Naomi Osaka

[monkeyman576]

Regarding her fine and eventual withdrawl from the French Open for refusing to talk to the media.

Her first comment when she announced that she was not going to speak to the media:
"I'm just not going to subject myself to people that doubt me."

WTA, after fining Osaka:
"We want to underline that rules are in place to ensure all players are treated exactly the same, no matter their stature, beliefs or achievement,"
This statement was likely made after the NBA was (in my opinion fairly) criticized for not giving LeBron James a harsher suspension after breaking COVID policy.

Osaka after the fine:
"I am not a natural public speaker and get huge waves of anxiety before I speak to the world's media," she said. "I get really nervous and find it stressful to always try and engage and give [the media] the best answers I can."

To me it seems that Osaka is wanting to have her cake and eat it too which is not how real life works. I don't want to be insensitive to mental health issues but in my opinion Osaka is trying to wage a war in the public arena against the WTA for fairly applying rules that are there for a good reason. She doesn't have a problem hoisting a trophy and basking in the cheers of the fans when she wins a tournament, or cashing the checks, and there are obligations that come with that.

I mean maybe Osaka is not a "natural public speaker" but she should be talking to a sports psychologist rather than waging a war against the WTA. She has been a very positive force for change in the arenas of social justice and other issues and when she behaves like this it is an unfortunate distraction, in my opinion.

[pilight]

There's got to be a way for the tournaments to get the press coverage they need without endangering the athletes' mental health. Some compromise must be possible.

Of course the media coverage is not going to be in her favor. The media are worse than fans about thinking they're entitled to athletes' time and attention.

[dkgo]

She came across as a whiny child in all this.

No one likes speaking to the media consistently. That's why athletes and coaches go back to the same meaningless cliches over and over again. But it's part of the job, and the organization obviously cannot just let someone skip out on it over vague "mental health" claims or else every athlete would.

The media IS entitled to some of their time in scheduled press conferences. It's part of what the athletes agree to by participating in (and getting paid for) the event.

[Hrycaj]

I don't know if I personally see it as her "having her cake and eating it too" or "coming off as a whiny child" but I understand those perspectives. I was thinking about this on a larger level this weekend and it makes me wonder what the point of forced media coverage is to begin with? In any sport. If an athlete wants to talk to the media they should absolutely be able to but to be forced to make themselves available seems like over saturation.

[cephasjames]

She knows herself better than us and the talking heads. Not everyone is cut out for what comes with fame and success. Better she take a step back and figure things out than go all Jennifer Capriati.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by monkeyman576

To me it seems that Osaka is wanting to have her cake and eat it too which is not how real life works.

In a way, yes. The media is disgusting (most people are), and press conferences are an endless barrage of the same dumb questions. Most of which have obvious answers.

I don't pretend to know the extent to which media availability for the tournament is regulated in the small print, but from limited experiences with clients engaging in events, I know that even a minor appearance at a show or event might involve a 30-page contract... and then I only do the tax stuff.

So she's gotta know better, and that she can't compete without doing media. She also's gotta know here demons better than anybody (I sure know mine), and those three things don't match. Something's gotta give. So, yes, in some way she does want to have her cake and eat it too.

The easy solution? Get rid of the media entirely at sporting events. The questions are always the same. The answers are too. This very much includes sideline reporters that molest managers during a game. The two guys up in the commentary box and absolutely no one else. You're not gonna learn anything they don't want you to know, and, worst case, you're wasting everybody's time engaging in meaningless banter.

[monkeyman576]

Without the media the purses and salaries are probably going to be half of what they are now or less. I don't think the media is disgusting. Athletes exist because of fans and the media is there to make sure the fans see what we want to see.

[Bub13]

Chanda Rubin on the Tennis Channel probably said it best: "I don't think she thought this through completely." Reading Osaka's initial statement--and the words from her sister--makes me agree with this. They came across as saying, essentially, "Naomi doubts herself on clay and you guys are making it worse. Don't put doubts in her head." Which is ridiculous, sorry.

Having said that, Westheim is right: some in the press are awful, and the same questions are asked repeatedly, probably in search of some twistable quote. (Spend five minutes on, for example, the Yahoo tennis page and click through to any article with a lurid headline. Then go find the actual quotes/press conference from the article, and see how the twisting is done.) There seems to be some room for compromise or change from the tournaments in this respect.

And also telling are the answers most of the players are giving, which boil down to "Take care of yourself, obviously, but the press are part of the show and one you have to deal with."

I wish her well and hope she comes back strong. She's good for the game and women's tennis post-Serena needs her playing her best.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Hrycaj

If an athlete wants to talk to the media they should absolutely be able to but to be forced to make themselves available seems like over saturation.

This is how I feel.

Set aside the depression aspects that can lead to aberrant behavior and just deal with the aspect of privacy.

I realize that, in a sense, these people are "employees" of the sports organizations for which they play. As "employers," the associations and leagues can make media exposure part of the job. That seems to be the prevailing view, but I can say that I would have difficulty being forced to sit down and face reporters with blunt, repetitive, and overly personal questions.

