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Great Artice on JR by Rick Bonnell

TylerDurden

By TylerDurden,
in Carolina Panthers

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TylerDurden Grand Master

TylerDurden

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I've flamed Bonnell before for the way he covers the Bobcats, but I'm right on with him here... This may be the best piece he has EVER done. Awesome and right on the money with how I felt about today's presser.

As I mentioned in the aftermath threads, him mentioning for us to buy more Bojangles so he and his wife can live... Talking trash to the beat writers... The way he handled the Harbaugh questions... A great deal of it was so nonchalant, that it was offensive. And yes, the tone was generally condescending.

Anyway, here's a part of it, as I don't think I'm allowed to post the whole thing:

http://blogs.charlotte.com/inside_the_nba/2011/01/a-bizarre-moment-in-charlotte-sports.html

A bizarre moment in Charlotte sports

I never thought I’d hear myself say this, but the Charlotte Bobcats have a more humble, transparent and practical owner than the Carolina Panthers.

Did you see or hear Jerry Richardson’s press conference Tuesday? I listened on WFNZ, while waiting for the Bobcats to finish practice. It was the first time Richardson has made himself available to whatever media wanted to show up in roughly a decade.

As someone who has always liked Richardson, who found him cordial and personable, I was embarrassed by his attitude.

He was flippant, he was condescending and he was certainly patronizing toward women among his questioners. I appreciate that Richardson has gone through some terrible times health-wise, and I also appreciate that he’s better in small groups. His strength is what politicos call “retail politics’’ rather than “wholesale politics.’’

But that doesn’t excuse what I heard. The vast majority of questions asked Tuesday were not just reasonable, they were obligatory. Way too often, Richardson would simply parry off fair inquiries with impatience or clumsy efforts at distraction.

You really shouldn’t gather your thoughts by stopping mid-sentence to ask who someone is, and you certainly shouldn’t ask the pretty blonde from the Fox affiliate to move to the front row. You also shouldn’t talk down to beat writers who have covered this team forever the first time those people get to ask you a question in a decade.

I wondered what happened to the guy who said, “Thank you, thank you, thank you’’ to the original PSL holders who made the stadium happen. I never got the sense it registers on Richardson that the people asking questions Tuesday were proxies for his customers.

The irony is the actual PSL holders would have been far less respectful if they had been questioning him.

... (continued)

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Jaxel Veteran

Jaxel

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So maybe fans were to take the apology less seriously.

Roger.

You probably don't know what JR's personality is compared to those at the conference... since he rarely talks... this could have been normal... not my fault some reporters got butt hurt for getting some pretty direct answers.

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