Off Wing Opinion: A Question From Mark Cuban on Sports Reporting

Off Wing Opinion: A Question From Mark Cuban on Sports Reporting:

Here’s a question from Mark Cuban that I’ll be chewing on for a little while:

I was trying to remember the last time I heard a question from a sports reporter before or after a game or event when i thought to myself “What a great question”. Why ?

I’m struggling with this one.

Well, here’s my take.

First, if you’re in a locker room or a press scrum of some sort, the report is likely on deadline and more focussed on getting the story done and submitted than digging deeply into something or doing research into some complex topic. This is less true of a columnist than a beat guy — but basically, it’s true.

Second, in most cases in these situations, there are multiple people vying for the limited time and attention of an athlete. This makes followup questions and carrying forward a train of thought and digging into it either difficult or impossible.

Third, in many cases, the athlete is also doing other things — dressing, undressing, maybe simply at an interview table unwinding from the game; hence, he’s not giving his full attention and thought to the answers, so the answers aren’t in many cases “the best”, or carefully thought out.

which leads to:

Fourth, athletes learn early on that actually saying what they think gets them in trouble, so unless it’s Brett Hull or Jeremy Roenick, discussions between a journalist and an athlete, especially in a locker room or during post came conferences or at practice scrums, turn into exercises of Cliche 101.

Eric: Daniel, what do you think you need to do to get back into this series?

Daniel: we just need to worry about one game; win every shift, step up our games, work harder and smarter, stop making stupid mistakes. Just put one skate in front of the other and take advantage of our opportunities.

Of course, reporters, on the other side, are so used to Cliche 101 that I think in some ways, they stop trying to get an intelligent answer out of an athlete. You ask things you know will get you a quotable quip or two, bceause you know whatever you ask, that’s what you’re going to get (if you’re lucky). The two sides have trained each other to keep it simple (and to some degree, safe and banal) through long years of practice and watching athletes who forget and actually try to be honest generally get shafted by the press and the fans for doing so….

Remember, Bull Durham is a documentary. Except for the parts that aren’t. Sort of.

I mean, seriously: athletes don’t trust the press (and shouldn’t), the environment is not conducive to intelligent talk, much less probing analysis and thoughtful reflection, neither side really wants to be there talking to the other at the time — one wants to get dressed and do something else, the other wants to get a quote and get the story written. And both know they have to dance this dance, or they’ll get yelled at.

I’d bet most experienced beat writers could write the quotes FOR the athlete and save both sides the hassle, if only the athletes wold trust the reporter to do so. Which they won’t, because the reporter would make them up to be interesting, and the last thing an athlete really wants is to become “interesting” on the other team’s dart board…

What I really wonder about is why Mark Cuban doesn’t seem to understand this… He’s had more than his share of run-ins with reporters more interested in “now”, “fast” and “eye opening” instead of “detailed”, “truthful” or “informative”.

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