Board 8 > What's your stance on the naomi osaka situation?

(+) Yeah! (+)

she quit the tournament after officials said she might be forced to give press interviews after she said she wouldn't talk to the press after matches

Oh....I saw she wasn't participating, but I assumed it was because more racist player shit came out.

I'll need more deets.

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racist player? what?

UshiromiyaEva posted...

I'll need more deets.

Osaka announced pre-tournament that she was going to skip the post-match press conferences for mental health reasons.

The French Open responded by saying it would fine her for failing to meet press obligations, and she was indeed fined when she didn't attend the one after winning her first round match (she did the interview on the court in front of the fans; it's the press conference room bit she was skipping.) She accepted the fines and just said she hoped they'd donate it to a mental health organization.

Then the French Open said if she continued they'd consider disqualifying her from the tournament and possibly future Grand Slams. Osaka then withdrew from the tournament and said she'd be taking some time away from tennis for mental health reasons and that she's been suffering from depression since the 2018 US Open (the infamous one where the crowd booed during the awards ceremony because of the controversy between Serena and the chair umpire.)

In the background there was a bunch of really scummy moves by the Open IMO, like a (since deleted) tweet where they subtweeted her by posting a photo of some other players with just "They knew the obligation."

Definitely with Osaka here. Hope she is able to get better and she raised some good points about the archaic nature of press conferences besides tbqh.

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OK well then obviously I would side with Naomi. I assumed so, but always good to make sure. This seems very cut and dry in her favor.

You basically have to assume all sports institutions are inherently evil and/or corrupt, and it takes a LOT for a player to be in the wrong (Antonio Brown).

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I understand both sides of this. Even as someone whose profession is on full display for all to see, I get how speaking to the media and subsequently millions of people across the world is something you have to be in the right state of mind for and having mental health concerns, whether short or long-term, makes the media requirements sometimes harmful.

However, players are paid an exorbitant amount of money both on and off the court because of sponsorships and media coverage that need the exposure of players, especially the better and more famous ones like Osaka and during the major tournaments such as the French Open.

I definitely side with priortizing mental health because I am not a sociopath, but I acknowledge the complexity of the situation due all the entities affected and the relationship between league, players, sponsorships, media, and probably others that I am just not thinking of. I just don't know what the compromise is.
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xp1337 posted...

skip the post-match press conferences for mental health reasons

i am disinclined to believe that this would harm her actual "mental health" and therefore i am inclined dislike her

i would be fine with "no interviews because journos suck" but the wording she used makes me skeptical

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If she can't do press conferences due to her mental health, she probably shouldn't be playing anyway. I guess only she can judge that though. But either way, they are part of the responsibility of playing in the tournament and part of the reason pro-athletes make as much money as they do, so if she can't do them she probably should take some time off.

They could have handled it better though. Perhaps they could have reached an agreement on reduced pay or something

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French open can kick rocks

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I sincerely hope that the next time she's roped into a press conference she doesn't want to be in, Osaka employs the Marshawn Lynch maneuver:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1kvwXsZtU8

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In her post about her withdrawing from the tournament she mentioned that she had reached out privately to the tournament to see if they could work something out, but uh... that apparently didn't work out. (The "apparently didn't work out" is my stating the obvious; Osaka didn't write that part to be clear)

Even if you wanted to give the French Open the benefit of the doubt for whatever reason, it's just so hard to given their behavior at every turn here. There was the deleted passive-aggressive subtweet I mentioned, the fact that they began a statement with "We value the mental health of all athletes" in the same one they immediately followed with a threat of future disqualifications including future Grand Slams, that the tournament director ironically didn't take questions from the press and just left after giving his statement about Osaka withdrawing...

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Not_an_Owl posted...

I sincerely hope that the next time she's roped into a press conference she doesn't want to be in, Osaka employs the Marshawn Lynch maneuver:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1kvwXsZtU8

i immediately love this guy, suck my dick journo scum

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The Mana Sword posted...

French open can kick rocks

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Should've just pulled a Marshawn Lynch. Athletes don't need to have social skills to do their job and the fact they can't opt out of press conferences is absurd. Good on her for just saying fuck it altogether though, rather than feeding into what's evidently a toxic organization/industry with no actual interest in valuing the art of sport.

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I dont see why it has to be one or the other

If they both accept the terms (either do press or go home and take care of yourself if youre not capable right now) then great.

I do think continued fines would probably be more appropriate though. A DQ hurts the sport and the athlete.
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I understand that there's a symbiotic relationship between athletes and sports media. Without the media, professional athletes probably won't make quite as much money as they currently do.

