In a blog entry in the ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER Tuesday night, longtime Lakers beat reporter Kevin Ding made a serious accusation of an ESPN-TV anchor.

Ding claimed that ESPN News anchor Will Selva had plagiarized his December 26 story about the Lakers in the Register, reading the lede of Ding’s piece word-for-word in his open to Lakers-Spurs highlights on ESPN News early Wednesday morning.

Ding:

Hey, Will Selva of ESPNEWS. Glad you liked my last column so much. Try not to plagiarize it next time.

I got back to my hotel room late Tuesday night after the Lakers-Spurs game and turned on ESPNEWS’ “Highlight Express” show. Imagine my shock when anchor Will Selva proceeded to use the first several paragraphs of my column looking forward to the game as his lead-in to the highlights.

I mean, word for word.

Christmas isn’t over yet, Lakers fans.

The big game, it turns out, will be the game after the supposed Game of the Year.

In San Antonio on Tuesday night, the Lakers will be out to give themselves and their fans the much-needed gift of hope.

Honestly, it wasn’t my best lead, come to think of it. Sorry about that, Will.

Unbelievable.

Thanks to a website that transcribes virtually every word said on ESPN TV outlets, I was able to check up on Ding’s damning accusation of Selva today. Read more…

Tuesday ESPN NBA insider Chris Broussard wrote on ESPN.com of Baron Davis:

Davis, a Hall of Fame talent who’s spent half his career underachieving, can put L.A. in the playoffs if he’s engaged or in the dumpster if he loafs. Midsummer reports weren’t good, as sources said the 6-3 point guard was up to 260 pounds, 45 pounds above his listed playing weight.

The above photo of Davis was taken a week ago at a charity benefit in Los Angeles.

Of Broussard’s claim, Davis subsequently took to Twitter: Read more…

Your Pro Football Hall of Fame speech lengths last weekend in Canton:

(Speechless - for once)

Emmitt Smith: 21 minutes
Jerry Rice: 16 minutes
Dick Lebeau: 18 minutes
Russ Grimm: 9 minutes
Floyd Little: 9 minutes
Rickey Jackson: 8 minutes
John Randle: 4 minutes
Chris Berman:

28 minutes.

To be fair, let’s take a look at the length of the Pro Football Hall of Fame induction speeches of Brent Musburger and Howard Cosell. Read more…

Here are some lovely photos of the recent wedding of Joe Schad.

Schad married the former Betty Madore on June 19 in Connecticut.

The artistically impressive pictures also come with some commentary about the photos on the website RawPhotoDesign.com:

Read more…

Stuart Scott recently conducted a chat on ESPN.com in which he discussed his feelings about LeBron James and the role ESPN played in the NBA player’s move from Cleveland to Miami.

I excerpted a selection of Scott’s comments from the chat and responded to his remarks in bold.

Scott: As a free agent LBJ owed Cleveland nothing. That’s not disrespect, it’s just his right based on rules and bylaws established before he set foot in the NBA. Narcissistic? Star athlete has big decision, ubiquitous sports network is there to cover it.

Me: ESPN didn’t cover it, ESPN created it. Without ESPN, “The Decision” wouldn’t have existed.

From what we now know, the prospect of such an ESPN-enabled production may have been the main reason why James dragged out his choice for so long - causing such acute consternation to the people of Cleveland.

Scott: That’s what we do. … I am proud of the dozens of people who worked on that show. And for all the criticism it received, a 7.6 cable rating is ginormous. Read more…

This morning ESPNLA.com published a fascinating ‘night-in-the-life’ piece on LeBron James by ESPN staff writer Arash Markazi. Markazi was apparently granted full access to James and his entourage last Saturday night in Vegas at Tao nightclub.

Markazi is a longtime reporter, formerly of Sports Illustrated, charged with writing ESPNLA.com’s “Velvet Rope” blog. He’s a veteran of the Vegas party scene and is the last person on ESPNLA.com’s staff who would set out to author a hit piece on anyone.

So it was stunning to read Markazi’s reporting of the evening’s proceedings. Proceedings in which James and his manager Maverick Carter come off as immature, cliched posers.

Equally stunning was ESPN’s apparent decision to pull the piece from the ESPNLA.com website just hours after it was posted. Though the story was not gone from the ESPN site until after it had been reprinted on several message boards and sports blogs. Read more…

Open Letter to Fans from Cavaliers Majority Owner Dan Gilbert

Dear Cleveland, All Of Northeast Ohio and Cleveland Cavaliers Supporters Wherever You May Be Tonight;

As you now know, our former hero, who grew up in the very region that he deserted this evening, is no longer a Cleveland Cavalier.

This was announced with a several day, narcissistic, self-promotional build-up culminating with a national TV special of his “decision” unlike anything ever “witnessed” in the history of sports and probably the history of entertainment.

