Although he comes dangerously close to making an actual point a few times in his article, he deftly manages to avoid actually doing it.

It seems to boil down to "scientism is not cool" and maybe de Grasse is not really that cool after all.

That behavior is separate from science. Sports fans harbor a same type of attitude, as do a lot of things that are considered 'cult' or underground. The issue is separate from science.

Should be (2017). 2014 is the date of the anecdote at the beginning of the article.