T.He’s the only thing we know for sure that the Celtics coach Imeudoka He was suspended for one year by the organization for reasons related to a sexual relationship with another Celtics employee.We now know he was arrested when the employee’s husband was arrested overheard a private conversation with a ring camera and we Might be so know who the other person is. Apart from that, a lot of guesses, assumptions, spins, and very, very about what Udoka did, how much his progress was desired or not desired, or how many people may or may not have been affected by his actions. , some hard facts. As the public salivates for new “information,” some news outlets are tempted to speculate wildly. placing undue reliance on controversial sourcesrelying on rumors and speculation instead of the vetted information that journalists are taught to trust.
Especially bad in sports media. This is usually because the stakes are so low when you’re reporting something as trivial as your game progress. ‘How does Kevin Durant feel about Kyrie Irving?’ It’s a benign problem, and even observing that problem in a superficial way is well compensated for this kind of crap. Except for Durant and Irving, it doesn’t do much damage. Shows a great lack of perspective and discipline. This Udoka story is about sports, but it’s also about work, it’s about relationships, and it’s about the power dynamics inherent in both. And so far, many of the sports-talking institutions have done a terrible job of framing this in a responsible way.
This Udoka’s story is marvelously spoiled in three key areas.
news
I recently wrote about my life’s work. Adrian Wojnarowski and Shams Charania, ESPN, and The Athletic’s NBA Scoopmasters and their respective network roles serve the source’s needs in exchange for tweetable scoops that drive engagement and keep them fed, rather than “reporter moving the beat.” Two very strange men who are ‘information brokers’. Wojnarowski, as usual, broke the news on his Twitter account that Udoka will be suspended for his year.
Wozi’s tweet was quickly followed by a similar tweet from Charania, confirming that Wozi had indeed not reported it. In other words, the team suspended Udoka for a year.
Produced by Carania Outage reporting We confirm that Udoka was being suspended for having an inappropriate relationship with another Celtics employee.
It’s easy to read between the lines here: Woj swiftly tweeted an unconfirmed but highly probable event, relying on someone (probably his agent) somehow connected to Udoka. . Report to stop speculation about events and create Udoka’s buffer.
The problem with this is that if you’re someone’s boss, the boundaries of consent can easily get strained.In an NBA organization, the coach is one of the most powerful people in the building. This means that Udoka’s little cheating adventures within the office are legally fine, but it’s hard to imagine a scenario where that would constitute appropriate boss/employee behavior. Wozi, of course, has no interest in this. He was concerned with the scoop and allowed Udoka to carry water by introducing the word “consensus” into a situation that was ambiguous at best.
analysis
a common refrain Over the past few days, the way the sports media has treated Udoka’s story and how former NFL legend Brett Favre Involved in a scheme to defraud Mississippians out of millions of dollars in welfare funds aimed at the poorest of MississippiThis refrain is catchy on social media, but breaks down on deeper analysis.
First, it’s unfair to sports speakers. Have We talked about Fabre.here Mina Kimesfor example, shred him around the hornSecond, the sports media are in that zone when talking about the sport itself. Udoka’s story, in addition to being a story about work, power and sex, is also a story about what happens with the Boston Celtics. advanced to the NBA Finals after being knocked out in the NBA Finals. The team’s product will no doubt be influenced by the motley crew of assistants who replace him on the sidelines.And thirdly, and most importantly, why would you want Stephen A. Smith to talk about something as important as welfare fraud? He shouldn’t talk. everything It’s important!
“When it comes to petty sports matters, Stephen A. Smith is fine. But the moment something serious happens, he’s just terrified.”
For those who don’t know: Stephen A. Smith It’s a kind of host/take machine/weird vaudeville entertainer at the heart of the . first take, ESPN2’s daily news and views show broadcast daily to all airport lounges and idle open computers in the United States. He is one of the nation’s most prominent and well-known sports analysts.
