NBA author Yaron Weitzman says the Los Angeles Lakers tried to cease his upcoming e book from ever seeing the sunshine of day.
Weitzman, identified for his earlier work Tanking to the High concerning the Philadelphia 76ers, not too long ago introduced his new launch, A Hollywood Ending: The Goals and Drama of the LeBron Lakers.
The e book, which explores the internal workings of the franchise throughout the LeBron James period and past, shortly sparked controversy when the creator claimed that the Lakers “threatened to sue me to forestall you from studying this e book.”
Weitzman defined on social media that he started the mission round January 2023, conducting interviews and fact-checking with a number of folks inside the group, together with group proprietor Jeanie Buss. He revealed that tensions escalated after he despatched Buss and others elements of the manuscript for verification.
“The way in which it really works once you work on a mission like that is once you’re accomplished, you ship the principals some fact-checking,” Weitzman mentioned. “Not constructive stuff, simply the stuff they may wanna reply to.
“I did that for the Lakers, and as a substitute of getting on the telephone with me, they determined to rent a well-known defamation lawyer named Marty Singer to deal with their dealings with me, and he ultimately despatched me a really strongly written letter.”
Weitzman shared elements of that letter, which accused his reporting of being “filled with thinly-veiled misogynistic smears, revealing a chauvinism and damaging bias that undermines the reliability of my sources.”
Singer ended the letter with a warning: “I wish to be extremely clear with you. There are lots of occasions when people threaten to sue with neither the fame to face as much as scrutiny nor the sources to pursue a powerful libel declare. Please have little question neither of those points apply right here.”
Regardless of the threats, Weitzman says he stands by his reporting. “I completely didn’t defame Buss or the Lakers,” he insists.
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