Celtic sports writer is probably one of the most sought after positions in sports writing. I mean 17 championships? Are you kidding me, who doesn't want to write for them? If you do want to write about the Celtics and have a lot of people read it and gain some exposure you should check out Bleacherreport.com. You can write your own Celtic articles, if you want to write for the NBA at all you should email me, Dave, at dmorrison@bleacherreport.com. There is also a real well written eastern conference preview reviewing the Celt's. Its a good article.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/59854-eastern-promises-part-iv-nba-eastern-conference-preview-2008-2009
While I'm not big on calling extra attention to what strikes me as a bit of thread hijacking and self-promotion, I'll simply note to Dave that while I can't speak for others on this blog, I've still got a sour taste in my mouth from my last experience reading Bleacher Report - which was Max Fischer's patently offensive article that was meant to "debunk the myth that the Celtics were a great defensive team." It isn't fair to judge an entire open source site based on that experience, but as I can't reiterate enough, it wasn't even the disagreeable content so much as it was the nature of the writer's arrogantly dismissive responses to the mounds of statistical, anecdotal and visual evidence provided against his claim by those who took the time to read the piece. It was an astoundingly frustrating experience, and sadly, that's still my first thought when I see the name of the site.
* * *
But really, that's another thought for another discussion, so back on topic...
An initial thanks to the OP for beginning an interesting thread, and a similarly hearty thanks to those of you who have even allowed my name to grace the same vicinity as many of the others mentioned here - and that refers to both many of the writers in the 'mainstream' and my much-respected fellow writers here, Jeff, FL, the CSL folks, the occasional Roy Hobbs salary cap manifesto and my pal CelticBalla32, who always does a solid job on the game previews. Your praise is too kind, but it's certainly both appreciated and humbling.
As for my own preferences outside CB, I've got no particular order, but a few thoughts on some favorites in different spheres...
-Bill Simmons has been my favorite or one of my favorite writers on the Web for a long time. No, he isn't a beat writer or a traditional newspaper columnist, but I've long loved his unique fan-style and consider him immensely entertaining. That he roots for one of the teams I do and has been able to perfectly put my own emotions into words on a couple of occasions in the past is an added bonus. That said, I've also believed that the 2007 trade deadline marked a turning point toward his being right on a far less regular basis in general, and in particular as crownsy notes, some of the Celtics negativity - particularly the I-have-to-be-right grudge against Doc - really got to me this year. I'm not asking the guy to be a homer, but I thought some the Doc 'agenda' went waaaay over the top, and that was disappointing. Still a huge fan overall though.
-Jackie is great. Cordobes is dead on - her Ray OCD article last year was an absolute masterpiece.
-Bob Ryan has probably forgotten more basketball than many of us (self included) will ever know. Can't help but respect that.
-Much respect to all the beat writers - Spears, Souza, Bulpett. Especially living outside of Boston my whole life and not being a part of the physical community there (a big part of what makes this online community so special to me), reading their reports is as crucial a part as any of staying up with the team on a day to day basis. Love the work they do.
-There are no shortage of great Celtics blogs out there beyond CB as well. ManchVegasBob at MVN's Celtics 17 has written some truly excellent analyses...Jim Weeks over at Green Bandwagon always puts out solid content...Red's Army and LOY's Place of course do a real nice job as well.
And I'm sure I'm missing plenty more...there's a niche for all of these folks, and it's great to get the whole picture by reading as many of them as possible as often as I can...always looking for someone else to add to my RSS feed, so I'm looking forward to seeing who else is named by the rest of the community here...
-sw
