| An Open Letter to Ivan Carter Authored by Etan Thomas - October 28, 2007 - 9:12 pm
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After my interview, about five reporters called me personally to let me know that it was not their intention to disrespect me or my family, but they understood my point of view and how I could have felt that way. Even John Mitchell of the Washington Times, whose article I mentioned, left two voice messages before I had a chance to call him back.
He listened to my perspective, and heard why I took offense to the articles I saw. Not that he agreed with everything I said, but he tried to look at the situation from my perspective and understood. He didn’t take offense, he listened. Usually, if you offend someone and you have any respect for them as a human being, even if it wasn’t intentional, you will at the least acknowledge that you could have done things a little differently. You definitely wouldn’t say that you have a job to do and you stand by everything you said.
Many other reporters left messages on my voicemail saying something to the effect that if they offended me or my family, they apologize and that they genuinely hope and pray for my speedy recovery. I can truly appreciate that, accept it and move on. I have many more important things on my plate.
Unfortunately, one reporter, Ivan Carter of The Washington Post, took a completely different approach. Ivan immediately became defensive and began to not only justify his methods, but act as if I was way off base in my objections to his articles. Instead of being considerate of an extremely delicate situation, he shamefully resorted to smear tactics and insulting accusations in his blog. In his words:
1. Etan never actually read any of the articles written about him in this newspaper and rambled on about what was supposedly written without the relevant "facts" or 2. Etan read a bunch of things and mistakenly thought he'd read some of that stuff in the Post or 3. He flat out fabricated that stuff in that interview for some unknown reason.
I know this guy, or at least I though I knew him and I refuse to believe that his heart is this cold, so I am going to attempt to clarify this for him and anyone else who doesn’t understand why I would take issue with the coverage of this whole situation, then I’m going to leave it alone. I have too much to be thankful for and have spent too much time and energy on this already.
An Open Letter to Ivan Carter
First of all, Ivan, I wasn’t limiting my objections to your articles. I didn’t even mention your name, although I did mention The Washington Post, but that was not the point of my statements. If I somehow made you feel that I was speaking directly to you, that was not my intention. I was referencing about ten diff articles that I read about my situation (including yours) and yes they were unresearched and speculative. You didn’t question whether I will live, walk or breathe again, outright, you simply used examples.
Len Bias was used in another story, but yes you did mention Hank Gathers, Reggie Lewis and Jason Collier. Here, let me refresh your memory.
Wizards’ Thomas has Heart Ailment
Irregularity Could Threaten Career
By Ivan Carter
Wed. Oct 3, 2007
There was absolutely no evidence to support this. There had been nothing said by the doctors that even slightly opened the door to the possibility that my career could be threatened, but that didn’t stop you from putting it in your title. But you wonder why I said “speculative and unresearched?” You made conclusive statements without any verification or proof, and you call what I wrote garbage.
More from your article …
Collier, who had never had any major health problems previously diagnosed, died of a sudden heart rhythm disturbance caused by an abnormally enlarged heart…..
In 2005, then-Chicago Bulls center Eddy Curry was diagnosed as having susceptibility to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a potentially fatal heart condition that was linked to the deaths of Hank Gathers and Reggie Lewis.
Curry was eventually traded to the New York Knicks, where he is entering his third season with the team. Former Minnesota Timberwolves guard Fred Hoiberg was forced to retire after the 2005-06 season when it was discovered that he had an aneurysm in his aortic root, a condition that could have been fatal had Hoiberg continued to play.
Now in your blog you wrote…
-In the interview, he specifically mentions the Washington Post and says I carelessly tossed out scenarios comparing his health situation to those of "Len Bias, Jason Collier and Hank Gathers." That's interesting because none of the stories written in this paper included the names of Len Bias or Hank Gathers.
Now that’s obviously not true. But I don’t expect you to go back and re-track that statement. That would involve you admitting that you did something wrong.
At any rate, whatever point you were attempting to convey by citing those examples, were in my opinion poorly illustrated. Maybe, I should give you the benefit of the doubt? Maybe this was simply a matter of carelessness and not maliciousness. To the common reader, you are in fact linking all of the cases together otherwise why would you mention them? You definitely didn’t say that their situation was in no way similar to mine. Come on Ivan, you know that. You know the tricks of the trade. Don’t insult my intelligence. I know that reporters throw possibilities out there, but they don’t say with 100% certainty that it is going to happen; it just makes for a better story if there are drastic possibilities. However, this was not discussing breaking a record. This was with my life.
As far as the questioning if I will live, walk, breathe, much less play again, no in your particular article you didn’t say that word for word. Yours was much more inferred by bringing the examples of Fred Hoiberg, who never played again, or Collier or Gathers, or Lewis (may they rest in peace) who never breathed again. Then, to add insult to injury, you say in your blog…
I do find it interesting that in the interview, Etan takes issue with me mentioning Hoiberg and Turiaf but later, he states that he has contacted both of them to discuss his situation.
I refuse to believe that you could possibly miss my entire point that drastically. My perspective is not one that is farfetched. Now if you choose to ignore it because you don’t want to look bad, that’s one thing. But how can you profess to “actually like the dude,” but find such difficulty in understanding my point of view.
For three straight days October 11, 12 and 13th you felt the need to mention Jason Collier. Even after you got the quote from my surgeon, Dr. Schaff, you still had to keep throwing that in there. Of course you say it was for the sole purpose of showing that “the NBA has instituted a series of mandatory tests to detect heart issues.”
You probably look at this as me being too sensitive huh? You’re probably saying that you have a job to do and that’s all you were doing right? Well, if you look at it from my perspective, I have a right to be offended. You act as if I have a problem with you personally, and that couldn’t be further from the truth. But the way you covered this entire situation was not only cold but irresponsible. I don’t expect you to apologize because you don’t feel like you did anything wrong. You were just doing your job. Well, maybe that’s the problem.
I see that you got offended by my statement about the various articles, and therefore, wanted to protect yourself by painting the picture that I had no idea what I was talking about, but imagine how I felt after reading what I read. Better yet, imagine how my family felt. I should let you speak to my wife or my mother or my brother or my grandfather so you can hear from their mouths how they felt. Imagine opening the paper only to read cases where the person died, and those cases being linked to what your loved one has. Just try to imagine that before you blog about how way off base I was, and how I didn’t have my facts straight.
I did read all of yours and many other articles, And just for your information it’s that “putting it in context” that groups the cases together. So you don’t have to say this case is linked to that case, or specifically compare them to me, you simply group them together in “context.” It’s interesting to me that you don’t feel as if you did anything wrong. But like you said, you have a job to do, and you stand by everything that you wrote in those stories. Apparently, that’s regardless of how it made me or my family feel, or if it was actually true or not.
So in the end, even if you don’t feel the need to apologize, I am going to leave this alone. I’m not going to waste time and energy being upset with you or going back and forth. I look at my son’s face, and although it hurts me that I can’t pick him up right now, I am thankful. I look at my wife’s belly, our daughter will be here in December, and I can thank God for everything I have been blessed with. Those are the things that are important. I have already gotten past the hard part. Now I am focused on enjoying life with my family and friends, writing, reading (which is about all I can do right now) and concentrating on getting back to joining my team and playing the game I love.
Send Etan any comments to jmrosenth@yahoo.com.
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