Cancer, Twitter and Basketball

Here we go again! The sports media's tearing down another hero! Wait, you guys messed up the story? So it's a non-story? Oops!

What's the deal with this Kevin Garnett-Charlie Villanueva thing? Earlier today, Villanueva wrote on social networking website Twitter (the phrase to describe this would be "Charlie V. tweeted") that Kevin Garnett called him a "cancer patient" on the court during last night's Celtics-Pistons tilt in suburban Detroit. Now, Garnett's a notorious trash-talker who cusses audibly on the court all the time. I'm not saying that behavior is "OK." But I'm skeptical he would call a guy with alopecia universalis, a skin disease that doesn't allow Villanueva to grow hair, a "cancer patient." That takes trash-talk to a different level from "your Mom's an astronaut." But before Garnett even had a chance to respond to the Twit-icism, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, normally a fine basketball writer, took the opportunity to put a good hatchet job on the future Hall of Famer (link here). Wojnarowski jumped all over Garnett, evoked the memory of deceased tough guy Maurice Lucas who just died of cancer, called Garnett a "bully" and insisted his slur would follow him to his basketball grave. OK, but wait, Adrian, you just based an entire column off somebody's Twitter feed. You might want to, you know, do some research.

Later in the day, Garnett responded to the internet rumor (read the response) and said he called Villanueva "cancerous to his team and the league." Like, basically, he's a bag of ass and players like him give the NBA a bad name. OK. Now I've never supported the use of the word "cancer" to describe a malcontent or inept athlete (I wrote about it almost two years ago), but sports media guys (that group includes Wojnarowski, who torched Garnett today like the lone hot dog left out on a Weber) use it all the time. "Clubhouse cancer." It's like hearing "freakish length" during the NBA Draft or "gunslinger" during any NFL broadcast featuring Brett Favre. The phrase is a product of an increasingly unimaginative, stupid sports media. Wojnarowski, a writer who usually espouses intelligence, jumped on the band of fools and tried to make a statement by slamming Garnett.

So Garnett didn't call Villanueva a "cancer patient." He still used the word "cancer," but you know what, Garnett is correct that Villanueva is a waste of space on the hardwood. He's an immensely gifted, 6-foot-11 former first round pick out of UConn who refuses to defend or mix it up inside and is collecting heaps of money from Detroit based on potential that has so far gone unrealized, save for spurts when he turns it on (i.e. his contract year of 2008-09). To date, the most notable thing he's done in the NBA is get benched by his coach for "tweeting" during halftime. To say guys who play like Villanueva are a poor reflection of the NBA, Garnett's right. Not to say Villanueva isn't a charitable man. But he is a waste of talent.

But Charlie V. hit Twitter with it and also challenged Garnett to a fight. When I visited his page, all I could read was "waaaahhhh" from a guy whose team got crushed last night.  Since when does NBA trash talk get repeated, "tweeted" off the court?  Since when is Charlie V's Twitter feed "news?" C'mon, guys. You're heading down a dangerous path, here. With a website like Twitter on the rise (disclosure: I find Twitter useless save for a few purposes and it certainly shouldn't be treated as a news vehicle), we're one step closer to seeing "The NBA on TMZ" and sports page articles written about what Ron Artest had last night at In N' Out Burger. This crap isn't relevant; Adrian Wojnarowski tried to take down an NBA legend with it. Nice job, pal.

Today, the sports media did a hatchet job on Kevin Garnett over a rumor. On Monday, the sports media reported Randy Moss as "waived" by the Vikings before the team made the transaction. Will the quest to be "first" ever end? Even if it comes at the expense of relevant, well-researched material? Please don't tell me I'm wasting my breath.