Lisa Salters impressed by Jokic

[queridiculo]

Guys, how about that Lebron guy, he's had pretty good career it seems like?!

[BruttoNostra]

That was what I was thinking up until the end of the video.

"So I havent really paid much attention to him. I know all of the great things people say about him, I know his stat lines, I know his numbers."

It honestly sounds like she really hasnt watched that many games of his ever. Not just in person but in general.

Why would she, he's a dude picked last in All Star game that barely anyone noticed he played in.

Who watches the All-Star game to gauge how good players really are? Not even casuals do that unless they are super casuals.

Take a look at Texas Chuck's response;)

If still not clear - one of Embiid stans praised Embiid for playing in a clutch time during the ASG, while Jokic was on the bench, as it shows how players and coaches really evaluate both of them

[ThunderBolt]

I’m disappointed but not surprised. A few weeks before the playoffs started I heard cowherd call Jokic a “gimmicky” center.

[GeorgeSears]

Don't just brush off this admission by Salters as a simple oversight. It's an indictment of ESPN's basketball coverage and exposes them as a disreputable company when it comes to basketball coverage. She's been covering the NBA with ESPN for 23 years. That's her only job as far as I know. If you work for a sports company to cover a basketball league and you haven't watched the player who was awarded the MVP twice in the last two years in that league play prior to last Tuesday, you should be fired from your job.

The reality is that ESPN only really has two real basketball analysts: JJ Redick and Zach Lowe. Richard Jefferson, at times, can analyze games. Everyone else is masquerading as an analyst. They have as much basketball knowledge as the casual fan talking at a water cooler at work. It's understandable, since it's owned by Disney and Disney is an entertainment company.

[iLLmatic860]

Espn show is terrible. I only watch inside the nba on TNT. They prob are the only national media who covers Jokic fairly. Even Shaq knows hes the real deal

Another problem is Jokic pllays in Denver. Just not an interesting market at all. One of the reasons why I barely wanted to watch them until he started having these historic seasons.
Move Jokic to a bigger market or to the eastern conference and he will get more love.

[p0peye]

IMHO, only coaches should vote to determine winner for all awards.

coaches are watching way less games than the media, and would take this even less seriously.
it's just a matter of being more selective on what media members should be allowed to vote.
there are guys who are there just to create controversies, Perkins or SAS for instance should not vote.

I disagree. Coaches know best who they have to game plan against, how important a certain player is for a team and how difficult it is to stop him. Players know that as well, but not all of them understand the game as they should.

[DoctorX]

I remember during the early '00s Sean Elliott had a gig on ESPN for a few years. Sean said in an interview once why he left ESPN and his reasoning was, I'm paraphrasing "The people at ESPN are obsessed only with a few players and a few teams. One of the teams they are obsessed with is the Lakers. It was always about how can we talk about the Lakers whether it's them improving their chances of winning, trade, free agency and other stuff but nothing about the other teams. Also, the people at ESPN don't watch the game and at best they might watch 1 or 2 games a week and that is of a few teams they are obsessed about reporting on. I got tired of that stuff and decided to leave."

[Zombiesonics]

Kristen Ledlow could never. She's so good on NBATV

[Raps in 4]

It's ESPN, what did you expect? They literally only really cover about 4/5 teams at most.

Haha yup. I still remember watching a random episode of The Jump back when Zion and Ja were rookies. It was about a month or so after Zion just started playing, so it was late February or early March and the discussions back then was, with how great Zion has looked, can he still win ROY even with so little games played. Then T-Mac goes, "you know what, a name we cant sleep on is that Devonte Graham kid playing for the Hornets." Then he asked Rachel if she had seen him and she was like, "oh ya he's real good for a rookie."

It was Graham's second year in the league... This was ESPNs top end NBA show and they were talking about the ROY and in that discussion they were talking about a 2nd year player, and there was no correction. It was clear that neither of them have watched the Hornets at all that year or the year prior. And most likely ESPN had like their one Hornet game of the year on earlier in the week and it was the first time T-Mac had ever heard of him and just thought he was a rookie.

