South Africa's basketball community

How do we improve basketball in the media?

By on March 25, 2009 in News

We have the likes of “Slamdunk” on the national broadcaster SABC, then we have “Basketball Africa” on DSTV and finally there is www.mybasketball.co.za for our general news on basketball in South Africa and to some extent the continent. With these being our eyes around the country for information, why not look at the value they bring to the game that we love.

But are we as ballers happy with the service we are getting? I mean when was the last time we watched a live SA game on the telly? Or how do we influence the powers that be so that we get more coverage of the game on the television?

Are you as ballers happy with the way basketball is represented on TV with Slamdunk and basketAfrica? How about this site, how do you improve these channels of information? Obviously big shows like Slamdunk and BasketAfrica have editorial lines to follow and budget constraints but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t room for improvement. What are your thoughts?

In case you don’t watch either program on SABC 1 or Dstv, please also tell us why.

As far as mybasketball is concerned we are busy evolving again so your input in the process is welcome, please leave your comments here or on The‘Hood (http://thehood.mybasketball.co.za).

Article by Victor Shakineza

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There Are 21 Brilliant Comments

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  1. Jayson says:

    I love basketball. It is my passion. I will watch games if it should come on TV. I watch the NBA, NCAA and Euroleague. I even watch WNBA when it comes on TV. The problem is that these games come on ESPN. We need to see basketball, local flavour and international, on the local channels (SABC 1,2 and 3). Heck I though SABC Sport was going to be a real channel!

    I do not watch Slamdunk because it is BORING! They only show a few snippets (with no continuity) of games. The commentating is so mundane! It makes basketball look boring.

    We need to televise live games. All we need is one big event. We should start with college basketball in South Africa. Which I believe is the most exciting and entertaining basketball in the country at the moment (and most unbaised to a degree). The televised games should take place at decent venues as well to show that people go and watch basketball and that it is enjoyable. We need to advertise basketball as well. I never EVER seen a South African basketball ad promoting a game/s on television.

    Besides Mybasketball, which is doing running a great service of bringing us up-to-date info on basketball in and around SA, we must utilize the internet better. There are not enough articles written about basketball on all levels. I know more about WHEELCHAIR basketball! WHEELCHAIR BASKETBALL! I can’t even go to Wits University’s website and check out their Men’s basketball team. Matter of fact most Varsity websites do not even display info about their basketball teams in South Africa.

    Bottom line. Basketball is seen as RECREATION in South Africa and not a BUSINESS. So it will always be treated that way unless their is a paradigm shift. I do hope it happens soon.

  2. baller says:

    Slamdunk

    i honestly do not see any benefit that slamdunk is adding to the game. to me,they are just making money out of the sport with no benefit at all. firstly, what do we as a basketball community benefit from slam dunk. my guess is that its zero. for me, BSA should ban all provinces from allowing their structures to feature on that. they should buy the rights from BSA and provincial structures. we as basketball can do without their mickey mouse coverage.

    Dstv

    i haven’t seen the show as am poor to afford the decoder. i see that on the GBL website they are listed there. i hope they are bringing in some cash injection thou.

    My Basketball

    i think what we need is to put the current events on the website as they happen. it sometimes takes 3 to 10 days before events are put here. that is where i believe it should improve.

    Media contribution

    well, the limited media coverage we have should also focus on interviews with different players and coaches. also it would help others is other schools programs like Vaal, UJ, Tuks, Cape Tech are looked at so that people will learn on how they keep on achieving the results.

    interviews with the executive committee of BSA, the Board members so that we get to understand and know them. to me that will be making a great contribution to the sport.

    we should maybe enquire from Wheelchair basketball how they manage to get such coverage from the media.

    the problem i have is that our basketball media seem to only focus on Gauteng and Western Cape.

