NPR’s Audie Cornish speaks with Rod Benson, retired basketball participant and columnist for SFGATE, about the mental wellbeing of athletes and the long term of sporting activities push conferences.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Kicking a human being although they’re down – which is how tennis professional Naomi Osaka describes the experience of a postgame push meeting following a loss. And so she’s announced that she would not be carrying out any press conferences in the course of the French Open up, even with fiscal penalties that could run in the tens of 1000’s as a end result. Osaka, lately mentioned as the 15th best-compensated athlete in the earth, can find the money for to foot those people expenditures. But her emphasis on psychological overall health and backing away from these push situations has sparked a major discussion in athletics.
In this article to chat extra is Rod Benson, previous professional player in the NBA’s D League and abroad. He retired in 2018 and is now a columnist for the San Francisco information site SFGATE. Welcome to ALL Things Regarded.
ROD BENSON: Hi. Many thanks for getting me. I enjoy it.
CHANG: So Osaka wrote in her social media assertion that individuals – and she signifies the push in this article – have no regard for athletes’ mental health and fitness and that she’s not going to subject matter herself to, quotation, “men and women that question me.” You’ve got been on that aspect of the table – correct? – answering thoughts.
BENSON: Yeah.
CHANG: Describe the variety of inquiries she’s chatting about.
BENSON: I guess if I’m looking outwards – ideal? – it is just you. And overseas, I could have a translator, but it is really just you, and 30, 40, 50 people staring at you, ready to question, basically, why you unsuccessful. You know, win or drop, soon after a video game, you’re on your greatest stage of – you know, of notify. Like, your adrenaline is however rushing. And usually they, you know, will talk to these concerns when you even now have your jersey on, often right before you even make it to the locker space to decompress.
So the questions that, especially soon after a decline, can be borderline insulting – do you assume you are going to still be on this crew upcoming week? Or why did you engage in negative? Just – so straightforward as that, wherever it really is like, I haven’t even processed this however. And so the difficulty is that when you are requested a question like that, you’re truly only placing the athlete up to both, A, give an answer that’s meaningless or, B, you know, put on their heart on their sleeve, and a great deal of periods that finishes up in fines in any case, particularly if you are an NBA participant. And none of it tends to make you glance fantastic, so why go on it?
CHANG: I want to operate by you some of the responses to her social media write-up ’cause I imagine it really is not unconventional, this plan. You know, someone’s saying, search this is a privilege. You get paid so a lot money, and portion of that is executing press conferences. You know, the thought – someone else indicating, glance I can’t consider saying that I could just, like, not do some thing that is portion of my job. Is there something to any of those criticisms, from your place of view, from fans?
BENSON: Enthusiasts kind of misinterpret what the occupation is. The fans’ work is to just be a supporter. An athlete’s task is to contend at the optimum level. Now, some of the points that arrive with that job, they are developed by sources of income, fundamentally, networks. You know, it’d be like if you worked at McDonald’s and they reported you had to do three spins each individual time you flipped a burger. It truly is like, just ’cause they say it truly is your position does not suggest that it is really useful, will not signify that it truly is not a waste of time, does not necessarily mean that it is really a little something that you should not force back on to strengthen.
CHANG: How do you feel this variety of large-profile media boycott can have an influence? What would be indications to you – what will you be listening for in excess of the upcoming few times to give you a sense of kind of how people are contemplating about this?
BENSON: Suitable. I think as the pendulum swings, you can see reporters making an attempt to question softer inquiries to commence. But I consider in the conclude, they really should inquire additional thoughtful queries. I assume that altering when a push conference occurs – if I nevertheless have my jersey on, it is really likely way too quickly. Why won’t be able to we do it the up coming morning? Request me at that time. The reason why they you should not do it that time is ’cause they want these ridiculous reactions. But if they gave it a working day, someone could take care of them selves first and then give the correct remedy that – at that time.
CHANG: Are the fines going to be a deterrent? Can only the Osakas of the globe stroll absent from these penalties?
BENSON: I necessarily mean, initial of all, the Osakas of the entire world are the only ones being put into press conferences that commonly. If I was on an NBA staff appropriate now, I would not most likely at any time do a press convention. So that is section of it. If you happen to be the a single that is currently being requested to do it, you also have the electricity to say no. If I was questioned to do it, you will find no way I would say no. I would probably will need that publicity as the previous guy on the crew ’cause it would be so infrequent.
CHANG: Rod Benson, thank you so substantially for talking with us.
BENSON: Thank you for owning me. Enjoy it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SUSS’ “CHISHOLM Trail”)
CHANG: Rod Benson is a columnist for the San Francisco information internet site SFGATE.
(SOUNDBITE OF SUSS’ “CHISHOLM Path”)
Copyright © 2021 NPR. All rights reserved. Take a look at our site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further more info.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and generated making use of a proprietary transcription approach developed with NPR. This text may possibly not be in its ultimate variety and may possibly be current or revised in the potential. Precision and availability may possibly range. The authoritative history of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
