In the wake of the Udoka affair, NBA coverage is in need of an overhaul

The NBA and the media that covers it rose to the position of prominence they now enjoy as a truly global sport because of their ability to engage fans with compelling narratives that extend far beyond basketball courts.

But both have sometimes handled those narratives in problematic ways that have caused damage to innocent bystanders, and the scandal surrounding Ime Udoka and the Boston Celtics has been emblematic of that unfortunate tendency. To be clear, the league and its media have been outstanding in their coverage of game-oriented and transactional aspects of the NBA.

But sensitive topics handled by a media culture that valorizes immediacy over caution has left outlets ill-prepared to cover fraught topics in ways that made a bad situation far worse in the case of the Celtics.

To elaborate, the situation in Boston saw renowned news breakers release stories sparse on detail that their own later reporting would seem to contradict, encouraging speculation on the part of the public.

Fans wanted to know (but were not told) details like internal policies or unresolved concerns that could have added meaningful context even if explicit details could (and quite possibly should) not be released.

In the interest of being the first to publish, hints of problematic behavior were downplayed and even negated through the use of language like “consensual” to describe a/n incident/s that at least one of the involved persons was no longer comfortable with.

A fact still not fully addressed by the media, even in light of slight deviations from the damage control notes lead Governor Wyc Grousbeck leaned on in a press conference not held for nearly 36 hours after the first reports began to leak.

Deviations that revealed a “volume of violations,” and now further inquiry on the scope and seriousness of those violations and the culture they occurred in will be infinitely harder to accomplish, if not impossible.

Despite this, the Celtics have perhaps taken an unfair share of the…