Raptors' veteran says NBA media can take things "too far" with players
At age 32 and deep into his career as a bench player, Toronto Raptors veteran Will Barton is far from the most impactful player on the court during any given game.
But that doesn’t mean he’s unaware of how the modern basketball media perceives him and his fellow players.
In a piece with Sopan Deb of The New York Times looking at the University of Southern California’s two-day boot camp for players looking to wet their feet as media members, Barton and other NBA players discussed how they view the state of modern NBA media.
Barton told Deb he gets frustrated if media members “go too far on a player, especially if you haven’t played or you don’t really know what the guy’s going through.”
Barton averaged 4.5 points, 1.6 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 16 games for the Raptors this past season, averaging just 13 minutes a night.
But a veteran of 679 games across 11 NBA seasons, Barton knows as well as anyone that anyone on the court is one bad dribble, one bad pass, or one otherwise silly on-court moment from being the talk of the NBA for the next week.
Certain players — say, Russell Westbrook — have been repeatedly targeted by members of the media on borderline personal attacks despite the players openly discussing the negative impacts on their family members and personal mental health.
“I feel like a lot of [media members] try to [have hot takes] so they could go viral or feel like they’re a bigger asset to whatever company they’re working with because it’s entertainment,” Barton added.
Barton’s own future in the NBA is uncertain: he’s not under contract for next season and would need Toronto or another team to have interest in his services. But at the very least, maybe we’ll see him pop up on a media desk of his own sometime soon.
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