Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has seen the change in media coverage between his time with the Chicago Bulls of the '90s and the team he coaches today. The Golden State Warriors have been mired in a cloud of turmoil since a Monday night spat between Draymond Green and Kevin Durant sent social media ablaze with rumors of a potential implosion in what most had considered basketball nirvana.
Kerr attributes this to how media has massively evolved over the past 20-plus years and the intensity in which information travels thanks to today's technology.
“I think the biggest difference is the media coverage wasn’t as constant,” said Kerr, according to Anthony Slater of The Athletic. “If something happens today, it’s on the crawl in ESPN within minutes. Back then, you didn’t have a crawl, you didn’t have Twitter, you didn’t have social media. So you didn’t have the instant news out there, the instant judgment, the instant criticism.
“You basically had ‘SportsCenter’, sports news that night where something might be reported and then the newspaper the next day. That lag time, I think, allowed for some breathing room. It seemed like things calmed down quicker back then.
“Whereas today, everything is instantaneous. People are trying to get ahead of the story, everyone is competing against each other, trying to get a better report of what’s happening. There are all these media outlets. It puts everyone in the crosshairs. It’s just so constant. It’s relentless.”
The Warriors were witness of that same prying eye throughout a busy five-game week that saw them lose four of those outings, now sporting a three-game losing streak after exiting the Texas Triangle without a win.
Durant and Green have been the two players quizzed the most about their differences, but the drama has smeared into other Warriors players and the coaching staff due to the incessant questioning, making it much tougher to let it blow over, even with the distraction of having games to play.
Follow Us
Subscribe