Zirin has earned his reputation as a provocateur by being, in the words of one former critic on The Starting Five (TSF) blog, “a white man who boldly stepped into the arena of sports and race and politics—and took the side of the underdog.” In the words of public intellectual, writer, philosopher and activist Cornel West, Zirin is “the finest, most important writer on sports and politics in America.” Zirin underscored his reputation for alternative perspectives by authoring eig