Filed under: Lakers, Spurs, Sports Business and Media
In his lead-in to narration of the highlights to Tuesday's San Antonio-Los Angeles game, ESPNEWS anchor Will Selva advised Lakers fans not to worry about the team's loss to Miami in the much ballyhooed Christmas Day meeting with Miami. Instead, they'd be better served, Selva said, being concerned with the Spurs.It was an interesting thought. Too bad someone else had already expressed it.
Nearly word for word, Selva used the lead of a column written by Kevin Ding of the Orange County Register to advance the game. Think not? Here are the first three sentences of Ding's piece:
Christmas isn't over yet, Lakers fans. The big game, it turns out, will be the game after the supposed Game of the Year. In San Antonio on Tuesday night, the Lakers will be out to give themselves and their fans the much-needed gift of hope.Here's a transcript of Selva's lead to the highlights:
Christmas isn't over yet, Lakers fans. The big game, it turns out, is the game after the supposed Game of the Year. In San Antonio on Tuesday night, the Lakers were out to give themselves and their fans the much needed gift of hope.
More Coverage: ESPNEWS Anchor Suspended for Plagiarism
Save for a couple of verb tenses, Selva's lead sounds identical to what Ding wrote. And Ding thought so, too. In a blog post, Ding noted the sensation of returning to his hotel room after the game and hearing what he had written coming through the TV, without receiving credit for having written it.
"Honestly, it wasn't my best lead, come to think of it. Sorry about that, Will. Unbelievable," wrote Ding.
We're awaiting comment from ESPN .
Oddly enough, the half-hour ended with a segment called, "No, He Didn't."
We couldn't make that up.
No comments:
Post a Comment