Dirk Nowitzki doesn’t sound like a huge fan of social media.
The impact of social media on NBA players has been in the news a lot ever since commissioner Adam Silver talked about how it is making guys unhappy. It sounds like Nowitzki thinks similarly. (RELATED: Adam Silver Rips Social Media, Says Lots Of NBA Players Are ‘Genuinely Unhappy’)
The Dallas Mavericks legend told The Athletic the following, according to Bleacher Report:
I don’t know if it’s about winning as much anymore as it is looking good on Instagram, Twitter, having followers and having clicks and likes. I do agree 20 years ago people weren’t on their phones as much … But I’m not going to blame everything on social media. We’re all competitors. I usually based my happiness on winning and losing. When we won it was fun. We would play music after games. When we lost we were pissed. That’s what I based my happiness on. Guys would sit around the locker room waiting for the coach to talk and during that wait there would be conversations taking place. Now it is 15 guys on their phones. There’s not much time being spent together.
I couldn’t agree more with Nowitzki. He absolutely hit the nail on the head with this one. You can go through a lot of different social media accounts for players, and it’ll have you wondering if they’re focused on being ball players or celebrities.
Hell, I’ll even take it a step further. Go to Colin Kaepernick’s Instagram feed and tell me how many of his recent posts are of him practicing or focused on football. The answer is none.
The NBA legend is 100 percent correct. Way too many players are focused on how they’re viewed off of the court than just winning games.
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Of course, that’s not to say that social media is just 100 percent bad. There are positive sides to it as well. It allows people to get potentially important messages out, stay connected with fans and things of that nature.
However, if you care more about your Insta than winning, you’re going to have a big problem on your hands.
The same applies to guys who rush off to their phones after a game.
Major props to Nowitzki for calling out this insanity. It really has to change. There’s no point in players being so obsessed with their images. Just focus on winning.