Perchance to dream, to dream of a team

There have been many iconic sports teams throughout history, but one of the most iconic is the 1992 men’s Olympic basketball Team which was nicknamed the Dream Team. The Dream Team made history when they were assembled because it was the first time the U.S. had sent professional players from the NBA to compete in the Olympics. Up to that point the United States had only sent college players while the rest of the world had always been sending their pro league players. What made the U.S. picking this year to send pro players was special because the Dream Team consisted of players who are all widely considered to be some of the best players in basketball history, minus Christian Laettner. He was only there because the Olympics required the Dream Team to have one college player as a nod to the past U.S. Olympic teams that had consisted of amateur and college players.

He had a very forgettable performance only averaging around 7 minutes and just under 5 points per game. He was notorious for being arrogant and egotistical on and off the court. There was a documentary made titled I Hate Christian Laettner on ESPN’s 30 for 30 series. Other than him the team felt like a team you’d see on a fantasy sports or a created team in a video game. Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, John Stockton, and Scottie Pippen are just some of the iconic names from this team. With a team like that it’s no surprise their average margin of victory was right at 44 points per game. It was not all smooth sailing. Isiah Thomas, who was an NBA star many felt should have been on the Dream Team, was excluded because of a rocky relationship with Michael Jordan. He and MJ had faced off in the playoffs the last few years in some very physical and intense games. Isiah was one of the leaders of the Pistons team nicknamed the Bad Boy Pistons because they played so physical and aggressive. Many players and teams did not like the Bad Boys because of this and it caused fractured and rocky relationships like with Isiah and MJ.

While on the surface it looked like it was all effortless and smooth sailing there have since been many stories such as this one that reveal a lot of behind the scenes trouble in paradise. That did not slow down the Dream Team or effect inter team relationships as they went on to go undefeated in winning the 1992 Olympic Men’s Basketball Championship. Most people think of MJ, Magic, and Bird as the frontrunners, and they were, but what most people forget is none of them were the leading scorer. The Dream Team’s leading scorer was the Round Mound of Rebound himself Charles Barkley. This further proved the sheer dominance of this team and its players and why the Dream Team is one of the most iconic and Talented sports teams ever assembled.

Sports Media, What Happened?

This post is some of my thoughts and analysis on the state of sports and their media today. This based on what I have witnessed in sports and sports media over the last several years, and my thoughts on what has become of it. To keep this from getting too broad we will narrow it down to the last 5-10 years. I have been sorely disappointed with sports media over this stretch, especially over the last 4 or 5 years since I have been working toward my degree in this field. This is mainly in regard to basketball because that is my main interest and the sports field I want to work in. The problem I think sports media, especially broadcasting, has today is the ways, methods, and mindsets a lot of broadcasters have mostly during analyst talk shows, but there are some in play-by-play as well, but there a significantly fewer on that side. A lot of analysts are not trying to actually analyze anything. They take baseline stats that for some are just enough to start an argument, and for others are just enough to make some wild outlandish claim just to get attention and views. On the other side some just read off stats like a robot with a more monotone voice than most robots actually have nowadays, which on a side-note is something I never thought we would see, but I digress.

Some Broadcasters are not out to give thorough information or professional discussions. They are out to do one thing and one thing only, yell so loud you can’t ignore them. They never have a civil discussion and just yell and find any opportunity for an argument simply to get attention. They have no interest in providing quality information or any kind of analysis of any kind. These are not analysts; these are the people who were always stuck at the kids table every Thanksgiving and Christmas and made it everyone’s problem. People like this are the reason I actually want to go into sports broadcasting, I want to provide the analytic side they fail to provide. I want to take deep dives past just the baseline stats. I want to tell viewers why this team is doing so well even if their star player is not scoring as much, I want to take a very thorough delve into why chemistry is the most important aspect of any sport and why if you do not have that stats will not matter.

This is why I want to go into this field and why watching most any analyst show irks me quite a bit now. Thank you for coming to my TED talk, I hope this provided some helpful insight or just a read that can hopefully lead to what I one day hope to provide for the field of sports media.