Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Isn't it ironic?

No, this isn't a post about Alanis Morissette singing about what a jerkass Dave Coulier was to her. Hold it, I'm off on my 90's pop culture, that was "You Oughta Know." Nor is it about her incorrect use of irony. ("A black fly in your Chardonnay" and "A traffic jam when you're already late" aren't ironic, just bad luck...)


What this post is about was the questioning that took place during Chris Webber press conference this afternoon. It's more about who asked a certain question, the one we knew was going to be asked. And why it was dripping with irony.

For the most part, we got the usual "Who/what/where/why/how" sort of softball questioning, and the pat answers you'd expect.

Then the Little Fella, believing himself to be the "Journalist" that he thinks he is, cinched his belt, gritted his teeth, gathered up all his gumption, and asked Webber of he had anything to say about the University of Michigan "Situation," or as he called it, "The elephant in the room."

As expected, Webber danced around the question, as he has for years. He said he was there to talk about the Pistons.

What's funny, or should I say, "Ironic," is that there was no writer who had more unfettered access to the Michigan basketball program, Webber, and the rest of the Fab 5, than Mitch Albom.

During the Ed Martin years, the supposed best sportswriter in the U.S. observed everything that was going down in Ann Arbor, witness to a basketball program careening towards renegade status. The Little Fella then somehow wrote that wonderful piece of fiction, a big sloppy French kiss to the baggy shorts and black socks era, a book called "Fab Five."

Unfortunately, the fiction that was "Fab Five" gave the Little Fella his start as one of the most popular writers of simple, short, syrupy sap in the world, with titles like "The 5 People Morrie Met in Heaven for One More Tuesday."

But the Little Fella to be the one asking Webber about the numbers money in the cake years? Could there been anything more ironic?

Albom asks what he should have been able to report on if he had anything other than selling a ton of books on his mind back in the day. His wearing of Maize and Blue colored glasses made for a compelling story, that in hindsight, was nothing more than a bunch of romanticized bullshit.

So 15 years later, we have the 2 facing each other in a press conference. We had Webber, who complained in the book that he didn't have the cash to even buy a pizza, and complained that the NCAA was making millions off his likeness, despite (As we found out a few years later) taking hundreds of thousands under the table. We also had Albom, who believed (Or ignored) everything he was told, and didn't bother call Webber on any it at the time, now trying to get him to do so.

Talk about ironic...

2 comments:

  1. In fairness, WXYT's Dennis Fithian was the first to address the Michigan situation. But Mitch added a bit of grandstanding to it.

    However, I absolutely agree that him being the one to ask those questions was the other "elephant in the room."

    No writer's been made to look more foolish, in lieu of the payola scandals that took place with Michigan basketball.

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  2. Posts like this are why blogs are great. Good stuff man.

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