Mike Harmon and Arnie Spanier discuss why LeBron James is RIGHT in saying that NBA coverage isn’t as “celebratory” as other sports leagues’ coverage such as the MLB or NFL. Both Harmon and Spanier bring up load management and the negative connotation associated with how NBA players treat sitting out games.
Mike Harmon:
“I loved this quote from the salacious LeBron James, Stephen A. Smith tale, because it’s more speaking to the larger point that’s been made a lot with the NBA this year and Adam Silver talking about it, saying, “sometimes it seems that in other sports that I’m a fan of. And when I watch the coverage, particularly around the games, it seems more celebratory often than it is with the NBA and I accept it.””.
Arnie Spanier:
He’s right about that. He won that 100%. We do get on players in the NFL, but yes, it’s more celebratory. And in the NBA, we’re a lot more critical. I think a bunch of reasons. One, we enjoy the NFL more. We enjoy football more than the NBA with all this load management, puts us in a bad situation to begin with...It just feels like they have a disconnect with the fans out there. That’s why it seems like there’s a lot of fighting going on with the NBA and the media.
Mike Harmon:
“Well part of it is if the people that are on your broadcast continually tell you how poor everything is, right? It becomes reinforced right? And it becomes the talking point that you go out repetition of the product is bad. The team is bad. The style of play is bad becomes the echo chamber. And that’s how people then perceive it.”