Rysheed Jordan Media Availabilty
- Thread starter paultzman
- Start date
Meanwhile on Instagram.http://instagram.com/p/t8WP0FuYOE/
It's a picture of him commiting to St. John's. His captions reads:
"#TBT (throwback Thursday) when I first committed to St. John's. Best day of my life"
It's a picture of him commiting to St. John's. His captions reads:
"#TBT (throwback Thursday) when I first committed to St. John's. Best day of my life"
beast of the east
Active member
Do you recall if we've had underclassmen there before? Maybe its just a policy of Lavin to evaluate the readiness of players to speak to the press on such occasions
@DalyDoseOfHoops: Steve Lavin on Rysheed Jordan: "The media still won't have access to him...I want him strictly focused on academics."
@DalyDoseOfHoops: Steve Lavin on Rysheed Jordan's media availability: "I would say in all probability, maybe early December if we've seen enough improvement."
@DalyDoseOfHoops: Steve Lavin on Rysheed Jordan's media availability: "I would say in all probability, maybe early December if we've seen enough improvement."
I remember John Thompson doing this with his kids, but I believe that had more to do with his concerns about the Freshman-in particular Patrick Ewing-being able to deal with the media. I'm sure other coaches do it as well. Don't really see how preventing a kid from being available media day is going to help him academically. I mean its a few hours one day during the whole semester.
beast of the east
Active member
I have some pretty strong feelings on this subject, and am aligned with Lavin's rules, but not his explanations.
We live in an era of hyper access to athletes communicating with the press. Marvelously gifted athletes such as Alex Rodriguez are also gifted with often saying the precisely wrong thing to the press. Richard Sherman, a guy who performed well academically at an elite school, Stanford, has gone off on some embarrassing rants. The are examples of professionals, and happen to be two guys who of intellect and vocabulary whose mouths get them into trouble. Two talented coaches - Bob Knight and Bobby Valentine often cannot contain their vitriol for media.
Why should it even be an issue if a college sophomore's access to the media is restricted? Lavin would know better than any of us that Jordan isn't ready to handle the press, and that should be the end of it. If I were Jordan, I wouldn't appreciate the inference that he has to focus on academics. While it may be true, unless he becomes ineligible, academic struggles are none of our business.
While being interviewed for print or video adds to the "star" mentality that many college athletes possess, we've all heard athletes that possess almost zero communication skills. It can be pretty embarrassing to hear a so called college student not be able to form a grammatically correct sentence, and even worse when they aren't aware of that fact. I'm not saying Jordan falls into this category, but I am saying that it should be up to his coach to make that call, and maybe even his school policy, or NCAA policy restricting such access.
The only issue to me is that this is begin raised as an issue. The only thing I need to hear from Jordan until he is deemed ready to speak to the media is what he does on the court, and that he is a good teammate and a matriculated student. The rest is none of anyone's business.
Eligibility is not a current concern apparently. If he, like his teammates, abide by team rules, all will be fine. Jordan has a tremendous opportunity this season. Hopefully he will take full advantage of it. I would welcome a season with less distractions & more production. It appears staff expectations have been made clear. It is up to the players to honor those.
beast of the east
Active member
Thanks for pointing that out. Thompson's restrictions were broader. If you remember, Billy Packer came out with some really strong criticisms concerning how embarrassing it was to interview college students with such poor communication skills. The criticisms came across as racially charged. In any event, I agree that using academic focus on the reason Jordan was being held out of media day. I also would take Lavin to task - making Jordan's academics a public issue is none of our business.
For all we know, it could be the kid himself who is not prepared to face the media for any one of a variety of reasons. Whatever it is, as you say, its really none of our business and there is no need for Lavin to have to provide an explanation.
Perhaps it has to do with almost every article written about him including talk about his family responsibilities, tragedies and terminally ill family members. These are private matters that should remain private but he probably gets asked about them constantly.