…LOL.
None of this applies here. Naomi Osaka has put in the work.
Then can we have a decision? Is this a thread specifically about Naomi Osaka? Or is a thread about the broader issue of whether athletes should be compelled to talk to the media?
Yes, but the discussion has been entirely one sided on that. Should athletes simply be able to refuse media appearances. Maybe this helps to shine a light on the toxicity of some outlets, and spur a much needed discussion about bad faith media in not only this context, but in many others.
Plenty of people are arguing that she shouldn’t have to fulfill her contractual obligations.
I haven’t really seen that, in this thread, nor from her.
What rules were changed? She’s the one that wants to change the rules.
I don’t really disagree with the comparison to other athletes who follow through on their contractual obligations. While I don’t recognize any of those athletes, so I don’t know if there is some deeper meaning, I’m actually confused as to what is so horrifying about it.
…broader discussions can be difficult without real-world context. Broadly talking about “free-riders” means nothing if there are no people out there that fit that description.
Was there any particular player in any sport that you would consider “a free rider” and expect over players to “do the work”, in this specific context? How much of a problem is this outside of this particular specific incident?
Hard to make that claim when she’s cashing the checks.
The words that she sent to her million followers, followers that she has because of the promotion that others have done to make her famous and wealthy?
You know, lots of people do. And mental health is something that needs to be addressed. But this is not the way to do it. Millions of people struggle with mental problems, and yet have to get out of bed in order to pay the bills.
No, I have very personal and intimate knowledge of those things. However, I still got out of bed in the morning, and faced many challenges and things that were damaging to my mental wellbeing. Difference was was that I wasn’t sure if those efforts would be enough to even keep a roof over my head and food on my table.
Your statement surely is, but your assertions as to my character are completely out of line.
…not really. One side of the discussion has treated it as “no big deal.”
You said:
The important words bolded.
Nobody here in this thread has argued this.
Nobody here thinks she shouldn’t have been fined.
The fine is in the rules. Risking suspension was not.
The meme “they understood the assignment” originated on black twitter, and was used to highlight actors that had shown through their body of work to have been exceptionally-good at their jobs. The people in the photos were tennis players at press conferences.
The tournament appropriated a joke from black culture to use it to directly target a woman player of colour who had just said she was suffering from debilitating depression and social anxiety.
Disgusting.
The complete removal of agency here from Naomi Osaka completely beggars belief. Osaka wouldn’t be where she was now if it wasn’t both her abilities on the court, her personality and the way she interacts with the fans, with the way she responded in that match with Serena many years ago. Roland Garros did not build the Naomi Osaka brand.
Absolutely fucking yes this is a way to do it.
You don’t get it.
Some of them can’t get out of bed. And some of them can’t pay their bills. Some of them, like me, run a small business that relies on having to go out and talk to people. And sometimes I can’t even walk out the fucking door let alone get out of bed. You have no idea at all how any of this works.
I commend you on being able to face those challenges.
But not everybody is you.
I have said nothing about your character. Just your words.
this is where pro sports could take a page from pro wrestling now just hear me out
Back in the day where you had someone who could make it look good but had the charisma of a plank or couldn’t put together a sentence of more than 3 words … they gave them a manager to talk for them like bobby Heenan Jim Cornette Paul Heyman and it was the manager that put them over … in single-person sports why dont they let them appoint a spokesperson who can answer the questions while the athlete just stands there and looks pretty and such
I remain flabbergasted that people are accusing an athlete who has spent most of her actual life training herself to become one of the top players in the world of “not putting in the work” because she didn’t do a press conference.
She’s not an athlete to them. She’s an animal in the circus.
I’d be curious to see which people are tennis fans or even just sports fans in general, the people that think it’s outrageous that she didn’t do a press conference or those that don’t care.
I’ve played tennis for 35 years and watch at least an hour of tennis a day almost 365 days a year, and sometimes 8-10 hours.
I have never watched an interview besides the on court post match ones that are a couple of minutes long.
In recent years if the player has anything useful to say (e.g. Djokovic after he was DQd) it’s been on their social media.
I’m a sports fan in general but find tennis more boring than golf. I’d say I’m a sports fan in general though. I don’t think it’s outrageous that she didn’t do a press conference but I think her withdrawing from the tournament for not talking to the media is the right move for the tournament. I’ve watched an actual press conference 0 times but I watched snippets from press conference 1000s of times on ESPN and read quotes more than that in the written press.
I’d also like to add for the ‘she signed a contract’ folks here that the contract specified fines for failing to fulfill media obligations, and the French Open unilaterally added punishments after Osaka requested mental health accommodations.
She didn’t change the rules and she didn’t fail to fulfill her contractual obligations, the French Open did. The trick about contracts is that every word of the contract is part of the contract, even the words about what happens when one party disappoints the other party. When the disappointed party unilaterally adds new things, that’s breaking the contract terms.
