Online Critique

Blakely Peppinger
Sports Reporting
Online Critique

I read the online blog by Bill Simmons of ESPN.com. This particular blog was called the "Basketball Blog". It included many questions from readers and fans and he responds critically to these questions. I thought this blog was not only very interesting but somewhat entertaining. Some fans had some very logical interesting comments and questions while others were kind of out there.
I enjoyed reading this blog and I didn’t read the whole thing but I read a lot of the questions. This particular columnist voices his opinion very logically but also is comical with some of his answers. He makes some very applicable answers. He knows what he is talking about and has done research into each answer. He might offend some people but he is very honest and you can’t help but agree with him most of the time. I didn’t agree with some of his opinions but I understood where he was coming from and often made arguments on both sides of the question. Here is one example that I particularly liked;
Q: Since you're the most vigilant with respect to spreading ways to improve the NBA All-Star Game, here's something they should have done this year in lieu of the celebrity game: The Hornets should have challenged the Jazz to a one-game playoff. If New Orleans won, it would claim the name "Jazz" as its own, and Utah would have to get a new name. If Utah won, then New Orleans would have to give up a lottery-protected No. 1 pick. How would that not have been must-see TV? CP3 taking on D-Will to determine not only who is the greatest young PG, but also to establish order and logic in their team names!
-- Brian, Brookline, Mass.

SG: Fantastic idea and it makes way too much sense. The real crime of the Jazz thing is the coolest team name in the entire league ("the New Orleans Jazz") suddenly became the dumbest and most inexplicable name in professional sports ("the Utah Jazz"), and nobody seems to care. What's the big deal about changing a name? If anything, it's a lucrative turn of events for the Utah franchise because it would get to come up with a new logo and new jerseys, right? So what's the problem here? They could be the Utah Snow, the Utah Salt, the Utah Blizzard, Utah Ski Lifts, the Utah Big Love. ... I mean, any name is better than the Utah Jazz! Somebody please explain to me why we can't work this out.
I would definitely keep reading this blog and refer friends to the site to read it as well. To read more of the blog go to this website: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/080227