Welcome Colin McGowan and other things

– I’d like to give Colin McGowan, our new links editor, a formal introduction. First of all: there were a bunch of applicants for the position, and I’d like to personally thank each and every person that applied. There is little doubt in my mind that everyone who applied for the position was fully qualified for it, and it really hurt to have to choose only one person out of all of you. I encourage you to keep reading, keep commenting, and to continue looking for places to write. What put Colin ahead of the pack for me were some pieces he’d written for a music website that really blew me away — he has the kind of mind-set, style, and ideas that made me want to be in business with him. I encourage all of you to find places that will let you publish those kinds of pieces.

– Random thought: I don’t really like Miami LeBron that much. A part of me was kind of excited to see what he’d do alongside teammates like Wade and Bosh, but he seems way too tentative so far. He’s not looking to drive enough, and seems to be deferring to his new teammates instead of really taking advantage of them. Also, the Heat are still way too dependent on jump shots — even in that blowout win over Phoenix, they were doing most of their damage from the perimeter. Finally, I love that Big Z is doing so well with the Heat offensively, but man was he a liability on defense — the Heat were playing 4-on-5 when he was in the game.

– You know what makes me feel awful about the Greg Oden news? That this injury will be an opportunity for some people to say “I told you so.” Yes, he’s been injury-prone. Yes, this does make Durant look like the far better pick. But the bottom line is this means a potentially great player and a true center may never get to achieve his potential. That sucks. Root for whomever you’re going to root for, but please don’t root for injuries.

– I’m going to say this — A few years ago, Buzz Bissinger said that blogs were addicted to cruelty and addicted to speed. I think a lot of that can now be said about twitter. You can say this about news in general, and it’s been said before, but every day it feels a little bit more like nuanced journalism is being replaced by people trying to have the loudest/most extreme opinion on a given issue or person. Bissinger managed to paint a complete, nuanced, and ultimately scathing portrait of Odessa’s football culture a while ago, and he did it without having to call anyone a “douche juice.”

Marshall McLuhan said that “the medium is the message,” and I worry that these new mediums are making really good journalists feel like they have a responsibility to send messages that don’t meet the standards, nuance, and intelligence of the work they’ve done in mediums they grew up writing in. 140-character blasts of attitude may be the thing du jour right now, and by the time I start having kids the preferred form of journalism might be .2 second blasts of light and sound beamed directly into your cortex, but I believe that really good, thought-out writing will always have a place in journalism.

– Not promising to see Eyenga getting sent to the D-League. This team’s wing play has been abysmal, and Eyenga still isn’t ready to give 10 minutes a night? Maybe this will change if the Cavs start playing like the Hollinger Power Rankings says they will (the Cavs have faced the weakest schedule in the league so far), but playing guys like Parker, Graham, and Jawad over Eyenga either means that Eyenga is pretty darn bad or the Cavs haven’t come to terms with the fact that they’re rebuilding.

That’s all for tonight. See you guys tomorrow, and get excited about Colin coming aboard.