{"id":891672,"date":"2026-02-11T05:18:53","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T11:18:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/11\/nba-reporters-take-shots-at-washington-post-for-eliminating-sports-section-hours-before-anthony-davis-blockbuster-trade-truly-insane\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T05:18:53","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T11:18:53","slug":"nba-reporters-take-shots-at-washington-post-for-eliminating-sports-section-hours-before-anthony-davis-blockbuster-trade-truly-insane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/11\/nba-reporters-take-shots-at-washington-post-for-eliminating-sports-section-hours-before-anthony-davis-blockbuster-trade-truly-insane\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Reporters Take Shots at Washington Post for Eliminating Sports Section Hours Before Anthony Davis Blockbuster Trade: \u2018Truly Insane\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>It was a controversial decision at the time for the Washington Post, one of the esteemed Sports departments in print media, to close its entire Sports department. It now looks positively misguided, given that one of D.C.\u2019s local teams, the Wizards, is making multiple headlines in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.profootballnetwork.com\/nba\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"46784\" title=\"NBA News, Rumors, and Analysis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NBA<\/a> ahead of the trade deadline. Many took to social media to vent their frustrations at the shocking decision.<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure id=\"attachment_987764\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-987764\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.profootballnetwork.com\/nba-player-guessing-game\" target=\"_blank\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/statico.profootballnetwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/28014741\/NBA-Player-Guessing-Game.png\" alt=\"Come test your knowledge and see if you can guess the NBA player!\" width=\"970\" height=\"250\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-987764\">The NBA Player Guessing Game allows you to guess the NBA player based on clues about their team, division, height, jersey number, points, and experience.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Shock Prevails As No Local Washington Outlet Covered Anthony Davis\u2019 Wizards Trade<\/h2>\n<p>The closure means there would be no coverage of the huge Wizards trade for Anthony Davis in their local metropolitan area, which broke mere hours after they laid off their Sports department. Several members of the Sports media world had their say on the shocking decision, which affects hundreds of Washington Post employees.<\/p>\n<p>Nothing quite signifies the decline of print media and the increased competition for readership more than The Washington Post, owned by Jeff Bezos, eliminating its entire Sports department on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>As described in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7019090\/2026\/02\/04\/washington-post-sports-layoffs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\">The Athletic<\/a>, around 45 people were told to stay home and were told of the department\u2019s closure via Zoom. This is part of a large number of cuts to the newsroom, impacting hundreds of employees. A Sports department that once boasted the likes of Shirley Povich, Tony Kornheiser, and Michael Wilbon now has no one.<\/p>\n<p>Fittingly, just as their employees were told to stay home, a seismic move involving the Wizards occurred, which appears to be a tremendous steal for Washington and an underwhelming return for Dallas.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ShamsCharania\/status\/2019119800098963674?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\">Shams Charania<\/a>, the Wizards pulled off a massive deal for Anthony Davis, with D\u2019Angelo Russell, Jaden Hardy, and Dante Exum also heading to Washington. Going the other way to the Mavericks is a four-player package headlined by Khris Middleton and 2 first-round picks. Davis will partner with Trae Young next season for the Wizards, with their intention of keeping their 2026 top-8 protected pick so it doesn\u2019t head to the Knicks.<\/p>\n<p>Rachel Nichols of Fox Sports wrote a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Rachel__Nichols\/status\/2019126297356849304?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">scathing indictment<\/a> of The Washington Post\u2019s decision to eliminate their department. While complimenting the Wizards for the trade, she also finished her tweet on X by writing in all caps: \u201cWouldn\u2019t it be nice if the newspaper in DC had a Sports department to cover this?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Tim Bontemps, a senior writer for ESPN, wrote a similarly damning opinion of the Washington Post\u2019s controversial decision, calling it <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TimBontemps\/status\/2019120420528746621?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">\u201ctruly insane.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Today would be a good day to be a local newspaper covering the Washington Wizards, I would say.<\/p>\n<p>This couldn\u2019t be more fitting to highlight how truly insane the decision making from The Washington Post is today. Absolutely incredible. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/JuqBFwC3QH\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/JuqBFwC3QH<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TimBontemps\/status\/2019120420528746621?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\">February 4, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Reposting Shams Charania\u2019s trade tweet, Bontemps also wrote: \u201cThis couldn\u2019t be more fitting to highlight how truly insane the decision-making from The Washington Post is today. Absolutely incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A similar sentiment was also shared by the <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/KamBrothers\/status\/2019124114905264183?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Kamenetzy brothers<\/a> of the podcast \u2018Locked on Lakers,\u2019 who wrote: \u201cApropos that on the day Anthony Davis becomes a Wizard, the Washington Post has no sports reporters to cover the trade.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile,<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JeffPassan\/status\/2016208881836282277?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\"> Jeff Passan,<\/a> ESPN\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.profootballnetwork.com\/mlb\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"46783\" title=\"MLB News, Rumors, and Analysis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MLB<\/a> insider, absolutely obliterated the newspaper\u2019s decision makers for the staggering decision. Describing it as a \u201cshort-sighted, cowardly decision. Shame is your legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The overwhelming anger aimed at those who closed such a respected Sports department is surely likely to grow over the next few days.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> Donald Stewart <br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.profootballnetwork.com\/nba\/nba-reporters-shots-at-washington-post-for-eliminating-sports-section\/\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was a controversial decision at the time for the Washington Post, one of the esteemed Sports departments in print media, to close its entire Sports department. It now looks positively misguided, given that one of D.C.\u2019s local teams, the Wizards, is making multiple headlines in the NBA ahead of the trade deadline. Many took<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":891673,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2307,3480],"tags":[12105,7072],"class_list":["post-891672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reporters","category-shots","tag-reporters","tag-shots"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=891672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/891673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}