Lists and rankings should be fairly common place in sports. People love reducing athletes into lists and positioning them according to the performances they have delivered up that point.
As such, it is a little surprising that so many NBA players have come out to harshly criticize the many media outlets that had the audacity to rank the best performers in the NBA.
Keep in mind the fact that ESPN has been releasing top 100 NBA lists for several years now. And it isn’t like they generated a 2018 NBA Championship betting predictions list. Articles like that tend to generate a lot of heat.
ESPN just wanted let people know how well they thought everyone was performing. And yet, for some reason, this time around, the reaction from players has been rather harsh.
The opinions flying about on social media have been vicious. For some reason, elite NBA athletes have taken offense with the notion of the media outlets that cover their games ranking them.
And, as one might expect, the loudest complaints came from camps that did not necessarily rank well. For instance, Carmelo Anthony fell from 31 to 64 in this year’s ESPN list and that did not sit well with his fans. Or him for that matter.
Paul Millsap’s fans didn’t seem to care as much that he was placed 37th by SLAM online, but not everyone reacted as pleasantly. Curiously enough, some players suggested that their poor positions in the rankings would motivate them to fight harder.
Sure, they didn’t think media houses had any right to critique them, but some elite athletes suggested that it would become their objective to make the likes ESPN eat their negative opinions.
One can imagine Victor Oladipo of Indiana taking his opponents to task harder than ever before the next time he’s on the court because his 77th ranking on SI keeps haunting him. That is probably the best way to deal with any offense generated by these rankings.
A better approach would be to ignore the rankings as a whole. Most NBA athletes were happy to do just that. At the very least, they kept their ire out of the public sphere.
Even if all the offense generated by these lists is authentic, though, it could be argued that certain NBA players are failing to look at the big picture. It’s still the offseason. That means there isn’t enough basketball going on to keep sports media outlets occupied.
Is it a wonder that they have turned to these meaningless rankings to keep readers entertained? And clearly, it’s working. It’s also worth noting that these lists are little more than opinions.
There is little point in taking offense over the opinions of others. Some pundits have been asking why so many talented and successful athletes care about the opinions of writers.
With all they have achieved, why would they be so easily moved by a few petty lists? Maybe they are afraid that the strength of their brands will suffer as a result. But that argument is a little slim.
Any NBA athlete worth his salt should be accustomed to being judged and evaluated by the public. The hullabaloo over these rankings should stop.
