We sports bloggers are a deplorable lot, laying on couches in our ragged clothes, staring into our televisions, and pulling bong hits from plastic honey bears before typing up some half, no fully, baked post.

Just ask Sam Smith, for he is not blogger, as he so proudly declares in his latest mail bag.

"I am not a blogger! OK, it's time to explain this. I have expressed my opinion about blogging before and I'm told got considerable heat about it on the blogosphere. Though since I believe that is beyond Uranus, I had no idea where to find it."

While I have always enjoyed reading his columns for NBA league news and rumors, aging dinosaur journalists like Smith are increasingly belittling the bloggers of the world.

Some of it might come down to ego. Newspaper sportswriters typically have earned degrees in journalism and have invested a career's worth of time and energy for their voice, their thoughts, to be communicated to the world in print. The internet gives everyone a voice now, so anyone with any idea or insight on sports can be heard. There's also the complete freedom to write anything without fear of being fired. For the traditional sportswriter, it must be a difficult adjustment to this reality.

Ironically, Smith's columns have become more outspoken or blog-like in recent years. So he can condescend all he wants, but the influence of sports blogs is clear.