Former N.Y. Daily News sports writer Dick "Hoops" Weiss is now "chronicling in digital form the cutting-edge emergence of global basketball," according to Seth Davis of SI.com. Weiss was laid off from the paper in May, but he now is freelancing for multiple outlets, including BlueStar Media, a website that "tracks basketball around the world." BlueStar is just one of "several outlets that are employing Weiss these days -- including the Daily News, which has hired him on a freelance basis to cover big-ticket events." Weiss: "I feel like a survivor. A lot of people who get out of newspapers disappear, but I've been able to reinvent myself." Davis reported BlueStar Founder & Owner Mike Flynn "had been pushing BlueStar deeper into men's basketball" when Weiss called him in May to let him know he had been laid off, so Flynn "pitched Weiss on the idea of traveling the world to cover basketball for BlueStar." Weiss within a month was "whisking off to Prague to cover the FIBA Under 19 World Championship," and he "later traveled to the Philippines to cover the FIBA Under 18 men's and women's world three-on-three championships, with a stop in Singapore on the way home to write about another three-on-three event there." Weiss next May will "be at the Euroleague Basketball championships in Milan, Italy." Flynn "insists that Weiss is no charity case." Flynn: "This was a quid pro quo. I'm getting one of the most iconic writers in America, who brings us authenticity, and he's getting to have fun with no pressure doing the things he loves." Davis noted Weiss during the season also will "write columns for the American Athletic Conference's website as well as former USC coach George Raveling's site," in addition to "some studio work for Big Ten Network" (SI.com, 12/4).
