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| Windhorst took his talents to ESPN in 2010 |
After reading a handful of Brian Windhorst’s columns, it is
very evident who his target audience is. Having started his career writing
about the Cleveland Cavaliers and moving to ESPN following LeBron James’
departure to Miami, Windhorst focuses the majority of his columns on the team
he is covering. While he credits James for influencing his decision to join
ESPN, Windhorst does not solely write columns about LeBron James. As a writer
for ESPN’s “Heat Index,” Windhorst targets Miami Heat fans from all over the
world with his columns.
Windhorst, unlike many other ESPN columnists, tends to write
without utilizing many statistics that could help convey his message. For
example, in a recent article by Tom Haberstroh in which he names his top 5
candidates for MVP, Haberstroh gives the reader the ability to more greatly
appreciate LeBron James’ magnificent season by analyzing and comparing James’
56.2 percent shooting to other NBA superstars. While Haberstroh gives the
reader perspective of James’ greatness by claiming that Kobe Bryant would need
to make his next 349 field goal attempts to shoot 56.2 percent, Windhorst
utilizes quotes more frequently and effectively. In Windhorst’s column about
the Heat needing to play bigger, Windhorst quotes Coach Erik Spolestra and
Dwyane Wade multiple times in addition to Udonis Haslem. Often, these quotes
are used to transition between thoughts. For example, after Windhorst quotes
Haslem talking about the team’s lack of size, he transitions to end the article
by pointing out LeBron James’ box-score-stuffing performance.
Furthermore, Windhorst often writes his columns primarily
based off of one game. Windhorst’s column about the Heat needing to play bigger
focuses on a regular season game against Philadelphia while his column about
the Heat being better with Wade focused on Wade’s return to action against the
New York Knicks. By reading Windhorst’s columns, one can follow the Miami Heat
at a deeper level than simply reading a game story and looking at the box
score. Even though Windhorst does not venture into the subject matter too
deeply, readers of his columns can keep up with key themes of the Heat’s
season, such as a lack of size and success without one of the NBA’s most
talented players.
As an avid Miami Heat fan, I wish that Windhorst went more in
depth with his columns despite that the goal of his columns is to have wide
appeal. For example, in his article about the Heat’s need to play bigger,
Windhorst could have examined the Heat’s problem deeper by analyzing a specific
player that worsens the Heat’s ability to rebound when he is on the court. If a
specific player cannot be made into a scapegoat, Windhorst could broaden his
analysis to observe the Heat in different game situations to try to find the
main reason behind Miami’s problem besides their personnel. If Windhorst could
successfully incorporate more statistics into his article without compromising
his column’s readability to his target audience, Windhorst would give his opinions
more credibility and potentially appeal to more avid basketball readers.
Although an increased use of statistics would give Windhorst
more credibility, claiming that Windhorst is not a credible columnist would be naïve
and wrong. One tactic Windhorst utilized in his column supporting Pat Riley for
Executive of the Year was admitting his own faults. In the column, Windhorst
evaluates and praises Riley’s shrewd free agent signings over the past two
summers, such as Ray Allen, Chris Andersen, and Shane Battier. As Windhorst
evaluates the Battier signing, calling Battier a “vital cog in the Heat’s
small-ball lineup,” he admits that he wrongly criticized Riley’s signing of
Battier when the consensus was that Miami needed to spend their limited money
on a center.
Overall, I find Brian Windhorst to be a very interesting
writer, although that is largely influenced by him covering my favorite sports
team. Although Windhorst columns are not composed with the most enthusiastic
basketball fans in mind, his use of quotes and ability to tell a story has a
wide appeal to Miami Heat fans all over the world.
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