@@SleepyGrapesAs great as Luka is, Celtics abused his, at best, mediocre defense. And I can't call his takes as hit pieces, he stressed to no end that these are the final steps for Luka to get those MVP's and rings. True, TheWindMan...Horse left best Luka taka for his podcast with Lowe, not live TV that I remember. An example on how devoid of meaning this current format is.
It happens when you propagate. Horrible takes in favor of drama, and the people have become tired of the skip bayless archetype, yet they continue to promote it to get views.
Orlando and Paolo Banchero is a perfect example of everything wrong with NBA media now. A talented and athletic wing going 1st in the draft and getting no press or national TV games really tells you the NBA media has given up on small markets
For real man was dropping somewhere around 20 a game his rookie year and won roty and I heard nothing then I watched him play and being 22 with some of the smoothest offense I’ve seen in a while and not being talked about at all is insane.
During the 2021 Bucks/Suns Finals, I'll never forgive Stephen A Smith for spending (what felt like) half his airtime bitching about how he didn't want to go or be in Milwaukee. That was a great series for both franchises.
He’s too rich. Any normal fan can’t even sniff the inside of the arena for the finals, but he gets PAID to go to what could be a once in a lifetime championship run for these franchises, and he just sits there and shits on the city. Its disrespectful and lacking perspective. He is not of the people
Since skip sports in general have taken the biggest drop ever. Every show is a debate show. No one is talking sports it’s just Brady cowboys LeBron KD hate Lamar hate kyrie hate. This they fault man nobody wanna hear his heavy ahh talk tbh
Even when it’s positive, it’s unsubstantial. NBA media right now is spinning their wheels trying to prop up the NBA cup, a joke of a ratings gimmick, but they have nothing to say about it other than platitudes.
@ nba cub gets more work than the finals smh. Nobody talks ball. Last time I seen anything close was Kobe’s detailed. Everything is a list or comparison contest. The league sucks and that’s why people are mad. This isn’t fun at all.
"Beat reporters are so important and I can't stress that enough" As an avid cricket fan who complains about how little beat reporting there is in that sport truer words have never been spoken
Cricket's decline has been so sad to see, it used to be very popular here in the Bahamas and then it vanished because there was no interest or hype around it. Baseball is now bigger than it
@@ZaKRo-bx7lp the major problem is the way international cricket is structured. England, India and Australia get all the money and resources while smaller countries suffer. I used to love watching the West Indies play, they were a powerhouse team and Brian Lara was incredible I'm seeing baseball growing rapidly here in Australia too, and hopefully it gets big enough to scare the ICC in to changing
I legitimately think there's a conspiracy against the Kings at this point. De'Aaron Fox just had 109 points in back to back games over the weekend and the sum total of the national attention he received was a few tweets and like ninety seconds on NBA Today.
As a Raptors fan, it doesn't get any better. If you need examples of this, see nobody caring when DeRozen began his last season in Toronto putting up numbers identical to MJ's first MVP season, Scottie Barnes not being seen as a star despite the analytics saying he's top 20 in the NBA and with him being the most versatile defender in the NBA as a rookie, OG being seen as a top 3 defender in the NBA now that he's on the Knicks (because players magically become better basketball players when they cross the border right?), literally anything Chris Broussard says, especially him saying Toronto is "not America enough for African Americans to enjoy playing there" (Toronto is globally recognised as arguably the most diverse city in the world, and not that it matters because it doesn't, but Toronto's population is made up of more African Americans than even LA), or nobody complaining about the incredibly biased officiating during the 2016 ECF (LeBron getting slapped by his own teammate leading to 2 different Raptors getting techs, Biyombo getting called for a goaltend for a shot he blocked while the ball was still in LeBron's hand)... so yeah it isn't going to get any better, but hopefully it leads to Sactown getting a chip like it did for Toronto
I think there's more money hyping up the big market teams, my team is 15-0 and hardly anyone's talking about them or treating them like a real contender lol
Honestly, First Take and Undisputed definitely were the shows that got me REALLY into sports about 4 years ago because I thought the rants about the Cowboys and LeBron and Aaron Rodgers were funny. I slowly grew out of that phase and started caring more about the actual sport. I'd tune in to these shows looking to see what they'd talk about...but it was just the same 3 rants from Skip and SAS every video... eventually made a Twitter account, followed a bunch of local/team reporters and personalities and it was MILES better than any coverage I got from ESPN. Content with actual substance. It's always great to see your insight into this, dude!
I don't mean this in a disrespectful way, but most people do not take the route you took, a lot start out the way you start though. I'm not even saying oh they are so dumb and don't get smart, no it's more like they either loose interest and move on or they stay watching the entertainment slop they get fed
I can't let fans off the hook on this one. Because for every 1 fan that wants all the things you're talking about from NBA media coverage, there are 10 others who don't care about that stuff at all, and live for the narratives and the drama. If it sounds like I'm putting this on "the casuals", it's because I am. And all they can do is what gets the most eyes on their product. Plus, Ring Culture. I think if Ring Culture didn't become the thing that it is, NBA media coverage would be more balanced. But as soon as NBA shows became "Rings, rings, rings. How many rings?" Coverage of teams would be a lot more balanced. And guys wouldn't be looking to move to form super teams as much or move to bigger markets as much. All ESPN is doing is giving the biggest chunk of their audience exactly what they want in NBA coverage. Because like KD said, a lot of people who watch the NBA don't actually like the game of basketball very much. And yes. FOLLOW YOUR LOCAL BEAT WRITERS. FOLLOW YOUR LOCAL BEAT WRITERS.
I definitely agree with ring culture. I remember seeing a video of Chris Paul teaching kids at a basketball camp how to navigate a screen and the number of guys saying "Why are they listening to him, how many rings has he won?" It's the most brain dead type of arguing or another where I can't remember which player said it but he said his favorite player growing up to watch was Carmelo Anthony and here came the "How many rings did he win?" I grew up watching Dominique Wilkins, Shawn Kemp, Larry Johnson, Larry Nance, Chris Webber, and while I wanted them to win a ring I didn't care about it that much because I grew to love the game because of how they played it and how much fun it was to watch them play. People get mad at players for not valuing the regular season but as you state, so many fans devalue it as well because all they care about are "rings" but they don't want to see their own hypocrisy. I know Devin Booker hasn't won a ring, it's November and he can't win a ring in November, let me just enjoy a great game he just had or any other player had. Too many fans and media have forgotten how to actually just enjoy the game.
your critiques are spot on i always blame the fans for the way the game turned out. Even I played in my early teens but getting outta that Jordan Lebron debate and kinda just watching the game and breaking it down has made the sport more enjoyable. and yes ring culture ruined the sport to the point we can’t appreciate guys like harden Embiid etc because they haven’t won although they are great players.
Local writers are so important. I follow my local hockey beat writers, and the fact that they actually care about the team really shows in the coverage, while the national coverage very much seems phoned in.
Cleveland is getting that disrespect the suns did in that Nash era when they started really good. Watch one game and you can easily see how elite of a team they are.
@@pstratos7even Atlanta was like a decade ago but still we don’t need the news a bout lakers all year and im a LBJ fan. Ain’t no party like a diddy party
@@LatestDecember8907 Why do people think bringing up the Hawks is some kind of shade? They were the number 1 seed and got to the conference finals. Then they had to face peak Lebron and peak Kyrie surrounded by quality shooters. Also, Donovan and Darius are playing better than any Hawks player did that year. Never mind the Hawks still got more media love and attention that year than the Cavs are getting this year while never having a great streak. That’s primarily because Lebron haters were rooting for them.
