Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Memphis' Will Barton Gets Reality Check
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This was an interesting piece from Jeff Borzello of CBSSports.com about the attitudes of amateur athletes at the high school and college level in the age of social media and the internet.
It in interesting because, as Borzello notes in the piece, it's not the players attitudes that are changing. These kids have always been the way they are. Top players know they're good. The aspect of the recruiting process that has changed is the environment in which they live and play basketball. Everything around them has been amplified because there is so much noise on the internet and with constant, real-time updates on Twitter.
Parents, coaches, and fans say only good things about players, inflating their egos. A reality check like Will Barton got when he was sat on the bench, can be good for a player.
I think it speaks to a larger issue we see developing, particularly in college basketball recruiting, in reference to social media. Fans are becoming recruiters themselves. In no way am I advocating an NCAA crackdown, but the game has changed. Players hear nothing but good things and fans only want to hear good news from reporters. If a reporter has something good to say about a player's relationship to a school, perhaps that he is considering that school, the reporter is regarded as "legitimate". If it is not in that school's interest, fans tend to discredit the source. It has become an echo chamber.
As reporters, we must continue to report truth and remain unbiased. Fans are the ones that need to take the information and use the social medium differently.
Also, as a side note, Borzello is very young, having graduated from college in 2009. He is now one of the main columnists in a group of reporters who make CBS a strong outlet for college basketball news, probably the best in the business. The internet has opened up a lot of opportunities for young writers, and he is an example.
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I think this was a great article to point out. Back when the only outlet of media was newspapers, only a few players actually got featured in print. Now, with blogs and videos and thousands of websites, more players are getting more attention, and I'm sure it goes to their head. They probably see themselves as much more famous and irreplaceable than they really are due to over-exposure.
ReplyDeleteCovering the recruiting scene has always been one of the toughest assignments. I remember when I briefly covered the St. John's men's basketball team in 2003-04, even getting confirmation of verbal commitments was troublesome. Now throw Facebook and Twitter into the equation and it's all the more complicated at times. The bottom line remains -- get the news on the record from the primary source and you've done your job.
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