Of all the four major sports, basketball brings players into its league at the youngest age…Say what you want about the “one and done” phenomenon, players are coming in as teenagers at a higher rate…Boston Celtics swingman Jaylen Brown visited the Boston University Sports Seminar series last year and was younger than everybody in the class…He was 19 at the time…This time around it was Jayson Tatum, the number three pick in the N-B-A draft, who has yet to turn 20…But besides being high first round picks, they bring a poise and maturity to the game that has not always been the case in first year players…
Tatum has been a star at every level he’s played at…A-A-U, high school, at Duke and now as a member of the Celtics…In fact, both Tatum and Brown have been chosen to play in this years “Rising Stars” game at All Star Weekend… As a member of a very high profile college team, one would have expected Tatum to be used to the media spotlight but I never imagined his interview days went back to elementary school, as he told the students…A-A-U starts players out as early as age seven with travel teams and tournaments…It’s no wonder he’s comfortable dealing with reporters…
Perhaps that comfort translates to an ease on the court because he knows how to handle the scrutiny…There are simply going to come times when you fail, miss a shot or a defensive assignment for example…How you handle those questions speaks volumes…Tatum’s advice to “rookie” reporters, themselves learning how to find their way was telling; “put yourselves in their (the players) shoes and just understand we’re human just like everybody else”…Translation, “we make mistakes too”…As a journalist, your job is to figure out a way to say that without losing the players respect for you doing your job…
Sitting across from Tatum on this night was Adam Himmelsbach of the Boston Globe…Himmelsbach has covered basketball at Syracuse, Louisville, Kentucky and Duke before working the beat of the Washington Wizards…He remembers what it was like to go into a locker room for the first time and remembers when he started it wasn’t reporting about the pros…”Don’t worry about the level of the team you’re covering, said Himmelsbach, everyone should start by covering high school sports, it’s the hardest thing you’ll ever do. Also, read and write as much as you can”
Having spent an enormous amount of time covering all four major sports teams in this town as well as Boston University and Boston College (sorry, Doug Flutie was must coverage during his days at the Heights), I’m constantly bothered by the laziness of reporters and their sloppiness… It was encouraging to hear Himmelsbach tell the class “tell em something they don’t already know”, one of my cardinal rules….And I couldn’t help but smile when Adam responded to my question “What’s worse, talk about that play, what were you feeling or what were you thinking on that play?” with a resounding confirmation of something I have been telling students for years now – don’t be lazy, ask a question, forget stating a long winded premise and expect the athlete to respond so you can fill column inches….it doesn’t work that way…His answer – “Talk about” without question…Hallelujah!…..I actually applaud OKC’s Russell Westbrook for cutting off a reporter who takes the easy (lazy) way out at :47 seconds on this clip…
In these days of “shotgun” journalism, reporters who don’t actually cover the games in person feel they have license to take pot shots at any and all…Dan Shaughnessey of the Boston Globe is without question the most opinionated columnist in Town…But Dan is also fanatical about showing up the day after he writes something scathing…He knows the athlete needs that right to vent….
“I was taught to show up in the clubhouse/lockerroom the day after you’ve knocked somebody. Have tried to honor that.I remember Ortiz calling me out after Game 5 of World Series in St. Louis “Where’s Dan Shaughnessy?”…Pissed me off. I was upstairs on deadline. He tried to make me look like I was hiding….Next night — my night off, I drove to frosty Fenway to be there in the dugout when he emerged to hit…
Me: “David, you need anything?”
Ortiz: “No”
Me: “OK, just wanted you to know I’m here, like always.”
Dan’s way of showing respect for the people he covers…
You have a job to do, the players have a job to do, learning how to respect each other holds the key…Tatum was accompanied to the seminar by Celtics Media Relations Vice President Jeff Twiss who, at one point, asked the students, “If you were studying for a test and twelve people asked you to answer a bunch of questions, how do you think you’d feel (about your preparation being interrupted)”…I think they got the point….It works both ways…
10 Comments
Elizabeth Pentikis posted on February 5, 2018 at 6:33 pm
https://goo.gl/nqYwZo
Ashleigh Shanley posted on February 6, 2018 at 1:32 pm
Learning From the Past:
I would wake up 15 minutes before our call for breakfast. Jump in a hot shower, put on the day’s required apparel I laid out the night before, and slide on my special, aqua Jordan’s. Then I would double check my pack list – two towels, cap and goggles, swimsuits, cough drops, and medicine for my elbow. Next, grab my coconut water, yogurt and granola, banana and head down to breakfast.