I’ve always felt that NBA media is by far the worst in sports. Media in other sports/leagues definitely deserves criticism in places, but no other league’s media will ignore new and great stories just to talk about stuff they have discussed ad nauseam more than NBA media. It’s nice to know this is something that at least one person within that field realizes too. Perhaps realizing the problem is the first step to fixing it, but I’m not confident tbh. As long as guys like Stephen A Smith and Nick Wright readily admit to not caring about smaller markets, then I don’t see it changing. I hope it does tho. Always love hearing you discuss these things Kofie.
It just boils down to the people covering the sports especially NBA. You can tell who watches the games and who doesn’t. Me being a Arizona sports fan the only coverage we get on a national level is twitter narratives and “vibes” and not actually how good our teams are
The thing with First Take nowadays is that you don't even get those moments of someone being funny, it's just 12-16 mins segments of hot takes being fired off without any of the bits of entertainment we used to get pre-Covid
Its bad actually cus Toronto is statistically a top 5 market. They should have 10 games at least. They have gone under the radar these past few years and pivoted from a retool to a rebuild to tanking. There are many fans in America and Internationally that are not from an NBA city that support the Raptors, we're left with nothing.
Being a NY sports fan I didn’t realize how spoiled we are with our dedicated sports media outlets. From local news stations to, WFAN, SNY, MSG and YES we never have to rely on ESPN for media coverage
I agree with Windhorst 100%. Look at how nfl media covers their sport vs nba media. nba media including inside the nba just bitches about the game 24/7, which leads to fans also bitching 24/7. Nfl media builds up and hypes their sport. Nba media tears it down.
Tom Brady shit on the qb play, the defensive players say it’s too soft now and apparently the refs are the worst in history….I’ve observed that now that athletes are getting into media, old media people are hating because people just go to the athletes for their opinions….if athletes have their own platforms why do we need the speculators, projectors, and glazers…
@@JoeD-gy7cx it’s the most covered sport and the athletes don’t wear helmets. I think men telling their own story is less zesty than grown men following and watching grown men every night. These media dudes are dickeats, they live off these dudes like parasites.
It sucks because the media trickled down into just sports talk in general. I think it's been over a decade since it's been enjoyable to talk sports with people online and I partially blame that on sports media. Though honestly I think in general people are just assholes online and deliberately try to ruin these spaces. It's hard to go a single IG/Tiktok/Reddit/etc thread without seeing a comical amount of ragebait, regardless of the topic.
Its absolutely depressing, cause you can't fight against it. It's all bullshit, all trolling, and the entire system and those that could fix it won't because of the profit involved. I've given up.
Thank you for this video! It’s extremely important to support local beat writers & the content creators who are doing the due diligence to view/talk about the NBA through an objective lens. Great vid per usual 👏🏾
Back in the late ‘90s & early ‘00s ESPN had loads of outstanding writers at their disposal. They were still well pretty stocked as late as the early 2010s. Now…not so much.
As a Pacers fan, the coverage of the Knicks-Pacers playoff series last year was absolutely shameful. It wasn't just Stephen A, the whole damn network felt like they were pulling for the Knicks. During broadcasts, Doris Burke would go ALL CAPS EXCITED when Brunson would hit a free throw, but would seem almost disappointed when Haliburton would drain a 3, or Aaron Nesmith would get a huge dunk. Game 7 was extra sweet to experience because of that.
Last year was rough for small market team coverage. The obvious Knicks slant was pretty bad, but witnessing the complete erasure of the Magic v Cavs series was legitimately insane. It was almost like NBA media did not want to cover it whatsoever.
@@silversoulkenI mean to be fair if Brunson wasn’t on the knicks he probably would have signed there. The market showed that Cleveland really was the best option for him
The Business of Basketball took priority in NBA Media more the Sport of Basketball itself. We can point to the NBA media coverage during the 2019 NBA Finals. The constant coverage of how The Lakers (whom missed the playoffs that yr) will land Anthony Davis in trade became priority in place the Finals which would have either GSW get a 3 peat or Raptors win their 1st championship after the shocking Kawhi trade as a one year rental
Let's not forget game 7 of last season's series between Indiana and the Knicks. ESPN was acting like they were some random local network from NYC than they were this national media outlet. The so called supposedly neutral ''analyst'' of a national media outlet SAS who could act fully like he was the host of Knicks Fan TV by talking to fans before the game. The arrival of the teams, players and coaches to the arena, because they are the protagonists. Common shot in any major team sport. It happens in the NFL or the FIFA World Cup either, but ESPN decided to mix in SAS's arrival between the stars of both teams.
As a Clevelander this is just commonplace for us. Nobody gives a shit about small market teams. We are 15-0 and the media doesn’t seem to care and if they do talk about it, it actively sounds like they can’t wait to see us fail.
Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith ruined sports media. This led to everything being yelling shows disguised as debates, talking about opinions, which are the lowest form of human intelligence. Now guys like Brian Windhorst just spout rumor nonsense into the hearsay that is all NBA media talks about. What we need are observations, stories, interactions and questions. ESPN has some of the best guys covering the NBA, but now JJ Reddick is coaching the Lakers, Zack Lowe is gone, and Tim Legler and Richard Jefferson are only given few minutes with small platforms. Instead, everything is about the same 5 stories. Cover at least all of the NBA teams that are relevant. Cleveland should be the North Star of the NBA along with the Celtics. Talk up the Magic. Explore the Pistons. There are so many amazing things going on in the NBA right now.
I remember when I stopped watching ESPN. It was First Take in 2016 and Mike Conley was on, he was talking about how he was happy in Memphis and glad he didn't get traded at the deadline. Max ignored all that and starting saying the Lakers need help. Gross stuff
ESPN having :60 sec ads in front of :12 second highlight videos on their website was one of the dumbest things i had ever seen, and they did it for years
It’s tough. As much as I love the Spurs as a South Texan, Spurs sweeping the Cavs was (at the time) the lowest rated Finals series ever. TV ratings are on the decline general. The NBA is not a small, nimble organization. Think about it from this side. Ticketmaster is pricing people out of games. Tickets for the highest rated Finals of all time (1998 Bulls vs Jazz) were $75. Even with inflation, that’s less than $140. Lakers (not even the most expensive team!) tickets average - AVERAGE - more than four times that. If you’re Adam Silver, then how do you explain to Joe Lacob that the NBA needs to make the games more accessible for the league to be sustainable when he expects $11M per home game on ticket sales alone? The NBA media is like that but with way more competing interests involved.
As a Cavs fan, I was sick snd tired if ESFP Saying nonstop Mitchell will leave for the Knicks literally years before his contract was even up when we first got him. So glad Steven A didn't get his wish and is salty, while the Cavs are 15-0!
Your comments about folks just making up things about major market trades to teams is spot on. I watch more NHL than NBA but in hockey any time any player with any decent qualities wants out of a city, the media heads (especially popular podcasts) will just theorize that Toronto will get them (biggest market in the league). I've seen free agent rumors begin as throwing darts at the wall and turn into everyone citing each other with "reports" based on no real info just to keep the media focus on the major market. It's frustrating that that's the system we're in, but hey, ads run the media world so gotta get them clicks
Sports media has become more about the personalities than the stories. Using ESPN as an example -- shows like Pardon the Interruption and Around the Horn were cool at first, because that was kind of a niche thing. Seeing Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon talk about stories was entertaining, but it was also clear that the show WAS NOT about them (or made them a focal point). Nowadays, people follow the personalities. The Stephen A Smiths and Pat McAfees of the world draw attention. Folks aren't going to listen to Joe Schmo or Jane Doe yap about things. As for the NBA specifically, the small market teams are going to suffer. People know LeBron, Giannis, Lamelo Ball, KAT. And sure, they might know Cade Cunningham, but they also know he's on crappy Pistons teams. Having a balance is important. It's not just the NBA that suffers from it. The NFL does with guys like Travis Kelce, Patrick Mahomes, or Lamar Jackson. The MLB does with Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto and Aaron Judge. But when the only attention each sport gets is because of those superstars, the sports can suffer as a result. I remember when ESPN would get crap back in the day for having an east coast bias. These days, that's probably become a superstar bias. Sports coverage needs to be more equal, plain and simple.
