Frustrated about ESPN's overlooking the Blazers. What about you?
by L.A.B on Jan 24, 2012 8:52 AM PST
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PrintI listen to MIke and Mike in the Morning every day on my way to work and only once in a blue moon do they mention anything dealing with Portland. When they mention scores they will mention games by the big market teams and this morning even mentioned Houston's game against Minnesota. But no Blazers. THere have been times where there were only 2 nba games played on the previous night, one of them being Portland. And they would only mention the other game and then skip to college sports. Last season they didnt mention Portland's over time loss to the Heat but they mention every other game the Heat play. THis has frustrated me for a while and so I guess since I acant do anything about it I will just speak my frustration. I mean, Aldridge doesnt get his fair attention but Blake Griffin, who Aldridge is better than, is being talked about as possibly one of the best PFs along with Love and Nowitzki. There is a reason Aldridge got snubbed and continues to not get the attention he deserves- Sports news chooses to do practically nothing dealing with Portland. I have heard some people on ESPN talk about the Blazers but that is not often at all. Forgive me if I sound like whiny baby but there is no way the whole small market large market thing will ever change as long as sports media is this way. I just get tired of this and wish it would change.
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mike and mike seem to only talk football when I hear them..
not surprised ESPN overlooks us, we are mediocre small market team…
let them overlook us
last time they started paying attention our team fell apart. I’d rather keep winning in secret then listen to a bunch of analysts make fun of us after choking against the Pistons.
by poorwebguy on Jan 24, 2012 9:18 AM PST reply actions 2 recs
this
plus the blazers havent been newsworthy since their hot start fizzled…
Tell me again why we traded Miller?
by RenoBlazerFan on Jan 24, 2012 9:30 AM PST up reply actions
Aldridge got some coverage on ESPN for his monster game against TOR
but that was about it
"If I had a dime for every basket I made today, you'd still suck!" - from the book 'John Dies @ the End'
by sammymohawk on Jan 24, 2012 10:17 AM PST up reply actions
we're 10-7
and just went 2-4 on a road trip where we should have gone 4-2. What is it, exactly, they’re overlooking?
I will say that when they fail to mention the Portland score when doing a rundown of the previous day's NBA action
but they mention LAC regardless of record, MIN because it’s trendy, etc… that’s pretty lame
"If I had a dime for every basket I made today, you'd still suck!" - from the book 'John Dies @ the End'
by sammymohawk on Jan 24, 2012 10:19 AM PST up reply actions
My personal favorite
is when the Blazers beat a hot/big-market team like Clippers, and Sportscenter has “Blazers-Clippers” on the scrollbar, so I stick around to watch the highlights:
“Blazers-Clippers in the Staples Center, check out this and-one by Blake Griffin.”
“Chris Paul with a big three-pointer.”
CP3 to DeAndre Jordan for the alley-oop. Lob City, baby!"
Aldridge had 22 points, Blazers win by 12.
“Do the Clippers have what it takes to be a contender?”
“Is Blake Griffin an MVP candidate?”
“Is Vinny Del Negro on the hot seat?”
“Do the Clips have the pieces to get Dwight Howard?”
“Are the Clippers now bigger than the Lakers in”
Click
"If you type two spaces after a period, you're doing it wrong."
by joelor on Jan 24, 2012 10:36 AM PST up reply actions 8 recs
yeah truth
NBA’s marketing machine gets tiresome
Nobody even mentioned that
last year Aldridge had more alleyoops than Blake Griffin
we were getting attention with our fast start, but then it slowed with our record dropping
there is a reason OKC is still getting attention at 15-3.
"We gotta get this $#!^ together guys!" - Phil
We as a small market won't get the credit we deserve until...
We make it to the Conference Finals. Earlier this year ESPN and NBA TV jumped on the bandwagon! Of course the second we get blown out by Phoenix everybody jumped ship, and rightfully so! If we want respect we’re gonna have to earn it! Sorry.
What ESPN would talk about
would be what they think is what the greatest audience possible would want to listen to. The Blazers would attract only small attention. Ratings drives content. I know that’s just stating the obvious. The Blazers will have to stick out in some way. Aldridge is not flashy enough to get noticed.