That was just the start – the entirety of my pre-meet rituals was a process. For the four years I swam at Duke, I did the same exact routine every meet.
After breakfast when we finally arrived at the pool, I would foam roll, do my shoulder and elbow exercises, check in with my trainer, and get ready for dynamic warm up.
Then would be the regular swim warm up – the same every time – before putting on my sweats, taking my pre-workout and getting ready for the 200-medley relay.
Yes, my coaches said I was a head case – but I had my routine, which I needed to calm any nerves and keep my superstitions at bay. But it worked – every meet, I showed up, performed well, and was reliable.
And that was just for college swimming…
My personal experience could be why hearing Jayson Tatum’s opinion about pregame interviews struck a chord with me.
In college, interviews have to wait until after the game. Let the college athletes get in their mindset, and have time to themselves. But in the pros – interviews take place before and after the games. Tatum mentioned that not many players like doing the pre-game interviews because they have special game day routines.
“We’re human just like everybody else,” he said. “Put yourself in our shoes.”
I was once in Tatum’s shoes – at a much, much lower level – and if someone were to mess up my routine, it would completely through me off and would probably irritate me.
However, now as an aspiring sports reporter, this particular aspect of the athlete-media relations stuck with me.
On the media side of the story – part of what professional athletes get paid for is to talk to the press. But as a former athlete, I understand they are still competitive, humans that have their special rituals to prepare for each game.
This is where Celtics’ beat reporter Adam Himmelsbach’s advice became helpful. He said athletes know we’re trying to do our jobs, and they’re doing theirs and everyone respects each other – but with that, listen to what is going on, be prepared, and respect everyone’s time.
Yes, at the collegiate level there is a reason pre-game interviews do not take place – those athletes are still learning how to focus and prepare before tipoff.
However, as an athlete, once you leave the schoolyard and join the big leagues – you somewhat give up the right to you structured, superstitious ritual. There is a reason we call the leagues ‘professional’– they must learn to prepare quickly and always be ready to perform.
Coming right out of college I thought it was unfair to force professional athletes to do pregame interviews, and believed it would cause athletes to hate the media. However, as I transition to a sports reporter, and here from professional athletes and journalists about the player-media relations – I find it comforting to hear from Jeff Twiss, the VP of Celtics media relations, sag that there is a mutual understanding between the two, and they each try to make the interviews and reporting a win-win situation.
Overall the athlete media relations change on every level. College athletes get the freedom of their pre-game preparation, but they can never really say no to the media. On the other hand, the professionals do not have as much freedom in their preparation, but on any given day can refuse an interview. Then the media is stuck balancing doing their job, and respecting athletes as humans. Will my past help me better understand where athletes are coming from or will I be overly sensitive? I guess time can only tell…
Alanna McDonough-Rice posted on February 7, 2018 at 10:46 am
During the conversation with Jayson Tatum, Adam Himmelsbach, and Jeff Twiss, I learned something completely different than I expected. Each had their own opinion on sports journalism and reporters, but there was one over arching message- each person (player, Media Relations Vice President, and reporter) is just trying to do his or her job. In the business of sports journalism, the main thing to focus on is respect.
Himmelsbach had a lot of great insights into the job, but the one that surprised me the most was his point of view on his job. He told us that you don’t become a sports journalist because you love a specific team, you do it because you love journalism. I originally thought that most sports journalists would be interested in the job to follow their favorite team and get to write about them constantly, but Himmelsbach leaves that to the fan bloggers. “My parents call me and ask if I’m upset when the Celtics lose,” Himmelsbach said. “I just shrug my shoulders. I don’t really care about the game. I can’t get emotional.”
Himmelsbach has a lot of experience doing sports reporting from high school through NBA level. He said each level has its pros and cons and its challenges, but if you love journalism- each level is equally rewarding. At the high school level, he said it was rewarding because kids would run up to him and ask for a story or he would be the only person covering the games, so people were excited to get their story told.
Tatum, who has been interviewed since he was a kid in AAU basketball, was insightful on how the players feel. Reporters have to put themselves in the player’s shoes to understand their point of view. What struck me most was when Tatum said, “We’re human just like everyone else.” Sometimes it’s easy to get lost in the job and the deadlines and forget that the players are doing their job too, so reporters really do need to remember the players are humans trying to do their best as well.
I think Twiss had the most interesting piece of information for us though. He gave us insight on how the players feel. “Imagine you have an exam in an hour and people are in your face not letting you prepare,” Twiss said. “How would you feel?” As a BU student, I can definitely relate to that feeling, but as a sports fan- I’m always so excited and happy about the game that I sometimes (always?) forget how stressful it must be for the players.