NBA media, sports media, and just news media in general has pivoted in the last 25 years away from providing a person with the facts in favor for long-winded opinion shows where the whole idea is to get a bunch of talking heads to chat not about the news, but how the news feels to them. Jon Stewart on Crossfire was right all along.
They also redefined journalism to the public as being bullshit, when being a defined journalist means one adheres to an ethics code which the rest of the media bullshit does not.
Gotta say I agree, it really sucks as a Jazz fan when all the media seemed to care about is where Lauri Markkanen should end up to help contenders. I’ve been a Jazz my whole life and since the 2000s there hasn’t been a single star on the team who has stayed with the Jazz after they broke out as a star. It just makes small market teams feel like a farm team for all the big markets in the league.
NBA media is a restaurant hostess who has told every customer who walks through the door that the food was better 30 years ago when Michael Jordan was chef. It's no surprise nobody wants to watch the NBA anymore, we've been told no one will ever be as good as Michael Jordan every day on ESPN since 1996. NFL has learned from this and has the media saying Patrick Mahomes is better than Tom Brady after winning 3 Super Bowls even if he lost to Tom Brady head to head in the Super Bowl and AFC Championship, and Tom Brady has 7 rings.
I honestly can empathize with the “seeing a small market team only being discussed when it’s their best player being delt” from the other side of that coin. Having the only time the Knicks came up in convos nationally being to either have ridiculous and moronic free agency signings and trades be announced was tiring and annoying, ESPECIALLY when they were bad, and needed more than just “a star player”.
The NBA media got to stuck on Lebron Curry and KD, didn’t promote the younger stars. It’s literally the same teams always on tv. Adam Silver is a horrible commissioner if we are being honest. The fact a team like the Magic don’t get any national tv games is pathetic. Not to mention how many times have sport media spent on the Lebron vs MJ debate. The media is the reason fans stop caring about the regular season
Really hope this doesn’t sound weird, but Kofie is just one of those dudes I’d love to just chat with about this type of stuff. It’d actually be enjoyable. Special dude. Keep going! 🔥
Cover Fabrizio Romano. Guy literally leaks the Balon D’Or weeks in advance to the point where the runners up and their club representatives don’t show up to the ceremony.
i liked it more when he only covered transfer stuff. but real didn't show up because they were being petty that Vinny Jr didnt win, which yeah is because it was said early but like i wouldnt give him the entire blame for real's lack of sportsmanship
I feel like the Orlando Magic get all of their media attention from Gilbert Arena's Podcast. I am confused how the Magic are on a six game win streak and doing it all without our best player and like you said before people are just always surprised when they play us . I don’t live in Orlando and so I watch all my games on league pass, and it even seems like the commentators that are calling the games for the other teams are surprised by our players because the media doesn’t give them even any information about how well we are doing.
As a fan of good, big market NBA and NFL teams, I can't engage with any of the major sports news networks either. There is just as little actual news about us as anyone else and there is so much clickbat dreck I can't be bothered to find it. We are trading every player on our roster for every good player in the league. Every player/position group is collapsing and also unstoppable. Our GM and HC have been about to be fired for ruining everything about the team for the past few years, but they're still here and winning. I just watch the games myself at this point.
Well done video/conversation on this topic. It has been a slow downhill for them for along time. Only thing ESPN related that I keep up with consistently is ATH & PTI just for the fun competitive-ness of it.
kofie the best, he seems like such a nice dude and i often agree with his takes. I feel like he's close to my age and maybe that makes me like him more. it just feels like i'm having a conversation with a dude I know who is really passionate. my homies don't love basketball like I do so it can be hard for me to find people to really geek out with. I feel like I can geek with kofie even if he just talking at me
I follow the beat reporters for my favorite teams, because the teams are small/medium size market teams. They aren't New York or LA, but bigger than Milwaukee.
Things that happened in the last few years -Chuck complaining that he had to go to Minnesota for the conference finals - The Bucks getting little to no coverage when they went on a big win streak during their championship year - Paolo Banchero didn’t have a nationally televised game until year 2 - People wanting to trade stars from small markets to big markets (Ja or Zion to the Lakers) And this is on top of the constantly trying to dunk of the previous generation. And the biggest names in the game SAS, the TNT crew not knowing anything outside of 4/5 teams. Wym you can’t cover the Kings for 5+ minutes.You can really tell that the media is heavily biased towards the Lakers and other big markets. It’s not a good look. Even Adam Silver doesn’t want the All Star game in smaller cities. Meanwhile the NFL draft was in Detroit
You must not know but the NFL only holds the Super Bowl in 1 of 8 large cities. The draft is meaningless, they go to big cities when they want to actually make money and get coverage.
It must get exhausting talking about the washed lakers for 5 years until the point where it’s been so long that they actually might be good again lol 😂
Again with Memphis. But they operate a fantastic local media machine that reports on more than just the Grizzlies. And as far as I am aware a lot of the smaller market teams have followed a lot of the things that they do. Another reason I love supporting this team. Not only does the city love and support the team. The team loves and supports the city.
Damn Kofie, you really reminded me of the time we got stable internet connection and used to visit Yahoo Sports because the news was there (the fantasy stuff I played on the NBA site itself). The so-called Woj bombs that we're familiar with were, as you described, the mouse outplaying the cat. Trades, draft picks, they were always genuine surprises in the world of sports media. Woj himself was a solid writer and analyst; I was a fan of his columns back then. Now, I know there are certain liberties that are taken with sports coverage, but I feel that ESPN's pivoting to anonymous rumormongering and narrative-driven stories made the whole fandom awash with these personal POVs (Control the Narrative is guilty of this) at the expense of factual reporting and analysis, as well as solid analysis and opinion columns. And I agree about your take with news aggregation; this has been a plague for more than a decade now. Blogs reposting original material in the midst of outright false news, creating this odd concoction of a real-life 'unreliable narrator' in journalism as a whole, especially with the monetized Twitter model. Reporting has been taken away and just filled with gossip, and that has proven to be detrimental for sports coverage (ehem Stephen A). I'm open to talking with you about the landscape as a whole; I've seen it firsthand both as a consumer of news and as a practitioner (I used to be an active photojournalist and writer). EDIT: To add, Yahoo Sports was a huge complement to my daily visit to NBA dot com. It was there I learned of both on-court and off-court news, like Jason Kidd's controversies, or the death of Wolves player Eddie Griffin.
I watched ESPN everyday for so many years. Now i can't stand a single show they make, except maybe PTI but thats not on RUclips. Now I only watch local coverage, which is great and I love my locsl guys. But it sucks that i no longer feel national media cares about my teams.
I was the same way when I was a kid my parents were impressed with how much I knew all from watching espn I can’t even watch clips anymore it’s soooo bad
I remember when the Bucks won the championship, all of the ESPN commentators were bitching that they had to go to Milwaukee and Phoenix instead of NYC, LA, or Miami. Just another example of the people who producing NBA content being so out of touch with those who consume it
I remember that too. Stephen A. and Damien Woody went in on Milwaukee. Then Molly put her .02 in by saying that she was glad she didn't have to go to Minnesota for the Super Bowl because she felt that the Super Bowl cities like Minnesota and Milwaukee are "terrible cities."