  3. Koruption says:

    I think there is more to Slamdunk that see the eye

  4. Koruption says:

    I think there is more to Slamdunk than see the eye. First of all i think Slamdunk is a joke. And the producers know it. There is nothing entertaining about and it personally i stopped watching it 3 years ago. In fact, I stopped enjoying local basketball on TV since Engen in the Zone when they used to show Warriors games. I believe Slamdunk is a scam looking to kill basketball in this country. TV good programmes must be exciting in every way. The production and commentry should be done properly to attract even non basketball fans. Slamdunk almost shows the worst of basketball, kids playing without shoes on, no scoreboard, commentators dont know the names of the players, lousy games everything bad about it shown there. Hence i stopped watching. I believe the reason you cannot watch GBL on TV at the moment is because slamdunk has already shot and booked its slot for months to come, so in Dec 2009, you will be watching Dec 2008 National championships held in Alice. I;m sure the tournament was shot by the same 1 or 2 lousy old cameramen who I dont think are even interested in what is happening on the floor.

    Now, the reason my name is Koruption, is because I can smell coruption from far. Can anyone from clockworkzoo explain why they changed their name??? Let me take a guess…because Slamdunk is issued on a tendering process and one company cannot keep getting the same tender over and over again. First it was Octagon since Etv, but that was fine because it was business to business legitimate affair, when it came to SABC, it was a totally different story, you had to tender to win, so when the contract lapsed, someone paid someone to keep gettting the tender, so to be correct, someone advised someone to just change the name of the company. Same people, same style, same crap. I smell a RAT. If clockworkzoo is audited, the RAT will smell so strong, Slamdunk might just become a real baskebtall magazine.

    Look into it, you will see this is not far from the truth. I dare clockworkzoo to respond. OR you can keep quite, else you might just say something that might get you in JAIL. what-cat-got-your-tongue???

    Korupt Da King Pin – I’m watching you….

  5. Blacky says:

    All the best to the Men’s senior team that left on Friday for Mocambique.
    Im wearing a bball shirt with a National flag at work on a Monday to pledge support 🙂 luckily its a colar shirt so I can get away with it 😉

  6. Joe says:

    Ignorance, Ignorance.

    Why is it ballers continue to make contributions on this forum without proper research and even go as far as make accusations. I find this practise extremely irritating and have come to the conclusion that most ballers are motormouths who are very ignorant.

    Take Korruption above, his comments are nothing but empty howlings with no intention to be constructive. As far as I know Octagon is an agent of Engen, hence their previous involvement with Slamdunk. It is common knowledge that BSA did not renew the Engen contract, thus the absence of Octagon from Slamdunk.

    Therefore, people like Korruption should be praising Clockwork for continuing with Slamdunk cause if they did not come on board there would not be basketball on SABC. What this exposes is that ballers are an ungratefull bunch who act like spoiled brats. If Korruption can do better than Clockwork then he should have approached SABC before Clockwork did. But then again, he was probably sitting on his backside watching opportunities go by, only waiting to cry foul when someone siezed them.

    Just for the record, I am in no way associated with Clockwork or any of its employees, except for Siya whom I do not know personally but associate myself with him cause he is a baller. Siya and his crew do not deserve such insults for they are doing for bball. In case you are not convinced please check last week’s Sowetan and numerous other write up about Siya and his work.

    Ignorance, pure laziness.

  7. kim says:

    I think I disagree with some of the things that have been said about Slamduck.I dont know whether its because .It is very importnat that slam dunk continue to be on our screens so as to market the sport.Not only to kids but also to investors.

    I agree that the coverage that is being given is probably not enough and the games not sufficiently covered but I believe that we need to start somewhere.I think that we need to understand the reasons why slamdunk is only 30mins and why we dont have live matches….

    I think Slamdunk is key to ensuring that we as ballers are acknoldeged as people that still exist.From there then build on what we have.I watch SLAMDUNK every week if not on the road,it might not be at the level of NCAA,NBA,EURO etc but it is something that we have and can build from.We always seem to think that things done in US and Europe are the best but never involve ourselves in improving our state of affairs and understand why clockworkzoo is in etc.