Contracts don’t guarantee happiness, and no party of a contract should be held to terms outside the contract in order to make their business partner happy. They may do so of their own free will, and it may be smart to do so, but you can’t claim that they are breaking the contract if they don’t.
A lot of these sports interviews are a series of platitudes because the athlete does not want to invest a lot of thought or say something inappropriate, and the journalist wants access.
Some political journalists ask loaded questions to try to get a certain response. Hard questions have no place in a run-of-the-mill sports interview if the athlete did not seek out attention, such as appearing on a show with that reputation. I think the race question could easily be seen as out of bounds, but was at least insensitive.
In fact, no real reason an athlete could not tape a short segment in advance or send a coach to explain their upcoming strategy. I do think athletes should talk to the media, with mutual respect, but not necessarily at any time if it affects their play.
To say this has cost the athlete nothing is very wrong - a shot at a tournament, investments in training and travel, future spots… Probably this could have been handled better on all sides but my sympathies are a little more with the athlete than the bureaucracy.
In game interviews aren’t rare. Baseball does it between innings with Managers. MLS does it with managers. NASCAR does it after a stage with the driver.
As stated, people enjoy hearing the athletes answer questions. The /r/NBA subreddit tends to have highly upvoted threads based on what a player said in a post game press conference,
especially in the playoffs. Sports do enjoy hearing what was said by managers and coaches and they aren’t all bland and generic.
I’m not sure why we are talking past eachother. I say that this spotlights toxic media, and the discussion to be had about that, and you… well simply ignore that in favor of making claims about what “one side” has done.
There have certainly been those who have said that she shouldn’t have to give press conferences, and didn’t say anything about how she should pay a fine. Maybe they meant to say that, but they just forgot.
Are you sure about that? Are you claiming that the French Open is threatening to blatantly breach their contract with her?
I suppose a bit of appropriation, but I still don’t see how it’s disgusting or horrifying or any of the other emotionally laden superlative adjectives that are being thrown about.
Yes, your claim that I am removing her agency does in fact, beggar belief. She certainly has choices, and she has made those choices.
Or without a multibillion dollar industry that she chose to join and be a part of.
Personally, probably not. But without the sports industry that is being so vilified here, there would be no “brand” to build.
I have to disagree that a multimillionaire refusing to fulfill her contractual obligations is a way of shining the light on the millions of others who do not have her resources, her options, or her supporters, and are suffering far more.
Yes, I do get it. And the only reason that I would get out of bed is due to the fact that if I didn’t, then I would end up homeless. I had to do jobs that destroyed me mentally. When you have social anxiety and depression, try going to four or five job interviews a day and being rejected for each one, try working a speaker at a fast food restaurant for 10 hours and taking abuse from customers, as well as from managers. I guarantee you that that’s more harmful to one’s mental state than attending a press conference.
You are correct. That is why most of our homeless population suffers from mental illness, it’s why many people commit suicide. They were not able to do as you or I, and overcome those challenges. Do you really think that her actions are going to do anything to highlight those who were not able to overcome their mental illness?
Unlike them, and you and I, she can just walk away from all of this right now and be completely secure in her fiscal future, and spend the next 8 decades of her life in self-care.
Words cannot be tone deaf, only those speaking them can be, so you really cannot make the claim that you are trying to make here.
I think that my points have been far more nuanced and thoughtful than the knee jerk reactions of everyone here who thinks that she was entirely in the right, and that it’s all the bad people who are paying her tens of millions of dollars who are in the wrong.
Like I said, if it’s not about the money, she doesn’t have to take it. She can just go play with her friends and enjoy the sport. I personally think that money ruins sports, and while I actually do enjoy sometimes watching people play sports, I almost never watch professionals. They are not doing it for the love of the game anymore, they are doing it for a paycheck.
There are certainly some downsides to taking that paycheck, and people should be made aware of the industry that they are joining before they sign on to be a part of it.
As am I. Fortunately, I haven’t actually seen anyone make such an accusation.
She did sign up to make millions of dollars as a performer. If she didn’t want people to watch her play, she could have played with her friends instead of joining the sports industrial complex.
I’m a fan of sportsmanship. I can watch just about any sport that has people who are there because they love the game.
If someone has chosen to fulfill contractual obligations in return for money, I find it to be poor sportsmanship to refuse to follow through on what they said they would do.
Are you claiming that the French Open is violating the contract? I haven’t read the contract itself, but I would be surprised if they are just going ahead and breaching it. The fact that they warned her that her breach of contract would have repercussions doesn’t mean they broke it.
And do you know that there are not words that say that her playing in the French Open are contingent on her fulfilling her other contractractual obligations?
Hey, here’s your chance to read it.
By my read there are 3 relevant sections:
This last two indicate suspension as a punishment, but only for conduct egregious and detrimental to the game of tennis.
Some of the arguments put forth in this thread have been rather circular.
Q: “Why should athletes be required to talk to the media?”
A: “Because it’s required.”