Still, I 100% side with Naomi and credit her for prioritizing her health *and* disrupting the system . Again, while the media probably helps boost the athletes' pay to an extent, these interviews are much more beneficial for the media themselves, the venue, the administrators (like the tournament director who tried to play hardball with Osaka and then wouldn't take media questions himself LOL), and sponsors. The leverage here has grown increasingly in the athletes' favor, as they can now grow their own name brand through social media and are less dependent on traditional media to do it for them. I think more athletes will follow Naomi's example here, and it'll be up to sports media to either adapt or fuck off toward further irrelevance.

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The Mana Sword posted...

French open can kick rocks

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CaptainOfCrush posted...

(like the tournament director who tried to play hardball with Osaka and then wouldn't take media questions himself LOL)

Oh man this is the Shyamalan twist out of nowhere.

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It's apparently a mandate for celebrities, including athletes, to talk to the press, even if they're introverted and don't want to reveal details about their personal lives or respond to uncomfortable questions. I'm guessing she's had enough of those.

Fuck being famous. I'm with Naomi. If she doesn't wanna talk to the media vultures, she shouldn't have to.
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When she started getting good at tennis, she knew that she was signing up for a life of interviews. Everyone knows tennis is about the interviews. It's her own fault. If she didn't want to be famous she could've just failed at all her life goals like the rest of us.

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I side with Osaka. Players well being should come before any media duties.

Personally I think players media obligations are ridiculous anyway and nobody should be forced to perform them if they don't want to. Most of the time we just get the standard cliche ridden interviews that tell us nothing of worth anyway. Yes it may affect the money but shouldn't players have that choice? Maybe some would be fine with less overall money in return for less media obligations but right now they aren't given that option.

You can be good at something and also be so introverted that talking to the press or anyone can be the most mentally stressful thing you could do. I would probably do the same thing if I was her.

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xp1337 posted...

that the tournament director ironically didn't take questions from the press and just left after giving his statement about Osaka withdrawing...

lmao

Well that breaks any leg they had to stand on

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xp1337 posted...

Osaka then withdrew from the tournament and said she'd be taking some time away from tennis for mental health reasons and that she's been suffering from depression since the 2018 US Open (the infamous one where the crowd booed during the awards ceremony because of the controversy between Serena and the chair umpire.)

I only found out about this incident recently and it still made my blood boil. Yeah, Naomi pretty much deserves mental leeway after that debacle - and even if it hadn't ever happened, I would still side with her on this topic's issue.

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Oh man I just saw another Shyamalan twist in all this

https://www.espn.com/tennis/story/_/id/31547121/petra-kvitova-withdraws-french-open-injured-ankle-fall-media-availability

The #11 seed had to drop out of the tournament because they hurt their ankle... doing their media obligation.

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KamikazePotato posted...

I only found out about this incident recently and it still made my blood boil. Yeah, Naomi pretty much deserves mental leeway after that debacle - and even if it hadn't ever happened, I would still side with her on this topic's issue.

Yeah, I was watching that match live and that awards ceremony made me feel sick. Serena had to literally speak up and tell the crowd to stop it and Osaka was in tears and the whole thing was just awful in every imaginable way. I felt, and still do, so terrible for Osaka following that whole thing. What should have been one of the best moments in her professional career - playing against, and defeating, her tennis idol to win her first Grand Slam title instead became what I can only assume as one of the worst instead.

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FFDragon posted...

Oh man I just saw another Shyamalan twist in all this

https://www.espn.com/tennis/story/_/id/31547121/petra-kvitova-withdraws-french-open-injured-ankle-fall-media-availability

The #11 seed had to drop out of the tournament because they hurt their ankle... doing their media obligation.

how does life come up with these plots

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It's been funny to see the pettiness of the French during this situation

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I can appreciate Naomi's position, but the right move for her would have been to stay out of the competition until she was mentally ready to return. She's a professional player, and that comes with certain commitments including press interviews.

meanwhile with Martina Trevisan

https://video.gazzetta.it/video-roland-garros-trevisan-attende-20-minuti-conferenza/1ade80e0-c2b9-11eb-9563-4c83c1ccf97f

"can i go?" lmao

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FFDragon posted...

Oh man I just saw another Shyamalan twist in all this

https://www.espn.com/tennis/story/_/id/31547121/petra-kvitova-withdraws-french-open-injured-ankle-fall-media-availability

The #11 seed had to drop out of the tournament because they hurt their ankle... doing their media obligation.

Cursed tournament

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Not sure why being good at tennis should obligate you to give interviews. This seems pretty cut and dry to me.

