For years the NBA has gone to great lengths to make its talented athletes and coaches more marketable and appear more personable, and the NBA sideline reporter has played a large role in bringing out these personalities. Post-game locker room interviews and press conferences have always been part of the deal, but the frequency of presenting NBA sideline reporters and unscripted interviews with game participants has increased over time, including brief interviews with coaches between quarters on some national telecasts, halftime interviews with players, interviews with assistant coaches before the start of the third quarter and post-game interviews with the hometown hero after a win, sometimes even piped in over the arena’s public address system. This comes in addition to chasing scoops and attempting to pry honest answers from tired, frustrated athletes and coaches on live television.
VALUABLE INFORMATION
The NBA sideline reporter usually does an effective job of providing updates when, for example, a player limps off the court and into the locker room during game action. It’s always good to know as soon as possible what kind of injury the player is dealing with, and the chances of the player returning to the game. They even occasionally manage to eavesdrop into a team’s huddle during timeouts and fill us in on what the coach’s focus was. We never used to get those tidbits.
NBA SIDELINE REPORTERS AND UNSCRIPTED INTERVIEWS
It appears that one of the more challenging aspects of the job is conducting the brief interview on the court, specifically, asking the right question that will get useful information out of the interviewee. Some sideline reporters are adept at getting subjects to discuss specific strategies that may impact a game’s outcome, a word of encouragement from a teammate or coach, etc., and this has to be done on the fly at times.
On the other hand, the few sideline reporters–including some veterans–who struggle with the interview thing will generally ask questions that either a) cannot really be answered, b) ask questions that contain they’ve already answered, or c) ask questions with obvious answers. To be fair, sometimes an athlete is interviewed only seconds after a game ends, and pertinent questions aren’t known until seconds before that.
QUESTIONS THAT CANNOT BE ANSWERED
I. Sideline Reporter interviewing the star of the game after a home playoff win, which can also be heard over the arena’s public address system.
“Your team wins an important Game 3 at home after losing the first two games on the road. You’re now back in this series.”
OK. We all know the odds of winning a series after going down 0-3, so this is a true statement. But then comes the question:
“How huge of a win was this?”
Difficult to quantify, and the answer usually begins with “It was huge.”
II. Sideline Reporter interviewing a head coach after the first quarter of a nationally-televised game.
“Your team shot 4-for-22 in the first quarter.”
It happens. Perhaps the interviewee doesn’t wish to be reminded of that on national television, but the interviewer is merely stating a fact. Nothing wrong there, but then comes the question:
“What do you have to do to improve on that?”
OK, perhaps the coach can talk about better spacing, ball movement, shot selection, etc., and the coach usually has more on his mind than talking into a microphone during a break, but the more likely response–especially if the subject is Spurs’ coach Gregg Popovich–will be an eye roll, followed by something like, “Uh, shoot 5-for 22?”
III. Sideline Reporter interviewing an assistant coach prior to the third quarter.
“LeBron James almost had a triple-double in the first half. How do you stop him in the second half?”
With rare exceptions, after 16 years, we’re still waiting for the answer.
QUESTIONS ALREADY ANSWERED BY THE QUESTIONER
I. Sideline Reporter interviewing the star of the game after a home win, an interview which can be heard over the arena’s public address system.
“Your team played with incredible energy defensively and found your shooting touch to erase a 20-point deficit in the third quarter and win the game on a buzzer-beater. Congratulations on a great comeback!”
Again, thorough to the point of not leaving anything else to talk about. Then comes the question:
“How were you able to do it?”
By playing with incredible energy defensively and…never mind.
II. Sideline Reporter interviewing an assistant coach prior to the third quarter.
“You’re up 15 at halftime, you’ve shut down their top scorer, the ball movement was crisp and you’ve only committed three turnovers.”
That about says it all. But the sideline reporter is still obligated to ask a question:
“How do you keep it going in the second half?”
This is the part where we hear the industry words like “focus”, “intensity”, “attention to detail”, and others, because there’s nothing left to say.
QUESTIONS WITH OBVIOUS ANSWERS
I. Reporter interviewing star of the game after a road playoff win.
“You scored 35 points, grabbed 15 rebounds, had 5 assists, and your team just won the first two games of the series on the road and are going home for the next two.”
OK. Thorough and accurate recap of the situation. But then comes 64-cent question:
“How do you feel?”
Player probably feels pretty good, unless he has the flu or something.
II. Reporter interviewing a player after an overtime win.
“So you step to the free throw line to shoot three free throws with your team down by three and no time remaining, and knowing you need to make all three to send the game into overtime. What a pressure situation that must have been!”
No doubt about that. But then comes the question:
“What was going through your mind?”
Dinner. Geez.
THE OBLIGATORY “TALK ABOUT/MINDSET” QUESTION
I. Sideline Reporter interviewing a player after a strong performance.
“You had a bit of a rough go of it in your last game, but you bounced back in a big way tonight.”
Here it comes…
“Talk about your mindset going into tonight’s game.”
New Rule: Any interview that includes a question beginning with “talk about” or using the word “mindset” shall terminated immediately.
You can generally tell by a) body language or b) short, snappy answers when a player would rather be in the locker room preparing for the second half or celebrating a win with his teammates, or when a coach is getting antsy about going back to the huddle devising strategy between quarters (or simply doesn’t feel like being bothered).
But to their credit, most players–through their exhaustion–generally show patience answering those questions, even if it requires resorting to canned responses.
We make fun of them at times, but also acknowledge the sideline reporter has a tough gig.
Someone has to do it.
