I’ve been watching the nba for 7 seasons now and have always followed it by watching games and media coverage, mainly espn coverage and some fox sports. I was always fascinated with the coverage because it was so entertaining and my first exposure to American sport media, as a Brit out sports coverage is a lot less focused on entertainment and more about the Xs and Os.

But anyway the last 2 seasons or so I’ve been really losing that feeling of entertainment when watching and more, I felt like these guys on tv can’t be watching the same game. ie the Westbrook lakers era, we all saw how everything was being pinned on Westbrook and he was being clipped every single day, but if you watched the games he wasn’t an absolute negative on the court, it just wasn’t the right fit.

The media is more focused on narratives, putting guys against eachother as hero’s and villains and only highlighting a few players (mainly Lebron.)

It’s annoying as all it takes is a look at espn or sports centres ig comments and you’ll see s clip of one bad play from a player and everyone is up in arms, like the Jaylen brown left hand stuff. It’s funny to a point, but it’s like that became the big joke of the summer, but the guy averaged 26.ppg and is an integral piece on his team.

It’s just a breeding ground for casual viewers, and that’s not to talk down the casual viewer, but surely the media should aim to inform the casual viewers of who to look out for and who’s playing good, but it’s just a machine that creates constant drama. I think it totally undersells the talent in the league, because if you’re not on a team that’s getting coverage, they’re not gonna know you like that.

It’s just trash and my viewing of the league this season has been so much better without it.

Really tried to not go on a stephen a smith rant but I couldn’t talk espn and the media without talking about Mr “how do I create a racist narrative”. Look I get it, there’s a lot of racial injustice in the world but my god I can’t listen to the guy whine when a white coach gets hired over a black coach with no experience. Every single time he boils it down to oh it’s racism. It’s not. And his constant need to tear down players while professing over and over “he’s a great brother, I love him”. It’s just unprofessional to be claiming these relationships to players that players always come out and say he doesn’t have. The guy is a clown and very very rarely actually says anything of value.

I’m just happy more and players and former players are building their own platforms to actually talk about the sport.

And please if you’re still consuming that shit, at very least ask yourself if it adds anything of value to the viewership.

Tldr: espn and mainstream media are ruining the nba product and actually watching games is the best way to find out the guys on tv don’t watch the games