Cam Johnson thinks the media has a “very big responsibility” not to make themselves the story.
But Stephen A. Smith has ensured he’s become the story in his feud with LeBron James. The Los Angeles Lakers superstar has accused Smith of going on a “Taylor Swift tour” to discuss their confrontation. But neither side has come out looking good in this war of words — and fists — that even has the NBA commissioner chiming in.
You might wonder why the Brooklyn Nets’ leading scorer has any stake in the SAS-LeBron feud. After all, sports media is overflowing with opinions on the never-ending fracas, and it’s showing no signs of fading from the headlines.
But what sets Johnson apart is that he’s focused on something few have considered: the broader impact it’s having on the game itself.
“On one hand, our league is entertainment. We know that,” the UNC product said during an appearance on The Young Man and The Three. “You know? It is reality TV, to some extent, in real-time, with real things at stake. But, I mean, side stories … it takes away from the actual headlines. It takes away from what’s actually going on. In some areas, yeah, maybe it could be slightly entertaining, but it should never overtake the spotlight of what’s going on with the actual product that we’re looking at.”
So, does Johnson ever feel like he’s part of a reality show, almost like The Truman Show, with everything set up around him?
Not exactly.
“I mean, not me personally, because I’m not involved in any of this directly, but from a distance, it kind of looks like that,” Johnson admitted. “I don’t know much about what’s going on in that whole situation, and I’m actually behind information-wise, anyway. But I agree with the sentiment that it takes away from the actual thing that we’re covering. And it is the role of the media to not make themselves [the story]. I think that’s the thing kind of everywhere. When you’re covering something, when you’re talking about something, when you’re involved with something like that — don’t make yourself the story. It could get messy that way.”
And it already has. Smith claimed he would’ve “swung” on LeBron if the Lakers star had touched him. He’s also been forced to apologize for making false accusations about Kobe Bryant’s memorial service.
Right now, they’re both stuck in the mud, with no one coming out looking clean.
“You have a person in Stephen A. who has been given a platform and has been elevated to a position of big importance as a sports voice, right? And paid as such,” said Johnson. “And then you have one of the game’s all-time biggest stars. It’s not just some random little reporter, some random everyday player. I think the main differentiator in this situation is this is the heavy hitter of our league and the heavy hitter of the media side.”
“The networks are going to naturally cling to whatever’s going to be talked about the most, or viewed the most because they’re also fighting for themselves too,” Johnson adds. “There’s a lot going on with sports networks now, in terms of what does their future look like? Have they hit their peak? You don’t know with the digital age and everything, and how media’s just consumed differently these days. So, I’m sure on their end, they’re like, ‘We just got to go with what people are actually listening to and talking about.”
But as we’ve stated many times before, it’s often left the audience at home — and us at Awful Announcing included — repeatedly wondering, “Who is any of this exactly for?”