    The question stil asks the question….HOW DO WE IMPOROVE MEDIA COVERAGE!?!?!?!

  8. kim says:

    I meant to say……..The question still remains………HOW DO WE IMPROVE MEDIA COVERAGE?!?!?!

  9. Molupe says:

    Kim,

    Talking media and coverage – are you going to keep us posted on developments in Moz? And give us the proper Kim perspective (who played well, defenses faced, clever coaching moves, atmosphere, etc) and not the “We won 90-80” variety.

  10. baller says:

    Kim

    firstly, i hear you are with the senior men national team. congrats. please holla at Theo, Mixo etc. actions speak for themselves.

    i agree that we cannot compare our coverage with EURO, NCAA and the likes. what i would love to see happening is the bball community benefiting from this media coverages especially TV. as much as we are trying to get our house in order, they should also contribute. for one BSA has basketball rights and they should be protected. you don’t need a situation where GBL is covered by DSTV and other provinces by Slamdunk. we have to have a uniform position that all provinces will have to adhere to.

    in that way, we will begin to regulate what TV shows and ensure that it benefits everyone.

    imagine what we will achieve is slamdunk profiles coaches, players, administrators and where possible have debates even thou they are pre-recorded. most of the time they show events coming after the happened?

    Koruption

    the reality is that we have kids playing bare-foot and why should we be ashamed to see them on TV. unless if you want us to potray bball as a rich mans’ sport. the other things you say, the less i comment the better.

  11. kim says:

    I will be giving feedbacks on the site on whats happening here but I MIGHT be on Kaya fm during the mid day sport bulletin and will keep you posted.I will do that under the SA update topic right now.

    Baller
    I dont have to holla at Theo or anyone for that matter because that was their opinion and I will live with that and will for eva try to continuosly improve myself and other coaches.I intend coming back and sharing video footage with coaches and see how we compare to international players.

    Thanks for all those who wished the team well…WE GOT UR MSGS

  12. baller says:

    Kim

    eish, i must not distruct you from the business you attending to in Moz. its of national importance. was just joking when i said holla at them. i hope that the team plays well at beat Moz at home again. if you may, which players are in Moz.

  13. kim says:

    I will send u the actual team tomoorow because they have like 100 players and people around here(LOL)

    The support we have been getting especially from BasketballSA has been so great that we only have to worry about the games and thats gud

  14. kim says:

    interview mite be on Kaya Fm in 15 minutes…..

  15. kim says:

    Molupe

    http://www.fiba-afrique.org/en/lect_actu.php?titre=actu&id=4527…………………..

    I think they answer some of your questions regarding the game(Lol)

  16. kim says:

    The interview was done and will played on Kaya Fm at 5h30pm 2 day.

    Later mybasketball peeps and keep ballin

  17. Themba says:

    It is not use watching slam dunk,You watch right things which happened three nonths ago.The program becomes tasteless.It is better if the program show us something whuch happens a week ago than three months.

    We need to have more basketball websites,especially websites where we can see all the teams which are involved in basketball.

    What kind of organisation runs business without websites.We need to hear from the commitee of the BSA through the own websites.More interview in the South african players than NBA players.

    The old slam dunk was better than this one,we heard more coverage on SA Players than now,Less talking on the show and more coverage on the Games.30 min is lot to cover ball games.

    Make it like that of the NBA action,more video footage than talking.Basketball is not taking advantage of the free websites than we have,we have youtube and metacafe which we can use it as our media,it is free of charge.

    Just like now the games are i mozambique,they can make us watch the action after the game is finish.

