Is It Ok For Players To Duck The Media?

Are you flaming Sheridan? ;)

blows off*

maybe he should do what belichik does and give a very vaguely thorough answer

and bill tries his hardest to say absolutely nothing. i think its funny that sheridan had a hissy fit.

I mainly care about their on court performance.

I feel being wrongly represented by Mr. Sheridan here. It’s not like that Rondo avoids the media all the time. When he doesn’t feel like talking, give him a break.

They intimidate the players soo much that is why they ignore them.
The reporters should be fined $50,000 for being a lame reporter.
What are the rules for reporter?
They will learn when they get ignored.

Great Job RONDO. Let the reporters go and pick their nose.

And only care about what he does on the court and leave the papers to talk about that, then a player like lebron who after one playoff series win cries on the court and rushes over to the reporter talking about how his two buddies came together to beat us after trying so hard their whole careers. Yeah LeBron, we all saw Game 5

These guys are basketball players and shouldn’t have to be media personalities unless they want to. I’m a celtics fan for basketball they can do the talking out on the court.

Of course I’m interested to hear what they have to say but if they don’t want to talk every now and then it doesn’t bother me at all, especially if they’re winning. I know I’m not always in the mood to be interviewed.

A lot of players don’t speak before games, even though they’re supposed to be available, and none of them ever get called out on it. Pierce has skipped talking to the media after a game once or twice this year, and he didn’t get backlash for it. So why is Rondo being attacked now?
Rondo had a rough day, according to KG. He didn’t want to deal with having 30 microphones shoved under his nose. He wanted privacy, and that’s his right. Lay off, Sheridan.

Actually calling for the league to fine Rondo? For missing ONE interview? Wow.

The quotes are usually moronic, but if your contract or the NBA or someone in authority says you are supposed to make yourself available to the press after the game then you should do it. Seems pretty cut and dried to me. I don’t care who the player is. Most of them get paid huge dollars and can spend 15 minutes talking to the press after a game. Suck it up and do your job.

Shouldn’t the players and coaches be doing final preparation getting ready for the game this close to tipoff? The least important thing they should do 45 mins before the game is saying dumb empty things like : " Yeah,, we are just going to come out and play hard"

Rondo let his play speak for him

stand up like a man and take the good with the bad!

For that matter, any reporter who thinks they are owed a qoute from any player can kiss it as well.

Yeah sure, maybe contracts state players have a certain responsibility to speak with the media, but that to me is wrong. My philosphy is simple. If I don’t want to talk to you, I ain’t talking to you. Don’t like it, too bad.

Sometimes I wish we could just get rid of all reporters or media members like Sheridan. Throw them off a cliff or something. Freedom of the press doesn’t mean freedom to harass.

The (27th) Worldwide Leader in sports probably had an “article” in the can and wanted some original language in it to drive up the traffic.. Frankly, he can go suck an egg.

Sheridan article wreaks of the kind of unearned self- importance that makes folks dislike the media and is yet another sign of the decline of sports “journalism”.

It’s part of their job and goes with the territory. Are there parts of my job every day that I dislike and would rather not do? You bet. Do I still have to do them? Yes. And I’m not making anywhere close to the money these guys are. If Rondo wants to spout cliches and make us decide whether or not to believe him, I guess that’s his prerogative, but totally ducking the media? No.

If it’s in their contract, yes. If not, no. I didn’t read all the above posts, but I get the jist that the questions are meaningless as are the answers.

From the past, I don’t know why, but I remember an interview Dave Cowens had after a game. The asked a question, trying to heap praise on Cowens who had a good game and Cowens tried to give an intelligent answer that it was not about him, but about his teammates. They cut him off.

Larry Bird didn’t like to talk to reporters. In college he insisted that if reporters wanted to interview him, they also needed to interview his teammates in which the reporters had no interest. When he came to the NBA he didn’t like the interviews. In one of his books I remember him saying that one time he did interviews and he watched the clock noticing that it took about 10 minutes. He then decided it was easier to do the 10 minutes than spending more time fending off reporters.

I enjoy Doc’s interviews because you get some insight and because of his sense of humor. Player’s usually go thru the motions just to get the reporters off their backs. I don’t know if they still do it, but after home games Pierce and KG did like a press conference. Both were polite, gave answers depending on their mood and KG was great at saying things that were so confusing that one just had to laugh. The questions were often repetitive, but the guys were polite and when they had enough they just looked at each other and one got up and then the other and they left.

If we’re talking here only about post-game interviews, the players are often emotional about the game, they’re tired, maybe they’re hurting and maybe they just want to get out of there and get something to eat. There are crowds around them almost pushing them into their lockers. Maybe the post-game conference is the best way to do it and the players should take turns doing them.

This is much ado about nothing in my opinion.

If we want good answers and insight into the players make a rule that only Jackie MacMullen can do the interviews.

Coming from a cue over at CelticsHub:

I’d like to see the official rules set first about players and speaking to the media. Or else we’d really have nothing to talk about. (which is truly the case)