Since taking over as the executive director of the NBPA in July, Michele Roberts has made it abundantly clear that she's willing to speak openly about league issues in the media without mincing words.
So it comes as little surprise that she spoke openly in an interview with Kate Fagan of ESPNW published Wednesday. Specifically, Roberts took aim at the league's current standard for player media availability, coming to the defense of players like Kevin Durant who sometimes lose their cool with reporters.
Roberts explained her displeasure with the current setup at length:
Most of the time I go to the locker room, the players are there and there are like eight or nine reporters just standing there, just staring at them. And I think to myself, 'OK, so this is media availability?' If you don't have a f---ing question, leave, because it's an incredible invasion of privacy. It's a tremendous commitment that we've made to the media - are there ways we can tone it down? Of course. It's very dangerous to suggest any limitation on media's access to players, but let's be real about some of this stuff.
I've asked about a couple of these guys, 'Does he ask you a question?' 'Nah, he just stands there.' And when I go in there to talk to the guys, I see them trying to listen to my conversation, and I don't think that's the point of media availability. If nothing else, I would like to have a rule imposed, 'If you have a question, ask it; if you don't, leave.' Sometimes, they're waiting for the marquee players. I get that, but there is so much standing around.
It sounds as if media obligations will be yet another item to tack on to the list of key discussion points during collective bargaining in 2017, something that seems a certainty.
Prior to last season, the league cut the pregame requirement for players from 45 minutes of availability to 30 minutes and teams have decreased the number of shootarounds they hold, further limiting media time. It's unclear if that can be limited any further, especially given some of the constraints facing media in those situations and the explosion of the league's media rights deal.
It's possible this is further posturing ahead of a distributive negotiation in 2017, but it's also possible the union could look for some reform to how the media accesses players.
