Isaac
Years ago
Shane Heal on sanitised commentary in sport
Shane Heal, on GoldCoast.com.au (NBL needs passion and personalities) has added his thoughts on the state of personalities in the NBL and commented on coach Brendan Joyce's remarks to WA journalist Ross Lewis. His column includes:
When I hear someone interviewed, I want to hear their real thoughts.That's fantastic (and I agree), but where he seems to get off-track is on the Joyce-Lewis incident:
I want to feel their passion, their anger, their excitement and any other emotion that is real.
I can then form an opinion on the subject or if I actually like that person or not.
Basketball needs real people and whether they are the villains, the heart-throbs or the tough men, it will actually create opinions about our players and coaches and people will have a feeling towards them and go to watch them.
The journalist had told the entire state of Western Australia his expert basketball thoughts that day in his local rag, but when Brendan shared his honest thoughts in the media conference, the NBL didn't like it."Sharing his honest thoughts" isn't quite the same as 'demanding that a journalist leave a press conference' in this context. Sure, respond to a journalist's comments if you disagree, but making a demand like that isn't going to encourage the media to cover the league - after all, Lewis' comments weren't abusive, antagonising his audience or entirely without support.
That said, while I disagree with that one part of Heal's column, it's great to see the rest of it. In fact, it's odd that in the last season of the NBL as we know it, we see so much added commentary around the league - the blogs of Rillie and Ng (slightly NBL related at least), audio/video pieces from Skip/Bizzy/BenFitz, Gaze.com.au, AdelaideNow and Rillie/DJRod, the usual extras from Boti, plus new fan blogs such as those by Glockers, a Wildcats fan, a 16-yo fan of the Dragons, etc.
Brings to mind forum-poster HAHA's suggestions that Mark Worthington should shut up on the topic of NewBL teams. In that regard, do we go some way to discouraging player commentary for all but those with the thickest skins, like Heal and
Or in a climate where team owners might rather athletes play it safe in the media to avoid offending sponsors, is there a way to hear more 'real' opinions from the teams we follow?
Chris Anstey used to run a fairly interesting Q&A section on his personal site that I found a bit more insightful than Heal's column or Rillie's (mostly light-hearted) blog. But it was shut down, from memory, because he was concerned about his comments being misrepresented on OzHoops.
If you don't have commentary relating to the above questions, what about listing a few things you've appreciated hearing from public statements by those involved in the league?
The one recent example I can think of was Rillie's comment on the fearful duo of Heal and Daniel Joyce.