LaVar Ball started yet another media firestorm over the weekend when he tried to undermine Lakers coach Luke Walton in an interview with ESPN by claiming his players had turned against him.
In the days since, the basketball media has engaged in at least some introspection about how to responsibly cover a figure like Ball, who has made a living leveraging the media to say inflammatory things and generally push his own agenda.
Rick Carlisle was the first to speak out about it, raking ESPN over the coals for allowing him to openly bash an active NBA coach. Steve Kerr chimed soon after, using the opportunity to levy a larger criticism about where our society’s values are today.
Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy took it all a step further by saying he’ll skip his media availability with the network during a game against the Pelicans on Monday in protest.
Via Vince Ellis of The Detroit Free Press:
“I thought it was a cheap shot and I thought ESPN showed total disrespect,” Van Gundy said Monday at Smoothie King Center, where the Pistons will face the New Orleans Pelicans later in the day.
“I don’t have a problem with LaVar Ball. He’s a grown man. He can voice whatever opinion he wants. I got a problem with ESPN deciding that’s a story.”
“I’m not meeting with their announcing crew before the game, I’m not doing the in-game interview,” Van Gundy said. “I’m not going to participate in the thing.”
When pressed if it means he’s threatening to withhold access, Van Gundy said: “I’m not denying them access. I’m not kicking them out of press conferences. They want extra stuff from us and they’re going to treat an NBA coach with that little respect? Then I’m going to choose not to give them extra access”
In the aftermath of Ball’s incendiary comments, most media members quickly arrived at the conclusion — and without much in the way of ambivalence — that pretty much anything Ball says is newsworthy.
It’s something that should’ve sparked a little more existential soul-searching for basketball writers and reporters, given that it’s easy to lose the forest for the trees when mired in the daily grind of covering the league and producing content.
Yet, for Van Gundy and other coaches, it’s probably not the best way to go about this, and he’ll likely earn himself at least a scolding from the league offices, in no small part because of the billion-dollar symbiotic partnership the NBA has with the network to televise its games.
(Via Detroit Free Press)
