Mina Kimes, Pablo Torre on sports media criticism from athletes: ‘They want public relations’

LeBron James announced earlier this week that he would be leaving social media “for the time being,” doing so just minutes after sharing an Oct. 24 post from NBA agent Rich Kleiman, about how negative sports media coverage has become.

Kleiman, who represents Kevin Durant, another NBA superstar who often gets agitated with sports media members, wrote that it “confuses” him why “some in sports media still think that the best way to cover sports is through negative takes.”

“We can all acknowledge that sports is the last part of society that universally brings people together. So why can’t the coverage do the same? It’s only click bait when you say it,” Kleiman wrote. “When the platform is so big, you can make the change and allow us all an escape from real life negativity. I for one find it all a waste of breath. The Olympics and JJ [Redick] and Bron’s show was the future of what this can and should all be.”

The push and pull between the sports media and the athletes they cover has become more volatile in the social media age. It’s led to a push for a “new media” in the NBA and elsewhere where athletes host their own podcasts and create their own media companies with the intention of controlling their narrative and sharing what they deem to be the truth.

One person’s ‘negativity’ is another person’s ‘reality that you wish wasn’t made public.’

On Friday’s episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out, host Torre was joined by ESPN’s Mina Kimes and Meadowlark Media’s Dan Le Batard. The trio discussed athlete criticism of sports media and what it really represents.

.@PabloTorre on LeBron’s recent criticism of sports media:

“This is the consequence of the biggest tent in America. The whole point is you actually want people with elementary-levels of understanding of the sport that you have mastered to care and presume they can do it because… pic.twitter.com/vnDNlbkZD6

— Pablo Torre Finds Out (@pablofindsout) November 22, 2024

“People who are on television, or the people like, even us, I think they’re objecting to how ill-informed it is when all you can do, all the information you got is, ‘Ah, you’re a choker,'” said Le Batard. “And I understand how all of us, if we walked out into a community full of people outside of whatever show we did and they arrived with lazy criticisms, we’d object to that more than we would to good criticism.”

“What you’re saying is a fair point, right? Like, would you ever expect somebody who is doing PhD level work to hear the criticism of somebody who can barely understand it on an elementary level and not feel justified resentment? And I think this is where the unfortunate reminder, the unfortunate caveat to all of this must be made, which is that this is the consequence of the biggest tent in America,” said Torre. “Like, the whole point is that you actually want people with elementary-level understandings of the sport that you have mastered to care and presume that they can do it, because that is actually the business you have chosen. It is not the business of media, it is the business of the spectacle.

“I just don’t think we can ever solve that frustration. It’s actually part of why you get paid so much money.”

Kimes then shifted focus to the Kleiman critique and what the NBA agent is truly asking for in his post.

“I don’t think Rich Kleiman is arguing in favor of more educated criticism,” Kimes said.

“But when he’s talking about the JJ Redick and LeBron podcast, what he is clamoring for there is an expertise of an elevated level when talking about sports,” responded Le Batard.

“Sure. But also saying, you know, why can’t it be more like the Olympics? The Olympics is human interest stories,” said Kimes. “People who work for athletes, by the way, you know, now especially now that they control a lot of the media around them, particularly have replaced a lot of the actual journalism being done with their own self-produced documentary shows, whatnot. They want public relations, which is…fine. You know, like there is obviously space for things that are made by people about themselves, which is what public relations really is.

“I don’t think that critique is coming from a value perspective so much as it is from a business perspective, if that makes sense.”

Torre capped the discussion by calling out what Kleiman’s ulterior motive might have been with his post, noting that the issue might not be with the media writing negatively about athletes but instead with athletes not serving up negativity themselves.

“The irony of Kevin Durant’s agent being like, we need to be less online,” said Torre. “It’s like, dude, just call him up, just call Kevin yourself.”

[Pablo Torre Finds Out]