The Jazz are trying to get back to the playoffs. Unfortunately, the number of reporters covering them on a daily basis seems to be heading in the opposite direction.
Sarah Todd announced Thursday that she has been laid off by the Deseret News after seven years covering the team, becoming the latest longtime reporter to leave the beat.
Sam Foster of SLC Dunk chronicled the departures and noted that Todd follows Tony Jones, Ryan Miller and Andy Larsen off the full-time Jazz beat over roughly the past year.
Jones moved from The Athletic’s Jazz coverage to the 76ers. Miller was laid off by KSL and later became sports editor of The Salt Lake Tribune. Larsen moved away from daily beat coverage into a data-column role at the Tribune.
That leaves KSL’s Chandler Holt and Ben Anderson as the primary full-time reporters dedicated to covering the team, according to Foster. That’s not ideal.
NBA beat reporters do considerably more than tell you who won the game. They’re at practices and shootarounds. They develop relationships. They ask the follow-up question. They find the little stories that nobody sitting 1,500 miles away is going to find.
Todd did all of that and did it well. I met her once and came away thinking she was a wonderful person. More importantly for these purposes, she’s a highly respected NBA reporter and a former Utah Sportswriter of the Year.
Hopefully, she lands somewhere else quickly. If NBA outlets are looking for an experienced beat writer, she should be near the very top of the list.
As for Hoops Wire, we’re not going to pretend we’re suddenly sitting courtside in Salt Lake City. But we are going to try to help fill some of the coverage gap.
That means more Jazz transactions, analysis, roster moves and stories that might otherwise get overlooked nationally. We already started Friday with Utah’s acquisition of Josh Green and why the move made sense.
The Jazz are an NBA team with an interesting young roster that’s trying to become relevant again. They deserve to be covered like one.
Looking for the latest NBA Insider News & Rumors?
Be sure to follow Hoops Wire on TWITTER and FACEBOOK for breaking NBA News and Rumors for all 30 teams!