I think having Himmelsbach, Tatum, and Twiss gave us a full view of a sports journalism career. The ups, the downs, what should and should not be done, and how the emotional side of things work. Players, reporters, and media relations VPs alike all hate “tell me about that play,” and thankfully no one in this class will ever use that in an interview now.
Andrew, Matt, Nicole, Taylor posted on February 7, 2018 at 10:59 am
Around the Shorr Episode 2:
https://youtu.be/fHtstmffxvE
Jane Rose posted on February 7, 2018 at 1:32 pm
Sports journalists have sustained a reputation of simply being overzealous fans with a keyboard. And maybe this is a fair conclusion to come to if you only know the big opinionated personalities in the business that have the following. This week in our sports seminar, the Boston Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach hit the nail on the head with his advice broaching this topic, “Don’t cover it because you’re a fan, do it because you want to be a journalist.”
This really struck a chord with me.
Just this summer at my internship back home at the Buffalo CBS affiliate, I was talking to an anchor about a sports reporter when she said what so many might think, “At first, I thought he was just another sports jerk (she used another word) who could only tell me stats on players and not anything else.” She was then surprised by how much the reporter actually researched for hours before each game.
I won’t lie, I started this journey because I was a fan and I thought that doing this for a living would be just like how it’s been watching from home for the past fifteen years. But I quickly learned that just being able to rattle off numbers and players was not going to get me where I wanted to go. I’ve learned that this is so much more about informing people and telling them something they don’t already know.
A lot of people could get into this for the wrong reasons, and Adam touched on that. Maybe some people want to cover their favorite teams. But if you aren’t a journalist first and foremost you’re never even going to get to that level. Covering high school sports that might seem irrelevant is something he strongly suggested. It’s a humbling start for anyone who wants to cover the pros for sure.
When speaking with Adam afterwards he said that people often ask him if he drinks beer while watching the game. We laugh, but outsiders truly believe that covering sports is the same as going to a game as a fan. Little do they know how one quickly one stops being a fan when they have to study each and every play for a paycheck (and most likely a meager one at that). For the fact that so many venture into sports journalism because of what avid fans they are, I’ve learned that most eventually have that stripped away from them. It sounds cynical but the sentiments of teams and players eventually fade.
This idea of fans reporting was also brought up by our other guest, Celtics small forward Jayson Tatum. I have always wondered if players can really tell when an interviewer doesn’t know what he or she is talking about and he made it clear that they can. Between this comment and how he loses respect for reporters who freak out over meeting superstar players, I can think of a lot of people who should not be in this business. It also reinforced for me just how informed and calm one should be when entering a locker room. If a person messes one of these up and loses his credibility, it’s going to be nearly impossible to get it back.
I think coming into this as a fan first will force me to work hard so that I never lose the respect of players, because, like Tatum said, they are only human too. But I would like to think that actually wanting to be a journalist more will help me earn that respect.
Jessica Citronberg posted on February 7, 2018 at 5:12 pm
I liked the contrast between all three of our guests, Jayson Tatum, Adam Himmelsbach, and Jeff Twiss. Athlete, journalist, and media relations are all very important parts of sports journalism, and it was great to hear from all points of view.
I’m definitely more knowledgable of the journalist side of things. It’s about getting the story and submitting on deadline. But then you look at it from Tatum’s perspective. The athlete, who is also just trying to do his job, isn’t focused on giving you a good quote or even talking to you before tip off. He’s focused on the game.
Another thing about the discussion though. I totally understand that both Twiss and Tatum have jobs to do, but I felt like they were a little one sided about the matter. Yes, when I have a big test coming up, I don’t want anyone to bother me. But I’m a regular college student, not a professional athlete. When you get into that type of line of work, I feel like you have to know that journalists want to talk to you beforehand. And I also understand that journalists should be respective of their space, but it was just kind of a hypocrisy I noticed in the discussion.
I picked up on a similar topic that Alanna discussed in her post, where Adam was talking about fandom and sports journalism. You don’t become a sports journalist because you’re a fan of a team, you do it because you love journalism. That was something I’ve felt but never realized that I felt, if that makes sense. (It might not). I love sports, but my fandom isn’t the reason I want to be a sports journalist. First and foremost as a career, I love journalism. I also happen to be a sports fan.
I think the three of them together was a great choice, because we got every angle of the business from them.
As a response to the blog post, I think another aspect I learned from Adam and Jayson was about questions you ask athletes, and you should always know what you’re talking about. And, you shouldn’t waste an athlete’s time by saying, “walk me through that play.” There’s so many better ways of using your time to talk with an athlete than that.