    Why wait when you come to share the footage

  18. Marion says:

    Hey guys,

    My name is Marion and I’ve been working on Slam Dunk for a number of years now with both Octagon and Clockwork Zoo. Just to set the record straight, I’m a baller and have been for the past 10 years. I’ve coached, played and administered the game and have the scars to prove it. The Producer of the show is a baller, too and directs and shoots most of the segments himself. It is quite clear from the correspondence that a lot of you have not watched the show in a long while. Since coming on board, we have tried to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. My friends and I often sit and talk about the show (yes, they’re ballers too from Jhb, Cpt, and even Dbn). The truth of the matter is, most of us who have access to the internet and DSTV are from affluent backgrounds. most of the cats I know giving the most criticsm I know from Wits, UCT, and DUT.

    You gotta remember that there’s a whole world of ballers out there that just want to play. Watch the show this Sunday, you’ll see a variety of segments that cover different bases and different target market groups. As for the footage being old… C’mon guys, you know that ball is a seasonal sport. But the show runs for 52 weeks. We gotta have stuff on the shelf for those times that nothings happening. What would you rather have: Boring footage that we had to scramble together at the last minute or great footage that happened a few months ago?

    Everyone is entitled to their opinions; as a matter of fact we encourage it. There are also quite a lot of people who have given their opinion on what they’d like to see in the show and we’ve listened. The question was: How do we improve basketball in the media? I still have not seen one person comment with something we could use (other than more game coverage, which in a 30 min show is difficult)

    Unfortunately, my relationship with Slam Dunk comes to an end after Easter. I do wish the next production team all the best of luck and hopefully, instead of slagging, the basketball community will inundate them with a host of suggestions for the new season.

    If you still want to slag on Slam Dunk, you can come at me. I got broad shoulders and have been around long enough to take it like a big girl.

    Koruption, I’ve taken your dare. now what?

  19. MQ says:

    Until basketball is run like all other mainstream proffessional sports of this country…you will continue to not see coverage of it in this country. Television is a very expensive medium and I know this because I work for the biggest sports broadcaster in the country and I can tell you now that the media will continue not to have anything basketball related on it airtime if its not bringing them any money. People sports is a huge industry…our P.S.L is in the top ten best leagues in the world in terms of money and tv rights deals and basketball is nowhere on the map, so really why would DSTV want to broadcast a basketball game…basketball as a sport doesnt draw crowds in the thousands, it doesnt have any financial backing, there is no national college league, high school league or even national premier league running…so how would DSTV justify giving basketball mileage when there are no returns and no figures (whether those being crowd numbers, number of different national leagues etc) of any sort on the table.

    I have played basketball, coached, managed and even acted as an ambassador of the sport in certain goverment departments all for the growth and recognition of the sport that I have loved since the days of my adoloscent years. We dont have enough basketball content for television shows in this country and that is largely because we dont have any national leagues. The basketball show on DSTV focuses more on basketball stars and clubs from other African countries because they have structures in place and sponsored national leagues and an audience for the sport which is all that we need aswell. I work on soccer shows in the company that i work for and i can tell u now that if there was even a national basketball primary school league, I would drop the soccer and focus on broadcasting that and having high quality basketball shows playing weekly on television and you can hold me to this.

  20. Joe says:

    This reemphasise the point I have just made on the Referee’s blog. Ballers must stop living in lala land come back down to earth. WE ARE NOT AS BIG AS WE THINK WE ARE.

    The only that bball can be taken serioulsly, as MQ and Marion are demostrating, is that if basketball is SOO BIG that it cannot be ignored. Fact is, bball is still seen as a “BLACK” sport and as such will not be covered by most SA media bacause of their biase towards “WHITE” sport. Thus, instead of ballers like Koruption bringing Slam Dunk(SD) down we should be supporting SD and encouraging others to watch. We should be thanking the SABC & Clockwork for beaming basketball, even when WE really do not deserve it.

    More importantly, ballers need to start building basketball to ensure that there is both quality and quantity of events, so that SD can cover them.

    AGAIN, the only this can be achieved is through the implementaion of the Intergrated Development Model.

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