Former The Athletic columnist explains move

It was big West Coast news last month when Tim Kawakami announced that he was leaving The Athletic for The San Francisco Standard.

Kawakami, a longtime sports columnist, joined the online local news startup , along with David Lombardi, formerly The Athletic’s San Francisco 49ers reporter.

Kawakami is one the preeminent voices of San Francisco sports. He has covered teams in Northern California for two decades, including helping to launch The Athletic Bay Area in 2017, where he served as editor-in-chief. At The Standard, he’ll continue to deliver his observations about the local teams. He will also continue his podcast, The TK Show .

We recently caught up with Kawakami to discuss his new job and Bay Area sports.

Note: This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

Awful Announcing: Why make this move to The Standard?

Tim Kawakami: “I think it’s a lot like when I left the Mercury News for The Athletic Bay Area a little over seven years ago. My friends were like ‘Oh my god, you’re always changing jobs.’ I’m doing the same job. I just want to go to the best place for it. The Athletic, when it started, it was energizing. It was local. It was San Francisco. It was exactly what I wanted to do. That changed. The company changed. It was changing even before the New York Times purchased it. It was changing to a national focus. I’m not disputing their right to do that. It’s what companies do. I love local news. I believe in local sports writing. I think that’s how you build companies.”

Could you take us through the process?

“I talked to The Standard years ago and kept paying attention. They’re doing smart stuff. Michael Moritz, the man behind it, is a smart guy—a journalist who became a venture capitalist billionaire They contacted me again recently. Griffin Gaffney the CEO, said we want to do sports in the same smart way that they’re doing San Francisco politics, education, and AI. At some point, you talk long enough and they keep saying the things you want to hear, you have to take it. That’s basically what happened over a three or four-month period.”

How will your new job be different from your old one?

“I’m not managing. I’m going to be a sports columnist. The last column I wrote for The Athletic wasn’t a goodbye column. It was a 49ers analysis. The first column I wrote for The Standard was a 49ers analysis. No intro, or outro. No grand salute. No, no, no. Let me just do my thing. It just felt right. It’s a local operation. It’s only going to be a local operation. It’s connected to the community. It wants to do sports in the Bay Area like we did at The Athletic Bay Area.”

Did you consider doing a ‘Why I joined The Standard’ column?

“The Athletic has been famous for these ‘ Why I joined The Athletic ‘ pieces. Do you know why everyone does them? Because they make money. If The Standard was set up in its paywall situation, which is coming soon, (I might have). This is one of the reasons they’re getting into sports. They’ve been clear about this. They’re going to go to, I think it’s a metered paywall. I don’t have all the details. If that was happening and there was a way that this would be valuable to the company for me to do, ‘Here is why I joined The Standard’ in a different phrasing, I think I might have done something like that. Just because we know those do well. Sometimes a mission statement isn’t bad. There are legendary stories from The Athletic that still are making money.”

What was it like being the editor-in-chief of The Athletic Bay Area?

“I ran The Athletic Bay Area for the first three years until they changed everything when they got rid of local management entirely. I was not thrilled when that happened. I think everybody in the company knows that. I didn’t like people from New York dictating what they thought the coverage should be for every sport. I did that once. It was incredible. I will never forget that time of managing every bit, reading every word that hit the site, going through all the hirings. And I was writing my columns and doing my podcast. I just can never do that again.”

Let’s talk sports. What are your thoughts on the struggling 49ers?

“There have been personnel changes and salary-cap issues. You had the contract thing with Brandon Aiyuk. That was weird for everybody in there. But we’ve seen them struggle. They were 2-4 in 2021. They were 3-4 in 2022 and won ten straight to finish the regular season. They’ve done this before. There’s no guarantee they’ll do it again. They are older. We don’t know what’s going on (Christian) McCaffrey. I don’t chalk this all up to his absence, although that is certainly a part of it. They went 1 for 6 in the red zone scoring touchdowns against the Cardinals. If they had McCaffrey, they win that game. Injuries happen. McCaffrey’s missed time before. I think the defense feels different than previous ones. Something has been a little off with this team from the get-go.”

What is Kyle Shanahan like to deal with on a media basis?

“I get along with him but I tend to get along with headstrong guys. I got along with (Jim) Harbaugh and Jerry West. Kyle can be abrasive. He can be sarcastic. That’s kind of who he is, but I don’t mind that. I don’t mind him blowing off a question of mine if the moment isn’t right for it as long as he answers it eventually. He usually does. He can be very open if you ask the question in a (certain) way. He can be tough on some other things. He doesn’t like being too transparent but he usually explains what’s going on. He is very direct. I get him on my podcast once a year. I appreciate that.”

Is the Warriors’ dynasty over?

“It might have been over a little while ago. We’ll see. But every time I’m ready to get anywhere near that, I see Steph Curry do something like we saw in the Olympics. If you’ve got Steph Curry and you have a decent roster around him, (you have a chance). The ’22 team was not loaded. That’s not that long ago. The open secret is that they’re probably better without Klay (Thompson). They’ll never be able to replace who he is. Even last year, he could still shoot the ball, but he was not what they needed. He couldn’t defend the way he used to defend. Not that after all those injuries.”

What do you think of Buster Posey as the Giants president?

“It’s a flyer on his personality. It’s a flyer on his character. If you’ve been around the Giants, you kind of knew this was coming at some point. He retires and goes to Georgia, his hometown, but then comes back here before this season. That raised people’s eyebrows. Not that he was coming back for this job. But his family wanted to be here. He’s close to (Giants) chairman Greg Johnson. They play golf together. There were all these rumblings that when the next president is named, whenever it is, it’s going to be Buster Posey. I didn’t think it was going to be this quick. I don’t think Buster thought it was going to be this quick.”

How do you feel about the end of the Oakland Athletics in Oakland?

“It’s sad. I think the John Fisher part of this, which I’ve been very clear about, is just a litany of failures. It’s not just in Oakland. He tried to go to San Jose. That might have been a good spot for them. I think everyone acknowledges this but they did not have the right to go there. You can blame the Giants for blocking them, but they have the right to say no. I knew it. Everybody I talked to who understood the situation knew it. Why did the A’s not know this? They burned five important years thinking they could go to San Jose. That’s the history of the John Fisher ownership. They just hope for things. They announce things and never come through because John Fisher does not have the wherewithal, metaphorically or financially, to get these things done. We’ll see what happens in Las Vegas.”

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