But ya most of these people on ESPN and Fox Sports arent watching 5-6 different NBA games a night. They watch the big nationally televised games and that is about it. Then just regurgitate whatever talking points for all the other teams and games.

The sad thing is, they make these types of mistakes regularly.

[Duke4life831]

It's ESPN, what did you expect? They literally only really cover about 4/5 teams at most.

Haha yup. I still remember watching a random episode of The Jump back when Zion and Ja were rookies. It was about a month or so after Zion just started playing, so it was late February or early March and the discussions back then was, with how great Zion has looked, can he still win ROY even with so little games played. Then T-Mac goes, "you know what, a name we cant sleep on is that Devonte Graham kid playing for the Hornets." Then he asked Rachel if she had seen him and she was like, "oh ya he's real good for a rookie."

It was Graham's second year in the league... This was ESPNs top end NBA show and they were talking about the ROY and in that discussion they were talking about a 2nd year player, and there was no correction. It was clear that neither of them have watched the Hornets at all that year or the year prior. And most likely ESPN had like their one Hornet game of the year on earlier in the week and it was the first time T-Mac had ever heard of him and just thought he was a rookie.

But ya most of these people on ESPN and Fox Sports arent watching 5-6 different NBA games a night. They watch the big nationally televised games and that is about it. Then just regurgitate whatever talking points for all the other teams and games.

The sad thing is, they make these types of mistakes regularly.

Yup. I just think to myself though, I cant imagine watching NFL Live and its like Week 13 and they're talking about ROY and they say something along the lines of "Garrett Wilson has been good, but keep an eye out on Javonte Williams, he's been good for Denver this year" and then having another guy on the show agreeing with that take. That person would get roasted live on the show for a statement like that.

I think it really just goes to show that these national media talking heads are doing the bare minimum. Its really no different than me being a college basketball fan and them bringing in the Inside the NBA guys once March Madness starts. Those guys havent watched a single college basketball game all year and theyre just going off of stat sheets in front of them and the talking points theyve been told. Its the exact same for all these ESPN and Fox Sports shows. But at least with the Inside the NBA crew, when theyre doing March Madness they admit and joke how they havent watched the games all year.

[clyde21]

Haha yup. I still remember watching a random episode of The Jump back when Zion and Ja were rookies. It was about a month or so after Zion just started playing, so it was late February or early March and the discussions back then was, with how great Zion has looked, can he still win ROY even with so little games played. Then T-Mac goes, "you know what, a name we cant sleep on is that Devonte Graham kid playing for the Hornets." Then he asked Rachel if she had seen him and she was like, "oh ya he's real good for a rookie."

It was Graham's second year in the league... This was ESPNs top end NBA show and they were talking about the ROY and in that discussion they were talking about a 2nd year player, and there was no correction. It was clear that neither of them have watched the Hornets at all that year or the year prior. And most likely ESPN had like their one Hornet game of the year on earlier in the week and it was the first time T-Mac had ever heard of him and just thought he was a rookie.

But ya most of these people on ESPN and Fox Sports arent watching 5-6 different NBA games a night. They watch the big nationally televised games and that is about it. Then just regurgitate whatever talking points for all the other teams and games.

The sad thing is, they make these types of mistakes regularly.

Yup. I just think to myself though, I cant imagine watching NFL Live and its like Week 13 and they're talking about ROY and they say something along the lines of "Garrett Wilson has been good, but keep an eye out on Javonte Williams, he's been good for Denver this year" and then having another guy on the show agreeing with that take. That person would get roasted live on the show for a statement like that.

I think it really just goes to show that these national media talking heads are doing the bare minimum. Its really no different than me being a college basketball fan and them bringing in the Inside the NBA guys once March Madness starts. Those guys havent watched a single college basketball game all year and theyre just going off of stat sheets in front of them and the talking points theyve been told. Its the exact same for all these ESPN and Fox Sports shows. But at least with the Inside the NBA crew, when theyre doing March Madness they admit and joke how they havent watched the games all year.

reminds me of when Shaq told Christian Wood during a live interview that he had no idea who he was

seriously tho NBA mainstream coverage has to be by far the worst of all major sports.

