With all the college basketball talk, I took a look at some news going on over in the NBA world. NBA players, as well as many other athletes for that matter, have taken to the media recently to call out their teammates after games don't go quite as well as planned. Recently, after the Knick's loss on Friday night to the Pistons, Amare Stoudemire had said there were some players on the team who still needed to buy into coach Mike D'Antoni's system, and it seemed clear he was speaking of Carmelo Anthony. (ESPN.com) He's not the only one who has recently called out a teammate to the press though. Dwight Howard called out his team to the press a few weeks ago saying that everyone on the team needs to step up or sit down. John Wall also called out his teammates in a similar way, saying that they need to find five guys who want to fight or its going to be tough. These few examples are only the tip of the iceburg when it comes to players calling out their teammates.
Athletes need to realize that the comments they make out of frustration after a loss, will be noted by the reporters that hear it and will be run as one of the lead stories after that game. Athletes are supposed to be professional and that includes dealing with issues with teammates in a professional way. It is not professional to bash your teammates to the press or to take your frustrations to Twitter.
As a journalism major, I personally hope that players continue this behavior, because this will always be a big story in the sports world.