DEAR ESPN, I HATE YOU, SINCERELY, MATT B or I AIN'T GONNA WORK ON EISNER'S FARM NO MORE

A quick warning: This has nothing to do with the Patriot League and is a little whiny.

Let me tell you a story.

Back in the early days of the web (95-96ish), everything was free.

Then came the late 90s boom, and all of a sudden there were more impressive websites with things to sell. Slate Magazine started, as one of, if not the first pay-for-content websites out there. All of a sudden, the internet was a mechanism for commerce. Pop-up ads got invented. Spam started. People made and lost lots of money. It was awful.

That whole evolution has led us to today, where ESPN wants to make money off of the web, and has their "insider" content. For 40 bucks a year, you can see what important insights must surely lie behind their firewall. And now they've taken Kyle Whelliston and Ken Pomeroy, the two best hoops bloggers out there, with them. Which is good news for them but bad news for us.

A quick aside about ESPN, by the way. They are probably enemy #1 in the sports world to your PL blogger. Here is a list of why:

- Shitty timeslot for PL championship
- Complete lack of coverage of any mid-major hoops
- Moronic setup of supposed "bracket buster" tournament, which includes a number of teams who have absolutely no shot at the NCAA tourney, thus lowering the RPIs of the good Mid Majors that participate, thus making more excuses for higher conference schools to continue avoid playing good mid majors
- SportsCenter no longer about "sports", but about gossip and idle chatter (think Entertainment Tonight for sports)
- ESPN Hollywood
- Stuart Scott
- Dick Vitale, dippy do, diaper dandy, and all that other annoying catchphrase BS
- The "Budweiser Hot Seat"
- The Ultimate Highlight
- The World Series of Poker
- Yankee/Red Sox crap nonstop
- Complete lack of coverage of anything west of Boston
- The awful original movies (remember A Season on the Brink)?
- Around the Horn
- Rome is Burning
- Stephen A. Smith
- Quite Frankly with Stephen A. Smith
- Getting rid of David Aldrige in favor of Stephen A. Smith

I don't bemoan anyone for "selling out". That kind of stuff is just ignorant. If someone told me they'd pay me for blogging, I would laugh at them and then say yes. We live in a capitalist society where money talks. No problem.

But that doesn't stop me from getting mad when those corporate bastards go and steal my two favorite basketball bloggers. And I'm certainly not going to sign up for Insider, as spending money to read articles about sports makes about as much sense as paying for bottled water. There's plenty of other sportswriters (and water sources) that are completely free. They might not be as good, but they'll do.

So farewell, Kyle and Ken. Best of luck and congratulations on your ESPN gigs. I hate the jerks and think they're all that's wrong with sports, but my opinion would probably change if they started writing me checks.  @ 2:19 PM