As I have pointed out before here on NBC Sports, I really do love watching NBA marketing unfold in front of me. Some of it -- like Kobe Bryant’s weird post career legacy massaging -- is downright impressive.
Other instances are not quite as sly.
Enter newest Oklahoma City Thunder forward Paul George and his latest sponsored Instagram post.
In a recent video posted to his page, George put up a training montage set to an Eminem song that was essentially an advertisement for the gym and trainer he had been working with over the summer. The gym’s own page also features several of these videos. So far, pretty common stuff.
That is, until you read the Instagram caption and see what George had to say about his training. Let’s see if you can spot the issue.
Screenshot via Instagram:
Of course, the issue here is that George essentially took away the leverage the Indiana Pacers would have had if his trade request hadn’t somehow been made public. Repeatedly.
George knew he was going to get traded because Indiana had no choice but to trade him. Saying otherwise is a hilarious and transparent attempt to reshape recent history.
This is perhaps my favorite result of the platitudes drilled into the heads of players by team PR guys and agent media training. That is, when you talk nonsense for so long and during each and every interview -- we just dug deep, it’s a game of inches, you have to want it more -- sometimes you just don’t know when to stop trying to spin the story in your direction. Especially because the mantra of media training is to be boring and try say nothing, which is hard if you have something to prove or an opinion to change.
Between this and Kevin Durant openly admitting to having a burner Twitter account (which no doubt sparked a flurry of emails and calls between agents and their clients) this is shaping up to be one of the best NBA seasons in recent memories and that’s just from a new media standpoint.