Who are the luckiest sports journalists in North America, those who get to cover the Toronto Raptors every day, or those entrusted with the Portland Trailblazers’ beat? From the Oregonian’s John Canzano.
Lots of minor confusion about a detail in Wedneday’s column over the Zach Randolph donation payment to Parks and Recreation.
Randolph bounced two checks for $47,000+. Nobody can debate that, in part, because The Oregonian obtained copies of the bounced checks.
The Blazers were contacted by Parks and Recreation after the check bounced twice and “ran around” eventually facilitating the wire transfer. The Blazers were heavily involved in fixing this to avoid a PR scandal, but the funds ultimately came from Randolph’s bank account, not the Blazers.
That should have been clearer. My bad there.
Prior to publication, The Oregonian obtained the routing number and account number and other details of the transaction. (I tell you this only to demonstrate to you that a daily newspaper has to have confirmation of details before it goes public with what it knows.)
Randolph’s agent Raymond Brothers said he was asked by the Blazers this morning to join in a joint press release today in which they would attempt to “discredit” Wednesday’s column over what amounts to splitting hairs over who wired the money. (Really, a minor, minor point in the big picture of the settlement document).
Brothers declined to be a part of a joint news release, in part, because he knows the Blazers front office was one of the initial sources who told The Oregonian the checks bounced in the first place.
He said that he’d sooner sue the team over leaking that information than join them in splitting hairs.
Brothers also thinks it’s disappointing that the Blazers are focusing on trying to discredit the story when he says, “it gives your readers an idea of what I had to deal with.”
Brothers is also the agent for Qyntel Woods.