It's about the money baby.
Sports media coverage is business. LA is a huge market. Portland is relatively small. The only way Portland gets coverage is if it wins games and is considered a contender. But you know this…I know where you are coming from…I love it when the Blazers get props nationally because we are proud of our town and our team. I’d recommend not listening to Mike and Mike if it bothers you that much. I’ve grown up loving the sport of soccer and have lived with the frustration of not getting any national media coverage…and when it was covered it was as the butt of a joke. So I’m with ya. Be patient and be satisfied knowing that your team is quality, even if some talking head back east or in California doesn’t recognize that.
LaMarshmallow - Distant Memory.
yeah. soccer really gets overlooked
I know that the interest in soccer in the US is improving. And its nice now that Portland has its own MLS team.
Yeah, soccer is a great example.
There are plenty of non-fans in this country — myself included — who don’t give a rat’s you know what about it, which is why the sport is widely ignored on a national level. It’s not about who’s right or wrong, but simply about what sells. Your enjoyment of the sport is as fair as my boredom by it; yet, unfortunately for you, there are more sport radio listeners nationwide who are non-fans (e.g., me) than fans such as yourself.
"I Am Mine"
About the ratings thing
The media can make a good story out of thin air. If they want there to be a story about Portland, then they can make a good one and still get good ratings.
"mediocre team blows out visiting crappy team, film at 11"
Phew, now we feel much much better.
by howlingfantods on Jan 24, 2012 11:56 AM PST reply actions
funny
however some mediocre teams get plenty of coverage already
by L.A.B on Jan 24, 2012 12:10 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs
Similarly, I could whine about how the NBA doesn't garner as much national coverage as the NFL.
But then I realize the NFL talk attracts a wider audience than the NBA and shut my mouth accordingly.
Shoot, I could also kvetch and moan — although I’d rather use a words other than “shoot” and “kvetch” — about how advanced stats aren’t given their due on a national level; yet, I come to grips with the fact that the average sports radio listener is a pea-brain dolt who’d be bored to tears by what interests me.
Remember, it’s not about what interests you, I, or any other single individual out there. On the contrary, it’s about what interests a mass majority of people. That’s what sells, y’see. Yep, that’s what sells.
"I Am Mine"
Pretty much
It does get a little ridiculous. We also see essentially no news about the Bucks, Bobcats, Pistons, Jazz, Hornets or even the Pacers/Sixers (both playing out of their minds), but no Portland fans are clamoring to see more news about those teams, and that’s pretty much how the rest of the league feels about us.
Networks know exactly what they’re doing in terms of which teams they cover, and in the absence of interesting narratives, a la howling’s examples below, they’re simply going to cover the teams with greater fan bases. They don’t expect Portland natives to care about Lakers basketball so much as they would simply rather have 40% of the LA market tuned in than 40% of the Portland market, given their respective sizes.
I could stand for some more Pacer/Sixer news
"If I had a dime for every basket I made today, you'd still suck!" - from the book 'John Dies @ the End'
Heck, I could use some Bucks coverage, too
but I’m pretty sure we’re in the distinct minority of non-dedicated Indiana/Philly fans.
"Heck, I could use some Bucks coverage, too"
Just wait until S-Jax takes a swing at Scott Skiles.
"I Am Mine"
Yeah, but it's also called ESPN, which stands for something but I'm pretty sure "News" is the last word.
Call me old-fashioned, but I still think the most important news in sports on a day-to-day basis is the results of the games.
I think it’s disingenuous toward fans (casual viewers especially) to not report scores of games in an accurate way. See my post above for an example of how the results of the Blazer (and other small-market teams) games are reported on the leading sports news network. It shouldn’t be too hard to report the scores in a fair way that reflects the NBA landscape, and then still have plenty of time to slobber over “Lob City.”
"If you type two spaces after a period, you're doing it wrong."
Considering some of our recent poor play I'm glad we haven't gotten too much attention.
