{"id":312,"date":"2016-01-31T14:27:20","date_gmt":"2016-01-31T19:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/?p=312"},"modified":"2016-01-31T15:35:55","modified_gmt":"2016-01-31T20:35:55","slug":"cant-we-all-just-get-along-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/2016\/01\/31\/cant-we-all-just-get-along-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Can’t We All Just Get Along?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The truth is, you just never know what you’re going to get when you interview an athlete…Whether it be in the locker room or from the podium, you always need to be on your toes…With all due respect to Dionne Warwick<\/a>, making eye contact is never dull….<\/p>\n

As a journalist, the way you get along \u00a0with the athletes you cover is the measure of your success… You never know what kind and just how much access you’ll have when you cover a team and if you can’t manage the relationship, you’ll get beat on stories and never have their trust…<\/p>\n

Sean Mcadam<\/a>\u00a0of ComcastSportsnet New England joined us at the Boston University sports journalism seminar series along with Boston Celtics players R.J. Hunter <\/a>and Jordan Mickey<\/a> as well as Providence Bruins forward Austin Czarnik<\/a> and it was clear that they have spent time defining their brand(s)…<\/p>\n

Between the three of them, Mickey, Czarnik and Hunter have only two and a half seasons of pro experience…They’re still learning but saying the right things as they learn to deal with the New England Media….They’ve been through league media training and in Mickey’s case, extensive training at L-S-U, a high profile collegiate program…”Put the team before yourself, says Mickey, never mention the “I”. \u00a0Always praise your school, your coaches, whatever organization you’re under at that time.”…Austin is in his second year with the Baby B’s and while the team doesn’t have the tradition post game locker room access he’s up front about agreeing with Mickey…”You throw out your linemates names, like “they’re a huge part of my success, dishing it out” you’re not just taking the credit.”<\/p>\n

But let’s be clear, much of this can lead to pretty boring stuff, making your job, of entertaining as well as informing your audience even harder…Unless of, course your coach happens to be someone like John Tortarella….Having a media savvy person on the team you cover can be a godsend…Even in a negative way…Just ask Larry Brooks <\/a>of the New York Post…<\/p>\n

McAdam understands that all too well, having dealt with any number of players and coaches while covering the Boston Red Sox…Accepted almost universally as the hardest athletes to deal with, McAdam says it’s complicated…”A lot of it depends on how the team is doing. \u00a0My experience is that , not surprisingly, the better the team is performing, the happier the athletes usually are and more likely to open up a bit.”…And as a whole the landscape has changed, says McAdam, “Players are less accessible, everything is a little more managed now. \u00a0There’s less opportunity to talk to athletes on a one on one basis.”<\/p>\n

And that doesn’t even take into account player’s own websites, sites like The Players’ Tribune<\/a>…We’ll deal with that as the semester goes along…<\/p>\n

It’s a unique experience going into any locker room for the first time…Being star struck is very common but besides learning the proper etiquette young reporters may literally come face to face with uncomfortable experiences…Hunter said, “You might walk in and see like 4 or 5 naked people so you kind of have to brace for that but other than that it’s (the Celtics locker room) pretty relaxing…Indeed…<\/p>\n

Hunter gave us one of 2015’s memorable media moments…Not only did his three pointer beat Baylor last year in the first round of the N-C-A-A tournament but it set up a dramatic podium post game speech by his coach and father Ron Hunter…\u00a0\u00a0<\/a>If you were lucky enough to be covering that game, he pretty much did your job for you…And that not often the case…<\/p>\n

Go slowly, tread lightly, learn the rules and remember, they are people too, talented athletically yes, but they were once rookies too…<\/p>\n

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The truth is, you just never know what you’re going to get when you interview an athlete…Whether it be in the locker room or from the podium, you always need to be on your toes…With all due respect to Dionne Warwick, making eye contact is never dull…. As a journalist, the way you get along […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":901,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/901"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":317,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312\/revisions\/317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}