Laura Guerriero posted on February 7, 2018 at 10:10 pm
If I had to give this seminar a title, it would be “How to Avoid Looking Like a Fool When Reporting.” As a college student who has no experience in a locker room interviewing players, it’s important to learn what to do, as well as what not to do, so that when that first interview comes around, you don’t end up looking like an absolute fool.
Growing up, all I seemed to hear on TV were the same tired “questions” of “talk about X” and “what were you feeling/thinking.” As soon as Adam Himmelsbach of the Boston Globe answered and talked about how he and his fellow reporters joke about those kinds of questions, it immediately reminded me of the previous week’s seminar when we discussed the importance of standing out. Lazy questions equate to lazy work, and when half of your job is to ask questions, you do not want to look like a lazy reporter. It’s not just about how to get a job, it’s about keeping that job and producing work both you and your employer can be proud of.
Another point I took away from this seminar was the importance of building a rapport with players. As Jayson Tatum said, players are human too. When I write for the FreeP, I find it much easier and much more comfortable interviewing coaches when I talk to them outside of the five-minute postgame interview. I would assume the coaches would feel the same.
I feel reporting in college will be much different than being an employed reporter because in college you’re labeled as a student first and a reporter second, so you’re thought of as being below the coaches and athletics department. When you’re an employed reporter, as Tatum, Himmelsbach, and Jeff Twiss agreed, there’s an understanding that you’re all there to do your job, and for part of that job, you need to work together.
When we learn about reporting and interviewing techniques, we never really get to hear from the perspective of the person being interviewed. Tatum’s “put yourself in our shoes” quote helped give us insight on the fact that as much as it’s our job to interview the players and produce a story, it’s the players’ jobs to win games. If a player doesn’t give the answer a reporter was looking for or doesn’t want to answer questions, it’s not necessarily because the player hates reporters or doesn’t want to cooperate. I feel social media is used to display this idea that there is a rift between players and reporters because the instances of asking the wrong question or saying something offensive are amplified when they are shared and re-shared thousands of times.
This brings me to my final point. Building and maintaining a reputation. It’s important, and it’s harder to do in 2018. Reporters have to be extremely careful with what they ask, post, discuss, etc. because everything can come back to bite you. As Twiss said, it’s possible to come back if you mess up a reputation, but it takes a long time to do so. Being a good reporter is no longer about what you ask and what you write. It’s about how you present yourself on social media and how you present yourself when your recorder or camera is off because you never know who is watching or whose cameras are still rolling.
Jacqui Manning posted on February 7, 2018 at 10:43 pm
When I think of “the athlete and the media” I am constantly reminded of the war waged between Bill Belichick and pretty much every media outlet that exists in Boston. Belichick has a natural distrust and disdain towards answering reporters questions, and while most of the time his attitude can be described as a bit overdramatic, I think it is the perfect example of the root problem between the relationship of the athlete and the media….
Each part of the relationship believes that they have to protect the job they are doing. For an athlete, or even a coach, this job is winning games and giving the ultimate performance. For a journalist, it’s getting the story out there. Now, conflicts can arise when you ask “what is the story?” This is where my concerns with sports journalism currently lie.
I would love to go back to the days where sports journalism was about the game, the statistics, and the plays. However, this is not the world we live in. EVERYTHING is a 30-second sound bite, tweet, and instagram story. I will be the first to say those are the types of stories I read, because it’s entertaining. The problem with that though, is that journalists are constantly asking questions looking for a “click bait” response. This is why Bill Belichick is such a jerk to the press, and this is why there is a strained relationship between the athlete and the media.
I thought Adam and Jayson had some good commentary on how to relay this problem. Jayson said it best “remember we are humans,” and Adam gave some great insight on how he gains the respect of the players and the locker room. Jayson also made me laugh when Professor Shorr asked “how many times do you think ‘wow I just answered this question'” and he said “all the time.” Sports journalists have to do their homework before they go into a room and find the question the athlete hasn’t been asked before. My only problem with hearing these two talk, is how programmed the locker room press time is. Adam is a pro, he can build relationships and he knows what he is doing, but when your access is so limited, so edited, how do you get the raw stuff? I’m not sure I have the answer nor do most journalists, but it really has me thinking… would sports journalism be so limited and strict if we didn’t put athlete’s on such a pedestal? It’s like Jayson said, they are just humans. But then again, the love for the game makes people passionate and excited, people want to read about the underdogs and feel like they are a part of something. Which makes me think about one of Adam’s last points, you have to go into sports journalism because you love the sport.
