Kevin Durant, Greg Howard, Ramona Shelburne and the answer for the media scrum

Marshawn Lynch hasn't reinvented the art of interviewing. The problem is people keep coming up to him asking questions. He's already said he's not talking. Move on to someone else. If he's not going to talk and when he does talk, it's jibberish, time to move on. Life's too short to waste on his assclownish behavior.

 

All of that sounds like an argument for covering games, though.

Right now, after reading these posts, I'm more convinced that athletes shouldn't be suspended for not answering questions. Media should attend games. And if people don't view "Talk about this season so far" as an inane question, then they need to be corrected.

 

I wouldn't exactly say Durant apologized, but he definitely patched things up with the media:

Kevin Durant of Oklahoma City Thunder expresses regret over his comments critical of media - ESPN

 

It's a more than fair response. Guys are allowed to have bad days and get pissy once in awhile.

 

1. Being asked about the job security of the coach comes from the media on one occasion alone; when the team in question is losing. so, when Durant is being questioned about his coach, of course it will be a touchy subject because his team is not fairing well, which gives the speculations implicit in the questioning of the coach's job security some legitimacy. taking such a stance on the coach's job security is a very limited view of the purpose of the coach in the NBA from the media's perspective. the coach is there to keep the ego's on the team united, not just to win games. remember, this is professonal sports we are talking about. wins at this level of competition are not as easy to come by as the media writes about them.

2. i completely agree with the quote saying it is "lazy and wholly unnecessary" for the reporters to be asking "Tell me about..." questions, and to be frank, it makes for undeniably awful television/media in general. the Dead spin article also hits on a very important point surrounding the media/player relationship. the authors admits that the athletes are generally mobbed by reporters after games or during media days, which is similar to a rat trapped in a cage being examined by scientists. the scientists are looking for evidence to their theories just as reporters are often fishing for specific verbage to use in an article to portray a player in a certain light. Marshawn Lynch realizes this and that's why he denies to comment to the media. it's not a hard-headed ignorance gripping his tongue, it's his respect for himself and the truths he knows to be self-evident.

3/4. the credentials should be limited if the present relationship between media/player remains the same. as Shelburne points out. " we gotta get back to treating the athletes we cover as people, not quote machines". The media scrum that ensues at press conferences would be more bearable if that relationship was changed as well.

5. Self policing only works if the possibility to perceive yourself as someone else would exists, which clearly, it does not. instead, self policing should incorporate more educated questions coming from the media during their interviews, not demanding the athletes to tell them about whatever.

 

Sure, everyone is allowed to have bad days and get pissy on occasion. But when was the last time, bad day or otherwise, you told a group of people that had helped build your pristine image that they don't know sh*t and that it's a chore talking to them?

I get that the questions about the Thunder are ridiculous and OKC's struggles have been largely due to injuries, so an outburst is somewhat understandable. But instead of explaining his thinking to reporters originally, or saying "my bad" and explaining why he was upset, he gets pissy again explaining why he was pissy. I don't think he gets it.

Maybe KD's right; maybe the media doesn't know sh*t. Because those covering him spent the last eight years writing about how approachable and humble he is. Turns out he's actually a guy who evidently believes that his image and everything else he has is his own doing and that the peons who cover him are just lucky that his employer makes him talk to them.

 

Yes, it's the media that has most to do with is image and everything else he's earned.

 

This is YF-level transfixion.

 

Never said the media had the most to do with his image. I said KD thinks it's entirely his own doing. To deny that the media played a role is simply inaccurate.

 

He'd be fine without you. He can get what he needs out just fine these days.

 

Hey, so I saw this the other day and am wondering where you guys stand on it. I'm a little paranoid. Do you think athletes might ever rebel to the point of a boycott?

 

I thought of this thread this morning watching Kevin Garnett interviewed after the T-wolves-Nuggets game last night. One foundational premise here, and other places, is that athletes never say anything interesting anyway.

Garnett was asked what he expected from his opponent last night, the Nuggets, after they fired their coach Brian Shaw. I expected him to duck the question like most athletes would, something like, "I can only talk about us."

Instead, and I'm paraphrasing to the best of my recollection: "I thought they would quit. They quit on Brian Shaw, so I figured they would continue to quit. That's what quitters do. So, yes, I was surprised to see some energy from them tonight."

That's good stuff.

In fairness, I also got frustrated yesterday reading some beat coverage for one of my teams which consisted of 20 inches of vanilla quotes about how they were going to really try harder starting now, and zero substantive information about why they've been playing poorly.