David Aldridge, Marc Spears, & Etan Thomas debate Kyrie Irving demonization by the media
Nobody had been more vocal over the past few years about Kyrie Irving than Stephen A Smith. Here are a few quotes from him
“Kyrie Irving is saying basketball is not a priority to me…..Kyrie Irving until you want to play, you should retire. Forfeit every penny you make, retire, and go do what you wanna do in regard to these issues that are clearly most important to you”
“We are witnessing one of the most delusional athletes in American history. He’s lost…What it comes down to Kyrie is you don’t want to show up to work. You wanna do what you wanna do, when you wanna do it, how you wanna do it, and then you have your hand out for somebody else’s money.
These takes which have been repeatedly expressed by Stephen A Smith and those of his ilk for the past few years have sparked a national wide demonization of Kyrie Irving.
I sat down with two media giants that I have a great deal of respect for David Aldridge and Marc Spears of ESPN for a debate about the ongoing rift with NBA players and media, the contrast between the old media and new media, what the role of the media should be, and what real effects talking heads like Stephen A Smith, Skip Bayless, Nick Wright, and those of their ilk have on the entire basketball world. Although we disagreed for the majority of the discussion, this was a healthy debate with different perspectives presented. This is the way discussions/debates should be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ix8XD_4t3R0
Etan: I’ll agree with both of you that the majority of the media, whatever bucket you want to include everyone in, do not conduct themselves like Stephen A Smith, or Skip Bayless or Nick Wright or those of that ilk. But they are the loudest voices. And those are the voices that you hear everyday. And those loud voices drive not only the masses of sports fans, but it also impacts the way that journalists write their articles
Marc Spears: Let me stop you right quick. You mentioned that other news outlet earlier (Fox News) they present their misinformation as facts whereas (Nick) Wright and (Stephen A) Smith, they’re just speaking on sports and giving their opinion
Etan: But they are presenting their opinions as though they are facts. Honestly, Stephen A Smith has the same power over the masses that Tucker Carlson has over the Right. They’ll say all the time that Tucker Carlson is not a real journalist, he’s not a real member of the media, but he still has the same media power over the minds of the masses
Marc Spears: Stephen A doesn’t conjur racism
Etan: I’m not talking about the topic, I’m talking about the level of power and influence.
Aldridge: Etan for the sake of the discussion, I’ll accept your comparison. If the argument is these people are on TV everyday therefore, they have a lot of power, therefore, their opinions carry weight. But I will come back to again, with who ? (Laughing) who do they carry all of this weight with ?
Etan: With the entire sports world
Aldridge: But Etan, I would have to disagree with you because it’s not the entire sports world because the entire sports world would include team owners, team general managers, head coaches, players. And nobody has gotten more bad criticism as of late than Kyrie. Let’s use Kyrie Irving as an example. Kyrie just opted in for 37 million dollars and guess what ? When he’s a free agent next year, somebody else is going to give him a big contract. Might be Brooklyn, might not be. But somebody is going to give Kyrie some more paper to play
Etan: You don’t think the narrative that has been repeated by those like Stephen A Smith and those of that ilk has hurt the entire image of Kyrie ? Going from this past year, let’s examine why he was sitting out. During the pandemic and he didn’t want to take the vaccine. He was uncomfortable with the vaccine which a large portion of the country was as well. I had a different conclusion than he had, but I respect his conclusion. Everybody was ok with it until …… he started missing games. Then it was like wait a minute now, we can’t have this. Then you had Stephen A Smith saying oh he doesn’t want to play, oh he doesn’t respect the game and that started creating a narrative where the entire pendulum started to shift completely on Kyrie
Aldridge: Do you believe Etan, if I say I can agree with you on Stephen A Smith voicing his opinion, do you think nobody on the Brooklyn Nets had the same opinion ? Do you think the Brooklyn Nets were saying to themselves yea we would love for Kyrie to play but we respect his position on the vaccine ?
Etan: But nobody on the Brooklyn Nets were carrying the narrative publicly that he was abandoning his team. So once you have a Stephen A Smith who says that repeatedly, then you have journalists who start repeating what Stephen A Smith said, in their articles. Then you have an entire narrative that permeates throughout the entire country.
