The state of the Sixers beat writer is pretty putrid indeed. We have a few beat friends who do an admirable job of getting quotes, reporting injuries, and generally being nice people, but no one that has provided any genuine insight about the Sixers team since Kate Fagan left. I hardly agreed with Fagan regularly, but she was (and is) a fantastic writer, and occasionally stumbled open some astute thoughts.
She went to ESPN and continued to do great things, but this is, for my part, the best thing she's written. It's on sexism in sports, one of the most delicate issues nobody wants to discuss, and details a few parts of her Sixers tenure that were less than savory from time to time. There's a tremendous amount more, and I urge you to read it, but the text she got from a certain Sixers executive is especially interesting to us as a Sixers blog.
Toward the end of my tenure covering the Sixers, someone higher up in the organization took particular offense to something I had written and sent me the following text: "You are a conniving/deceitful woman! Sleep well, Kate."
Seems like that's Doug Collins in response to Kate's report that the Sixers had tuned Doug out last year. That's entirely speculative on my part. But it's disconcerting nonetheless. All of it is
She also speaks of an incident in her first season (I think '09-'10) where a player made a snide comment to her about enjoying him being half-naked. Looking at the team, I can only imagine it's Marreese Speights or Allen Iverson. Probably Allen since Speezy isn't the best at talking. Who else would it be?
Either way, it's a sad state of affairs across the board, and the entire piece is worth your attention. Just a reminder not to be like the anonymous internet thugs that say hugely offensive things without realizing the effect it's having on other people. Whether it's about women or otherwise, that's a good tip to hold on to.