Twitter is ABLAZE with reaction to Bob Brookover’s column today in which the hardened baseball(?) writer declared his disapproval of the Sixers trade… without having ever seen Markelle Fultz play. Mr. Brookover:

I confess that I have never seen Markelle Fultz play a basketball game and I was not at his 76ers workout Saturday in Camden. Still, it is hard to stamp a seal of approval on what the franchise is about to do.

Without debating the merits of the trade itself, for a moment, let’s talk about how fucking ignorant this is.

That’s how Brookover started – STARTED – his column. That was his lede. That is how he decided to introduce the notion to you that he presumed to know what the fuck he was talking about. This is everything that’s wrong with old-school sports media in a nutshell: I don’t have a fucking clue what I’m talking about, but I’m going to give you my opinion anyway. I don’t know if “ignorant” or “arrogant” is a better way to describe it. If you think that trading one extra first round draft pick for not only the consensus number one player in the draft, but also the perfect fit, is the wrong move, then fine– I’ll think you’re a goddamned idiot who’s literally arguing for the same sort of measured pragmatism that many like-minded fossils railed against for the past few years… but it is certainly a debatable topic.

But to broach that subject with an admission that you didn’t even bother to inform yourself is downright offensive. It’s the height of laziness. For too long, a generation of sportswriters has gotten by on mostly bravado, on being a privileged voice where the reliance on their (often wrong and often fucking fat) gut was enough to get by. But if you give the World Wide Web credit for one thing, make it be for surfacing smart, independent voices with both the passion and work ethic to do better. Ryan Lawrence tweeted me about this very topic this morning

I don’t believe he was talking about me, or any one writer or blogger specifically, but I firmly believe, especially when you’re dealing with something as inconsequential as sports, that you can be both biased (a fan) and an informed observer. Do we sometimes go too far? Absolutely. But I’d take the opinion of a well-informed and caring fan blogger or writer over some tenured jackass with column inches to fill. To be clear, I’m talking about Brookover, not Lawrence, who actually takes his job seriously.

I didn’t watch one Washington game this year. But you know what I did some during the season and A WHOLE BUNCH more over the past few weeks? Watched Markelle Fultz video. I read a shit-ton of scouting reports. I sought out information that I didn’t have. Other, more hardcore Sixers folks went even deeper. It’s not that hard. We’re not recreating the fucking atom bomb– we’re evaluating a basketball player, enough so that we may opine with at least a modicum of knowledge. Brookover couldn’t be bothered. So we get stone-cold bullshit like this:

Teams should have been more impressed by his ability to win. Davidson went 55-20 during his three seasons at the school and reached the Elite Eight before losing a two-point game to Kansas when he was a sophomore.

What scares me about Fultz is his one-and-done team resumé at Washington. The Huskies went 9-22 overall, 2-16 in the conference, and finished the year on a 13-game losing streak. I can’t imagine a team with LeBron James or Curry or Harden or Westbrook being that bad regardless of the supporting cast around them.

James Harden won one NCAA Tournament game in two years at Arizona State. Russell Westbrook came off the bench his freshman year at UCLA. LeBron James didn’t go to college. Good thing we don’t draft players based on NCAA win totals.

It gets worse.

Reportedly the Sixers will keep their pick from the Los Angeles Lakers next season unless it is the second, third, fourth, or fifth overall selection. If it’s No. 1 overall or lower than fifth, the Celtics will get Sacramento’s 2019 pick. I hate the idea of giving up any pick that could be among the top five for a guy who played JV basketball as a high school sophomore.

Michael Jordan was cut from his high-school team.

And I’m surely not convinced Fultz will be better than Kansas forward Josh Jackson, whom I have seen play. I believe Jackson will be the best player from this draft because he improved so much as the season progressed. That’s just a guess, just an opinion. Of course, history tells us that the guys making the picks are also just guessing based on their own educated opinions. It also tells us they are often wrong.

 

This is Grade A horse shit, and it’s embarrassing. It’s on par with Marcus Hayes literally inventing a storyline. Two old muttonheads who don’t realize they now inhabit a world where people can easily see through their bullshit. I don’t know if I’m offended or appreciate the fact that Brookover was willing to out himself from the jump. It’d be like you telling someone you didn’t graduate college but did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night before giving them medical advice. Man, this guy is so progressive I might just hear him out. That’s Brookover. Except he neither watched Markelle Fultz play nor stayed at a popular chain hotel– he just showed up with a clipboard and wrote you a prescription. Thanks, Asswipe.