Bay Area Sports Guy – Matt Steinmetz will no longer serve as CSN Bay Area’s Warriors Insider

Effective on Wednesday, Matt Steinmetz will leave his position as Warriors Insider on Comcast SportsNet Bay Area. Steinmetz has been a fixture on CSN Bay Area’s television coverage of the Warriors, and has been the only person to fill the “Insider” role covering the Golden State beat since the network rebranded back in 2008.

While Steinmetz will still be seen on a limited number of pre- and post-game shows and continue to write for the website, he’ll serve as a freelancer and not as a full-time employee.

Steinmetz, who recently became a full-time radio talk show host for 95.7 FM “The Game,” is happy with the move.

“I’ve been covering in one way or another this team for coming up on 20 years and need a change,” Steinmetz wrote in an email. “And this job should be done by someone young and hungry who is totally into it.”

Steinmetz has covered the Warriors for the Contra Costa Times, Examiner.com and AOL Fanhouse. He became CSNBA’s Warriors Insider in December of 2009.

CSN Bay Area will look to find a new Warriors Insider to replace Steinmetz, although there’s no word on who they might choose. Ric Bucher was recently brought on as an “NBA Insider,” but he’ll remain in that role for the foreseeable future. Jimmy Spencer wrote about the Warriors’ recent win over the Wizards.

Only two beat writers currently travel with the Golden State Warriors on a regular basis: Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle and BANG’s Marcus Thompson II. With the team surging to a surprising 14-7 record and interest starting to pick up, CSNBA would probably like to install a full-time Warriors Insider by the time the San Francisco 49ers’ season ends. With the NHL currently in limbo, the Warriors could be the only major professional franchise in the area playing games that matter through March.

15 comments

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Matt T

We won't miss his sour face or his apathy. A key part of any role in life is to give it your all until you quit and unfortunately Matt will be remembered for quiting long before he got a new role. You dont have to be 'young and hungry' to function in a job. It's sad that he thinks you have to be. A telling measure of success was asking how much of an 'insider' was he anyway after 20 years. Not quite a David Aldridge.

Dart

Rusty is cool with me. He started from the bottom and all he does is cover NBA basketball.

DLK

Will miss Steinmetz a lot. He knows the game, knows the personnel, knows the personalities. His opinions are invariably well thought out, insightful. Wish it was St. Jean who was moving on instead. Nice guy, but he butchers the language and uses the "saint-istrator" poorly, in my view.

Beaver

Dump Fitz and I'm in.

Diego

Absolutely. If you attend a fomarl dance and send in your picture, that would be okay too. Anyone can participate by donating a dress to a charity as well. (See official rules for details). Good luck!

Also got to factor in that Matt tends to tell it like it is, rather than be a homer; maybe they're looking for someone more of a homer...which would suck. I always appreciated Matt's insight. Bucher is good, but he's got the same radio gig as Matt too, so I don't see him becoming their insider.

When Steinmetz said "young and hungry", that was code for cheap labor. I just want someone that knows the stuff and not there to 'look good'.

Hurricane

Ric Bucher>>>>>>> Matt Steinmetz

They just want a cheapper insider, that's all

Otis Byrd III

LOL. Yeah, that's probably what it came down to, even though it's interesting how Steinmetz is ok with not being the Warriors Insider anymore. Other people probably would've fought to keep the job, or be pissed that they didn't have the job anymore. He is right that a younger and more hungry person should do that job. We all agree that sometimes he does lack energy, and on the telecasts sometimes, he did seem like he would rather be doing something else, kind of like he was bored doing this. It's kind of surprising that he's giving up this job, now that the Warriors are good again, at least for right now. This could be understandable in previous seasons, when the Warriors were really bad/a middling or ok team (with the exception of the We Believe year and the season after that) but hopefully, the Warriors can continue this run of good basketball they are playing now. It's surprising he's leaving this job now, with the Warriors playing the way they currently are. I guess Steinmetz is happy with his 95.7 gig and will focus more on that, while having more of a smaller role on CSN Bay Area.

I guess this move kind of makes sense, especially since Steinmetz has the 95.7 gig, and CSN Bay Area brought in Bucher to basically do what Steinmetz does/did, even though he's technically their "NBA insider" instead of their "Warriors insider". I don't see why they just can't have Bucher be both the NBA Insider and Warriors insider. Wouldn't that make more sense? I'll miss seeing Steinmetz on Warriors telecasts, even though it was looking like they were fazing him out when Bucher was brought in. John Henry Smith was kind of fazed out too. That's good that Steinmetz will still have a role on CSN Bay Area, however, even though he won't be the Warriors insider anymore.

Jeff

I disagree. I have only seen Kate as on screen talent. They need to use someone who has been on the beat of a team before. For example, Geoff Lepper, he has been around the Dubs for awhile and knows the team.

Chris

I nominate Kate Longworth. She's good, attractive and already co-covers both the other Oakland teams.

Stan

oop. I meant Matt Maiocco has the fudge ugly spot. He feels better now.

Lets face it. ,Matt wont win a beauty contest. And Comcast has this thing for its "beat writer" equivalent. Matt,has the last slot for the non beautiful. Now its Mindy and Casey and Kristy and Brandy..well,you get the idea. A man cant look like a man on TV anymore gosh darn it.