The Gentrification of ESPN

Gentrification – The process of renovating and improving a house or district so that it conforms to middle-class taste…

Frank Gallagher explains the concept here…

With Donald John Trump as our president, we get to hear about fake news on a daily basis. Maybe the criticism of media is warranted in the sense that news outlets have essentially become social media meme generators and entertainers more than journalists. Donald Trump, on the other hand, is a white supremacist idiot who just does not like news because they say ‘negative’ things about him. Just because a fact or something you said makes you look bad and is reported on, does not make news fake, Donald. Man, our president sucks. I’m not here to talk about him, I’m here to talk about ESPN… THE WORLDWIDE LEADER IN SPORTS!

I have been watching sports since before I can remember, specifically Sportscenter. Almost every morning. Quick sidebar as to why I am qualified to speak on this subject, I have almost dunked a basketball on multiple occasions… proof. So, as a lifetime sports fan, I used to wake up every morning before school and watch ESPN’s Sportscenter in the morning. The format of Sportscenter used to be simple…Highlights, box score, highlights with a top 10 nominee, box score, highlights with a cool catch phrase ‘Back back back back back, gone.’ (Chris Berman) or ‘Boo-yah!’ (from the late, great Stuart Scott)… Those were the days. All morning Sportscenter would replay those same highlights, just in case you missed one. It was awesome. It was simple. It was sports! Now, you turn on Sportscenter and the morning feature includes Stephen A. Smith with some ridiculous hot take (0/6) or Lavar Ball WWE highlights. If you think I made that up, guess again… I present to you… Lavar Ball WWE Highlights courtesy of THE WORLDWIDE LEADER IN SPORTS. Here is a quick video of both of our subjects of interest together horsely screaming at each other. While I enjoy Lavar’s antics as much as the next guy, it is not sports. It should not be covered to the extent it is by a company that prides itself on sports journalism. I’ve tweeted it before and I’ll say it again, the gentrification of ESPN has been disappointing beyond belief. Here are some tweets to further prove my point, buckle up…

The first tweet when I look up Sportscenter on Twitter is about last night’s great baseball game where the consensus World Series favorite Dodger’s had a 3 run 9^th inning to beat the Southside White Sox 5-4. Just kidding, that was not the first tweet at all. That would have been cool, though. The first tweet was Sportscenter tweeting about a Twitter argument between Lil Dicky and Kevin Durant about if LeBron James should stay in Cleveland. True journalism.

For the record, there was not a tweet from our WORLDWIDE LEADER IN SPORTS about the comeback from the best team in baseball at all. Instead, their next tweet was about…

Wait for it…

A tweet about Chick-fil-A in the Falcon’s stadium being closed on Sunday’s. #SportscE!nter

 

I cannot fathom how easy it was to prove this point. Gentrification, people…Gentrification.

Those were literally the first two tweets on Sportscenters Twitter page as I wrote this. Haven’t had enough Chick-fil-A, though? Just 9 hours before they had already tweeted about Chick-fil-A…

Cannot wait to hear Roger Goodell’s take on this Chick-fil-A scandal.

I thought the point of this blog would be harder to defend, but I guess not. This is the easiest thing I’ve done in a long time.

I’ll top it off with one last tweet from our friends at Sportscenter.  In case you did not know, LeBron James, the best basketball player in the world and maybe ever, is playing basketball this off season. Confirmed here by ESPN.

#WhenBallisLife

I am going to have to do a full cover Kanye West’s I Love Kanye, but base it upon SportsCe. I miss the old SportsCe, straight from the Go SportsCe…

I hate being nostalgic as a 21 year old kid, but here we are. Missing the good ole’ days. Take me back to sports, please.

Kids, do not get older because if the world is following Sportscenter’s trend, Lavar Ball will be president by 2024.

Quick update on this…