Yesterday when I joked about the Chicago Tribune's Sam Smith hating blogs, I actually felt kind of bad, because he had tempered his disdain for blogs with some light-heartedness about being a grumpy old man. I wasn't really fair to him. (But that's okay; I'm not really fair to anyone.)

HOWEVA: I happened to get an email from the Chicago fan who had originally posed the question to Smith, and Sam didn't seem to have much interest in having a sense of humor about the whole thing:

From: "Smith, Sam" <[EMAIL REDACTED]>
Subject: RE: Bulls and Blogs

i think they are becoming a major part of media i don't have high regard for. i don't read any as they are basically opinion and uninformed. i know i talk to the NBA people and those people from the blogs don't, so how can they know what is really going on.

Good Lord, what's that stench? It reeks of pregnancy tests and Eli Manning in the pocket around here. Oh, I get it: it's just the smell of fear. Well, don't worry, Sam. The Trib will give you a great pension someday soon. Just go back to work imagining 30-player trades. People love reading "credible" stuff like that.

I try not to talk about the sports media too much here, because (a) most people in sports media are ugly, and (b) I don't want to make ESPN too mad, because this handsome face belongs on TV. But veteran Chicago Tribune NBA writer Sam Smith weighed in on my profession during an online Q&A:

Q: What blogs do you read for sports, basketball or the bulls? How much do you trust their analysis/inside information? Personally I find them great aggregations of information and alternative perspectives…

A: I like this question because I don't read any blogs… How is it I can work for decades developing contacts around the NBA and traveling regularly around the NBA and talking with the decision makers and some guy in his basement in his underwear is writing something that has credibility?

First of all, I don't have a basement. Second, I can't write in my underwear because I have two female roommates, and it would get waaaay too humid in here if I did that. Thirdly, I'm credible because if the evening news has taught us anything, it's that attractive people are trustworthy.

But keep cryin', old man. The dinosaurs bitched, too. All it got them was a trilogy of increasingly crappy movies.