An Open Letter to NBA Media

Don’t forget to enjoy basketball.

(Photo via - Mitchell Davis)

To NBA media and basketball fans,

Mainstream professional basketball discourse is dying a slow and painful death. This year’s NBA season has been marred by a litany of negative headlines primarily stemming from those covering the league, rather than those actually playing or working in it.

A core tenant of both journalism and professionalism is that you should refrain from making the story or events about yourself. This March, Stephen A. Smith misused his multiple media platforms in order to tear down LeBron James on what was akin to a movie press tour. The issues were thought to have arisen as a result of Smith levying disparaging comments towards James’ parenting skills during a late-January segment of ESPN’s First Take, following a poor on-court outing from LeBron James Jr., or Bronny. That is what Smith informed his audience that the issues stemmed from, which is partially true. James issues with Smith did stem from those comments, but Smith went on to state in an impassioned rant on his podcast that he “never liked LeBron James” and that he has had problems with James dating back over a decade.

Stephen A. Smith (Right) and LeBron James (Left) regarding one another prior to their public feud escalating.

(Photo via - Keith Birmingham-Pasadena Star News/Getty Images file)

Over the course of LeBron James’ 22-year NBA career, Stephen A. Smith has risen up the corporate ladder at ESPN thanks to his and Skip Bayless’ pioneering of a now all-too-common style of espousing purposely inflammatory hot-takes in order to garner attention, television ratings and now social media engagement. The commercial success of ESPN’s grifting hot-take machines has resulted in the network inundating their viewers with troughs filled to the brim with narrative slop while other league broadcasting partners follow suit.

Throughout this period and to this day, Smith continues levying unfair and uniformed criticisms at LeBron James, such as snidely claiming on a live, nationally syndicated broadcast that James intentionally did not attend both the statue unveiling of his former teammate, Dwyane Wade, and Kobe Bryant’s memorial service following Bryant’s untimely death, alluding to James’ selfishness. Both gross accusations were easily refuted as with the former, James was with his son at the Mayo Clinic as Bronny underwent open-heart surgery, and with the latter James was confirmed to have been in attendance of Kobe’s memorial service by the LA Times, the Washington Post, Entertainment Tonight and several attendees.

Feb. 24, 2020, Staples Center hosted a public memorial service following the tragic passing of Kobe and Gianna Bryant.

(Photo via - Etienne Laurent-EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

Over the course of one of the greatest careers in the history of sports, the face of ESPN has continually attempted to downplay and tear down the achievements of the NBA’s most important figure, while being motivated to do so by a repulsing combination of personal profit and his own disdain for the man. His behaviors have emboldened others to follow suit, damaging the NBA as a product despite the NBA and ESPN being engaged in what should be a symbiotic relationship.

The point of the media’s relationships with the NBA is to cultivate a meaningful relationship between the product and the fans. Fans are less likely to engage with the product when every time they hear media coverage about the product it is primarily about how today’s product is inferior and how today’s greats pale in comparison to their predecessors. That particular phenomenon is not entirely new. The players of the 70s denigrated the players of the 80s, the players of the 80s maligned the players of the 90s, the players of the 90s belittled the players of the 2000s. The NBA has been stuck in a vicious cycle of blistering mockery in which the worst players of the current era are held up for comparison against a mythologized version of eras past for as long as it has existed.

The most poignant modern example is Shaquille O’Neal, who goes out of his way to insult modern players in a particularly demeaning fashion for millions of viewers. It is one thing to be condescending and rude, but Shaq does it while being willfully and entirely uninformed on the subjects he insults. On TNT’s Inside the NBA, he outright tells people not to watch certain teams because “they suck,” despite those teams being both competitive and engaging. He will claim that certain coaches are doing good or bad jobs while not being aware what team they are coaching, openly proclaiming that X coach is doing a good job with Y team despite X coach being employed by team X. When called out for his ignorance he proudly exclaims “I don’t even watch them! They aren’t good enough for me to watch them!”

It disappoints me to no end that the most mainstream NBA media figures are willfully ignorant and intentionally disrespectful towards the players and the product. ESPN and TNT’s NBA coverage has become so wildly overgeneralized and uninformed that it has done potentially irreparable damage to the league as a whole. The nuance of the game is rarely discussed on television, gameplay is rarely discussed, plays are rarely discussed, most teams and players are never discussed. Instead, we get hours upon hours of pointless discussion like “Alex Ovechkin is having a great season in the NHL. What does this mean for LeBron’s legacy?”

Since the Super Bowl (Feb. 9, 2025), ESPN’s First Take has had more than twice as many segments about criticisms of Lebron James than they have about the NBA’s two current best teams combined.

(Data via - First Take Spotify/YouTube)

(Graph via - Mitchell Davis)

It does not have to be this way. ESPN dutifully covers the NFL, providing thoughtful and clearly informed commentary about the league, albeit they do occasionally lean into manufactured hot-takes but even in those cases the topics are primarily discussed rationally and intelligently by overly qualified personalities. There isn’t a shortage of informed basketball commentators or media personalities. People like Kenny Beacham, founder of Enjoy Basketball, and Zach Lowe, recently fired ESPN writer and broadcaster, routinely celebrate the sport in a fitting manner, provide fair criticisms when need be and grasp a firm understanding of the topics the cover while being entertaining. Unfortunately, those are not the people who represent the NBA’s broadcasting partners, but that can change.

To those with the influence to shape narratives on an international scale, congratulations on your paychecks, but the league is in a worse place now than it was prior and it isn’t the fault of the current players, the most skilled group of basketball players in the sport’s history.

To those with the influence to usher in more competent and informed broadcasting talent, the talents are out there and you have the power to empower them, to elevate them, to amplify informed voices.

To those with the aspirations and ability to succeed the current eldest generation of broadcast talent, keep going. In time you will be given the chance to right the wrongs of the previous and current generations.

To all fans of basketball, former or present, enjoy basketball.