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Sports media is basically universally trash. Post-game interviews are especially so. Nothing good has ever come of them.

Like, holy shit, go look at the shit asked of Gauff after her match.

Uglyface2 posted...

I can appreciate Naomi's position, but the right move for her would have been to stay out of the competition until she was mentally ready to return. She's a professional player, and that comes with certain commitments including press interviews.

She played one round (of a tournament that takes seven rounds to win) and peaced once it became clear that the tournament organizers decided to intimidate her rather than work with her. So that's basically what she did.

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I understand why sports organizations would like players to do interviews, but forcing them to do interviews when the player in question specifically wants to avoid public speaking due to mental stress is typical corporate bullshit, where the employees making all the money for the people at the top are seen as resources without feelings.

Like, the organizers in question here thought they were calling a bluff and it's biting them in the ass big time. I can't feel sympathy for that.

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I would be fine (...) with fines for this, just because I get the business aspect.

But DQing/the bullying is a fucking joke.

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Yeah, they definitely thought the fine threat would intimidate her into complying and were caught off guard when she was willing to accept getting fined all tournament.

Because they immediately escalated to DQ threats (and not just that tournament either - again, they were putting future tournament bans on the table) with the pretext that sticking with the fines would represent a "competitive advantage" for players like Osaka who could afford to pay them.

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And that deleted tweet was the toothpick olive atop the French Open's shit sandwich. Who tf would sympathize with them after that.

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xp1337 posted...

the fines would represent a "competitive advantage" for players like Osaka who could afford to pay them.

Is this an admission that doing the interviews does enough damage to afford an advantage to those that don't?

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@Uglyface2 posted...

I can appreciate Naomi's position, but the right move for her would have been to stay out of the competition until she was mentally ready to return. She's a professional player, and that comes with certain commitments including press interviews.

And what consequences should there be for the French Open, since the tournament director refused to take questions after making his statement?
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With Osaka and completely believe what she has said. The media is very important in sports in terms of finding and asking hard questions about corruption, which is rife, so their role is absolutely key - but the athletes themselves are rarely knowingly neck- or even knee-deep in that corruption and rarely in a position to properly discuss it. And their responses in these press conferences are usually either coached or sometimes uncomfortable moments of confrontation - either way, not great.

What I'm trying to say is don't dismiss the value of sports journalism in general, but that the specific circumstances Osaka chose to avoid are not an example of that high value, so any defence of the media here wouldn't really extend to situations like the ones Osaka is avoiding. And given their behaviour it seems impossible to actually side with the organisers here.

Rightly or wrongly, if like the FIFA president said he never speaks to the media because of the effect on his mental health, I'd be incredibly sceptical and have a lot less sympathy.
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Mac Arrowny posted...

And what consequences should there be for the French Open, since the tournament director refused to take questions after making his statement?

Actually this is a more relevant example. If the director turned around and used a mental health reason for avoiding questions, I'd be fairly cynical about that. With an athlete, not so much.
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It's kind of strange listening to the takes of other sports media members on this because they don't really seem to get it (of course a lot of them are old and don't understand mental health in general).

There's kind of this inherent sense of self-importance to their job, too, where they kind of feel entitled to interview athletes, even when they admit most post-game press conferences are totally worthless.

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i would like to apologize to the tournament director here because i got job titles wrong

The guy who read a statement about Osaka withdrawing and then left without taking questions was apparently the president of the French Tennis Federation and apparently "tournament director" is a separate position.

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FFDragon posted...

Is this an admission that doing the interviews does enough damage to afford an advantage to those that don't?

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Sports media is far more dependant on the star power of athletes than the athletes are dependant on them, but it's gotta be awful tough for them to admit that on air.

Like XIII pointed out, there are legitimate functions of sports media and advantages to having them around, but their industry (which has already been shrinking) would shrivel to the size of a raisin if they focused solely on investigative journalism and in-depth analysis. They need to ask LeBron the same question 50 times so that he might get mad and give them something to cover for 48 hours.

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Kenri posted...

Not sure why being good at tennis should obligate you to give interviews. This seems pretty cut and dry to me.

Being good at tennis doesn't

Getting paid millions of dollars to play tennis does

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Post game(match) interviews are awful and are only there to get soundbites when a player says something out of frustration.

Burn it all

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I think it sucks that Osaka had to pull herself out of the French because of this dumb bullshit. The media are fucking vultures and those interviews are 99% useless. Stuff like this makes me realize why giving bland nothing answers like Saban and Belichick or "pulling a Lynch" is the way to go.

Some athletes like to talk, and if they do, good for them. Others don't and they can let their game speak for themself.

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