We may be overlooked when we do well but at least we don’t get torn to shreds as much as say the Lakers or the Heat when we really start struggling. Although I do agree with you on the Aldridge thing. That one really does bother me. I guess if you aren’t going to be on a big contender you need to put up historic numbers like K-Love did last year to get attention.
by Jonathan Wright on Jan 24, 2012 1:48 PM PST reply actions
No.
We were getting TONS of run a few weeks ago, and now we are a boring, middle of the road team…
We will never be a part of the Golden Boy Club, with ESPN following our every move, but when we are playing well, we get our due in the national media.
Exactly. We just don't have any interesting story lines.
No high profile free agents we’re likely to lose (like Dwight or Deron or whoever), no interesting young rookies (like Rubio or Kyrie), no new high profile coaches (like GSW or HOU), no coaches on the hotseat (like SAC or WAS earlier this season), no aging former MVPs trying to hang on for another run (like SAS or DAL or BOS).
We’ve got a decent but not excellent team with some good players who play hard for a pretty decent coach and can overachieve at home a little bit when we get the crowd into it.
The national media doesn’t hate Portland. They hate narrative blanks. There’s nothing interesting to say about the Blazers, except for that brief period when the schedule permitted us to look like we may be an overachiever. Once we fell back to earth, there was nothing else interesting to say about us.
by howlingfantods on Jan 24, 2012 3:13 PM PST up reply actions
As it pertains to sports radio, the nationally synidcated networks such as ESPN Radio, Fox Sports Radio, ...
and Yahoo! Sports Radio — with the latter formerly being known as Sporting News Radio — will air content that appeals to a mass audience. The programming is aired solely to bring in ratings and advertising dollars, which is the way business works.
"I Am Mine"
If we're not seriously contending...
We are of very little extra interest to anyone outside of Blazers fans and NBA junkies right now.
As HFT posted above – no interesting public personalities, no superstar players, slightly above(?) average team, small market tucked away in the upper corner of the west, no real up-and-coming vibe, no recent playoff success, not particularly aesthetically pleasing to watch, et cetera. What would be interesting to cover nationally for the average non-Portland fan?
In fact, our recent storylines (Roy’s retirement, Oden ad nauseum, GM carousel, Paul Allen’s whatever) are kind of downers, not really the stuff of Sportscenter once the initial story fades…
He who pays the piper calls the tune
Mass sports media gets its bread buttered by L*ker, Clipper, and Heat band-wagoners. No fault in that, just a lot of people with malleable economic preferences.
Phase 1: Collect underpants
Phase 2: ???
Phase 3: Profit!
I don't get why this frustrates you
The national media is not going to talk about a mediocre Blazers team, especially when it’s still football season, just accept it and move on
Story line or not
atleast mention all the scores on the radio when doing a run down of the previous nights scores. I dont think Blazers should take up a good chunk of air time. Again, just mention the scores.
I don't watch/listen to anything espn so it doesn't bother me... but
this is exactly why we have sites like BE. We want Blazer news, this is where we can get it. ESPN and well all other big networks have to cover everything. They can’t possibly give credit to every single team that does something nice, there’s simply not enough time. and pretty much everything that everyone said above me too.
On NBA TV last night before the game started
and they blacked out the channel. C Webb was arguing LMA is the best PF since Duncan. I would say that is a GREAT compliment even if I disagree.
if they are overlooking an average team to talk about a better team or to talk about a proven team over the yrs I have no problem with it….take the Blazer glasses off!!! theres no one picking on us!! actually in the very beginning there were several reporters saying look out the Blazers this yr….and who is LA so much better then thats a starter on the allstar team! anyways…now the only thing that they should do is mention all the scores that I do agree with…but face the facts…theres more then tripple lakers and Miami Fans in the world wide then Blazers fans….actually more like 10-20 times…be thankfull that Portland even has a team!!! alot of small markets dont!!!!! win games and we will be talked about everynight!!!!
Again...
Just mention the scores and make sure LA gets his due credit. Not asking for much at all. Im not saying we should take up alot of air time. I agree with you about the Blazers glasses because we all know Blazers fans can have some pretty thick ones. But this isnt about that.
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