Clearly, this is bitterly disappointing to all of us.

The good news is that the ownership team and the rest of the hard-working, loyal, and driven staff over here at your hometown Cavaliers have not betrayed you nor NEVER will betray you.

There is so much more to tell you about the events of the recent past and our more than exciting future. Over the next several days and weeks, we will be communicating much of that to you.

You simply don’t deserve this kind of cowardly betrayal.

You have given so much and deserve so much more.

In the meantime, I want to make one statement to you tonight:

“I PERSONALLY GUARANTEE THAT THE CLEVELAND CAVALIERS WILL WIN AN NBA CHAMPIONSHIP BEFORE THE SELF-TITLED FORMER ‘KING’ WINS ONE”

You can take it to the bank. Read more…

Appearing on the Dan Patrick Show this morning, Jim Gray said that he was the one who came up with the idea for a one-hour announcement show for LeBron James. Patrick’s official website has a rundown of Gray’s comments about the genesis and format of the James Show:

Jim Gray told us that he pitched the 1-hour announcement special idea to Maverick Carter and LeBron James during game 2 of the NBA Finals.

Gray explained that he saw LeBron’s marketing guy Maverick Carter and super-agent Ari Emanuel at Game 2 of the NBA finals. Gray said he told Carter he wanted to do the interview and suggested they buy an hour of television.

Gray said Carter and Emanuel liked the idea. And then Gray saw Carter and LeBron at a restaurant after the game and kept talking about it.

“What Maverick really liked is that he could raise a lot of money for a charity,” Gray said.

Gray thinks it’s a great idea because it will help Boys and Girls clubs. “It doesn’t bother me at all,” Gray said. “I think it’s wonderful.”

Gray talked about the structure of the show. Read more…

A recurring question from emailers is the dating status of ESPN’s Michelle Beadle. I confess to not caring, but a quick search did turn up this delightful photo of her and former pro bull rider Justin McBride in 2003:

The pic, taken in early 2003, is from a post about McBride on a site called IndianRodeoNews.com. Excerpt:

Hes one of the nicest of the young guns of the PBR;but forget it girls.Justin ,as you can see in this picture , is spoken for.His girlfriend is the vivacious Michelle Beadle,former PBR commentator;and they sure make a great looking couple.

Both have since moved on. McBride to a wife and country music singing career and Beadle to ESPN’s SportsNation.

Speaking of Beadle’s past, she once hosted a TV dating show which matched mates based on their packing habits. Read more…

Henry Schulman, who does a quality job as beat writer for the MLB Giants at SFGate.com, recently took a hefty swipe at ESPN for mocking Giants catcher Bengie Molina last week.

During SportsCenter, ESPN showed the notoriously slow Molina slogging around the bases to the Chariots of Fire theme, as the anchors giggled in the background. Molina has since chimed in himself this week on his MLB.com blog, writing that ESPN’s depiction of him was, “hard to take.”

I want to take Molina’s complaint seriously, but it was prompted by a Schulman piece that seemed driven as much by a general disdain for all things ESPN as it was critiquing SportsCenter’s so-called lack of respect for the Giants catcher.

The Schulman piece in question sets up the ESPN-Molina note with these grafs:

I took a JetBlue flight from Fort Lauderdale to New York this morning, so I got to watch ESPN’s morning “SportsCenter” at 10 o’clock. “SportsCenter” used to be a must-watch but now is more of a self-parody, with its New York/Boston view of the world and star idolatry (Favre, LeBron, Terrell, etc…). But I watch it because part of my job is staying informed.

Frankly, it’s getting harder for me to understand why anybody in the Bay Area ever would watch an episode of “SportsCenter” anymore. Anyone watching this morning probably retched.

When the Giants finished their sweep of Florida on Thursday night, they achieved the best record in the National League at 17-10. It took ESPN 40 minutes to show the Giants’ highlight, and here is what it consisted of:

Schulman then tags the piece with, “Next time I’m on JetBlue, I’ll just watch the Cartoon Network.”

By framing his ESPN criticism with those general, hyperbolic opinions about SportsCenter - and the entire sports network - Schulman reduces the credibility of his critique about the news program’s handling of Molina.

I’ve been constant critic of ESPN in the 10 years I’ve written this blog and spent nine years myself covering and traveling with MLB and minor league baseball clubs every single day throughout the season. I’ve been in clubhouses many times when players and managers went nuts over fair and unfair negative media coverage.

If it wasn’t for Schulman’s predisposed, pre-emptive piece about Molina on SportsCenter, I believe there’s a half-a-chance the catcher’s teammates would’ve had the same ESPN highlight playing in the clubhouse the next day - accompanied by howls of laughter. Read more…