Well done video/conversation on this topic. It has been a slow downhill for them for along time. Only thing ESPN related that I keep up with consistently is ATH & PTI just for the fun competitive-ness of it. First Take brought soo many of us in just for us to see a huge drop off from the cliff
To me NBA media was PERFECT from the early 90s until Sas and Skip Payless showed up and turned every sports conversation into screaming the most controversial thing in an apoplectic manner. Then there was money in that format so finding talent with knowledge got replaced by finding the biggest mouth. So the people there don’t have the same intent as the old media. The old media wanted to report. The new media wants to be a STAR 🤩
Support local beat writers and local columnists. Nobody cares about the local news in tulsa oklahoma if they live in los angeles. This is par for the course. You did this to yourself by watching espn in the first place
Listening to sports media like ESPN got the point where we all realized these guys really dont have a perspective so different from our own, why do we listen to them?
Hunter S. Thompson taught young writers that found his work highly appealing that they were the story, not the thing they covered. Everything that has happened in media (not just sports media: media in general, social and traditional) follows from that.
I really don't think it was a lack of analytics that kept newspapers from trying to appeal to the broadest audience with only the most profitable reporting. As strange as it sounds now, there used to be institutional resistance to the very idea of profits driving content. There was always a business side to journalism, and that side was always chasing that lowest common denominator, but the business part wasn't practiced by the journalists themselves so they were able to define standards for the profession that were separate from business needs. There was constant conflict of course, but now the business has thoroughly defeated the journalists. When publishing on the Internet transformed the industry into one dominated by private contractors it became impossible for the journalists to maintain those standards and resist profit-seeking practices.
It's not man and it's Skip's fault. He normalized it to hate the fuck out of a player despite how amazing he was. There's a huge difference between MLB and NBA talks
i live in LA and lakers having that many national televised games is insane. nba media always trying to pair your stars with lebron when everyone here imagines trading lebron and rebuilding.
Another HEINOUS thing I saw was a SPORTS ILLUSTRATED article had the title: "Jimmy Butler leaves Miami in blockbuster trade..." I click on the link... "blockbuster trade IDEA." It was an article written by some sportsbar jobber about his thoughts about what the Heat could do in free agency. I could have written that article with one hand on my...you know... I almost flipped out. There is a ton of slopistic AI sports media in general right now, but to see such headline bait from SI itself felt like a betrayal. I was disgusted and I think it speaks to the general top-heavy muckracky ecosystem in the NBA right now. I miss The Old Man and the Three, because I thought I got to see some real insights into a lot of players from their perspectives. I sort of wish the NBA gets its own Pat McAfee show, which I liked for a while until Aaron Rodgers went way off the deep end and the show gave me too many right-wing vibes.
Memphis usually had 0-5 National TV games before Ja. Somehow still only have 16-20. Dude does something you've never seen before every game. Does 99% of the leagues best play of their career on a nightly basis. Literally makes a career's worth of highlight's every game. 16 to 20. Spurs and Clippers? Sixers? What are we doing here.
@@beantaz3862 Cause people aren't allowed to make mistakes and learn from them. Gotta stay on years old at this point shit. Also the ONLY NBA PLAYER EVER to have any gun issue too..........
The facts that 90% of NBA media picked against the Celtics was everything I needed to see… Celtics dog-walked the entire NBA last year… Dallas in 5? Yeah, They weren’t watching.
One of the things I hate is they lean into the things that make people mad like always posting about Lebron people will interact to hate and these media outlets don’t care that it’s hate because it’s interaction and it’s really really stupid and toxic to run media that way.
Sports media as a whole has become less about the sports and more about the reaction of the talking heads. Stephen A’s reaction is the story instead of the sports being the story.
This is interesting cause I fell victim to the media changing. I used to watch sport center on my lunch break. Then slowly they moved it away from my lunch break and showed the talk shows more than I was like fuck let’s watch this. Then I didn’t care anymore
The biggest deal breaker for me with Stephen A is the complaining about covering small market teams that make the finals. Like, who tf are you? How can anyone take you seriously when you just boldly expose your biases favoring big markets? The obvious slant is what really weighs on me. I'm glad the CBA put a boot to big markets buying up super stars. I'm glad Dame got traded to Milwaukee and I hope they figure it out just to watch Stephen A cry again.
It's so ez to blame Skip, Stephen A, ESPN, Twitter, etc. But we are the ones clicking. We have helped mutate the sports landscape. If more people clicked on Zach Lowe articles vice Perk videos, ESPN would value one more than the other. The general public has a hard time admitting they play a huge role in all this. But that's 2024. The self is never to blame. It's always the other. Low hanging fruit might be all we deserve at this point.
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NBA Media ran out of things to devalue ao they began devaluing NBA Media
Windy was just on ESPN during the finals doing hit pieces on Luka doncic so I can’t go for it
@@SleepyGrapesAs great as Luka is, Celtics abused his, at best, mediocre defense.
And I can't call his takes as hit pieces, he stressed to no end that these are the final steps for Luka to get those MVP's and rings.
True, TheWindMan...Horse left best Luka taka for his podcast with Lowe, not live TV that I remember. An example on how devoid of meaning this current format is.
It happens when you propagate. Horrible takes in favor of drama, and the people have become tired of the skip bayless archetype, yet they continue to promote it to get views.
@@Damnitjim7skip wasn't the problem. The liars are, the biggest being espn, the lebalco network.
Bro I forgot the Mavs were in the finals last season. lol the NBA is cooked. I don’t care at all until May and then I forget it weeks later.
Orlando and Paolo Banchero is a perfect example of everything wrong with NBA media now. A talented and athletic wing going 1st in the draft and getting no press or national TV games really tells you the NBA media has given up on small markets
Crazy part is: Orlando is actually not a small market (Top 15-20)
For real man was dropping somewhere around 20 a game his rookie year and won roty and I heard nothing then I watched him play and being 22 with some of the smoothest offense I’ve seen in a while and not being talked about at all is insane.
Milwaukee isn’t a small market? San Antonio isn’t? OKC isn’t?? I’d argue Orlando is a bigger market than all of those teams
@@Christian-eq6pqIt is.
No, that's just Orlando. Because Milwaukee, OKC, San Antonio all get attention. Even Ja in Memphis. Nobody cares about Orlando in particular.
During the 2021 Bucks/Suns Finals, I'll never forgive Stephen A Smith for spending (what felt like) half his airtime bitching about how he didn't want to go or be in Milwaukee. That was a great series for both franchises.
True
He’s too rich. Any normal fan can’t even sniff the inside of the arena for the finals, but he gets PAID to go to what could be a once in a lifetime championship run for these franchises, and he just sits there and shits on the city. Its disrespectful and lacking perspective. He is not of the people
@@LifeIntoleranceso you gonna vacation in Milwaukee?????!?!?
B s in Miami hotter than Milwaukee crackers 🚮
@@Jeffgordonfan24hesthegoatvacation and work are two different things
Since skip sports in general have taken the biggest drop ever. Every show is a debate show. No one is talking sports it’s just Brady cowboys LeBron KD hate Lamar hate kyrie hate. This they fault man nobody wanna hear his heavy ahh talk tbh
Even when it’s positive, it’s unsubstantial. NBA media right now is spinning their wheels trying to prop up the NBA cup, a joke of a ratings gimmick, but they have nothing to say about it other than platitudes.
@ nba cub gets more work than the finals smh. Nobody talks ball. Last time I seen anything close was Kobe’s detailed. Everything is a list or comparison contest. The league sucks and that’s why people are mad. This isn’t fun at all.
