Guest Post by The Zman
I think I may have watched a grand total of one NBA game this past season. The games are not geared for middle-aged white guys. The game has been changed over the years to value running and jumping over teamwork and developed skills. The result is that basketball looks a lot like track and field, rather than a skills game. That’s not a moral argument, just a factual observation. I do follow the game through the stat sheet, as it is a good study of human bio-diversity and not just what is on the court.
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The other aspect of the NBA that makes it interesting to me is the conduct of the sports media covering the NBA. It is a good model for understanding what has happened to the mainstream media, particularly with regards to politics. The NBA press does very little reporting. There are still game summaries posted on-line and box scores, but those are churned out by interns and robots. The professional NBA journalist does no actual reporting, Instead, he talks about story lines, personalities and other sport reporters.
The recent NBA draft is a good example. Every year the “reporters” claim it is going to be a wild week of trades and deals. Then they spend the week talking about rumors that are made up by other reporters. Those rumors are often just about rumors. It is not unusual to see a story about how it is rumored that a trade was rumored to have been mentioned by someone. Meta-news is news about news. The NBA is now doing news and rumors about rumors. That’s meta-meta-rumor-news, I guess.
The reason for all this is the news media no longer bothers to uphold any of its alleged standards. It was not that long ago that editors required two sources that were actual human beings with a credible claim to know the material. Newspapers might bend this rule, but they never went with copy that contained sources unknown to the editor. That’s no longer the case as editors no long exist in sufficient numbers to police it and the remaining ones simply don’t care. Anything goes so its all fake sources now.
Sports reporters have never been terribly bright or hard working so they have responded to this breakdown in order by doing what comes natural. Instead of working hard to get good stories, they make up semi-plausible stories with fake sources. An NBA trade, for example, will involve two or three people talking by phone. Yet, we’re supposed to believe that some guy at ESPN was then briefed on it by one of the parties. Even more absurd, we’re supposed to believe some blogger “broke” the story. Yeah, right.
The bigger issue though is something that happened in the Jordan years. It has been thrown down the memory hole, but Jordan decided the way to help black sports reporters was to give them exclusive access and deny access to honkies. Guys like Ahmad Rashad and Michael Wilbon were given special access. This made their careers, but it also ushered in the era of access journalism. Players granted access to reporters who were willing to sing their praises in their columns and on TV shows.
Something similar happened around the same time in Washington politics. The Clinton machine was ruthless in controlling the media. They would shutout reporters that did not play ball. There’s always been some of this, as people are naturally going to be nice to those who are nice to them and not so nice to people they see as adversaries. The difference was, the Clinton team turned this into a formal policy and the Washington press corp went along with it. They liked being treated like players so they acted accordingly.
The Bush people could not play the same game, as the Washington media is universally liberal, but they did a little bit of it with operations like Fox and the talk radio guys. Rich Lowry of National Review remodeled the magazine to be a GOP mouth piece for exactly this reason. It gave them access to Republicans. The Weekly Standard largely existed as a public relations vehicle for the Bush family. Much of what has gone wrong with Buckley Conservatism is due to the perils of access journalism.
This is why we see the explosion of fake news. The NBA guys want access or at least the illusion of access. To that end, they tweet out rumors and fake news in the hope of getting a reply from an agent or front office guy. That way they can then shoot down their own rumor or fake news with an actual quote from a real person. “After talking with person X, I can now report that the rumor I reported is false.” Fake news about rumors produces gossip that is eventually addressed by a real person in the news.
That seems to be what’s going on Washington with all the fake news. No one in the Washington media bothered to develop contacts in the Trump team. Instead, they mocked and harassed them through the campaign, figuring they were currying favor with the Clinton people. Now, they have no access so they create fake stories hoping to get a response from the Trump people. In lieu of real reporting, it is provocative fake reporting in the hope of gaining access to real people in the Trump White House.
Now, that’s not to say it is all innocent. Clearly, the major fake news organizations are fully converged, as Vox Day would put it. They are so in the tank for the one true faith, they now resemble a UFO cult. The point of their fake news campaign is to discredit the Trump people. Still, this is the logical result of access journalism. When the path to fame and glory is getting exclusive access to a powerful person, it is no surprise that the media has now turned itself into a PR firm for the rich and powerful.
