Plagiarism at ESPN

Milton Kent talked about the Will Selva /ESPN plagiarism incident concerning discussion of an upcoming Lakers/Spurs NBA game:

Nearly word for word, Selva used the lead of a column written by Kevin Ding of the Orange County Register to advance the game. Think not? Here are the first three sentences of Ding's piece:

Christmas isn't over yet, Lakers fans. The big game, it turns out, will be the game after the supposed Game of the Year. In San Antonio on Tuesday night, the Lakers will be out to give themselves and their fans the much-needed gift of hope.

Here's a transcript of Selva's lead to the highlights:

Christmas isn't over yet, Lakers fans. The big game, it turns out, is the game after the supposed Game of the Year. In San Antonio on Tuesday night, the Lakers were out to give themselves and their fans the much needed gift of hope.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's only a few lines of text, but one gets the idea it was copied, rather than independently created.

And, the Spurs did beat the Lakers 97-82 on Tuesday, 28 Dec 2010.