Mic’d Up: A Novel Idea With Imperfections
Scott Brooks took the wireless mic at Midwest City High on Monday night, cleared his throat and gave a few sound checks.
The Thunder coach then introduced himself to roughly 2,000 fans at the evening’s open practice and explained to them what they were in store for throughout the two-hour session.
And that welcome was as good as his sound bites got.
Brooks sadly became the latest victim of mic’d up, a brilliant idea gone bad. Some of it was on Brooks. Most of his failures were a natural result of an imperfect innovation.
The idea of having players and coaches mic’d up is to take fans behind the scenes. To show a side of the game few know exist. Rarely does it work out. Ever notice how the mic’d up segments during Sunday and Monday Night Football telecasts have been missing lately? And as fans, are we really missing anything?
The answer is no. The reason is because no one acts the same when they’re mic’d up. Conversations come off as contrived. Movements and mannerisms seem made up. Genuine gestures are too graphic for the general public.
And so all we’re left with is sound bites of Kobe Bryant panting as he trots back after a bucket yelling, “Good pass, Sasha.” Our “inside track” nothing more than replays of watered-down timeouts in which coach George Karl tells his Denver Nuggets what we’ve all known for years, “We’ve got to play better D.”
Some players and coaches are more carefree than others. They are who they are no matter who’s watching, or listening in this case. But the most compelling conversations are the ones we’ll never gain access to because of competitive advantage.
Evidence: Brooks appeared to turn off his mic Monday whenever his team huddled around him for detailed instructions. The fans were left out of what could have been the most fascinating dialogue of the night. It’s completely understandable if Brooks killed his mic for competitive reasons. But there was about 1 1/2 hours where Brooks could have engaged the crowd more and had a little more fun with folks, including his own players for the good of the fans.
Instead, what we witnessed was yet another example of how mic’d up is just messed up.
-DM-
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment