who seem pretty clear-eyed about the strengths and weaknesses of the Kings and have no trouble criticizing aspects of the Kings when its called for or praising aspects of it when it is deserved.
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That's not a theory that I proposed, so I hope you're not putting words in my mouth. I'm a Kings fan too, and I try to keep the homerism at bay from my personal view on the players as much as possible, so I myself don't appreciate being labeled a homer when discussing my team with someone else. So I'm personally invested in the idea that a person can be a fan and an analyst without too much blurring between the two with a bias.

But the only point I was making was that if it was implied that someone like Harper wasn't as qualified to write for a team-centric publication because he wasn't a pronounced fan of that organization, then the implication is wrong. As long as you possess the basketball knowledge and the ability to keep your inclinations (whether for or against the team) in check as much as possible, then that's all I'd ask for out of a Kings blog writer. I brought up Jerry Reynolds' name because he doesn't possess that ability in his analysis and used him as an example of a homer that I wouldn't want doing analytical write-ups on my team. Well, of course, he's absolutely free to do so if he wants -- I just feel, after listening to his analysis for years, that it's not going to be the most objective and forthcoming. I wasn't implying that all Kings fans are like that, myself included.
 
Slow down...I wasn't implying anything about you. Just expressing my own opinion. And I didn't mean to imply that Harper wasn't doing a good job. Just surprised that they couldn't find someone who was a close Kings follower to write about the team. It couldn't be that hard to find a good writer who could write objectively about the Kings.
 
kennadog said:
Slow down...I wasn't implying anything about you. Just expressing my own opinion. And I didn't mean to imply that Harper wasn't doing a good job. Just surprised that they couldn't find someone who was a close Kings follower to write about the team. It couldn't be that hard to find a good writer who could write objectively about the Kings.
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Hehe, the entire Sacramento Bee sports staff says hi. It's apparently very, very tough to find those writers. I'd love to have Harper's job, though from online chats that I've seen him in, the pay isn't too great. :(
 
Dr. Spaceman said:
Hehe, the entire Sacramento Bee sports staff says hi. It's apparently very, very tough to find those writers. I'd love to have Harper's job, though from online chats that I've seen him in, the pay isn't too great. :(
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Considering the Bee's sportswriters, I don't think they pay much either.:p
 
Dr. Spaceman said:
Hehe, the entire Sacramento Bee sports staff says hi. It's apparently very, very tough to find those writers. I'd love to have Harper's job, though from online chats that I've seen him in, the pay isn't too great. :(
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The problem with the Bee is not finding good writers, it is keeping them. Every time they find a good sports writer to cover the Bee, they quickly get rid of him and replace him with someone who is much less qualified.
 
Telemachus said:
The problem with the Bee is not finding good writers, it is keeping them. Every time they find a good sports writer to cover the Bee, they quickly get rid of him and replace him with someone who is much less qualified.
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Hey they've been able to keep Voisin all these years.
 
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