Aldridge: Etan, I will humbly submit to you that there were a lot of people within the Brooklyn organization who had the exact same position
Etan: I’m not talking about that, I’m saying they weren’t saying it publicly
Aldridge: Their focus was they needed Kyrie to win, they were trying to win championships
Etan: Of course
Aldridge: Ok so that’s my point, they didn’t want to say it publicly but that didn’t mean they didn’t have the opinion. The inference is that only journalists had this opinion no a lot of people had this opinion. They said it yes, but that doesn’t mean that other people didn’t have the same opinion
Marc Spears: A lot of people had the same opinion, I just think Stephen A was just probably loudest with it
Aldridge: So if lots of people had the same opinion….
Etan: I think you’re still discounting the power of the pen whether it’s the power of the pen or the microphone that Stephen A Smith and those of that ilk have. There is power in it, so when you repeat something over and over again there is power in it
Aldridge: Ok there’s power in it, I’m saying the impact of the power I believe is far less, and look we all love sports, we all make our living in sports, all of us love writing, talking, thinking about sports, we’re all fans of sports. But, it’s not the same I don’t believe the power of say the political media. The political press to shape agendas, where a legacy media like the New York Times has an outsized influence on the way the rest of the political press covers things, because people still read the New York Times everyday. That’s way different than I would suggest, any talking head on one of the sports debate shows. Do they have influence ? Yes. Do they have some ephemeral type of power and influence over a certain segment of the population? I would agree. I would again say what is the impact of that power on a player ? I would say does it help shape perception of a player ? Yes it does. I would agree with you. It does help shape perception of a player
Etan: But you don’t think the perception of a player has any impact on a GM, or a President, or a Team, that’s what you’re telling me ?
Aldridge: I would ask you, if you were talking about, who has the worst reputation in pro basketball right now ? I don’t have an answer I’m asking you ? Who do you think has, based on the “media’s” shaping of their perception ? Who has the worst reputation right now ? Kyrie ? Maybe it’s Kyrie. Let’s say for the sake of the discussion it’s Kyrie Irving because of people have killing him because of the vaccine and a lot of other things, let’s just say Kyrie has the worst reputation right now in the NBA. He’s going to be a free agent next year. I defy you to tell me that he’s not going to get paid next year, regardless of this perception of him. If you’re gonna tell me that Kyrie is going to have to take the minimum next year, I would tell you that you are incorrect. Kyrie will not be playing for the minimum
Etan: Thats fair enough, but if you tell me that if he was an unrestricted free agent this year and the narrative that has been created around him wouldn’t have impacted what teams sign him for, I would have to respectfully disagree
Marc Spears: If he can play he can play and will get paid period
Aldridge: Talent wins out Etan you know that
Etan: But listen, Stephen A Smith has been drumming only sign him for a year, one year contract, don’t sign him long term, teams beware, etc etc so you’re gonna tell me that if Kyrie was an unrestricted free agent after hearing this constantly from people like Stephen A Smith, that teams would not be a little more hesitant to sign him for a long term deal than they would for a year which Stephen A Smith has been repeating over and over and over again ? That’s what you’re telling me ? It would have no effect whatsoever?
Aldridge: At some point Etan, the player has to have some responsibility. Yes it’s the vaccine this time, and I’m not questioning his motivation or reasoning, but let’s be honest, he took off games the year before. He just took games off. Now maybe he needed to, I’m not saying he’s wrong to do it. I’m just saying in the middle of the season, he said I need to take a few games off. Ok that’s fine, but there is impact with that Etan.
Etan: But you do understand the double edged sword here when you have an NBA who is embracing mental health in certain aspects
Aldridge: I’m not saying he was wrong to do it
Etan: But this is what I’m saying, there’s a narrative that is created by the media. If the narrative created was that Kyrie was a champion for mental health, and why it’s so important to take care of your mental health to continue the longevity of your …… if that whole narrative was pushed that way, then the entire perception would’ve been different if the games that he took off because he said he needed a break
Aldridge: But it works both ways Etan. When Kyrie said that we shouldn’t go to the bubble, I think a lot of people in the media applauded him for that. A lot of journalists applauded him for thinking about something other than basketball. He was saying we should use this platform that we have in the wake of George Floyd, maybe we should use that for something else other than playing games. Now, I’m not saying that everyone agreed with that, but a lot of people in “the media” as you put it, applauded him
Etan: But also a lot of people in the media and I actually wrote about this,
but a lot of media talking heads called Kyrie dumb, said it was the stupidest thing they ever heard. And this is exactly what the player’s issue is when they say new media/old media. It’s the specific language that is used in order to critique someone