Game, set match? A closed loop? The one thing I received from my father was a strong distrust of institutions. For better or worse.
This asshat knows nothing about basketball. I agree the rule changes are for the worse. Eliminating hand checking, no charge zone, etc., have hurt the game – it is now all about bulldozing to the basket and free throws and 3 point shot. Post play has dissappeared. But unskilled? Please. The Warriors are extremely skilled.
You seem to be focusing on the analogy, not the meaning or point of his post.
I agree completely with him here, knowing you will have the ban-hammer swung in your direction if you write something one of the important people doesn’t like is a powerful incentive. It has the side benefit of making said reporter feel like an insider and, in the words of Ron Burgundy, ‘kind of a big deal’. But, the internet had put a big dent in the temple of access journalism. Since we aren’t dependent on people with access to ‘inside sources’ anymore, they are rapidly losing their relevance and audience, due in no small part to the utter dishonesty such “journalism” breeds.
Also, fuck the NBA, ESPN, and basketball in general. I’d rather have cleanup duty after a peep-show than give any of those things my money or eyeballs. Probably the BIGGEST reason all pro sports and ESPN are in such a decline is their embrace of progressive politics. Ill be damned if they are getting a thing from me. See how long they last without white middle income and up people. Not long, Id be willing to bet.
Basketball is a waste of time; usually the bleachers are as empty as a Hillary rally.
NBA games are almost universally sell-outs.
I don’t think the NBA was the focus of the article.
Zman is an idiot. He opens with idiocy, so it got my comment.
The NBA is a lot like the NEWS world, jungle ball. It is no longer a game but a smash mouth, forget the rules, shoot from anywhere and push or hit or club for the rebound. The teams are 90% black and it is like the old gladiator games of who kills who. To see real basketball you have to go to the female college world. However this is being taken over by the female homosexuals. The news world is about the same. A jungle game of lies and deceit, with liberal outlets crying wolf and over stating the false agenda. I no longer watch either. The world of NBA and NEWS is like having a shit sandwich and I got tired of taking a daily bite. Especially USA News!
Preach it Biggie D !!
“To see real basketball you have to go to the female college world. However this is being taken over by the female homosexuals.”
Just wait until the dudes dressed as girls thing makes it into pro sports in a big way. Itll look the same, the men will just be wearing wigs…
Something else I will not watch.
Teams are 74% black. I know a bit about women’s college basketball, and you are ill-informed. Jungle ball? Rule changes are encouraging that style. The defenders are neutered these days.
“To see real basketball you have to go to the female college world.” That’s a fucking laugh. NBA basketball is the most disciplined, organized basketball on the face of the earth. Any decent male pickup team could destroy just about any women’s team that exists. I’m a white guy. I never played above the rim. But guys that did were always part of the game. It never occured to me that they were less skilled than me, I thought it was the opposite.
Pro sports, oh boy, millionaire players and billionaire owners, milking the customers for all they can.
Screw the fans.
Build a new stadium on the taxpayers dime… or else we’ll move.
Build a new stadium while the old one still has 100 million debt to pay.
Beat up some spectators? No problem, it just your culture.
Too many thugs and crybabies who don’t appreciate the opportunity they have.
Too many owners who take the meat in the seats for granted. (Like the DNC treats Blacks.)
Strikes, lock-outs, woman abusers, killers, small time thugs, Jerry Jones, Mark Davis, Steinbrenner, Al Davis, and Kaepernicks in the woodwork. Fire Hank Jr. over BS and keep the PC announcers blabbing away.
I once loved Major League baseball and the NFL, but I’d had enough in the 1990’s.
I still enjoy the Bowl games on New Year’s Day – a sentimental exercise – there’s still something about the Rose Parade and Bowl that I enjoy. Otherwise nothing to see in the NationalBlackAssociation since Larry Byrd retired; the Major Leagues are populated almost entirely by either greedy prima donnas or lackluster timeservers; the PGA by technically proficient drones; the NFL by chemically-engineered hulks (other than some of the quarterbacks – and I do miss Elway); watching soccer at any level is like watching paint dry; I won’t touch the idea of watching any kind of women’s sport – so I guess that leaves the NHL.