"Beat reporters are so important and I can't stress that enough" As an avid cricket fan who complains about how little beat reporting there is in that sport truer words have never been spoken
Cricket's decline has been so sad to see, it used to be very popular here in the Bahamas and then it vanished because there was no interest or hype around it. Baseball is now bigger than it
@@ZaKRo-bx7lp the major problem is the way international cricket is structured. England, India and Australia get all the money and resources while smaller countries suffer. I used to love watching the West Indies play, they were a powerhouse team and Brian Lara was incredible
I'm seeing baseball growing rapidly here in Australia too, and hopefully it gets big enough to scare the ICC in to changing
Skip and Steven A forever ruined sports media
...and Klutch Sports
Absolutely
@@rgh5069all Klutch did was help athletes. You only think this cuz you’re a LeBron hater.
More Skip than Steven A, I’ve watched Steven A stand up for a lot of guys that the NBA media tried to slander
@@jourdansarpy4935the only reason you defending them is because you riding bron meat
I legitimately think there's a conspiracy against the Kings at this point. De'Aaron Fox just had 109 points in back to back games over the weekend and the sum total of the national attention he received was a few tweets and like ninety seconds on NBA Today.
Sounds like you don’t follow the nba on social media
@@alexmason5521but that’s the point. You shouldn’t have to follow the NBA on social media to know about top performers.
As a Raptors fan, it doesn't get any better. If you need examples of this, see nobody caring when DeRozen began his last season in Toronto putting up numbers identical to MJ's first MVP season, Scottie Barnes not being seen as a star despite the analytics saying he's top 20 in the NBA and with him being the most versatile defender in the NBA as a rookie, OG being seen as a top 3 defender in the NBA now that he's on the Knicks (because players magically become better basketball players when they cross the border right?), literally anything Chris Broussard says, especially him saying Toronto is "not America enough for African Americans to enjoy playing there" (Toronto is globally recognised as arguably the most diverse city in the world, and not that it matters because it doesn't, but Toronto's population is made up of more African Americans than even LA), or nobody complaining about the incredibly biased officiating during the 2016 ECF (LeBron getting slapped by his own teammate leading to 2 different Raptors getting techs, Biyombo getting called for a goaltend for a shot he blocked while the ball was still in LeBron's hand)... so yeah it isn't going to get any better, but hopefully it leads to Sactown getting a chip like it did for Toronto
THANK YOU as a kings fan it’s hard not to think I’m just biased and going crazy trying to convince myself people hate us but it really feels like that
I think there's more money hyping up the big market teams, my team is 15-0 and hardly anyone's talking about them or treating them like a real contender lol
Honestly, First Take and Undisputed definitely were the shows that got me REALLY into sports about 4 years ago because I thought the rants about the Cowboys and LeBron and Aaron Rodgers were funny.
I slowly grew out of that phase and started caring more about the actual sport. I'd tune in to these shows looking to see what they'd talk about...but it was just the same 3 rants from Skip and SAS every video... eventually made a Twitter account, followed a bunch of local/team reporters and personalities and it was MILES better than any coverage I got from ESPN. Content with actual substance. It's always great to see your insight into this, dude!
I don't mean this in a disrespectful way, but most people do not take the route you took, a lot start out the way you start though. I'm not even saying oh they are so dumb and don't get smart, no it's more like they either loose interest and move on or they stay watching the entertainment slop they get fed
I can't let fans off the hook on this one. Because for every 1 fan that wants all the things you're talking about from NBA media coverage, there are 10 others who don't care about that stuff at all, and live for the narratives and the drama.
If it sounds like I'm putting this on "the casuals", it's because I am. And all they can do is what gets the most eyes on their product.
Plus, Ring Culture. I think if Ring Culture didn't become the thing that it is, NBA media coverage would be more balanced. But as soon as NBA shows became "Rings, rings, rings. How many rings?" Coverage of teams would be a lot more balanced. And guys wouldn't be looking to move to form super teams as much or move to bigger markets as much.
All ESPN is doing is giving the biggest chunk of their audience exactly what they want in NBA coverage. Because like KD said, a lot of people who watch the NBA don't actually like the game of basketball very much.
And yes. FOLLOW YOUR LOCAL BEAT WRITERS. FOLLOW YOUR LOCAL BEAT WRITERS.
I definitely agree with ring culture. I remember seeing a video of Chris Paul teaching kids at a basketball camp how to navigate a screen and the number of guys saying "Why are they listening to him, how many rings has he won?" It's the most brain dead type of arguing or another where I can't remember which player said it but he said his favorite player growing up to watch was Carmelo Anthony and here came the "How many rings did he win?" I grew up watching Dominique Wilkins, Shawn Kemp, Larry Johnson, Larry Nance, Chris Webber, and while I wanted them to win a ring I didn't care about it that much because I grew to love the game because of how they played it and how much fun it was to watch them play. People get mad at players for not valuing the regular season but as you state, so many fans devalue it as well because all they care about are "rings" but they don't want to see their own hypocrisy. I know Devin Booker hasn't won a ring, it's November and he can't win a ring in November, let me just enjoy a great game he just had or any other player had. Too many fans and media have forgotten how to actually just enjoy the game.
your critiques are spot on i always blame the fans for the way the game turned out. Even I played in my early teens but getting outta that Jordan Lebron debate and kinda just watching the game and breaking it down has made the sport more enjoyable. and yes ring culture ruined the sport to the point we can’t appreciate guys like harden Embiid etc because they haven’t won although they are great players.
They are chasing Gen Z…. Gen Z is fickle and their attention span is not like that…. NBA media is wasting their time/energy.
Local writers are so important. I follow my local hockey beat writers, and the fact that they actually care about the team really shows in the coverage, while the national coverage very much seems phoned in.
@@CTEagleCelticThis is it. Media has gotten lazy because fans consumptions and capacities for consumptions have generally gotten lazy.
Cleveland is getting that disrespect the suns did in that Nash era when they started really good. Watch one game and you can easily see how elite of a team they are.
Steven A and Co 100% have not even watched a Cavs game this year. Steven A trotted out a lazy "they're the same team as last year" segment. Uhhhh no.
Bad comparison cuz those suns kind of turned out to be frauds
@@pstratos7even Atlanta was like a decade ago but still we don’t need the news a bout lakers all year and im a LBJ fan. Ain’t no party like a diddy party
They the hawks until they win
@@LatestDecember8907 Why do people think bringing up the Hawks is some kind of shade? They were the number 1 seed and got to the conference finals. Then they had to face peak Lebron and peak Kyrie surrounded by quality shooters. Also, Donovan and Darius are playing better than any Hawks player did that year. Never mind the Hawks still got more media love and attention that year than the Cavs are getting this year while never having a great streak. That’s primarily because Lebron haters were rooting for them.
I’ve always felt that NBA media is by far the worst in sports. Media in other sports/leagues definitely deserves criticism in places, but no other league’s media will ignore new and great stories just to talk about stuff they have discussed ad nauseam more than NBA media.
It’s nice to know this is something that at least one person within that field realizes too. Perhaps realizing the problem is the first step to fixing it, but I’m not confident tbh. As long as guys like Stephen A Smith and Nick Wright readily admit to not caring about smaller markets, then I don’t see it changing. I hope it does tho.
Always love hearing you discuss these things Kofie.
the elephant in the room is that its because most of the nba media are black
It just boils down to the people covering the sports especially NBA. You can tell who watches the games and who doesn’t. Me being a Arizona sports fan the only coverage we get on a national level is twitter narratives and “vibes” and not actually how good our teams are
It's insane. The Cardinals are in first place and the national sports media still acts like they don't exist.
The thing with First Take nowadays is that you don't even get those moments of someone being funny, it's just 12-16 mins segments of hot takes being fired off without any of the bits of entertainment we used to get pre-Covid
Being a Raptors fan is great because we are in a different country so different media 👍
And where we don’t get much nba coverage lol not to mention most sports media focuses specifically on Toronto
Its bad actually cus Toronto is statistically a top 5 market.