Now take up depression once again. Dealing with that condition is terrible to begin with and the last thing one needs while doing so is to be subjected to harsh scrutiny by nosy strangers.

I feel bad for her. She ought to be left alone to pull herself together and heal. That said, as I have read, she probably needed to take a hiatus; did not do so in time; and got caught in a bad situation. I hope she gets better soon.

Meanwhile, I have no interest in her favorite breakfast food and other ridiculously inane prying into her personal life. It's sad that so many of us require this knowledge, this gluttonous snooping, in order to enjoy her performances.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by monkeyman576

Without the media the purses and salaries are probably going to be half of what they are now or less. I don't think the media is disgusting. Athletes exist because of fans and the media is there to make sure the fans see what we want to see.

I also agree with this. It's the slobs among us and in us that create the demand for what media provides. It's people that are disgusting, in general.

[Syd Thrift]

I feel like sports fans get super entitled and whiny when it comes to access to players. In my mind, the only thing you’re being paid to do a the French Open or wherever is playing and winning matches. If you don’t talk to the press afterwards that’s probably going to make your own band suffer but to me, when organizations make press conferences a requirement they’re basically asking for people to quit them or for folks like Marshawn Lynch to come in and answer “I’m just here so I won’t get fined” over and over again.

In the US in particular so I can’t really speak for other nations, access to athletes has historically been granted not by the athletes themselves but by the owners of the sports teams they play on. This has led to an often adversarial relationship between the sports media and athletes and this isn’t anything close to new: Dick Young hated on Ted Williams for sport and Williams basically couldn’t do anything about it. I mean, hell, we’re seeing that man child Stephen A. Smith responding to Kwame Brown’s perfectly reasonable critique of why his career never got off the ground with “LOL HE SUCKS SEE THESE CLIPS LOOK AT ME AMERICA LOOK AT ME”. The fact that athletes are becoming more and more empowered to make their own decisions on this stuff, both in terms of abstaining and in terms of criticism, is good, not bad.

[BMW]

I don't watch Jake deGrom so he can give interviews, I want to see him play. Forcing players to give interviews is really for the benefit of the league as a corporate entity.

And face it, these leagues (or other behemoth entities like these grand slam tournaments) are so big now they aren't in make-or-break situations with a handful of players not wanting to give interviews, especially ad nauseum.

Oh the fun we have with the 24/7 new cycle. I pine for decades past where you could, god forbid, go several hours without having news coverage of every breath some celebrity or politician took.

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

The fact that athletes are becoming more and more empowered to make their own decisions on this stuff, both in terms of abstaining and in terms of criticism, is good, not bad.

I agree with that. On the whole there's nothing bad if a player in any sport wants to make their contribution to the game - simply playing the dang game. Sports is too big now that we'll never have a deficit of players who want to talk to the media - it's just not something we should be concerned about.

Yeah, I get it, in a perfect world, a league would want every second in every major media market filled with content talking about their league so they get coverage. But does anyone actually need that much?

[John Madden]

Alexa, show me the Venn Diagram of people who say "shut up and dribble" and people who are speaking against Naomi Osaka.

[dkgo]

Pretty much no one?

The general consensus even among other players that I saw is that if she needs to take a break from tennis then that is important and they wish her the best, but if you are playing then fulfilling your media obligations is part of the job. Seems reasonable.

[cephasjames]

Yeah, it's like any job out there where you don't like every aspect of it. Either stop doing it or do it knowing you're not going to like everything about it.

[pilight]

Originally Posted by dkgo

The general consensus even among other players that I saw is that if she needs to take a break from tennis then that is important and they wish her the best, but if you are playing then fulfilling your media obligations is part of the job. Seems reasonable.

Shockingly, the media isn't reporting anyone saying the media can be harmful and players shouldn't be obligated to accede to their every demand.

[Syd Thrift]

When she does decide to play again, perhaps Wimbledon or whoever can ban the press from asking very stupid questions like “why is your last name Osaka?”. If you can get an answer from reading their Wikipedia page, why ask it in a press conference?

[dkgo]

Originally Posted by pilight

Shockingly, the media isn't reporting anyone saying the media can be harmful and players shouldn't be obligated to accede to their every demand.

That sounds like the exact kind of take someone would love to report on to drive controversy. A bunch of players saying "it's part of the job" is boring.

[Bub13]

Originally Posted by pilight

Shockingly, the media isn't reporting anyone saying the media can be harmful and players shouldn't be obligated to accede to their every demand.

"Shockingly," I've seen articles and opinion pieces from all the major (US, at least) news outfits saying Osaka is 100% right and the tours/tournaments are wrong.

[dsvitak]

Originally Posted by dkgo

That sounds like the exact kind of take someone would love to report on to drive controversy. A bunch of players saying "it's part of the job" is boring.

It IS part of the job. If she wants an exception, due to mental illness, then I am OK with that.

It will be like service ostriches on airplanes. It will quickly be abused, and out of control. EVERYONE will have a problem with a presser...