That is the question that The Dagger is asking today.
You see, last week, Adam Zagoria, a reporter for SNY.tv that also runs the website ZagsBlog, broke the news that Kyrie Irving had made the decision to attend Duke. Irving denied that story via his Twitter, but two days later he committed to Duke live on ESPN U.
Kyrie Irving has drawn some criticism for his reaction to Adam Zagoria's scoop last week.(photo credit: Rise)
The problem is that it seems that Irving had made a commitment, and thus Zagoria had an accurate scoop. (If you believe Seth Davis, Irving committed during his official visit to Duke, but he wanted to visit Texas A&M as a favor to his father's coach and go to Big Blue Madness because, well, its Big Blue Madness and he's Kyrie Irving.) Irving just wanted as large of an audience as possible during his live announcement, which he even admitted to ESPN U's Lowell Galindo, saying "I had to keep everybody in suspense. Somebody wrote that prematurely, but it didn't really have a hindrance on my decision at all. I really enjoyed ESPN doing this for me and it's just been great that I could announce it here."
This prompted two very well-known college basketball writers to call for an apology from Irving:
- Seth Davis via Hoop Thoughts:
Make no mistake: Kyrie Irving is worth the hype. He is the best guard Duke has recruited since Jay Williams, and he is a terrific student to boot. But since he has been playing the media game so deftly, he should do what a real media organization is supposed to do when it publishes something that's wrong: He should issue a correction. At the very least, he should apologize to Adam Zagoria. Unlike Kyrie, he got the story right.
- Gary Parrish via The Thoughts:
Credit SNY's Adam Zagoria with the scoop. He had this nailed two days ago, wrote it and had to deal with Irving refuting his story publicly. As a journalist, I can tell you there's nothing more frustrating than having an accurate story refuted. So it was nice to see Zagoria vindicated, and Irving probably owes him an apology via Twitter, at least.
Zagoria has a job to do. He heard a rumor, talked to some credible sources, got the information he needed, and wrote about it. That's his job, and he did it to perfection in this case.
But Irving is a 17 year old kid who is enjoying his time in the spotlight. Clearly, he was excited about the opportunity to announce his college choice on ESPN U. When an article from a very good and reliable journalist stole his thunder, how did you think he was going to react?
Zagoria clearly took no offense, so why should the rest of us?
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2 comments:
Who cares?
I agree with Zagoria, he is as reporter, his job is to report, thats what he did.
Im not a big fan of twitter at all. The only reason Irving rebuffed the claims that he was committing to Duke is so that he could leave audiences in suspense for his televised "press conference" on ESPNU.
We arent even discussing a signed letter of intent, this is a matter of a verbal committment, something that can be taken back at any time.
I think this whole situation is bogus, and what Irving did was just a underhanded way to get more attention for his "announcement"
I agree wholeheartedly.
But remember, Irving is a kid who was looking for his moment in the sun. Everyone knew both before and after the Zagoria story that Irving was going to Duke. No one was surprised with the announcement.
The kid wanted his ego stroked; he wanted to be relevant nationally. At 17, who didn't?
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