Pithy transplant Matt Moore of CBS Sports slags Nugs fans
“But when someone who’s supposed to give you unfiltered opinions on a team starts digging into the fan base who have no say in how bad a team does in free agency, it’s like inviting someone to your home and having them tell you your kids are ugly. It’s so childishly condescending, it’s baffling and hilarious all at once. And it makes Moore look like the insecure nerd he’s obviously terrified people will find out he is.”
Matt Moore is an extremely talented basketball writer for CBS Sports and has forgotten more about the sport than I will ever know. His basketball knowledge is encyclopedic and is by far one of the great young minds working in his field today. But sometimes a person’s achievements at their chosen profession is in direct contrast to their grasp of tact, compassion and knowing when to keep their mouth shut.
As the Denver Nuggets crumbled into dust this past Friday after Andre Iguodala took the first plane out of Denver to Golden State, Nuggets fan morale was at an all time low. If you follow the Nuggets even in the slightest, you’d know the massive shake ups and defections by both players and management could spell disaster for the team. Nuggets fans are an interesting lot: long suffering, but after tasting a bit of success, didn’t act boorish like Lakers or Red Sox fans. As a fanbase they are simply a dedicated yet pretty mellow group who talk basketball with anyone and who love their team unconditionally. And now everything is going to suck.
So it was strange that a CBS writer decided kick them when they were down and made reference to no one caring about Iguodala’s departure and inferring that no one in Denver is even aware there is an NBA team by using the tag #thedenverwho. Gleefully retweeting another NBA writer because he was “destroying Denver” was a bit hard to stomach as well. But here’s the real weird part: Moore lives in Colorado.
What is it about such a beautiful place with sports fans who are deeply passionate that gets this kind of negative response from people? The sheer amount of Red Wings and Cubs fans you’ll find in Denver is staggering. But if you’ve ever been to Detroit or Chicago in the summertime, you’ll know why those people live here. I can understand your asshole neighbor from Baltimore giving you shit for the Broncos playoff flop, but it’s odd when a media member trolls an entire fanbase. Especially when that person lives amongst those fans.
I’m sure Moore isn’t rubbing elbows with the bulk of Nuggets fans and I surely couldn’t pick him out of crowd, but he lives here and his criticism went far beyond the Nuggets organization (which is fair game), to knee-capping the people who would be the consumers of his product. I once made time to listen to Moore when he was going to be on the Fan with Sandy Clough. I figured these two titans of sport would provide a great afternoon of radio listening – and I was right. It was great radio. So you can see how disappointed I was to find out Moore is the worst kind of elitist who can’t stand the idiot fans in Colorado.
I fully believe Colorado sports fans are too nice. Aside from going to a Broncos game, fans of opposing teams get away with a lot because we’ve got better things to do than get into it with them. Crowds at Rockies games just want to watch a little baseball and are pushed aside like the Flemish in WWII. Fans just don’t want to get involved with a drunken asshole from another team’s fanbase they don’t know anything about. But asshole fans are one thing. They have to be ignored or fought. And most people will just choose to ignore. But how can we take a writer seriously if he openly loathes a fan base and the place he lives? There’s no law that Moore has to like Colorado or the foolish clowns who follow the local sports teams, but we get it. He’s better than us and we just have to sit and take it.
Moore is just being caustic because he seemingly doesn’t want to be here. Or he really believes he is just that much more superior than anyone who happens to like the Nuggets. It does seem a bit childish to go somewhere and slag people who are just outside your door, but like the Flemish, it may be just as sad to sit by and let him do it. A lot of people in Denver give Moore a long leash because they respect his position. Take that away and he’d be just another bitter midwesterner dishing it out to no one due to some misguided inferiority complex we’re not privvy to.
This is the kind of arrogant transplant attitude we see all the time. For one reason or another, people move here and almost immediately have to dig in on the teams, the people and anything else that’s different from their experience. I was actually the same way when I moved here. I came from Illinois and I hated the Broncos simply because everyone else loved them. But then again, I was 13. Not sure what Matt Moore’s excuse is.
It’s probably Bill Simmons’ fault that NBA bloggers feel as though a huge part of their jobs is to be catty. It’s not enough for them to simply report and analyze the goings-on in the NBA. They must mix in references, make zippy comments and out-clever each other at every turn. It’s not that way amongst web writers covering other sports. Not the NFL, baseball, soccer or hockey. It’s just the NBA.
Beat writes come from all over. Adrian Dater, the fine Avs writer is from New England and while I get the idea he’s not a huge fan of some of Denver’s sports teams – it’s not his job to be – he’s still a big fan of Colorado. And while many may think he’s engages in it, he doesn’t antagonize the fan base and has reached out to them in a lot of ways. Nuggets scribe Benjamin Hochman isn’t from here either and while he may now have dreams of covering better teams (my words, not his) he’s content to cover the Nuggets because he genuinely seems to really like it here. He’s also a huge St. Louis Cardinals fan but you’d never hear him telling Rockies fans how pathetic they are.
Moore isn’t a local beat writer and covers the entire NBA. And for whatever reason he chose to live here, he’s also had pretty good access to the Nuggets. Fans look to writers like that to give them insight, no matter if it’s an unpopular opinion. I don’t expect him to love the Nuggets and appreciate the honest insight. But when someone who’s supposed to give you unfiltered opinions on a team starts digging into the fan base who have no say in how bad a team does in free agency, it’s like inviting someone to your home and having them tell you your kids are ugly. It’s so childishly condescending, it’s baffling and hilarious all at once. And it makes Moore look like the insecure nerd he’s obviously terrified people will find out he is.
Matt Moore doesn’t owe me anything. He can disrespect Colorado sports fans all he wants. But then I don’t owe it to him to give him any of my business when clicking on an NBA story knowing full well I’m being called an idiot as I read through. It’s the worst kind of backhanded writer/reader relationship: the writer thinks you’re a rube whose only redeeming value is clicking on his story. I’m not sure what brought Moore here to our great state and he’s welcome to stay. I just don’t think he should expect people to appreciate it when he treats them like the assholes he thinks they are.
