Golden State Warriors guard—and I’ll get this out of the best way now, my favorite participant presently within the NBA—Klay Thompson was watching ESPN the opposite day, and didn’t like what he noticed.
In a phase on NBA Today, the hosts have been interviewing a person who’s legally often known as Ronnie Singh. Singh, a long-time worker of 2K, was recognized merely because the “digital marketing director” for the NBA 2K collection, however as these video games have elevated in recognition—and additional entangled themselves within the worst excesses of influencer and model tradition—he’s now merely “Ronnie 2K”, the general public face of all the franchise.
If there’s a press release to be made in regards to the sport, he makes it, if there’s an interview available, he’s the one on digital camera. The man has virtually a million followers on Instagram, and will be seen in any respect the fanciest events for manufacturers, networks and gamers.
Which is what he was doing on ESPN yesterday, answering softball questions on stuff like ability scores and whether or not any NBA participant had ever tried to bribe him to extend their stats (reply: sure, usually). Here’s how the phase went in line with Singh’s Instagram:
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The better part got here afterwards, although, when Thompson took to the feedback to name Singh a “clown”, saying “I thought NBA on ESPN meant coverage of some of the best athletes in the world? Not interviewing a promoter…do better ESPN”.
Please notice that this spicy serve of sports activities beef didn’t magically seem in a single day. Fittingly, seeing as Singh’s look touched on participant scores, Thompson had taken to social media final month to disagree along with his personal ranking in NBA 2K23, placing a vomit emoji subsequent to his three-point ranking of 88—good for second in all the league—and telling the 2K23 group to “put some respect on my name you bums”.
As Singh explains within the ESPN phase yesterday, that’s a great ranking, solely skewed as a result of Thompson’s personal teammate Steph Curry has damaged the three-point sport so traditionally that 2K’s scores needed to transfer like this to accommodate. But gamers beefing with sports activities video games over their stats is nothing new; I bear in mind working at EB Games in 2003 and a few gamers from my native National Rugby League membership (the Canberra Raiders) got here in and have been livid at their very own scores, and that was 19 years in the past; this specific level of rivalry has solely worsened within the many years since now that gamers can complain on to builders through social media.
So sure, Thompson—a serial complainer who additionally felt slighted that he didn’t make the NBA’s record of its finest 75 gamers ever—is usually simply airing a petty grievance on Instagram. But I additionally assume along with his newest feedback, about ESPN interviewing “a promoter”, he’s onto one thing.
I mentioned in my 2K23 evaluation that:
This sport isn’t even about video video games anymore. It’s working exterior of these slim confines. This is fashionable sports activities, that is broadcast cash, that is manufacturers, that is content material, that is uncooked, bare greed. For 2K23 the basketball is simply the vessel, the excuse. There isn’t any extra refined instance of the dysfunctional extra of recent life and its damaged markets than this drained previous online game. There are few different AAA collection so outlined by their starring function in monetary earnings calls.
This is what I’m speaking about. The online game, the broadcasters and the league itself are so entwined that it’s arduous seeing the factors at which they separate. For the NBA that’s nice information, for ESPN it’s a business necessity and for the NBA 2K collection it’s one of many greatest causes it’s such a grind to be round. It’s a bummer that Thompson’s feedback come off as bitter grapes, then, as a result of he has a degree, it sucks!
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