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" I find it absolutely amazing that people think a huge company like Comcast spends its time telling a weekend cable host what to say . " - Joy Ann Reid How about a huge company like ESPN? What if someone there made a comment that could put the company in hot water? Obviously, Ms. Reid has heard about Ms. Hill's comments and has given her opinion on them . But I can't help but notice that her angle of commentary is that "Trump White House = Bad For Wanting Jemele Hill Fired" and not, "A Huge Company, When Pressed On, Can Influence Their Employees; What Was I Thinking?" I mean, it wasn't too hard for the Root to come to that conclusion . Trump voters and Trump supporters like sports. ESPN is all about sports. If ESPN employee of note makes negative comments about Trump, of course his sports-loving supporters will be riled up, and of course a group like ESPN will scramble to cover their butt. Because whether it's entertainment, ...

Coach gets fired during your broadcast? High-Five !

By way of ESPN's Kurt Snibbe: Part 1 & Part 2 .

It makes more sense when you go to the link .

Sure, they haven't played great as of late , and they seem to be in " we can turn it on when we want to " mode but until they are one loss from losing a playoff round I'm not writing these guys off. They still have the best player and best motivator in the NBA, as well as the most talented-yet-passive players to be the second and third banana. Of course, no one seems to care about MechaShaq .

... maybe it was because he couldn't filter himself . Kornheiser, the popular host of the show "Pardon the Interruption," is known for making sports figures the subject of his humorous criticism, but in a recent show he aimed his commentary at Storm's wardrobe. [SNIP: read the story to see what he said. It ain't pretty.] Kornheiser opened his radio show the next day by apologizing, saying, "I apologize, unequivocally ... I'm a sarcastic, subversive guy ... I'm a troll, look at me. I have no right to insult what anybody looks like or what anybody wears. That, I think, should go without saying."

You know, if this was any other no-name guy on their radio show , I'd say fire the bum. But having listened to these guys for the past year, I know they're not like Rush (blatantly racist) or Imus (a curmudgeon from a different time). Still; people need to be reminded why these words are "taboo."

After firing Eddie Jordan, the Wizards need to look for a coach who is organized, focused and can reach his players. Someone like Eddie Jordan, perhaps . Yeah; I know .

I go to ESPN for some NBA stories. On there NBA section, I see a story about Larry Hughes not being happy with his role. With the Wizards' current woes, and with Hughes being an ex-player on the team, my interest rises. Lo and behold, it's an Insider Story . In other words: no sign-up, no access. Ignoring this out-dated obstacle, I go to Goggle and type in " Larry Hughes Chicago Bulls ." Bingo ! Screw you, NBA Insider! P.S.: For the interested Wizards fans, Hughes had this to say about his situation: "I don't want to play like this," Hughes said. "I'm not comfortable with 15-20 minutes. Something has to change." Note to Ernie Grunfeld: make a move .

Bill Simmons explains : 1. Before the 2000-01 season, Pierce was stabbed 11 times at a Boston nightclub, suffered a collapsed lung and nearly bled to death while staggering to the hospital. Less than two weeks later, he played in Boston's first exhibition game. If the same thing had happened to Vince Carter, he would still be on the injured list seven years later. 2. During the 2002-03 season, Pierce got slammed face-first to the floor by Amare Stoudemire, breaking his two front teeth. Thirty minutes later, he was back playing with a mouthpiece. The following day, he underwent emergency dental surgery for seven hours. The day after that, he played against Portland with a mouthpiece and ended up hitting the game-winner. In my opinion, he's not only one of the toughest Celtics ever, he's one of the toughest Boston athletes ever. Not counting Tankapalooza 2007 (when the team shelved Pierce with a knee injury for half the season even when he probably could have played), Pierce ...

The Sports Guy has an interesting take on why Garnett may not be as clutch as one would want: How far can experience actually get you in matters of clutchness? After Garnett jumped from high school to the NBA, he played eight years without ever getting past the first round. Fellow high schooler Kobe Bryant landed on a talented Lakers team, failing famously as a rookie (remember his hideous air balls that ended the series against the Jazz in 1997?), then getting swept by the '98 Jazz and '99 Spurs. Name me one memorable Kobe moment from his first three springs. You can't. But 28 meaningful playoff games provided him with valuable pressurized situations. By the time the 2000 postseason rolled around, Kobe was asserting himself, capping it off with an MJ moment in Game 4 of the Finals for a championship team. By contrast, poor Garnett was trapped on lousy and half-decent teams until 2004, when he carried the Timberwolves to the Western Conference finals, submitting an ESPN Cla...

You can feel the anger in Bill Simmons' latest NFL Playoff predictions : According to Rule No. 10 of the manifesto, you can't pick an underdog if you don't think they can win the game. So let's look at the numbers here. Belichick's playoff record in New England: 14-2 Brady's playoff record at home: 6-0 Belichick's record against Jack Del Rio: 3-0 New England's lifetime record against Jacksonville: 7-1 New England's 2007 regular-season record: 16-0 Number of '07 Patriots wins by 14-plus points: 11 Record of '07 Jags after falling behind by more than seven points: 0-4 For anyone playing the "Jacksonville can control the clock and pressure Brady" card, didn't we see the Steelers drop 19 points on the Jags in about five seconds last weekend once they started chucking the ball every down? What about the fact Jacksonville relies on its defensive line for pressure and isn't one of those Philly-type teams that blitzes from all angl...

