Think more, talk less. Or talk a lot, but think even more. You get what I mean.
The Ringer is great. It’s one of my daily go-to websites for basketball and pop culture news and discussions. My favourite writer works for them, and I also listen to many of their podcasts.
They annoyed me recently though. And it’s because of this:
Specifically, this episode of their Group Chat NBA podcast. Even more specifically, it was Chris Ryan, one of the two people on this episode, who annoyed me.
But this isn’t a rant about The Ringer or the Group Chat podcast or Chris Ryan. It’s a rant against the normalization of ‘hot take’ culture.
A hot take is, as Wikipedia defines it, “a piece of deliberately provocative commentary that is based almost entirely on shallow moralizing, usually written on tight deadlines with little research or reporting, and even less thought.”
(We all kinda know what a hot take is, but in the interest of being exact, I looked up the above definition. It’s a little harsh in describing my annoyance with Ryan’s statements, but I guess it’ll do.)
So what did Ryan say that triggered me? There were two things, actually:
1. “I think most people would agree, [Kawhi’s] the best basketball player on the planet” (50:48)
I gotta break out good ol’ Vault Boy here:
Justin Verrier, the other podcast host, goes on to say that maybe only Anthony Davis compares in terms of ability to affect the many areas of a basketball game. This helps to frame the discussion: they’re ‘only’ talking about modern-day players.
So we’re just forgetting players like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kevin Durant, LeBron James?
What the hell does ‘modern-day’ even mean anyway? For example, what version of LeBron counts? Are we talking about the current, slightly hobbled version of LeBron, or is his career over the last decade being taken into consideration?
You. Can’t. Make. Such. Statements. Based. Off. Of. One. Playoff. Run.
And sure, playoff games count more, etc. But it’s ridiculous to throw out a whole season (and a couple rounds of the playoffs!) of Giannis and Durant dominance in favour of ONE brilliant playoff run by Kawhi.
I’m loving Kawhi’s play, but statements like the one Ryan offered up, without enough thought and/or context provided, are just inflammatory by nature. In Singaporean parlance, it just serves to stir shit. There’s too much recency bias at play.
2. “The one thing that’s kinda cool about the way they do the FA Cup in England… is that, for the opening rounds, basically the kids play” (56:19)
This is from Ryan’s discussion about introducing a knockout cup competition, much like those in European football, to the NBA. This is to give teams who aren’t realistic challengers for the Larry O’Brien trophy something to play for.
I highlighted this one sentence, but really I have a bone to pick with several things he says.
To be fair, he makes some good suggestions, such as the winners getting extra cap space or draft considerations. It injects excitement and stirs interest in fans of teams like the Charlotte Hornets or my Dallas Mavericks.
But there are so many nuances he misses out in his proposal that I can’t take it seriously.
To address the highlighted sentence: only the biggest teams such as the Manchester clubs, Liverpool, and Chelsea play their youngsters and reserves, because they’re stretched thin with fixtures across up to four different competitions at any one time. European tournaments and the league take precedence because of the prestige and money.
Teams lower down the table or in the lower divisions are actually likely to throw their best lineups out there in what is usually their best hope of winning some major silverware or at least getting in the headlines with a giant-killing or two.
And besides, football team rosters are much, much larger than NBA teams’. NBA teams would have to expand their rosters considerably to make competing in such a cup competition any sort of worthwhile endeavour. Otherwise, you get key role players like Shaun Livingston and Fred VanVleet putting in heavy minutes during the regular season. What would that do to rotations and these players’ ability to contribute in the playoffs?
Expanding roster sizes brings its own set of trickle down effects and side effects that have to be addressed, such as salary cap structure, quality of play, and G-League assignments, among many, many others.
All this to ‘singe people’s eyebrows off’ and to have LeBron in a knockout tournament because it’s ‘fucking sick’ (Ryan’s words). Maybe think for a second before asking for things now now now because we gotta go to Mount Splashmore right now.
The lack of attention paid to the nuances of both topics was disappointing, placing simplicity ahead of accuracy for the sake of making bold statements. But the biggest issue I have is actually how matter-of-fact Ryan made them out to be.
He speaks with the confidence of an expert, but either doesn’t know about or leaves out important details. Regarding the second point, for example, any casual fan who doesn’t know much about European football (understandable, considering it’s a basketball podcast) may be misinformed.
The thing is, I don’t necessarily think he’s doing it on purpose, and that’s the scary part. We should all be more mindful about the words that we choose to speak and the ideas they represent.
Hot take culture is fun, but can be damaging. Thankfully, we’re just talking about sports here, but get too used to it and it could spill over into more serious domains.
Our language shapes the way we perceive reality, so the least we could do is to think a bit before we say anything.
