ESPN’s process is a bit too difficult to swallow
PHILADELPHIA » You don’t have to stray too far down the dial to stumble across “First Take” or any in the litany of homogenous hot-take programs that ESPN trots out on a daily basis.
If you can’t find them on your television, don’t worry. They’re probably on your cell phone. Or in your social media feeds. The Worldwide Leader — still — has the sports world cornered. What it says matters. Who it covers matters. And to whom it shows deference matters.
How else can you explain the shelf life given to Tim Tebow’s minorleague baseball career? Or Lonzo Ball’s rookieof-the-year candidacy? Or Tom Brady and every waking moment of the Deflategate scandal? Or Johnny Manziel’s, ahem, football career?
For better or worse, ESPN decides which players and which teams are popular. Not sure who made those rules, but everyone seems to play by them.
For those reasons, it seemed incredibly peculiar that, from a field of 29 other viable candidates, ESPN elected the 76ers as the first team to which it would dedicate a full day of all-access coverage.
ESPN turned Friday into the Sixers’ day. The network had unparalleled camera angles from the team’s practice facility, behind-the-scenes looks at the players, oneon-one interviews with the coaches and general manager, and seemingly wall-to-wall coverage beginning at 6 a.m. … all of which built toward the Sixers’ amazing 119117 nationally televised loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder in three overtimes.
By gametime, the luster of the network-TV cameras and the bright lights mounted to them seemed to have dimmed for Sixers coach Brett Brown.
“I’m not a fan of it, to be truthful,” he said. “I like living behind closed doors a lot.”
Now that being said, even Brown could appreciate the honor ESPN had bestowed upon his club by hand-picking it for those all-access live feeds.
The Sixers had a winning record in mid-December for the first time in Brown’s five-year tenure, which has featured an ignominious 10-win season, unparalleled roster turnover… and, ironically enough, plenty of ESPN ridicule.
Remember: The Sixers hired a general manager, Sam Hinkie, who employed an innovative way of assembling a roster of talented young players. Some loved it. ESPN hated it. One of the network’s long-time yammering commentators said Hinkie’s behavior “ruined lives.” (Hey, everyone is entitled to their opinion.) And to that so-called expert, Hinkie’s approach was “disgusting” “disgraceful.”
Fast-forward four years, and that same franchise is winning games and winning over fans, selling jerseys and selling out arenas. That same franchise is poised to have its first All-Star Game participant since Jrue Holiday in 2012 … and potentially its first year with multiple allstars since Dikembe Mutombo and Allen Iverson in 2002. That same franchise has two burgeoning superstars, in Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, the kind of players onto which national-television networks like ESPN will glom.
That’s why Brown had no choice but to walk back his initial statement just a bit.
“This is a good thing for the program, a real statement for the program,” he said. “We welcome ESPN under the circumstances as we’re growing. I don’t look at that as, ‘Oh, look where we are.’ I don’t say that. I like the fact that they say, ‘Joel Embiid is an interesting story, a hell of a talent,’ and ‘Ben Simmons, what’s going on with him and the growth of the program?’ I understand why people are paying attention a little bit more now than they used to.”
Winning has a way of altering peoples’ perceptions. And yes, Embiid and Simmons are fun to watch. Still, that doesn’t explain the extent and to which ESPN decided to glorify a team it had vilified for four seasons.
Just imagine, for a moment, the conversations that must have gone down in those editorialboard meetings in Bristol, Conn., in the days that led up to ESPN’s day-long visit.
“Have you ever wondered what meals the Sixers eat at their practice facility? Well, just in case, let’s interview the team’s executive chef!”
“Have you ever seen Brett Brown working out? OK, let’s work around the coach’s schedule so we can get good video of him jogging around the South Philly sports complex.”
“Ben Simmons is from Australia, right? Let’s talk to him about Australianrules football!”
In case you’re wondering, yes, ESPN aired all of those segments. It’s the kind of national coverage the Sixers would have pined for during those loss-heavy Process days.
That’s probably because ESPN was too busy propagating the Hate the Process narrative.