Today's Media and the NBA

The last couple of days have had some very strange things happen.  Unless you're living under a rock, you've probably at least heard about the nonsense that is going on between Kevin Durant and Steven A. Smith of ESPN.  While this is an extreme case, there has been a change in the relationship between the media and the players in the National Basketball Association that's been going on for a while now.  The old days saw television, radio, and print journalists jockeying amongst each other at practices, shoot arounds, and post games looking for a quote or sound bite for their soon to be published article.  There was a safety net of fact checkers and editors around to act as the checks and balances of those printed or on-air articles to make sure nothing too outlandish made its way into the general publics consciousness.  The rise of the internet and its power has changed everything.

Social media in its many forms has changed the way we consume "news" and content, and yes I use the word "news" loosely.  There are legitimate ways that someone can be a part of an event as its happening, and I have very vivid memories of the "Miracle on the Hudson" story being told almost as it was occurring on Twitter.  Real time coverage of something news worthy, via people in close proximity, blasted 140 characters at a time.

The subsequent years have only increased the phenomena, and so traditional news outlets have had to catch up, keep up, and fight with an ever growing arm of bloggers, podcasters, and basically everyone with a cell phone and an internet connection al over the world.  The need to get it right was replaced with the race to get it first, and that has left the safety net of fact checkers and editors in the dust.  Tweets from everyone (including professional athletes who have a vested interest in promoting their own brands/agendas) now trump press releases.  No one would have time in today's environment for something like "The Decision" from LeBron, unless it was on Periscope and live feed via YouTube.  This is just the instant gratification 24x7x365 news cycle world that we live in.

And this brings us back around to the issue between Stephen A. Smith and Kevin Durant.  KD had previously come out and affirmed to pretty much everyone (considering that his free agency is the soup du jour on the Thunder's menu this year) that unless you heard it from him, his agent, or his manager, it wasn't the real deal.  This was in play when Stephen A. made his comments that the LA Lakers were in play to be KD's preferred destination if he didn't resign with OKC.  Once Stephen A. got wind of KDs response that Smith was "lying," all holy hell broke loose, including the eminently Vine-able moment where he proclaims that KD does "not want to make an enemy of him."  What the heck just happened here???

As I mentioned previously, this issue most likely arises from a number of things:

• Stephen A. trying to be the 1st to the story, and maybe not having the real truth/the whole truth
• If true, KD maybe not liking having his private business aired so soon or so publicly
• If false, KD definitely not liking having a talking head like Smith put false stories out there
• Considering KDs at times contentious relationship with the media last season, perhaps some of that animosity still remains fresh in his mind on any news report about him
• And lastly, the perceptions today that both the media people have of players, and the perception that the players have of media

The media today likely feel like they have to push the envelope to get clicks for their websites, and are competing against almost the entire rest of the free world to get out something that fans and other content consumers haven't already heard about.  In doing so, they have run roughshod over the established rules of the old guard about verify, verify, verify.  The rise of the "unnamed source" has turned what real journalism used to stand for into a traveshamockery.  And now its gotten to a point where professional athletes bristle at media events, thinking that no matter what they say, its going to be taken or used out of context.  Ladies and gentlemen, Marshawn Lynch!

I'm not sure what the solution is - bloggers gonna blog, writers gonna write, and players gonna play.  Some athletes have a positive relationship with the media, and most of the media has learned to adapt and thrive in the new 24/7 news cycle.  But "clickbait" articles are very real, and a very real problem. And unless there is some compromise beyond sports league mandated open media sessions, and players basically all but refusing to participate, this type of "scoop and denial" situation will continue.

Unless Kevin Durant really DOES spurn the Thunder for the Lakers.  In which case, all bets are off.

#ThunderNationRISE - forever