The Internet is changing sports coverage. Columnists who seldom leave their couches hold forth. Athletes break their own "news" on their personal websites. Rumormongering is rampant. Don't like it? Get rowdy. Start your own blog

	Simmons, one of the Web's pioneering sports columnists, doesn't hit the Clippers' press box ... or their locker room. Robert Beck/SI

By Chris Ballard

This is a magazine story, so by definition it is finite, static and, if you drop a big gob of mayonnaise on it, smearable. It was subject to certain standards -- of accuracy, grammar and relevance, to name a few -- and its production required a fair amount of time, reporting and thought. Once it went to print, it could no longer be edited or updated.  ... To get immediate access to this complete story you must be a SPORTS ILLUSTRATED magazine subscriber. If you are not currently a subscriber, see below for a special offer.