They should have 10 games at least. They have gone under the radar these past few years and pivoted from a retool to a rebuild to tanking.
There are many fans in America and Internationally that are not from an NBA city that support the Raptors, we're left with nothing.
It boils down to everything ruined by private equity firms.
Being a NY sports fan I didn’t realize how spoiled we are with our dedicated sports media outlets. From local
news stations to, WFAN, SNY, MSG and YES we never have to rely on ESPN for media coverage
great yap sesh. you and a few upcoming creators are really sticking to the core of journalism and I love it.
I agree with Windhorst 100%. Look at how nfl media covers their sport vs nba media. nba media including inside the nba just bitches about the game 24/7, which leads to fans also bitching 24/7.
Nfl media builds up and hypes their sport. Nba media tears it down.
Excellent assessment
Tom Brady shit on the qb play, the defensive players say it’s too soft now and apparently the refs are the worst in history….I’ve observed that now that athletes are getting into media, old media people are hating because people just go to the athletes for their opinions….if athletes have their own platforms why do we need the speculators, projectors, and glazers…
@@12KhiryBut what’s odd about the NBA, it’s the only sport where the new era disrespects the old era and vice versa. NBA got that feminist energy 😂
@@JoeD-gy7cx it’s the most covered sport and the athletes don’t wear helmets. I think men telling their own story is less zesty than grown men following and watching grown men every night. These media dudes are dickeats, they live off these dudes like parasites.
I literally was about to say and the problem is Stephen A. Smith
HOWEVA
WHO WAS ON CRACK
“THIS BROTHER CAN BALL”
It sucks because the media trickled down into just sports talk in general. I think it's been over a decade since it's been enjoyable to talk sports with people online and I partially blame that on sports media. Though honestly I think in general people are just assholes online and deliberately try to ruin these spaces. It's hard to go a single IG/Tiktok/Reddit/etc thread without seeing a comical amount of ragebait, regardless of the topic.
Its absolutely depressing, cause you can't fight against it. It's all bullshit, all trolling, and the entire system and those that could fix it won't because of the profit involved.
I've given up.
All you've learned is that nobody you talk to has any original thoughts or ideas of their own and just repeated what they heard on TV.
Thank you for this video! It’s extremely important to support local beat writers & the content creators who are doing the due diligence to view/talk about the NBA through an objective lens. Great vid per usual 👏🏾
Back in the late ‘90s & early ‘00s ESPN had loads of outstanding writers at their disposal. They were still well pretty stocked as late as the early 2010s. Now…not so much.
As a Pacers fan, the coverage of the Knicks-Pacers playoff series last year was absolutely shameful. It wasn't just Stephen A, the whole damn network felt like they were pulling for the Knicks.
During broadcasts, Doris Burke would go ALL CAPS EXCITED when Brunson would hit a free throw, but would seem almost disappointed when Haliburton would drain a 3, or Aaron Nesmith would get a huge dunk.
Game 7 was extra sweet to experience because of that.
Last year was rough for small market team coverage. The obvious Knicks slant was pretty bad, but witnessing the complete erasure of the Magic v Cavs series was legitimately insane. It was almost like NBA media did not want to cover it whatsoever.
I was talking to a friend and I said that even 🗑️ teams have somebody to watch. Most leagues wish they had that. But yet…
Dope WNBA JAM t-shirt, wasn't aware of those 🔥
Really enjoy the passion that you bring to you work, man. First saw you on secret base and happy you’re working on your own channel. Great content.
Being a Cavs fan Last year having people constantly talking about Donovan Mitchell trades pissed me off
First it was bc of his contract, then when he resigns they still continue the rumors, it’s genuinely so desperate
@@silversoulkenI mean to be fair if Brunson wasn’t on the knicks he probably would have signed there. The market showed that Cleveland really was the best option for him
You should’ve used a different example. Just know he’s absolutely gonna abandon y’all just like he did Utah.
Welcome to the club my friend, Giannis being traded has been an ongoing story for like 4 years now
@@alexmason5521how’d he abandon Utah?
The Business of Basketball took priority in NBA Media more the Sport of Basketball itself.
We can point to the NBA media coverage during the 2019 NBA Finals. The constant coverage of how The Lakers (whom missed the playoffs that yr) will land Anthony Davis in trade became priority in place the Finals which would have either GSW get a 3 peat or Raptors win their 1st championship after the shocking Kawhi trade as a one year rental
Let's not forget game 7 of last season's series between Indiana and the Knicks. ESPN was acting like they were some random local network from NYC than they were this national media outlet. The so called supposedly neutral ''analyst'' of a national media outlet SAS who could act fully like he was the host of Knicks Fan TV by talking to fans before the game.
The arrival of the teams, players and coaches to the arena, because they are the protagonists. Common shot in any major team sport. It happens in the NFL or the FIFA World Cup either, but ESPN decided to mix in SAS's arrival between the stars of both teams.
As a Clevelander this is just commonplace for us. Nobody gives a shit about small market teams. We are 15-0 and the media doesn’t seem to care and if they do talk about it, it actively sounds like they can’t wait to see us fail.
Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith ruined sports media. This led to everything being yelling shows disguised as debates, talking about opinions, which are the lowest form of human intelligence. Now guys like Brian Windhorst just spout rumor nonsense into the hearsay that is all NBA media talks about.
What we need are observations, stories, interactions and questions. ESPN has some of the best guys covering the NBA, but now JJ Reddick is coaching the Lakers, Zack Lowe is gone, and Tim Legler and Richard Jefferson are only given few minutes with small platforms.
Instead, everything is about the same 5 stories. Cover at least all of the NBA teams that are relevant. Cleveland should be the North Star of the NBA along with the Celtics. Talk up the Magic. Explore the Pistons. There are so many amazing things going on in the NBA right now.
I remember when I stopped watching ESPN. It was First Take in 2016 and Mike Conley was on, he was talking about how he was happy in Memphis and glad he didn't get traded at the deadline. Max ignored all that and starting saying the Lakers need help. Gross stuff
ESPN having :60 sec ads in front of :12 second highlight videos on their website was one of the dumbest things i had ever seen, and they did it for years
The anti-Milwaukee, pro-Giannis moving to a bigger city narrative is obvious and gross. Windhorst is one of the flag bearers for this movement.
It’s tough. As much as I love the Spurs as a South Texan, Spurs sweeping the Cavs was (at the time) the lowest rated Finals series ever. TV ratings are on the decline general.
The NBA is not a small, nimble organization. Think about it from this side. Ticketmaster is pricing people out of games. Tickets for the highest rated Finals of all time (1998 Bulls vs Jazz) were $75. Even with inflation, that’s less than $140. Lakers (not even the most expensive team!) tickets average - AVERAGE - more than four times that. If you’re Adam Silver, then how do you explain to Joe Lacob that the NBA needs to make the games more accessible for the league to be sustainable when he expects $11M per home game on ticket sales alone?
The NBA media is like that but with way more competing interests involved.
As a Cavs fan, I was sick snd tired if ESFP Saying nonstop Mitchell will leave for the Knicks literally years before his contract was even up when we first got him. So glad Steven A didn't get his wish and is salty, while the Cavs are 15-0!
*ESPN
They were also trying to come up with scenarios on how Mitchell could be traded to the Lakers.
Your comments about folks just making up things about major market trades to teams is spot on. I watch more NHL than NBA but in hockey any time any player with any decent qualities wants out of a city, the media heads (especially popular podcasts) will just theorize that Toronto will get them (biggest market in the league). I've seen free agent rumors begin as throwing darts at the wall and turn into everyone citing each other with "reports" based on no real info just to keep the media focus on the major market. It's frustrating that that's the system we're in, but hey, ads run the media world so gotta get them clicks
Sports media has become more about the personalities than the stories.
