While he was once one of the more respected sportswriters in America, Rick Reilly hastened his descent into self-parody with an ill-advised Kevin Durant tweet.
No one stays on top of his or her game forever. Rick Reilly has been plying his trade for a long time, so it’s probably not wise to expect he’d have the same insight he once did.
He’s also perhaps not the most comfortable with the instant impact and immediate negative feedback provided by social media. If he was, Reilly might have thought twice before offering his take on the Golden State Warriors signing Kevin Durant.
Unfortunate? You be the judge:
It’s pretty easy to see what Reilly was going for there, but … Yeah, it’s not really clever, funny or anything other than a “slap forehead in astonishment” moment.
Naturally, Reilly got roasted on Twitter pretty soon after he let the Durant-Upton comparison fly.
Best sportswriter in America --> Extremely bad columnist --> Serial self-plagiarizer --> The Three-Boob Tweet Man. What a career arc.
— Tom Ley (@ToLey88) July 5, 2016
.@ReillyRick pic.twitter.com/4cvPV3DPXe
— Joe Giglio (@JoeGiglioSports) July 5, 2016
Rick Reilly is telling jokes in the most tedious old-man barbershop imaginable. You can sense him elbow-nudging the bored guy next to him.
— Sen. Lemon Gogurt (I - Podcastia) (@Ugarles) July 5, 2016
As of the time of this post, Reilly hasn’t deleted his tweet, so he seems to be standing by his piss poor attempt at humor. Which is … admirable? No, not that. Stubborn? Maybe that’s it.
We’re certainly not out of the forest yet when it comes to “Durant to the Warriors” takes, but Reilly is the leader in the clubhouse — a much simpler analogy that he should appreciate, given his love of golf — for the most tone deaf take so far.
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