This is a function of storytelling muscles being atrophied by years (decades even) of substituting paint-by-numbers transaction gossip for actual performance-on-the-floor-based narratives on new teams/players. - ThreadSky

sethpartnow.bsky.social • 75 days ago

This is a function of storytelling muscles being atrophied by years (decades even) of substituting paint-by-numbers transaction gossip for actual performance-on-the-floor-based narratives on new teams/players.

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I feel like the league really lacks storylines right now. Lebron being titleless, then chasing MJ was such a huge part of the league for years.

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patclearly.bsky.social•75 days ago

It’s the media getting comfortable with the same 3 stars to juice ratings and content for 10+ years.

Also, trying to do more research on this is tough but media access has been curtailed significantly esp post covid.

patclearly.bsky.social•75 days ago

Players may hate it but beat reporters are vital for building storylines. Otherwise we’re just playing telephone. Guys have platforms but they’re very curated and brand aware. We see guys more than ever but have never known less.

gold-en.bsky.social•75 days ago

i’m sympathetic to this argument, but i really do think a lot of it is just that jokic and giannis are not as interesting to american audiences as lebron and curry were, and no NBA/ESPN marketing was going to change that

gold-en.bsky.social•75 days ago

if there's one thing you learn from pro wrestling, it's that no amount of structural support can turn a guy into a draw if the fans aren't on board in the first place

thatpinguino.bsky.social•75 days ago

Well it's not like we saw ESPN try. Amazon made an entire Giannis documentary that was quite good. Dude has a compelling story. The people who used to do reporting and narrative building are largely gone and have been replaced with yelling heads.

basquiatball.bsky.social•75 days ago

The obvious problem is that nobody likes the Celtics being good and there should be rules to prevent that from ever happening again

humblecore.bsky.social•75 days ago

It’s unsustainable, clearly

b-david.bsky.social•75 days ago

I feel like some small part of this is a lot of NBA social media fan culture being more focused on mess and clowning people than celebrating players and their stories. Comparatively I think other sports fandoms create a more fertile ground for storytelling.

garik16.bsky.social•75 days ago

Some of this for sure, but given I see this in other sports too (NHL, MLB, even the UFC), I also kind of wonder if the Leagues themselves have gotten very lazy with their promotion, assuming the storylines will come with no effort on their part and that they don't need to waste effort/money on it.

garik16.bsky.social•75 days ago

It's why we get the LAL/GSW over-coverage or why the NHL for years used to put Buffalo on national TV even when they stunk but wouldn't put on the best teams who were from Canada or why the UFC would let a GOAT flyweight champ be unpromoted because he should've done it himself. Laziness at the top.

boredompeejeterson.bsky.social•75 days ago

The UFC is bad at promoting or at least making stars. Rousey basically forced the UFC to allow her in. Lesnar was already super famous. Conor McGregor was more hyped than most ranked fighters before even being in the UFC.

When they get something interesting, it's pure luck

benjaminrose.bsky.social•75 days ago

Esp when your cba & the escalating costs of the trade market have driven down the transactions.

idgort.bsky.social•75 days ago

Game previews written by phony AI - for profit media wants to spend as little as possible, especially for writing. Why would anything get better? Why talk about the game at hand when we can vibe and argue about takes, goat, MVP, and trade machine? Absolute trash product from ESPN. Shameful

wtevs.bsky.social•75 days ago

there’s a great newsletter for this

kfrown.bsky.social•75 days ago

Folks could simply enjoy my Cleveland Cavaliers and have fun 😊

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