Using ESPN as an example -- shows like Pardon the Interruption and Around the Horn were cool at first, because that was kind of a niche thing. Seeing Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon talk about stories was entertaining, but it was also clear that the show WAS NOT about them (or made them a focal point).
Nowadays, people follow the personalities. The Stephen A Smiths and Pat McAfees of the world draw attention. Folks aren't going to listen to Joe Schmo or Jane Doe yap about things.
As for the NBA specifically, the small market teams are going to suffer. People know LeBron, Giannis, Lamelo Ball, KAT. And sure, they might know Cade Cunningham, but they also know he's on crappy Pistons teams.
Having a balance is important. It's not just the NBA that suffers from it. The NFL does with guys like Travis Kelce, Patrick Mahomes, or Lamar Jackson. The MLB does with Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto and Aaron Judge. But when the only attention each sport gets is because of those superstars, the sports can suffer as a result.
I remember when ESPN would get crap back in the day for having an east coast bias. These days, that's probably become a superstar bias. Sports coverage needs to be more equal, plain and simple.
anyone else missing the lowe post so much? just a void in my heart ;-;
NBA media, sports media, and just news media in general has pivoted in the last 25 years away from providing a person with the facts in favor for long-winded opinion shows where the whole idea is to get a bunch of talking heads to chat not about the news, but how the news feels to them.
Jon Stewart on Crossfire was right all along.
They also redefined journalism to the public as being bullshit, when being a defined journalist means one adheres to an ethics code which the rest of the media bullshit does not.
Gotta say I agree, it really sucks as a Jazz fan when all the media seemed to care about is where Lauri Markkanen should end up to help contenders. I’ve been a Jazz my whole life and since the 2000s there hasn’t been a single star on the team who has stayed with the Jazz after they broke out as a star. It just makes small market teams feel like a farm team for all the big markets in the league.
NBA media is a restaurant hostess who has told every customer who walks through the door that the food was better 30 years ago when Michael Jordan was chef. It's no surprise nobody wants to watch the NBA anymore, we've been told no one will ever be as good as Michael Jordan every day on ESPN since 1996. NFL has learned from this and has the media saying Patrick Mahomes is better than Tom Brady after winning 3 Super Bowls even if he lost to Tom Brady head to head in the Super Bowl and AFC Championship, and Tom Brady has 7 rings.
I honestly can empathize with the “seeing a small market team only being discussed when it’s their best player being delt” from the other side of that coin. Having the only time the Knicks came up in convos nationally being to either have ridiculous and moronic free agency signings and trades be announced was tiring and annoying, ESPECIALLY when they were bad, and needed more than just “a star player”.
The NBA media got to stuck on Lebron Curry and KD, didn’t promote the younger stars. It’s literally the same teams always on tv. Adam Silver is a horrible commissioner if we are being honest. The fact a team like the Magic don’t get any national tv games is pathetic. Not to mention how many times have sport media spent on the Lebron vs MJ debate. The media is the reason fans stop caring about the regular season
Really hope this doesn’t sound weird, but Kofie is just one of those dudes I’d love to just chat with about this type of stuff. It’d actually be enjoyable. Special dude. Keep going! 🔥
I see you with the Backyard Sports background music 🔥
This is journalism's problem across the board.
Great video! Love your perspective, Kofie. Keep killing it!
This sim city ass music got me again bruh
iirc, it's the Backyard Baseball menu music.
I'll never forget when ESPN made the "Heat Index" back when the big 3 formed. Just a site solely dedicated to them covering the heat.
Cover Fabrizio Romano. Guy literally leaks the Balon D’Or weeks in advance to the point where the runners up and their club representatives don’t show up to the ceremony.
i liked it more when he only covered transfer stuff. but real didn't show up because they were being petty that Vinny Jr didnt win, which yeah is because it was said early but like i wouldnt give him the entire blame for real's lack of sportsmanship
5:13 this part. People literally don’t watch basketball anymore. They’re just here for the offseason drama and storylines
This isn't new. Basketball has never put up eye-popping viewership. It's always been the middle child.
I feel like the Orlando Magic get all of their media attention from Gilbert Arena's Podcast. I am confused how the Magic are on a six game win streak and doing it all without our best player and like you said before people are just always surprised when they play us . I don’t live in Orlando and so I watch all my games on league pass, and it even seems like the commentators that are calling the games for the other teams are surprised by our players because the media doesn’t give them even any information about how well we are doing.
I would love to relocate to Orlando
As a fan of good, big market NBA and NFL teams, I can't engage with any of the major sports news networks either. There is just as little actual news about us as anyone else and there is so much clickbat dreck I can't be bothered to find it. We are trading every player on our roster for every good player in the league. Every player/position group is collapsing and also unstoppable. Our GM and HC have been about to be fired for ruining everything about the team for the past few years, but they're still here and winning. I just watch the games myself at this point.
0:39 following Lebron James for 10 years? His entire career is purely based on following Lebron James around
ESPNs coverage of basketball is pretty much glazing Lebron 24/7
I mean it's like not though
Well done video/conversation on this topic. It has been a slow downhill for them for along time. Only thing ESPN related that I keep up with consistently is ATH & PTI just for the fun competitive-ness of it.
kofie the best, he seems like such a nice dude and i often agree with his takes. I feel like he's close to my age and maybe that makes me like him more. it just feels like i'm having a conversation with a dude I know who is really passionate. my homies don't love basketball like I do so it can be hard for me to find people to really geek out with. I feel like I can geek with kofie even if he just talking at me
I follow the beat reporters for my favorite teams, because the teams are small/medium size market teams. They aren't New York or LA, but bigger than Milwaukee.
I'm a Suns fan and your Suns jacket is fire. Also great video, I love Windy and hope he gets more storytelling opportunities at ESPN
The backyard baseball music sooo gooood
Man, all sports media has definitely gravitated to the more salacious, personality driven approach which I could do without
Things that happened in the last few years
-Chuck complaining that he had to go to Minnesota for the conference finals
- The Bucks getting little to no coverage when they went on a big win streak during their championship year
- Paolo Banchero didn’t have a nationally televised game until year 2
- People wanting to trade stars from small markets to big markets (Ja or Zion to the Lakers)
And this is on top of the constantly trying to dunk of the previous generation. And the biggest names in the game SAS, the TNT crew not knowing anything outside of 4/5 teams. Wym you can’t cover the Kings for 5+ minutes.You can really tell that the media is heavily biased towards the Lakers and other big markets. It’s not a good look. Even Adam Silver doesn’t want the All Star game in smaller cities. Meanwhile the NFL draft was in Detroit
What did Chuck say about Minnesota?
You must not know but the NFL only holds the Super Bowl in 1 of 8 large cities. The draft is meaningless, they go to big cities when they want to actually make money and get coverage.
It must get exhausting talking about the washed lakers for 5 years until the point where it’s been so long that they actually might be good again lol 😂
Again with Memphis. But they operate a fantastic local media machine that reports on more than just the Grizzlies. And as far as I am aware a lot of the smaller market teams have followed a lot of the things that they do.
Another reason I love supporting this team. Not only does the city love and support the team. The team loves and supports the city.
Damn Kofie, you really reminded me of the time we got stable internet connection and used to visit Yahoo Sports because the news was there (the fantasy stuff I played on the NBA site itself). The so-called Woj bombs that we're familiar with were, as you described, the mouse outplaying the cat. Trades, draft picks, they were always genuine surprises in the world of sports media. Woj himself was a solid writer and analyst; I was a fan of his columns back then. Now, I know there are certain liberties that are taken with sports coverage, but I feel that ESPN's pivoting to anonymous rumormongering and narrative-driven stories made the whole fandom awash with these personal POVs (Control the Narrative is guilty of this) at the expense of factual reporting and analysis, as well as solid analysis and opinion columns.
