Mo Egger

Mo Egger

Mo Egger delivers his unique take on sports on Cincinnati's ESPN 1530!Full Bio

 

Three Things: FC Cincinnati, Vin Scully, And My Guy Lonzo Ball.

Every day there are three things, here are those three things.

Media companies are changing, which is like saying that dead people keep arriving at funeral homes. Change is constant, but one change, or to use a corporate words, shift, that's causing a considerable amount of angst is the way that internet content is being produced. A major shift to video from the written word is taking place, leaving some great writers that also appear on TV looking for a place to ply their original trade

As a consumer of content, this dismays me, mainly because I like to read.  As one who maintains a blog while for a media company that's constantly, um, changing, I feel stuck.  I'm no writer by any stretch, but in the ten years or so that I've done my radio show, I've enjoyed having this platform (holy shit, I'm becoming one of them) to say things that an audience that might not tune in on the radio or elaborate on a topic that might not totally work in on-air segments.  Some blog entries have been quite long. Others have more than quite long. Even others were so long that I'm very positive that no one ever actually read them in their entirety. I don't get to write as often as I'd like, and any perusal of my work would quickly reveal a distinct lack of formal writing training, but it's something I've come to really enjoy, and I've often gotten really good feedback on what I've written. Mostly from people who border on illiterate, but still...

So the whole discussion about "pivot to video" and "longform is dead" has me wondering if it makes sense for me to continue bang out a few hundred words on an almost daily basis, or if I should start doing video blogs, where I stare into a camera, sharing every thought and firing the hottest of takes.

Or maybe there's a compromise.  What if I kept doing some writing, but did some video at the same time?  What if I shot video of me writing? Wouldn't that both satisfy my need to have something resembling a written blog while adhering to the more modern media sensibilities of doing video? I think so, dammit! 

In doing so, I'll be pivoting to video, but still contributing written word. No one has thought of this yet, which means I'm a genius, kind of like Lonzo Ball.  So here's video of me writing this exact blog.....

The world of sports isn't giving me much to work with this morning, so this won't exactly qualify as longform.

1) If you can't play, drink.  FC Cincinnati's US Open Cup match against Miami was postponed because of a monsoon, leaving the few hundred FCC fans who make the trek to South Florida without a match to watch.  The good news is that the club bought some of their loyal supporters a round....

Even cooler, Bengals defensive end Carlos Dunlap joined them....

Neat.  

2) Vin Scully wins an ESPY, and now his life is complete.  Let's watch Vin accept his hardware.

3) Lonzo Ball. I watched Lonzo and his "Lakers" play last night against the "76ers" in an NBA Summer League Game last night.  I'll be up front and admit that I've been basketball smitten with Lonzo Ball since the first time I watched him play, very early last season for UCLA.

He's going to be a magical basketball player.

This is not an overreaction to how he played with and against mostly scrubs last night, putting up a 36/11/8/5/2 line in a win over guys wearing Philadelphia practice uniforms.  It is a reflection of having watched him play a lot and understanding what his considerable gifts are.

Which mainly, have to do with passing. Last night, he threw a handful of outlet passes that few big men in the NBA are able and willing to throw, much less passes that point guards can make.  He's nearly seamless on the fast break, able to change speeds while maintaining his dribble (and unlike many contemporary point guards, he doesn't border on carrying the ball when he dribbles) and he possesses the rare ability to hit guys in stride with passes that hit teammates in perfect position to score.  

His jump shot has flaws, even the fact that he makes more outside shots than people realize can't ignore that, but it's not a massive liability. He needs to put on weight, and it's fair to wonder how - as a rookie - he'll handle contact, something he didn't do well in college. He's also not going to be a great one-on-one defender - UCLA hid his deficiencies well - but he won't be abused to the point where his offensive contributions will be obscured by his liabilities on the other end.

What jumps off the screen is his vision. The Jason Kidd comparisons are fair, not because Lonzo will have the Hall of Fame career that kid had, but because Kidd's ability to see things and create passing angles is unlike anything most of us have seen since Lonzo Ball's boss was running the Showtime Lakers. (Lonzo will be a better defender than Magic, who was - for most of his career- a wretched defender. He'll start fast breaks with length-of-the-court passes that beat entire teams down the court, polish off other breaks with perfectly-placed dimes to cutting teammates, and he'll turn below-average shooters into adequate ones because he has the rare rookie skill of being able to deliver the ball in places where shooters only have to catch and shoot.

Seriously, watch the kid play. Do it without bias, and do it without even thinking about the noise made by his dad and the people reacting to the crazy things his dad says.  If you love basketball, then you love watching genius on the court. Lonzo Ball is not yet a basketball genius, but he possesses the gene to be one.

Recommended Link Of The Day: The baby groupthink spoiling baseball’s most precious gift.

Radio Show: Sam LeCure joins us at 3:33 to talk Reds past and present, and whatever else is on his mind. Plus, I want to talk teleportation. Hopefully, James can make that happen. Join us today at 3:05 on ESPN1530. Listen to ESPN1530 at ESPN1530.com/listen 

Also: We're doing the show at Smoke Justis tomorrow. Join us. 

Reach me....

Follow me on Twitter @MoEgger1530.

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Email me: mo@espn1530.com


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