[ItsDanger]

I remember during the early '00s Sean Elliott had a gig on ESPN for a few years. Sean said in an interview once why he left ESPN and his reasoning was, I'm paraphrasing "The people at ESPN are obsessed only with a few players and a few teams. One of the teams they are obsessed with is the Lakers. It was always about how can we talk about the Lakers whether it's them improving their chances of winning, trade, free agency and other stuff but nothing about the other teams. Also, the people ESPN don't watch the game and at best they might watch 1 or 2 games a week and that is of a few teams they are obsessed about reporting on. I got tired of that stuff and decided to leave."

Pretty close to what most would observe from the outside. Its always nice for it be confirmed though.

[ThunderBolt]

Espn show is terrible. I only watch inside the nba on TNT. They prob are the only national media who covers Jokic fairly. Even Shaq knows hes the real deal

Another problem is Jokic pllays in Denver. Just not an interesting market at all. One of the reasons why I barely wanted to watch them until he started having these historic seasons.
Move Jokic to a bigger market or to the eastern conference and he will get more love.

The market shouldn’t have any bearing on if a team is interesting or not. That’s the whole point. Denver has been good and interesting for a while. Also, it’s a great city. People talk about it like it’s Ames, Iowa.

[RB34]

Execute her

Bruh

Humanly

[DoctorX]

Espn show is terrible. I only watch inside the nba on TNT. They prob are the only national media who covers Jokic fairly. Even Shaq knows hes the real deal

Another problem is Jokic pllays in Denver. Just not an interesting market at all. One of the reasons why I barely wanted to watch them until he started having these historic seasons.
Move Jokic to a bigger market or to the eastern conference and he will get more love.

The market shouldn’t have any bearing on if a team is interesting or not. That’s the whole point. Denver has been good and interesting for a while. Also, it’s a great city. People talk about it like it’s Ames, Iowa.

Agreed Nuggets caught my attention back in the '19 playoffs when they faced the Spurs. I was amazed back then at how fun and exciting they were to watch. It's terrible lazy marketing by the NBA when a team like the Nuggets are deemed boring due to their location. The NBA and ESPN has only themselves to blame for this type of stuff. In the NFL it doesn't matter if Greenbay or Buffalo are winning since they market everybody the ratings tend to stay high regardless of the matchups.

NBA's marketing is garbage. They always put all of their eggs in one basket and when that team is out of the playoffs the networks gets angry and complains about ratings. It's been the same strategy for what seems like over 30 years now.

[iLLmatic860]

Espn show is terrible. I only watch inside the nba on TNT. They prob are the only national media who covers Jokic fairly. Even Shaq knows hes the real deal

Another problem is Jokic pllays in Denver. Just not an interesting market at all. One of the reasons why I barely wanted to watch them until he started having these historic seasons.
Move Jokic to a bigger market or to the eastern conference and he will get more love.

The market shouldn’t have any bearing on if a team is interesting or not. That’s the whole point. Denver has been good and interesting for a while. Also, it’s a great city. People talk about it like it’s Ames, Iowa.

Its something about those mountain states that dont intrigue me, the Denvers and Utahs of the world. Like ive said ive been following Jokic for a couple years. I pretty much watch every team, get league pass every year. I just personally would prefer him in a bigger market or play with a player like Luka. Then he will be covered different imo.

[BobbyPortisEyes]

I think she is being misunderstood and she means in person at a game

I hope so too but it doesn't sound like that's the case. But oh well, I'm cool with kids discovering The Cramps and Metallica through Netflix series so I guess this is sort of the same thing and it's nice no matter how people get to know about Jokic. Would be be nice if the bar was set a little higher for journalists though.