{"id":634949,"date":"2026-03-02T18:51:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T18:51:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/634949\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T18:51:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T18:51:17","slug":"timberwolves-podcaster-rejects-espn-content-request","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/634949\/","title":{"rendered":"Timberwolves podcaster rejects ESPN content request"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dane Moore covers the Minnesota Timberwolves for his own podcast operation, earns his own locker room access, and apparently keeps having the same conversation with ESPN\u2019s assignment desk about it.<\/p>\n

The exchange started innocuously enough. Moore had posted a clip of Anthony Edwards<\/a> discussing how he\u2019s learned to embrace being double-teamed \u2014 a meaningful evolution from where Edwards was roughly 14 months ago, when Moore documented him venting postgame about his frustration with teams taking the ball out of his hands.<\/p>\n

Denver was sending a second defender at Anthony Edwards when he crossed court in today\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

Asked Ant, who used to be really frustrated by that look, about playing through that type of aggressive coverage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not mad at all because, at the end of the day, my 4 is better\u2026 https:\/\/t.co\/lF58jWRhFL<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/YUgr93fu53<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Dane Moore (@DaneMooreNBA) March 1, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

The ESPN Assignment Desk account then replied publicly on X, as if the whole thing were a formality: \u201cHello, Dane! Please see your DMs for a message from us!\u201d<\/p>\n

Hello, Dane! Please see your DMs for a message from us!<\/p>\n

\u2014 ESPNAssignmentDesk (@ESPNAssignDesk) March 2, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

It was not, apparently, a formality. Moore had been through this before. Multiple times, by his account.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou do not have permission to use it,\u201d Moore replied, \u201cas I\u2019ve told you numerous times in DMs. Shouldn\u2019t have laid off all those reporters if you wanted locker room content.\u201d<\/p>\n

You do not have permission to use it \u2014 as I\u2019ve told you numerous times in DMs. Shouldn\u2019t have laid off all those reporters if you wanted locker room content.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Dane Moore (@DaneMooreNBA) March 2, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

To be clear, ESPN asked. That\u2019s the right thing to do. But the fact that they\u2019re asking an independent Timberwolves podcast host for postgame player access content \u2014 and have apparently had to ask him multiple times \u2014 speaks to a gap that ESPN created itself. The network has gone through multiple rounds of layoffs over the last several years, and with each one, the beat coverage that used to exist in every NBA city has gotten thinner.<\/p>\n

ESPN still has NBA reporters. Jamal Collier covers the Timberwolves among six Midwest teams out of Chicago, and the network employs a deep stable of writers and insiders across the league. Tim MacMahon covers the Western Conference out of Dallas. Dave McMenamin primarily covers the Los Angeles Lakers. Ramona Shelburne has spent years cultivating sources across the league. Anthony Slater and Kendra Andrews cover the Warriors. Tim Bontemps handles the Eastern Conference. Marc Spears, Ohm Youngmisuk, Vincent Goodwill, and others fill out a roster that, on paper, looks comprehensive. But that\u2019s still a relatively small group of reporters and senior writers spread across 30 teams and 30 cities, and the math doesn\u2019t work the way it used to.<\/p>\n

Collier can\u2019t be in every locker room in the Midwest every night, being that he\u2019s one person covering six teams. The beat-level presence that Moore has developed with the Timberwolves, specifically the kind that leads Anthony Edwards to sit down postgame to talk honestly about how his approach to the game has had to change, comes from years of consistent access in one building.<\/p>\n

ESPN doesn\u2019t seem to have that in Minneapolis. That\u2019s why the assignment desk is in Moore\u2019s DMs, and that\u2019s why Moore\u2019s answer keeps being no.<\/p>\n

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