John Hollinger picks Caron Butler and Antwan Jamison for All-Star Reserves (membership required). On Butler: Butler made the team a year ago, but this is easily the best he's ever played. Averaging career highs of 22.2 points, 4.6 assists, 50.4-percent shooting, and 41.4 percent on 3-pointers, he's kept the Wizards north of .500 despite the absence of high-scoring guard Gilbert Arenas. While he might be over his head at the moment, it's not like it's a close call between him and the next guy on the list. Butler ranks sixth among Eastern Conference players in PER, and is doing it while averaging over 40 minutes a game. He'd have to cool off considerably just to make the comparison between he and the other forwards interesting. On Jamison (after explaining why Jason Kidd and Ray Allen shouldn't get it): So that leaves Jamison, Redd, Carter and Jefferson -- the four remaining Eastern players with a PER in the top 50 who average at least 30 minutes per game. Of the...

ESPN's Sports Guy explains why : Just look at what's happened to the Blazers since they won the 1977 title. They saw a potential dynasty implode when Bill Walton's fragile feet couldn't carry them. They drafted Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan, for heaven's sake. And although they won 179 times from 1990 to '92 and made the Finals twice, they infamously self- destructed in countless close games. During Game 7 of the 2000 Western finals, they mailed in one of the mammoth choke jobs in NBA history. In this decade alone, they've suffered through the much-despised Jail Blazers era and a prolonged rebuilding project that was capped off by having Greg Oden fall into their laps, only to have his rookie season derailed before it began. Imagine if the timeline in the previous paragraph had been the Knicks'. We'd never hear the end of it. So why haven't the previous three decades of Blazer woes received as much attention as the travails of the Knicks have? Be...

It took a decade, but ESPN's Bill Simmons is putting out his NBA Preview. This go-around he's doing a fourth-parter (the first part came out today). I can't really complain since he did have to take care of his new baby (like a father should) but I still think he needs to post a pic of his kid as proof. Anyway, Part I includes a review of the Wizards (he does keep his tradition of going from worst to best) where he pulls no punches . Sure, as a partisan Wizards fan I could skip over such commentary, but then I wouldn't be a fair, opened-minded individual. So here goes: I picked the Wizards to miss the playoffs for three reasons: Gilbert Arenas' lingering knee problems, an improved Eastern Conference, and contract years for two of their top three (Arenas and Antawn Jamison). You know what happens when two of the three best guys on a struggling team are in contract years? Everyone starts gunning for their own stats and the situation turns nastier than the first 30 min...

Some light has been shed on the "Wrestler murder/suicide" story: In the days before pro wrestler Chris Benoit killed his wife and child and hanged himself, the couple argued over whether he should stay home more to take care of their mentally retarded 7-year-old son, an attorney for the wrestling league said Wednesday. ESPN's Sports Guy (Bill Simmons) has said : It just doesn't seem like any non-wrestling fan realizes how huge this story is to everyone who actually follows wrestling - in my opinion, it's the biggest sports story of the year even though wrestling technically isn't a sport. Benoit was one of the 12-15 greatest wrestlers of the past 30 years. For the wrestling world, it's like the OJ thing all over again - only its worse because his little son was involved . It might be the single worst sports story since the Rae Carruth thing. He may be right.

From ESPN's Page 2: 8 types of guys you don't want to play pickup hoops with.

Bill Simmons on the stupid NBA rule about leaving the bench : Let's say you're one of the best seven players on the Phoenix Suns. You love Nash -- he's your emotional leader, your meal ticket to the Finals, the ideal teammate and someone who makes you happy to play basketball every day for a living. He's killing himself to win a championship. His nose was split open in Game 1. His back bothers him to the point that he has to lie down on the sidelines during breaks. He's battling a real cheap-shot artist (Bruce Bowen) who's trying to shove and trip him on every play. But he keeps coming and coming, and eventually everyone follows suit. Just as things were falling apart in Game 4 and you were staring at the end of your season, he willed you back into the game and saved the day. Suddenly, he gets body-checked into a press table for no real reason on an especially cheap play. You're standing 20 feet away. Instinctively, you run a few steps toward the guy who did...

Anyone think that ESPN's Sports Guy will forgive New England Patriots QB Tom Brady for wearing a Yankees cap ? The Boston Herald sure noticed .

Let me be honest here: I'm not as much a fan of the Lakers as an organisation as I am of certain players (like Magic and Shaq) and their Yankees-like determination to remain not only relevant in the NBA, but dominant. So when I wrote my little old assessment on them , I thought what I said was obvious to everyone who follows the NBA regularly. I mean, Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson aren't winning with a young team. My suggestion that they trade rosters with the Heat was a half-joke, but half-serious. So imagine my surprise to see Marc Stein talk as if nobody could have foreseen the Lakers losing as they did to the Suns, and then making some suggestions to help them out . Key quotes: ...The concern, if you want to fret, is Bryant's patience. He will be forever blamed for running Shaq off, even though Lakers owner Jerry Buss wanted to trade Shaq more than Kobe and had the biggest say in it, but arguing about that now only distracts from the pressing issue: How much longer can B...