Future Hall of Famer LeBron James supported Kevin Durant’s agent Rich Kleiman on social media regarding sports media discourse. On Oct. 24, Kleiman posted about the state of sports media on X. In his post, Kleiman said sports should be something that brings people together, but sports media is more focused on negativity than ever before. As Kleiman wrote, the amount of attention on the Paris Olympics and LeBron James’ podcast with JJ Redick are two examples of what sports media should be.
On Wednesday, James posted a photo of Kleiman’s post along with his own message, tagging the agent and posting a saluting emoji along with:
“AMEN!!”
While LeBron James and JJ Redick’s Mind The Game podcast only released nine episodes, the James-Redick duo has racked up 649,000 subscribers on YouTube. In addition, as Kleiman referenced, this year’s 2024 Paris Olympic basketball final between the United States and France drew in the best viewership numbers since the 1996 Olympic final.
With an average of 19.5 million viewers on NBC and Peacock according to FrontOfficeSports, and a peak of 22.7 million viewers in the fourth quarter, it was clear that the USA-France game was a hit with fans.
“Right now, we’re not in a great place,” – Brian Windhorst spoke candidly about the state of NBA media a week before LeBron James’ recent post
While LeBron James got behind Kevin Durant’s agent Rich Kleiman’s criticism of the state of sports media, this isn’t the first time the topic has come up as of late. Last week, longtime NBA insider Brian Windhorst spoke openly about the state of NBA media during an appearance on The Thanalysis Show.
At one point during the episode, Windhorst shared his perspective on the state of NBA media, explaining that he feels storytelling, or what he calls chronicling the season, has become a lost art:
“NBA media right now, we’re not in a great place. Because I think we’re devaluing things … that help build the league up. Like one of the things [is] storytelling. Everything is too short right now.
“People are too focused on tweets, too focused on guys getting crossed-over, guys getting dunked on, guys getting embarrassed, social media posts. Not as much on storytelling, learning about players and learning their backgrounds, what I call chronicling the season.”
In addition, the topic of sports media was a major talking point heading into the 2024-25 NBA season as well with ESPN parting ways with Zach Lowe shortly after Adrian Wojnarowski walked away from media responsibilities. With the network doubling down on its support of personalities like Kendrick Perkins who enjoy firing off hot takes, fans expressed concern.
From the sounds of things, NBA players like LeBron James feel as though there needs to be a shift in media coverage as well.
