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Update (6:20 pm): ESPN NBA Draft Insider Chad Ford also announced that this will be his last draft with them.
Layoffs end my 16 yr run covering the NBA Draft for ESPN on June 30. Will do my best to make next 60 days special for our Insider readers
— Chad Ford (@chadfordinsider) April 29, 2017
NBA Twitter was on fire once again today as long-time NBA Reporter Marc Stein announced that he has been laid off by ESPN.
Informed I'm among ESPN's layoffs. But basketball, as they say, never stops. To readers/viewers/listeners/countless colleagues ... grateful
— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) April 28, 2017
Stein’s departure comes on the heels of multiple terminations at ESPN, many of which were announced yesterday. The network may not be done yet. Though he has not explicitly confirmed, multiple accredited NBA media members have bid farewell to Henry Abbott, founder of the pioneer basketball website TrueHoop.com and lately ESPN.com’s lead basketball editor.
Covering the NBA won't be the same w/o @TrueHoop - editor, mentor, thought leader, storyteller & occasional pain in the ass. We'll miss him.
— Kevin Arnovitz (@kevinarnovitz) April 28, 2017
Without @TrueHoop there would be no NBA Internet. It's impossible to overstate how important Henry Abbott has been to this world.
— Nathaniel Friedman (@freedarko) April 28, 2017
Marc Stein and Henry Abbott are giants. Many of us would not be where we are without at least one of them -- and for me, both.
— Zach Lowe (@ZachLowe_NBA) April 28, 2017
Amid the flurry, Abbott did make this comment:
Basketball Twitter you are entirely over the top, hyperbolic and possibly drunk. And I thank you for it from the bottom of my heart.
— Henry Abbott (@TrueHoop) April 28, 2017
TrueHoop emerged in the early 2000’s as a premier site for basketball coverage and discussion, courtesy of Abbott’s engaging style and every-man sensibilities. The site was absorbed by ESPN in 2007.
Stein began work at ESPN.com in 2000 after covering the NBA for multiple newspapers. He became senior writer in 2002, a position he had filled until today.