With The Last Dance documentary airing early on ESPN during the Coronavirus pandemic, it has opened up the debate on the mentality of 1990s NBA players against the players of today.
On Wednesday, that discussion was continued on Get Up when Stephen A Smith talked about the way some of the players in the NBA interact with the media on a night-in, night-out basis and referred to some NBA players as soft as putty:
This quote was part of an interesting discussion between Smith and Jalen Rose moderated by Mike Greenberg about how today’s players would do in the era of basketball where Michael Jordan won 6 NBA Championships with the Chicago Bulls. Rose was a part of the 1998 Indiana Pacers squad that forced the Bulls to a Game 7 in the Eastern Conference Finals that season.
You don’t get the full exchange in the video, but the conversation further dove into how much social media has played a factor in the generational divide for players in this era compared to the 90’s. Remember, today’s players have to deal with criticism constantly as the 24/7, 365 media cycle keeps churning along.
Before Smith gave the soft as putty comment, Rose talked about how social media can play a factor for today’s athlete:
“Having multimedia and social and all of these different platforms that your family, friends, staff, managers, agents have access to the information that is said about you, they become instigators in their own way,” Rose said. “Did you see what such and such said about you, wrote about you, posted about you? Now it’s almost like I got to defend myself and you forget you are a professional and it becomes a part of what you do for a living and why you make the big bucks.”
It’s safe to say that whenever you hear Stephen A Smith speak, you are going to get the passion and information in any topic he talks about, as headlined in Demetri Ravanos’ article on what we can learn from Smith earlier this week here at Barrett Sports Media. In addition to that, he can throw advice in there to help others as well:
“To the players themselves, do what you can to cultivate relationships with people that you would like to disseminate your message as opposed to relaying on your hanger-ons who no one in the media will trust anyway,” said Smith on Get Up.
“To the media, be fair, be human, and outside of that don’t give a damn about what anyone has to say. Move on. Period. I do it everyday and I do it quite well.”
This topic is one that ESPN could do a whole hour on and cover all sports, but it was good to see a former athlete and a prominent media member talk about the contrasts in era while also trying to help today’s players in the process.
Story provided by BSM contributor Ricky Keeler. Follow him on Twitter @Rickinator555.
