Bethlehem Shoals, he of FreeDarko.com and The Sporting Blog fame, joins the show to preview this weekend’s Blogs With Balls conference.

This is how the progression of today’s show went. Last week I was asked to moderate one of the panels at BwB. Eventually the panel I ended up having the good fortune to moderate was The Media’s Take, which includes the likes of DL guests Jeff Pearlman and Dan Steinberg, as well as Shoals and others. In emailing the panel on topic suggestions, Shoals and I went back and forth on some pretty interesting concepts and discussion points for Saturday’s panel. At some point I realized there’s a show in those emails somewhere.

And here’s that show.

We start with a discussion about the media. What exactly is the media, let alone their take? Is Shoals the ‘media?’ It turns out he’s not even sure. When we started emailing about the panel I thought it would be a good topic of discussion to figure out where exactly the line is between traditional media and new media. Much of this interview is in search of that answer...and all we can come up with is that there might not be one.

Shoals thinks there are seven hierarchal levels of ‘print’ journalism (in his words): books, magazine journalists, newspaper guys, website guys who aren't stigmatized/classified as bloggers (even if they now blog), corporate bloggers, blogs that get corporate backing, truly independent bloggers.

So is there a line somewhere in there? Or have traditional journalists shifted more towards new mediums as they become more widely used.

That leads to the question of whether or not blogging works as a platform, or it works because of the people who blog on that platform. In other words, does blogging work because the concept of short, opinionated pieces with links to original works and the ability for readers to comment immediately is something that translates to today’s societal news needs, or does blogging work because there are some great writers out there who gravitated towards blogs and away from more traditional forms of journalism?

It’s very chicken-eggy if you think about it. The bloggers, Shoals included, point to the fact that there are some great new writers out there who have flocked to the blog platform and that’s why blogs are as popular as they’ve become. But then there’s the Fanhouse model (note, the NEW Fanhouse model) that seems to look at the platform as something that works with interchangeable parts as contributors. This seems to be why Fanhouse thinks that making people like Jay Mariotti and Kevin Blackistone and Lisa Olson ‘bloggers’ -- although the website does call them Columnists still -- can work. We discuss the differences between what Fanhouse has done and what places like The Sporting Blog has done. it’s an interesting fundamental discussion for the future of the industry (not to overstate it), what’s more important - the blog or the blogger?

And where does that leave people like Steinberg, who writes for the Washington Post. He’s the non-traditional media person and the non-traditional blogger. He’s not a reporter who also does a blog, like many newspapers have done. He’s a blogger who reports. Where does he fit into all this?

This is not a question that can be answered today. So we move on to basketball.

Shoals is one of the preeminent basketball writers on the internet, so I ask how the ‘sphere has changed the way people follow the league. The NBA blog network is very deep and dedicated to the sport, and I wonder how that has helped re-grow the league, sorry Association, from the ground up. Also, does the NBA embrace it’s new media following enough or could they do more?

Shoals talks a lot about the Twitter phenomenon in the NBA and how players are ostensibly able to write whatever they want whenever they want. It’s opened up a whole line of direct marketing and communication for the league that other sports haven’t fully embraced as much as the NBA and it’s players seem to have done.

Shoals is in New York for the conference but he’s also talking with his publishers about the next Free Darko Book. If you haven’t seen their first book you must check it out. The illustrations are incredible and the writing and research that went into The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac is astounding. So is it a true almanac? Will we have one of these every year?

It turns out, the next book is a history of the league and is being billed as an Encyclopedia. It’s not really an encyclopedia, even if I tried to get Shoals to do the entire book in alphabetical order. Having written and published a book, Shoals understands the importance of books, and going back to his original hierarchy, we talk about the sustainability of that medium in the future. People say that newspapers are dying, but will books ever really disappear? The industry isn’t doing well, but isn’t there an intrinsic value to holding a book in your hands? Will people start snuggling up with a good laptop soon? Will they make pop-up Kindles for kids? Books are important, right?

I briefly try to get Shoals on my side on the Kobe-SAS puppet conspiracy but he’s not buying that Nike wouldn’t just create another Kobe puppet. There’s still no denying the fact that the puppet looks more like SAS. I’ll take this to my grave.

Last, we talk about the news that Real Madrid has purchased the contracts of everyone...everyone in soccer. Well, at least two of the top players in the world for two of the richest transfer fees of all time. Could this happen in basketball? Shoals reminds me that this conversation took place when some of the players left to go overseas last year and there was speculation about LeBron and others taking a one-year flyer for beaucoup bucks. But with the economy the way it is, could someone take over a league (say in Spain, perhaps) and create a new European version of the NBA? Shoals thinks if it happens, it might be the NBA that does it first.

A great and lengthy interview that may have left us with more questions than answers. Hopefully we can answer some of them this Saturday at Blogs with Balls.

Thanks, and I hope to see you there.

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