The Problem With Being Mechelle Voepel Employed by ESPN (merged thread)

[CL82]

Crying sounds a little condescending to me...and the team would be great without a player like maya but it wouldn't be right or fair to her..and fans and maya and her family and friends would have a legitimate gripe...

Mmm, they have a natural concern. We don't know whether they have a legitimate gripe because we we're in the room. There likely is a logical basis why the person committee decided not to include her on the team. I think it is very unlikely will know what it was, at least in the near term.

 

[Goodgood]

Oopps...how to spell ooops? Anyway, Michelle has not moved on, but she has written a better, more comprehensive article. She wants to smoke out a specific rationale of the Committee and it needs addressing with more than has been done so far.

Still trying to make sense of a Rio roster without Parker

I guess you got her attention.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

I guess you got her attention.

LOL!

 

[CL82]

Oopps...how to spell ooops? Anyway, Michelle has not moved on, but she has written a better, more comprehensive article. She wants to smoke out a specific rationale of the Committee and it needs addressing with more than has been done so far.

Still trying to make sense of a Rio roster without Parker

Yeah, not Mechelle's best work. She seems to imply that the Olympic national team committee should have made it's decision on optics rather than, presumably, substance. She also seems a little miffed that she's not privy to details of personnel decisions. It would be a disservice and counter-productive if the committee explained how they evaluated each player. That just doesn't happen in the real world, nor should it.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

It would be a disservice and counter-productive if the committee explained how they evaluated each player. That just doesn't happen in the real world, nor should it.

I agree. Sorta like the NCAA Tournament Committee, which dances a line on some of its decisions. BUT she and her ESPN employer will not let it go because it is great melodrama for them as they try to prop up their shrinking brand. Parker could stop all this in an instant, of course. Could be an explanation she does not want to hear or have out there.

 

[Adesmar123]

Instead of whining ab out Candace Parker in her articles, why doesn't she find out what really happened? Someone with her contacts should be able to find out.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

Instead of whining ab out Candace Parker in her articles, why doesn't she find out what really happened? Someone with her contacts should be able to find out.

Exactly. Voeple simply assumes something nefarious, but without any proof. The inference that this is a Tennessee-Connecticut tiff ignores the fact that the Tennessee coach is long gone (four years and counting), that the two teams have gone in different directions, that the Connecticut coach was never bothered by the lack of scheduling the two schools, and that the USAB coach is working on a 23 game winning streak with three world championships. So why on earth should he (and his committee and USA Basketball) care in the least about any of those supposed factors?

The truth seems to be lurking just beneath the surface. Parker has been injured before. A personality conflict has been suggested by both the committee (in deeply veiled terms) and by Bone. Sue Bird has stated clearly that it's about "the team," and not individual talent.

So even without a "tell-all" from anyone, the silhouette of the truth seems to be taking shape. And it has nothing to do with anything but creating the best "team" that has the best chance to win an Olympic championship.

 

[Kaizen]

Mechelle Voeple is a big mouth.
I really want to ask her which one of the current 12 players she wishes to replace and give to Parker?

 

[huskeynut]

Voeple runs hot and cold. Some of her articles are good. Others, like the Parker stuff, are just off the wall.

 

[UcMiami]

Instead of whining ab out Candace Parker in her articles, why doesn't she find out what really happened? Someone with her contacts should be able to find out.

I really don't think anybody is going to talk that has the inside dope. Maybe in ten years when someone publishes a memoir.

 

[HuskyFan1125]

Michelle Voepel is and always will be a Tennessee homer!!!

I haven't liked her since her article written in 2008(not sure on the year) but it was when the LA Sparks got into a fist fight with the Detroit Shock. It was right before the Olympics. To me all involved in that fracas should have been kicked off team. But that was me. And yes. Parker was one of them involved.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Much as I have not enjoyed her vagaries in this particular dust up, I attribute some fraction of it to the unease all but the biggest "names" employed by ESPN are feeling as Disney tightens the earnings, cost noose on ESPN. She's knowledgeable and mostly an entertaining writer. I've decided to give her a pass on the understandable attempt to exploit what is a tiny dust up to demonstrate her continuing value to "the organization."

 

[ThisJustIn]

LOL... you know what they say about opinions... that being said -

Folks like Mechelle and Doug know what's going on. Sometimes they can't share because it's off the record.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Folks like Mechelle and Doug know what's going on. Sometimes they can't share because it's off the record.

Then don't try libel by innuendo. If you can't say it, don't seem to imply it, because if you can't say it, shut your pie hole.

 

[ThisJustIn]

Libel, like saying USA Players have been talkin' smack about Parker?


I've read the articles. She asks a lot of questions, questions that need to be asked, have been asked... but, the thing is, USA BB will not answer them.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Libel, like saying USA Players have been talkin' smack about Parker?


I've read the articles. She asks a lot of questions, questions that need to be asked, have been asked... but, the thing is, USA BB will not answer them.

I'm talking journalists and you're talking fan chat. Big difference. Some would call Michelle's positions demagoguery when she knows full well that it is unlikely USA BB will respond by revealing the inner workings of the selection process because she and other supporters of a player who did not make it disagree.

 

[msf22b]

Instead of whining ab out Candace Parker in her articles, why doesn't she find out what really happened? Someone with her contacts should be able to find out.

She may have dialed up all her sources and everyone is clammed up.

 

[Alydar]

More than either Tenn or UConn, ESPN has kept the bitterness between the fanbases alive every chance they get. Michele seems to be doing the bidding of her overlords. And from the rancor between the fanbases it has engendered it has worked. Maybe in 30 or 40 years everyone who lived through those years will be gone and peace will again rule the planet.

 

[willie99]

she's a member of the media, the truth don't matter to them, objectivity is a lost art