Crappy Peter May Article

[Joe Hironaka <j.hironaka@unesco.org>]

Peter May wrote:

"The other is that Walker isn't that good.  As one NBA executive put it
recently, 'the reason that the owners voted to re-open is because you
have
players like Antoine Walker talking about making $100 million.'"

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I hope some of you folks on this list can indulge me, cuz once again
I've got to rant about how unforgivably crappy Peter May's basketball
reporting has become.

Boston sports fans deserve great sports journalism (duh). It's a
narrative art form. But Peter May treats it like it's just such a
drag...as though he's bored and resentful for even having to cover so
many young, hip millionaires he can't relate to. I should preface all
this by saying that the sole reason I'm a Red Sox/Celts fan is because I
was turned on to it by Boston's great sports reporters from the 80s
(Shaughnessy, MacMullin, Ryan, Gammons, Borges, Visser etc.)  In fact,
I'm a Japanese citizen, I've worked in Paris for the past 4 years, and
consider myself a New Yorker before that.  If Peter May doesn't get his
stuff together, I'm going to start rooting for the Knicks and their
tacky cheerleaders.

In any city, I've never come across a sports journalist who seems so
utterly disinterested in conveying images that evoke our collective
passion for basketball, other than to poison his shockingly uninspired
columns with clumsy cheap shots at Rick Pitino, Antoine Walker and the
current generation of NBA players as a whole.

My conjecture is that Rick Pitino decided early on to make it a team
policy to ignore Peter May, upon realizing what a mediocre writer and
disinterested reporter he was. Whatever the reason, Peter May
increasingly has a less-than-subtle ax to grind against our Celts. Take
for example the poison pen he uses above to plant stuff in the minds of
his readers ("Walker isn't that good"). Peter May could have quoted 20
GM's who would put their names on record to say Antoine Walker is worth
gambling 7 years of  Juwan Howard, Patrick Ewing, Horace Grant-type
money (14 million/year).  But instead he makes a big deal of quoting
some anonymous NBA executive in order to lobby readers to turn against
the kid.

I would not mind it in the least if Peter May just took a clear stand in
trying to run Walker out of town. I believe he could make a reasoned
argument, without resorting to public prejudices. But IMO he
consistently writes like a coward by quoting anonymous sources and by
highlighting only the quote fragments by Antoine Walker that paint the
kid in a "bad" light (greedy etc.). Worse still (at least for me) Peter
May doesn't bring any style or wit to his writing. Plus his columns lack
cohesion, as if he doesn't care to proofread or even maintain a
train-of-thought (granted, Peter Gammons also tends to do this in his
Sunday Globe submissions, probably because he's a bit lazy in writing
them due to other commitments). But at least Gammons shares with us and
reinforces our love for the game, which is a feeling I've never felt
conveyed in a Peter May article.

So basically I'm thinking Peter May can kiss my butt. I'm actually
embarrassed to get all bent out of shape over this issue, and I might
even like Peter May if I met him.  I just think he should move on to a
smaller, dumber market or retire.  Maybe Shira Springer is slowly being
groomed to replace him. At least he/she puts a noticeable effort into
shaping a sports story.


JHironaka
Paris


P.S. I'd like it if list members would name the players you LEAST hope
the Celtics will draft at number 10, so that we can compare notes later.
Mine (in order) are: Nazr, Doleac, Nesterovic and the U.S. highschoolers
(provided they don't fall all the way to Jerry West and the Fakers).  I
have a gut feeling that at least two of the players picked between 6-14
will develop into All Stars, and that they won't be centers.

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