And I agree about your take with news aggregation; this has been a plague for more than a decade now. Blogs reposting original material in the midst of outright false news, creating this odd concoction of a real-life 'unreliable narrator' in journalism as a whole, especially with the monetized Twitter model. Reporting has been taken away and just filled with gossip, and that has proven to be detrimental for sports coverage (ehem Stephen A).
I'm open to talking with you about the landscape as a whole; I've seen it firsthand both as a consumer of news and as a practitioner (I used to be an active photojournalist and writer).
EDIT: To add, Yahoo Sports was a huge complement to my daily visit to NBA dot com. It was there I learned of both on-court and off-court news, like Jason Kidd's controversies, or the death of Wolves player Eddie Griffin.
Using the backyard baseball menus music in the background is a great touch
just a green screen and a microphone is all you need
I watched ESPN everyday for so many years. Now i can't stand a single show they make, except maybe PTI but thats not on RUclips. Now I only watch local coverage, which is great and I love my locsl guys. But it sucks that i no longer feel national media cares about my teams.
I was the same way when I was a kid my parents were impressed with how much I knew all from watching espn I can’t even watch clips anymore it’s soooo bad
I remember when the Bucks won the championship, all of the ESPN commentators were bitching that they had to go to Milwaukee and Phoenix instead of NYC, LA, or Miami. Just another example of the people who producing NBA content being so out of touch with those who consume it
I remember that too. Stephen A. and Damien Woody went in on Milwaukee. Then Molly put her .02 in by saying that she was glad she didn't have to go to Minnesota for the Super Bowl because she felt that the Super Bowl cities like Minnesota and Milwaukee are "terrible cities."
Well done video/conversation on this topic. It has been a slow downhill for them for along time. Only thing ESPN related that I keep up with consistently is ATH & PTI just for the fun competitive-ness of it.
First Take brought soo many of us in just for us to see a huge drop off from the cliff
Integrity in sports media died with Sports Center and Stuart Scott. I dont do the "talking heads" shows. Ive always HATED Skip and Stephen A.
Banger incoming
To me NBA media was PERFECT from the early 90s until Sas and Skip Payless showed up and turned every sports conversation into screaming the most controversial thing in an apoplectic manner. Then there was money in that format so finding talent with knowledge got replaced by finding the biggest mouth. So the people there don’t have the same intent as the old media. The old media wanted to report. The new media wants to be a STAR 🤩
kofie i could listen to you talk about anything over the backyard baseball music
Good shit as always Kofie
Loving your videos man!
Support local beat writers and local columnists. Nobody cares about the local news in tulsa oklahoma if they live in los angeles. This is par for the course. You did this to yourself by watching espn in the first place
I know one thing I am absolutely glad that the NBA is back on NBC which means they’ll stick to talking about the game of basketball
"its 3 in the morning" Love the dedication my guy.
Media in general is lost right now. Obsessed with money. They have abandoned the people that made them.
Listening to sports media like ESPN got the point where we all realized these guys really dont have a perspective so different from our own, why do we listen to them?
Hunter S. Thompson taught young writers that found his work highly appealing that they were the story, not the thing they covered. Everything that has happened in media (not just sports media: media in general, social and traditional) follows from that.
I really don't think it was a lack of analytics that kept newspapers from trying to appeal to the broadest audience with only the most profitable reporting. As strange as it sounds now, there used to be institutional resistance to the very idea of profits driving content. There was always a business side to journalism, and that side was always chasing that lowest common denominator, but the business part wasn't practiced by the journalists themselves so they were able to define standards for the profession that were separate from business needs. There was constant conflict of course, but now the business has thoroughly defeated the journalists. When publishing on the Internet transformed the industry into one dominated by private contractors it became impossible for the journalists to maintain those standards and resist profit-seeking practices.
It's not man and it's Skip's fault. He normalized it to hate the fuck out of a player despite how amazing he was. There's a huge difference between MLB and NBA talks
i live in LA and lakers having that many national televised games is insane. nba media always trying to pair your stars with lebron when everyone here imagines trading lebron and rebuilding.
Another HEINOUS thing I saw was a SPORTS ILLUSTRATED article had the title: "Jimmy Butler leaves Miami in blockbuster trade..."
I click on the link... "blockbuster trade IDEA." It was an article written by some sportsbar jobber about his thoughts about what the Heat could do in free agency. I could have written that article with one hand on my...you know...
I almost flipped out. There is a ton of slopistic AI sports media in general right now, but to see such headline bait from SI itself felt like a betrayal. I was disgusted and I think it speaks to the general top-heavy muckracky ecosystem in the NBA right now. I miss The Old Man and the Three, because I thought I got to see some real insights into a lot of players from their perspectives. I sort of wish the NBA gets its own Pat McAfee show, which I liked for a while until Aaron Rodgers went way off the deep end and the show gave me too many right-wing vibes.
Honestly, great video. Liked and Subbed. Great breakdown
Memphis usually had 0-5 National TV games before Ja. Somehow still only have 16-20.
Dude does something you've never seen before every game. Does 99% of the leagues best play of their career on a nightly basis.
Literally makes a career's worth of highlight's every game.
16 to 20.
Spurs and Clippers?
Sixers?
What are we doing here.
My guess would be they don't want him to look like he's the face of the league after all of the gun-waving-around stuff.
@@beantaz3862 Cause people aren't allowed to make mistakes and learn from them. Gotta stay on years old at this point shit. Also the ONLY NBA PLAYER EVER to have any gun issue too..........
10:19 why is it the Semi Finals? Why does it say 21-32 for both LA and BOS? That screen confused me.
Also how is it 109-82 in overtime? Did the Celtics score 27 points (at minimum) in 5 minutes? 😂
First time viewer, backyard sports music is an instant subscribe
The facts that 90% of NBA media picked against the Celtics was everything I needed to see… Celtics dog-walked the entire NBA last year… Dallas in 5? Yeah, They weren’t watching.
That’s just straight up not true. Most people said the Celtics were gonna win. It wasn’t a surprise at all that they won in 5.
One of the things I hate is they lean into the things that make people mad like always posting about Lebron people will interact to hate and these media outlets don’t care that it’s hate because it’s interaction and it’s really really stupid and toxic to run media that way.
Subbed to help towards the 50k, good luck bro!
Sports media as a whole has become less about the sports and more about the reaction of the talking heads. Stephen A’s reaction is the story instead of the sports being the story.
This is interesting cause I fell victim to the media changing. I used to watch sport center on my lunch break. Then slowly they moved it away from my lunch break and showed the talk shows more than I was like fuck let’s watch this. Then I didn’t care anymore
Thank you so much man. I have a business channel and it's great to hear that from a fellow creator
As a long time fan/follower, the Wizards really don't deserve to be on national TV
It's ok, I actually like Miami heat fans constantly plotting to steal away my favorite players for their next failed championship run
The biggest deal breaker for me with Stephen A is the complaining about covering small market teams that make the finals.
Like, who tf are you? How can anyone take you seriously when you just boldly expose your biases favoring big markets?
The obvious slant is what really weighs on me. I'm glad the CBA put a boot to big markets buying up super stars. I'm glad Dame got traded to Milwaukee and I hope they figure it out just to watch Stephen A cry again.
It's so ez to blame Skip, Stephen A, ESPN, Twitter, etc.
But we are the ones clicking. We have helped mutate the sports landscape.
If more people clicked on Zach Lowe articles vice Perk videos, ESPN would value one more than the other.
The general public has a hard time admitting they play a huge role in all this.
But that's 2024. The self is never to blame. It's always the other.
Low hanging fruit might be all we deserve at this point.