Perception Versus Reality in Sports Media

I’ve had an idea brewing about how much weight perception puts on reality when it comes to how folks are judged on social media platforms by their social media peers. I really thought this subject was going to end up on my personal website and be filled with pop culture references to homophobia and racism, but a week’s worth of More Than a Fan LeBron James columns and comments smacked me in the face with an undeniable truth; perception matters to consumers of sports media more than any other outlet.

Perception doesn’t matter more in sports because sports are more important than equality issues - because sports ARE NOT more important than equality issues – but because the consumers of sports information are so much more likely to hear a statement from a sports media member and immediately assign it a shallow meaning.

Last week, Dan Zaleski wrote a Week in Review Column on MTAF that included this paragraph from Tuesday’s entry:

Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that other thing. That freakin’ rocked too. What a good day Cleveland fans had today! This was one of those days that you wish you could bottle-up and save for later, because you just know things are going to suck again at some point soon, and we’re gonna need the positive energy then to bust us out of whatever that is.

The other thing he was talking about was, of course, the San Antonio Spurs beating the Miami Heat in Game Three of the NBA Finals.

In the comments section, fellow MTAFer Ryan Isley left this note:

You missed 2 stories:

Heat 109, Spurs 93

That sparked an exchange between a handful of commenters that largely revolved around LeBron and that quickly devolved into a “NO, YOU’RE WRONG” debate with almost zero potential to find a middle-ground understanding.

Here’s the thing; Ryan and Dan are both right about a lot of stuff. They’re both smart, informed sports fans who have both a solid understanding of the sporting world and the ability to keep readers informed and entertained. But the reality is that many of those fancy compliments lose their meaning because Dan and Ryan are now perceived as being a certain type of person based on their opinions about LeBron James.

Ryan is a dirty LeBron apologist, no matter that he is from Akron and sees all the charitable work that LeBron does behind the scenes to help Akron schools and communities. Communities that directly affect Ryan’s every day life and schools that may someday be educating his children.

Dan is an irrational LeBron hater, no matter that he’s often cited LeBron as one of the best players of all time and has stated that his issue with LeBron is based on how he left Cleveland, not that he left Cleveland. A reason that almost every media person in the country agrees with to some degree.

Neither one of those guys is either of those things, but LeBron is such a polarizing figure that, to much of the general sports consuming public, all that nuance is burned on a pyre of immediate over-reaction and the desire to have the snarkiest and most biting last word.

It’s not just Ryan and Dan, either. So many sports media members get pigeon-holed into a stereotype or perception that doesn’t quite fit the meaning of what they’ve said. But their meaning is meaningless. In sports, a landscape with infinite competition and consumer base, being a hater, apologist, troll, or even a copy-paster, is almost inevitable.

I’m not blaming sports fans in general, or Cleveland fans specifically, any more than I can blame major media outlets for conditioning sports fans to consume information in myopic, around the clock analysis of banal minutiae. This is simply the sports world in which we live.

Having public opinions about things means being judged by those opinions. I’m not giving up my forum for these opinions, but I know that if enough people think I’m something – whether it be homer, hater, or apologist – then that’s what I am. And that’s weird.

But when we’re talking about talking, my value is decided by readers. If my readers decide that they don’t like me, my forum for these opinions becomes irrelevant. That part of it isn’t weird. I just don’t think many people realize it yet.

Follow Ryan and Dan on Twitter. And me, too!