Towards a new basketball journalism in Europe: true debate, criticism and objectivity

What the USA has superior to Europe is not only the NBA, with very strong players and the toughest competitivity on the planet. It’s the true debate about basketball, the past, present and future of it! Max Kellerman, Stephen A. Smith, Shanon Sharpe, Jalen Rose, Skip Bayless and many others are making something unique, that here in Europe is missing: hammering our stupid prejudices! They are questioning everything, including idols like Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant.
Here in Europe, 99% of basketball journalism cannot be called journalism. It is only marketing and PR or an embarrassing conformism in front of the reputed coaches, legendary players, organizations. This is not journalism, because a true act of journalism is based on real debate, having at least 2 opposing views about any subject. In the USA, some of the analysts could say that a famous player or reputed coach is not so great as the others think he was. In Europe, instead, if you criticize Zeljko Obradovic, Ettore Messina, Panathinaikos, Real Madrid or Armani Milano they will tell you: this is sacrilege! Many will jump on you because there is no true democratic education for freedom of speech. Some of the fans are not enough educated to understand that only criticism and objectivity are the base for any accurate debate. It has to be a fight with clever arguments, examples in order to improve the perception of reality.
In European basketball debate, there is no democracy at all, because opposite opinions won’t be accepted. There is only a major Truth in this kind of ‘journalism’: the obedience for the established values, for great coaches and players (even when they fail a lot). The European journalists have learned only to praise on and on the same teams, coaches and players, while they are not open to different views about the basketball phenomenon. This is tragic and pathetic!
Photo: https://unsplash.com/
Gratian Cormos