May vacates SheridanHoops.com freelance role after ESPN ultimatum
The tension between basketball reporter Chris Sheridan and his former employer, ESPN, seems to have escalated.
Sheridan left The Worldwide Leader in late summer and has since launched his own basketball-centric website, SheridanHoops.com. He brought in friend, and longtime Boston Globe staffer turned freelance scribe, Peter May—who also writes for the New York Times, Hoops Hype and ESPN Boston, according to The Big Lead—to pen a weekly column for the startup venture.
May’s first column on Sheridan’s site—an examination of Kevin McHale’s decision to return to coaching—went live on Sept. 20. Within an hour, according to Sheridan, May received an email from ESPN notifying him that if he wished to continue writing for SheridanHoops.com, he’d no longer be able to freelance for ESPN Boston.
Forced to choose between the two organizations, May opted to stay with ESPN, and informed Sheridan of his decision to resign on Sept. 22.
“They ordered him to make a choice, and I completely understand why he chose to stay with the larger of our two organizations,” Sheridan wrote on his website today. “A longtime colleague and friend, he was eager to help me out with the launch of my new site, and he will be missed.”
Sheridan has yet to completely delete May’s bio from SheridanHoops.com, instead opting to strikethrough the text.
