SteveSilver.net

Gonzaga Upsets SS.net

Last week, in linking to a piece from Slate that complained about white basketball players being compared to Larry Bird, I inadvertently referred to Gonzaga forward Adam Morrison as "Andrew." I did this in haste, mostly because I merely cut-and-pasted the Slate quote and added the first name, and also because I'm not a huge follower of college basketball (at least prior to March Madness) and his name didn't quite roll off the tongue.

But some Gonzaga supporters apparently got wind of the post, and even though I corrected the mistake, I got a few not-so-nice comments. For example:

Steve Silver, you are a coprophage for posting this. Adam (not Andrew) Morrison could choke-slam your pretentiousness figuratively into a weeping mound of hyperbolic literary refuse. All that your readership asks is that you keep it real. Pax

And, even better:

Too bad for you, Steve Silver, a small portion of GU supporters caught wind of you being unable to correctly name the best college basketball player in the country. Unfortunately, whether you realize it or not (I think, not) you are part of the East Coast bias that us Westerners detest. You know nothing of sports or athletes west of the Mississippi River. You and your type will be forced to grudgingly pay homage when USC wins the national title (again) and when the Seattle Seahawks continue to destroy every NFL team in its path. Dispicable.

In my defense, allow me to make a few points:

1. I am not now, nor have I ever been, an eater of feces, so to refer to me as a "coprophage" is factually incorrect.

2. I'm sure Mr. Morrison has the physical ability to choke-slam me, but since he has said in the past that he's a bit of a pacifist, I'm not so sure he'd like to. And besides, he's listed as majoring in sports management, not hyperbolic literary refuse.

3. Since I grew in Minneapolis, which is West of the Mississippi, I still root for teams from there, and I regularly bemoan the East Coast-centricity of much of sports media, I suppose it's not accurate to say that I'm "part of the East Coast bias that us Westerners detest," or that "know nothing of sports or athletes west of the Mississippi River."

4. And also, since I'm fairly certain USC will in fact win the national championship, and have written myself that the Seahawks get no respect, I suppose I'm not the best example of "East Coast Bias." And since when did the national media doubt that USC could win the title?

5. I have, in fact, picked Gonzaga to go far in the NCAA tournament each of the last few years, and one of my favorite professors in college was an alum (though he claimed that he'd never heard of John Stockton).

6. And finally, I get Morrison's first name right from now on, I swear. But at least I didn't spell "despicable" wrong.

Posted by Stephen Silver at December 19, 2005 12:37 AM