Why do people feel the need to get players "exposed"?

[Pharmcat]

Don’t like the lyrics press fast forward

[Lunartic]

Some players need to be EXPOSED for what they really are

[jg77]

It is jealousy combined with insecurity of their fav player being overshadowed.

Yup this is it. But it's one of the reasons I love sports. I always have my guys who I root for and those I root against who are in the way of my favorite players getting a chip.

[GSWFan1994]

A big part of fun in sports is the ability of annoying other people just to prove you are "better" (more knowledgeable?) than them.

[Johnny Bball]

You haven't noticed a very large percentage of people prefer to lie to themselves, or be lied to, as opposed to re-evaluating their thoughts or admitting they were wrong? And you live in North America?

[Joshyjess]

What else are we supposed to do? Talk about how good they are? Where's the fun in that?

[Joao Saraiva]

If kind is to fit an agenda.

LBJ fans were happy KD got eliminated. It validates him not being better than Bron and only winning when with Curry and a super team.

Kobe/Jordan fans were just happy LeBron missed the playoffs. Jordan fans are more insecure than ever on that debate, Kobe fans just hated LBJ forever.

Now some people don't like the idea of Giannis/Luka/Jokic turning into all time great as they'll enter conversations that might take the spot of some guy.

[Down3223]

It is jealousy combined with insecurity of their fav player being overshadowed.

this

[cupcakesnake]

A lot of the time "exposed" actually means: the other team played great defense and limited a great offensive player. But people enjoy the sensationalizing of the negative. It's more exciting for some if a player was humiliated by showing their weakness/mortality. Defenses go out there are try to do great things too, but in our myopic obsession with offensive performance by individual star players, it's not fun for casual fans to talk about great team defense.

[jokeboy86]

Cause maybe a lot of people are voyeurs. How else to explain why people keep using the word "exposed"?

[hauntedcomputer]

.
I can't help it but feel that people don't actually love basketball. They just love to hate.

So, what's the problem?
I'm an unapologetic fan of schadenfreude and I root for it harder than I do any team or player, and I am quite happy for it, because I always win.

To me, that seems a lot more normal and well-adjusted than referring to a team as "we" when you're just a jamoke in an overpriced piece of laundry sitting on the couch yelling at refs.

[ken6199]

I'll give those exposed threads at least some credit. One thing normally leads to another, it's because there are folks who worship certain players which make them really annoying, that leads to other folks feel the need to expose said players as a counter move. That's how internet works these days - due to advancing segregation the mentality is not "lets exchange views through discussion" but rather "I gotta convince you are wrong and I am right and this is the sole purpose of our exchange".

Quite often, players got exposed because playoffs is just simply a different animal. Gobert for example, got exposed for multiple years in the post season but that does not mean he didn't deserve those DPOYs (considering they are regular season award) or a fraud. Harden playing relatively poorly in playoffs due to his game easier to be game planned in a fixed series yet people try to use that to discredit his RS achievements calling it fake and manufactured. I get it, playoff is where things matter more but you know when folks are taking things too far to the level where "regular season is meaningless". If it's meaningless why do we play those 82 games then?

And you have KD, Curry getting exposed simply because they are over their prime and their play starts to decline or role starts to change.

The final nail on the coffin is Giannis getting exposed. A consensus top 3 player in his prime, off 2 fresh MVPs and a FMVP, still getting exposed? The end.