As far as the thread goes, it's not like this would be some kind of revolutionary tactic. It's been done before. Allen Iverson basically did this with Stephen A. Smith. And seeing as press conferences are mandated in the top leagues you really can't just get away with not talking to media at all, at least financially.
And it also depends on how much a player cares about the off the court stuff and his likability and shyt overall as well, because in a lot of ways with the general public having the media on your side can benefit you greatly. If you just wanna play and go home I guess it doesn't matter. But you can benefit from being media friendly, especially when it comes to your team resigning you, getting fired/remaining with a team (coaches/GMs), etc. The media drives the narratives in sports (particularly ESPN) whether you like it or not; with Twitter and social media that may change in the future but it is what it is. One guy who mastered the media and used it to his advantage has been Doc Rivers; the way he's treated reporters is a big reason him being fired has never become a huge topic mainstream (even though The Coli doesn't respect this brother for whatever reason) even though it'd be that way for a lot of guys. Kevin Durant, on the other hand, is a guy that seems to go at the media even though they've gone light on him in comparison to his peers, and he could actually finesse them if he wanted to.
The only problem with all of what I said though is that the media lives to build you up and then tear you back down, particularly for Black athletes, and it does involve you being "fake" to a certain extent... of course, anybody who has ever had a job at all has had to be "fake" at some point to survive out here anyway. We're not all Dame Dash, and most of these athletes aren't either.
) and only talk or give interviews to them. Just tell that reporter to ALWAYS be around. They could boost somebody's career, avoid fines for avoiding media, and piss off the rest of media all at the same time.
