As I gaze at my nonexistent sports media career, writing to the lovely thousands of men and women who read Deadseriousness—but ultimately, a blip on the radar, at the whim of the algorithm—I barely exist.
Every day, I want to grab a microphone and say some lame antagonistic shit for attention. It looks so easy. But I reckon I’m a coward, afraid to have my name dragged across the internet. That’s my ego, I suppose.
I need to get like my guy Vince Goodwill—currently under napalm fire following his appearance on ESPN’s morning show Get Up—where, on a desk with Mike Greenberg, Jay Williams and Alan Hahn—attempted to claim dynasties were better for the NBA than parity.
His evidence, the 80s to 90s—when Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan won every title and the league saw a boom in viewership.
He then says the NBA’s legislated dynasties out of the sport with CBA’s punishing teams for “drafting too well”—his example being the Durant, Westbrook, Harden OKC Thunder—a team with zero championships that could’ve kept those 3 players together but chose not to. The NBA had nothing to do with it. I think everyone in that building knew Westbrook was not about to play off-ball for Durant AND Harden.
Goodwill iso time, he’s getting to his spot, the bag work is wiiiild—landing on “I like to know that greatness is validated. How do we know any of the last 8 champions are actually validated because they have not done it again”
It goes silent as Vince nervously wraps up his point, looking in both directions to check if anyone discerned the insane shit he just said.
Alan Hahn heard it—responsiding the Larry O’Brien trophy IS the validation.
Vince cuts him off and says, “Oh, you mean a participation trophy then”.
Huh?
“You mean participation trophy?” – Vincent Goodwill
“I’m sorry, Larry O’Brien is a participation trophy?” – Alan Hahn
“If everybody gets one” – Vincent Goodwill pic.twitter.com/FgqACveIui
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 16, 2026
The New York Knicks are the first team in sports history to win a championship, and within a week—before they even hold their celebration parade—are told they won a participation trophy because they’re not back-to-back champions yet.
I disagree with Vince Goodwill’s claim the NBA needs dynasties for mass appeal.
In fact, I don’t give a shit about mass appeal at all, I don’t engage with anything because others do or do not—but it’s a conversation worth having at 9 am on a random summer weekday as ESPN—with the World Cup in their backyard and absolutely no coverage of the biggest global sporting event because they have three employees making a trillion dollars combined and neither Pat McAfee, Mike Greenberg or Stephen A. Smith are even pretending to care about anything aside from NFL minicamps.
The Warriors and Cavaliers competing in every single NBA Finals was a massive turn off for me.
The inevitability of these seasons removed the urgency of the regular seasons.
NBA personalities complain no one watches the NBA anymore because teams are tanking but don’t want to acknowledge there are far more fan bases engaged in the daily NBA grind now that they’ve crowned 8 different champions than there ever were a decade ago.
There were a ton of Steph Curry and LeBron fans but I promise you, Atlanta Hawks fans are more engaged today, believing their current team has a chance to win next year’s title—never once feeling this way when Jeff Teague and Paul Millsap were averaging 10 and 8 each.
Shout out to Vince Goodwill.
Busted his ass as a reporter, earned his spot on that ESPN desk and is now so jaded and cynical about the sport he covers that—in his mind, he cannot even quantify what an NBA championship means anymore.
I wept when the Knicks won the trophy—and I know I’m a lifelong Knicks fan and Vince Goodwill is not that—but to watch them celebrate their victory of Wembanyama’s weird ass, Mikal Bridges and Jalen Brunson crying, and think to yourself “what are they crying about, they only won the NBA title, so what?”, is a sign you may need to switch careers or like, revitilize your personal life.
I suggest starting a garden.
Maybe moving completely.
Um, try new sex positions with your partner.
Get the fuck off your phone until you remove all the toxicity in your brain that makes you dismissive of others’ accomplishments.
Vince Goodwill did not come off as smart, or clever, or interesting.
It was a contrarian innings-eating for a network formally the home of sports expertise—turned the playground of lazy hacks phoning it in on mute at the bar and above gym treadmills.
At one point in my life, many moons ago, I wanted to be on that ESPN desk, but I’ve learned it’s just a participation trophy. Literally, anyone can sit up there these days…
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