Now, to be honest, I really had never thought “do I like sports journalism because I like to write about sports, or because I like one particular team.” While I don’t have a straight-forward answer to how to ask the questions not asked, I think part of it has to do with passion. You have to really love writing about basketball, like Adam Himmelsbach, to be a great sports journalist. You can’t just go into this field because you love the Celtics. Chances are, you probably won’t write for the Celtics, and if you do get so lucky, it’ll be take a lot of work. I think right now too many people are trying to be sports journalists for the wrong reasons. It’s about knowing even your best work might not be seen anywhere besides in a high school newspaper, but it doesn’t matter because of how much you love writing about sports. That is what makes great journalists, and that is what will gain an athlete’s respect.
Shane Rhodes posted on February 8, 2018 at 12:00 am
I thought Adam Himmelsbach touched on some important subjects, including the fact that if you are courteous to your interviewee they are more likely to talk to you in the future. Echoed by Jeff Twiss, a member of the media services team for the Celtics, if you treat the players with respect, they will in turn respect you and give you the best possible answer they can, even when a reporter begins asking the tough questions.
On the flip side, Jayson Tatum provided the players perspective; while some reporters may ask dumb or unnecessary questions, it’s better to let them down gently than to outright slam them. Again, respect yields respect from the people you have to deal with on a regular basis. And the players know that, just like them, the reporters are there because they have a job to do. If you’re direct, both reporter and player can leave and be home sooner rather than later.
If you are a reporter don’t meander around a certain subject; be direct with your question and always make sure you are in fact asking a question. Avoid “walk me through”s or things like “what did it feel like.” Asking questions like that is not only a waste of your own time but a waste of the players time as well. If you start to waste their time, you’re essentially cutting yourself off from future access; no one wants to trudge through boring non-questions when doing their interviews and, if you do it once, you’re likely to do it again.
Another aspect of reporting that is important is going into a game you are covering not as a fan, but an actual reporter. If you go in as a fan, your questions are likely to be swayed by your emotions following an event, whether good or bad, and that can have a trickle-down effect on the whole process. Always remember to remain impartial, if not objective in what you’re trying to do.
Matt Dresens posted on February 8, 2018 at 12:49 pm
I really enjoyed the seminar and I loved a lot of the points that were made by all three guests.
My favorite part was (as pointed out in the recap) Adam Himmelsbach’s comment on the “talk about it” type “questions.” I put it in quotes because it’s not even a question. It’s a command. The journalist’s job is to ask questions to get answers, not command people to talk. I have always hated when reporters do that and it happens all the time.
Another thing I see all the time in covering games (college hockey), is the number of lazy reporters. There have to be 10 to 15 reporters in every press conference after the game and out of that group, maybe three or four will ask questions. Everyone still has a story, but they all have the same exact quotes.
Shifting to Jeff Twist, seeing the difference between him and a college SID is astounding. A lot of times the college SID’s I’ve been around seem uninterested in helping and are more focused on their own job. Jeff seemed very open to trying to help each individual reporter get access and time for interviews. Its no wonder that he was the only one to survive the purging Rick Pitino did to the Celtics organization. He also seemed much more communicative and sociable.
I thought Jeff made some excellent points in regards to how to go about talking to an athlete before and after a game. I also thought a lot of it seemed pretty simple and common sense – give them their space and realize they are human too.
Overall, the best point that was made all night was by Adam, who basically said you should get into this business because you love journalism, not because you love sports. I originally started way back in 8th grade “covering” the men’s hockey team on my own blog. Covering is a very loose term, I didn’t actually go to a press conference or anything until a few years ago, but I did develop a love for writing about the game, not just going the game and writing about it. It’s really what made me want to get deeper into journalism. I love the stories that can be told from sports. They are unique to their little world, but in a lot of cases, they can bleed into other aspects of news, as well.
I thought Jason was good, but he said a lot of things I think I already knew or could have figured out from being an athlete of my own. Like he said, no one wants to have a mic shoved in their face and asked: “Why’d you miss that shot.” I think its pretty obvious in that circumstance, you have to word your question in a way not to piss off the player who already isn’t thrilled with losing the game or missing the shot. He related this to us (students) taking a test and I thought that was the perfect analogy.
All in all, why are we studying this issue? Well, I think its pretty simple. We all want to find out A) do we really want to do this? Do we really want to ask the hard questions, or to we just want to be that reporter who gets the transcript 15 minutes after the press conference and puts 650-800 words down and calls it a day? And B) if yes, you want to be a real reporter inside the sports world, Jeff and Adam offered some excellent tips as to how to be a great reporter, how to ask tough questions and when to do so.