Now, calling Stephen A. an analyst or commentator is probably literally True, but it’s like calling Jim Ross “The Wrestling Journalist”. Impossible to see first take You can get new knowledge about how sports work. Rather than take it apart, Stephen A. embodies the identity of the collective sport consciousness. cry about the knicks, Dunk to a Cowboys fan. He spreads violent opinions, defend them in the face of believable enemiesand generally behave like a complete weirdo.
When it comes to petty sports issues, Steven A. Smith is fine. [see video above] After the Baltimore Ravens turned Ray Rice back and caught him severely beating his wife in an Atlantic City elevator, he “taunted” women everywhere for men to beat women. couldn’t help but advise me not to do anything.Or when he said so, for baseball, Angels pitcher/slugger Shohei Ohtani should speak english Responded to interviews with US media.
When Udoka’s news broke and Steven A. was asked for his opinion, he didn’t talk about its dynamics, the weirdness of the story, or the huge gaps in information. He instead chose to elaborate on how the Celtics are creating a miasma of ignorance by suspending Udoka instead of firing him straight. Said to be the source of wild speculation about exactly who he had an affair with, he tells something sports-related, and only about sports, with the passion and freshness of a sports take.
Forgiving Udoka and covering up their findings was the old way of doing it, defaulting to protecting those in power and hoping no one would find out. That’s what Robert Thurber has been doing for years. Until Baxter Holmes exposed himWith Udoka being sued and the findings being made public, it’s also kind of a no-go. You seem to have broad approval for this, which is strange at first glance. On the other hand, sacking Udoka and keeping silent about why would have the exact same result.Everyone in the world will wonder why the Celtics fired the coach who just got them to the finals, and they will eventually figure out why and unleash it.Public anger against Udoka When Involving the Celtics in the cover-up.
But Stephen A. isn’t concerned with the actual issue here. His whole mind is devoted to sport as a sport, and all of this is troubling to him, and the best way to deal with troubling things is to clean it up until it’s as little mess as possible.
When ESPN’s sideline reporter Malika Andrews called him about this, he was incredibly rude on-air…a decade.
I’m not asking for Steven A. Smith’s work. But Steven A. and other sportswriters and speakers who have built their careers in total disregard for the world outside of sports are more built on organizational goodness than all.maybe someday first take A hilarious clown, yet self-aware enough host not to inadvertently revive the sexual harassment corporate playbook of the bad times. But I don’t count on it.
gossip
Something else is going on here. Everyone in the NBA information world knows it and nobody talks about it. Matt Barnes, a retired journeyman NBA forward who hosts a podcast about the league, initially responded to the news with something like, “I don’t think he should have been suspended.” And the next day, he deleted that reply and posted a video that he believed was taken while driving, which seems like a bad idea.
Rough translation: I’ve heard some, but I can’t tell you, but I don’t want that last take on the record.
Sports reporters are avid gossip. Stephen A. could argue there was a way to do this in the shadows. Anyone No one knows how rich and stinking the NBA gossip stream can be, Stephen A. Smith. Rumors, stories traded in DMs and media diets, the extreme up shit you hear about having chlamydia, it’s fuel for the entire world of sports information – the fascinating but unreportable underworld.
Sports are usually not that important. But sometimes sports collide with the outside world. At this point, the urge to gossip becomes something odd, with every corner of the column’s space holding up all the eyeballs plastered on ESPN. In the wake of these announcements, NBA players may not be legally allowed into the room where they log into the Celtics’ personnel page and try to find out who Udoka was cheating on. There was a man who didn’t know his wife. This was terrible, but it was also predictable. Sports fandom inevitably involves speculation, innuendo, and assumptions. The reputation of being a “clutch” is statistically nonsense, but the fan’s eye builds it anyway. It’s a grand Jungian playground for deriving the superficial and wild truths of the mind. Harnessing that urge is what made Stephen A’s career.
If it’s just a game, the impulse is good and fun, bad and silly. But when it comes with more serious problems, these measurements can get weird and harmful. Untainted by influence or secrecy, it’s a space that survives in the media and elsewhere until someone finds out something about this Udoka.
