NEW YORK — From the outside looking in, it sure looks like ESPN has strengthened its already tight NBA connection.
Not only is the network paying the league a reported $2.6 billion per year in its current TV rights contract, but now is paying NBA Players Association president and current Pelicans guard CJ McCollum billions of dollars less to be an NBA “multi-platform” analyst.
If you want to perceive that ESPN has the league coming and going, go right ahead. Yet, as far as McCollum’s situation, this is no easy assignment. In college, he majored in journalism, but he may not be fully prepared for what is coming down the road.
If NBA contract negotiations get sticky, will those who care about such matters think McCollum, as union prez, gives the Governors (aka owners) a fair shake when he offers his on-camera ESPN analysis?
”As president of the PA, anything I say can and will be used against me,” McCollum said during a recent ESPN conference call. “So, I have to be careful.” Will treading lightly make for good TV?
On the flip side, McCollum will be commenting on players he plays with, against and represents. Diplomatic analysis can be perceived as soft.
”I’m not going to be overly critical. I’m not going to say things I wouldn’t want people saying about me,” McCollum said. “But the game is the game, right? The percentages are the percentages. ... You win or you lose.”
Good luck with that philosophy.
Yet, the reality show aspect that’s now baked into the NBA can take any analysis or conversation into uncomfortable directions that stray off the court but have the unwashed masses buzzing. And for McCollum, or T-wolves guard Patrick Beverley (he’s on a part-time contract with ESPN), the media experience is amped up when they are thrown into the deep end on “First Take” with Stephen A. Smith.
The experience is akin to taking a final exam on the first day of class. But it also can accelerate the development, persona and recognition factor for the player making the appearance. To the casual fan, McCollum is not a marquee NBA personality, but following his appearance on “First Take” last week, his profile was magnified after going at it with Smith.
SAS, in a roundabout way, contended that because he is a subject of trade rumors, Lakers guard Russell Westbrook should not have attended new coach Darvin Ham’s introductory press conference. McCollum and frequent panelist J.J. Redick disagreed with SAS and double-teamed him.
”Him [Westbrook] supporting his team, his organization, his coach, a fellow African American man that gets hired by the Los Angeles Lakers?” McCollum asked.
SAS: “Don’t go there. … You’re crossing the line when you bring up another African American man. That’s not where I’m going.”
So this was all one big misunderstanding, right? It did prove McCollum might not want to be “overly critical” of players but has no problem putting the hammer down on SAS. Double standard? Or compelling TV?
