Movember - Another idiot posts a thread.
As Isaac and so many other people point out - WITHOUT Boty there would be no or minimal basketball news in the print media. I don't believe that Boty even reads this website so your comment will probably not be seen by him. I seem to recall reading articles where Boty HAS criticised Phil and the team in general. The reasons for losing a player or not recruiting another player are often confidential and not open to comment from the club. Before you start criticising you should find out the facts - possibly talk to Boty - he is always available to talk to people at games (and is actually a rather friendly person). Give it a go before you open your mouth or post threads on a website.

1. Boti occasionally reads this site.

2. I trade emails with him every now and then and always find his opinion interesting in print or by email. That said, just because he's the primary media in Adelaide, doesn't mean someone can't offer their criticism. You're free to disagree with it, but that argument about him doing a lot for the 36ers in terms of publicity is largely irrelevant. His job is to sell papers and report on what is of interest to the public, not fill the stands at the Dome (though, being a fan of the game, I think he helps do that regardless).

I've swapped emails with Boti a couple of times and met him once and, yes, he does seem like a reasonable bloke.

Full credit to him as well for providing good basketball coverage where otherwise there might be none.

That doesn't take away from the fact that he goes easy on Phil where anyone else, in the same situation, would have been slammed.

Maybe its about time someone else stepped up to the plate and showed how to do his job then? if so many people want to talk about how bad he does, maybe someone should try to do better

I remember a saying that goes something like "don't bite the hand that feeds you".

Obviously Phil doesn't pay Boti to write his stuff in the Advertiser, but if Boti ripped him all the times he probably deserved to be ripped, then I don't think Boti would get much love from Phil in the form of quotes, inside info etc. Then his stories etc wouldn't have as much juice to them

Sometimes you have to sit on the fence, especially considering we're a one team town, although, as previously mentioned, Boti has got stuck into Phil many times before, especially late last season, as well as into the team overall, Farley etc.

Yeah....I wonder why Boti got into Farley?!?!??!?!

Boti has been there for so long that no new sports journo is going to try and step in. One day Boti will retire and believe it or not, someone will replace him.

Maybe not at The Advertiser but anyone could start writing on here - match report, opinion piece, weekly league recap. He might get info re the 36ers first, but he has no monopoly on NBL opinion. I'd happily read more about the league from Boti and anyone else. More the better I think.

Good idea. Being a 'one paper town' with one basketball reporter and hoops sa getting a bit of coverage. I saw Dr.Bs name up in lights the other day,on Fox sport and Ch,10.

Boti does read this site. If you talk to him he will deny it; however he is always "up" with the very latest topics that are posted, and is quick to confirm or deny many threads.

Of course he reads this site.Lets face it,there is 200 times more info on the net than in any paper.

i always thought boti posted under the name Isaac - I could be wrong though ;) and i noticed he stole the scott ninnis being assistant to sacked coaches last week - we read that here - now where does boti get much of his stories.

To be fair, a lot of jokes are fairly obvious. Doesn't take a genius, for example, to notice the Dragons going 0-6 like the side last year, or Ninnis' string of misfortune, etc. From memory, where he's drawn less obvious inspiration from a post here or a message from a reader, he's provided credit for that.

I think he also gets a general 'mood' of the public via the posts on here. Have definitely seen some similarities between what is posted and what he writes. Good journalism I think to obtain information from as many sources as possible. Needs to be more forthright when it comes to Smyth and his coaching though. Definitely protects him.

Does that mena he got the Marino nepitism from his own experience of having either himself or his wife coaching one of his kids for the last 8 years. The only difference I see is that rather than buy a club, he had to move a club!

What's that got to do with the topic? He didn't go all that easy on Marino.

No he didn't.

But he has been doing the exact same thing for the last 6 years. Surely people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

Just goes to show that Boti doesn't write what is factual. But rather what creates the best result for him.

Same as Southern now have had a bunch of articles regarding their players. Funny that it happened after he moved clubs so that he could show nepotism to his kids.

He doesn't write about what is factual. He always has an alteria motive.

alteria ? are you saying his motives were born in africa .
What uniden do you live in ?

What stories about Southern? He writes mostly about the NBL and WNBL while possibly giving the benefit of the doubt to coaches over clubs.

This topic is about Boti's reporting on Smyth, not your chance to drag your petty junior basketball gripes into things.

BTW, for next time (teach a man to fish and all that): "ulterior".

Didn't Boti used to be on the pay roll at the sixers?

To some extent, I think so. Not sure of the details though.