Doug Gottlieb: “My critique of Maria Taylor is taken as 'misogynist'. It is NOT. I have the same opinion of my good friend Adam Zucker, who works for CBS covering SEC college basketball, and I don’t think he should be voting for the best college basketball player in the country. The difference between those awards and these awards, and I don’t think people know this, is the All-NBA teams affect players’ ability to get the supermax contracts, so this affects the guy’s wallet. This isn't voting for the All-Star Game. LeBron actually said as much without saying as much on Friday when he said ’16 people voted me MVP, that’s it??’ In other words, he’s like ‘who are these people, and why can’t they see all that we’ve accomplished this year, and all that I’ve sacrificed, and all that I have done for my team??’ It’s a really good point, and my point is that not only has she been covering the NBA for like eight months, she’s not even covering the NBA. She’s a studio host. It requires skill and it requires talent, and she’s good at it, but it does not require the ability to evaluate certain players... We have enough guys who are current/former players, current/former coaches, and current/former GM’s who should be deciding their own. Am I sexist? No, Doris Burke deserves a vote because she covers all the games. If you want to say ‘what’s the difference in their resumes?', Doris Burke played, like Maria played, she coached, Maria didn’t coach, and Doris Burke came up through the ranks and covered all these guys… I could be critical of Doris Burke if I wanted to, it’s not sexist… Sexism is if I were to not be critical of her vote, or how she obtained the vote because she’s a woman. THAT’S what sexism would be – treating her differently, and I’m not treating her any differently… We have to get to a place to where any time a white person says anything about a black person that it’s not automatically racist, and a man says something about a woman and it’s not automatically sexist. It’s just not." (Full Segment Above)
Listen to Doug Gottlieb discuss his controversial tweet over the weekend regarding ESPN host Maria Taylor after Taylor’s name went viral when it was revealed that Taylor had left Lakers superstar Anthony Davis off the ballot of all three of her All-NBA teams despite Davis obviously warranting inclusion on the second-team at the very worst.
Taylor came under fire for her vote and ultimately stated publicly that it was a 'clear mistake' leaving Davis off her ballot.
Gottlieb tweeted over the weekend ‘Why does Maria Taylor have a vote? Real question. She is a studio host/sideline reporter in her first year covering the NBA. She works a ton, not just on the league. No reason for her to have a vote', which was met with much backlash from people saying the tweet may have had sexist undertones.
Check out the segment above as Gottlieb details his reasoning behind the tweet. Gottlieb says he didn't think Taylor deserved a vote simply because she hosts an NBA show as an unbiased studio host whose job isn’t necessarily to analyze the X’s and O’s of the game, as much as it to lead and assist her co-hosts, and act as an intermediary during the show's rundowns.
Gottlieb says for a vote as important as All-NBA, which directly can affects players’ future earnings, it should go to a former player, GM, coach, or analyst, male or female, who is actually expected to closely analyze an entire season of NBA basketball.
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