The goal of the TrueHoop network, according to Abbot, is "to find and foster excellence in online basketball writing." I'm all for that, even if I wasn't invited to the party.
Here's Abbot explaining how the network, which is basically an aggregated basketball blog, is going to work:
The good folks over at Knickerblogger get the honor of covering the team for what I can only assume will be a much wider audience. I trust they'll continue to run their fantastic "7 Seconds or Mess" webisodes, which I steal from, both on the blog and in my personal life, all the time.Put those talented new voices together with the stuff every sports fan wants to know about their team day in and day out, and I believe you have something that will prove to be must-read. To savvy fans in many markets, those kinds of blogs are already must-read. And they have tremendous promise to get even better over the following years.
[...] The nuts and bolts of the TrueHoop Network are quite simple. In a nutshell: Bloggers maintain their own sites, which they run as they see fit (even with their own ads they sell, if they'd like). They agree to carry some ESPN stuff on their blogs (like that video player), and to generally be responsible. And ESPN.com promotes the blogs' work and content.