NBA media is not in a great place.

Despite the league having more talent than it ever has, despite more fans having access to highlights and clips than ever before and despite more eyes than ever being on the product, much of the national discourse is focused on the negatives.

It’s the only league in America where the majority of the most prominent voices disparage the product regularly. Turn on Inside the NBA and you’re more likely to hear Shaq talking about how a big man isn’t doing enough or Charles Barkley complaining about which team is being shown than you are to hear about the bright stars across the league.

Go down the list of any major network and you’ll have more people critiquing the product than lifting it up. It’s a problem specific to only the NBA. When former players join NFL broadcasts, they’re praising modern players.

Could you imagine Tom Brady talking about how modern quarterbacks just aren’t as good as they were in his day? Because that’s what NBA fans are subjected to, often under the flimsy excuse of “it’s not supposed to be serious!”

Why is all this relevant?

LeBron James has been in the spotlight as the face of the league for the better part of two decades. In recent years, with his career winding down, the discussion has shifted to who takes that mantle when he retires.

One of the brightest young stars in the league is Anthony Edwards, who played the Lakers on Thursday. Any talks about the next one up turn quickly to Ant, who has burst onto the scene in recent seasons.

Ant, though, has pushed back on being the face of the NBA. It’s a burden that no player really wants but is often thrust upon them.

When asked about being the face of the NBA and Ant’s response to it postgame on Thursday, LeBron gave a very, very honest answer.

The league has been lucky to have LeBron as it’s face for as long as he’s been around. There could not be a better representative for the NBA than LeBron.

But, that being said, no one has had more scrutiny in their career as that face. I can’t imagine he would recommend that to anyone, given the current state of NBA media.

This isn’t the first time someone with the Lakers has called out the media this year either. Redick made a similar point about the coverage of the league earlier this season, which drew the ire of Charles Barkley.

This isn’t even the first time LeBron’s said something about NBA media. He started his podcast with Redick as a response to where basketball media was.

“I feel like we were losing the essence of the game of basketball and the true meaning behind the game of basketball and teaching our youth and teaching the people what the game of basketball really, truly means,” LeBron said. “I think I was getting very frustrated with the daily comparisons every single day. Who is better…or how does this affect your legacy or if this guy in the ‘50s, would he be this or if this guy in the ‘50s played in the 2000s. It’s not good for the youth. Obviously, you want to hear that, you go to the barbershops.

“But you’re hearing it every day on national television and I felt like our audience needed a different approach and understand the true essence of the game and how I fell in love with the game. When you have someone like JJ who has kind of the same mindset about the game of basketball, very smart, fell in love with the game for all the right reasons. This is something that I’ve been thinking about for quite a while. It’s just JJ was perfect timing.”

Unfortunately, this is almost certainly not going to lead to any sort of changes. Despite the face of the league and the head coach of the most popular team in the league both calling out the coverage of the league, all that’s going to happen is those same people will now rant about them instead of, you know, addressing the issue.

And wouldn’t you know it, guess what was discussed on ESPN on Friday morning?

Bringing on Gilbert Arenas, of all people, to talk about this point against Stephen A. Smith pretty much exemplifies how wrong everyone remains about the coverage of the league.

If Patrick Mahomes or Lamar Jackson made the same points about the NFL, would the response be, “Well, this is why you’re not the greatest ever!” or would there be some introspection? It’s a moot point because it wouldn’t happen in the NFL and that’s the overarching issue.

If arguably the greatest player the league has ever seen is telling you the coverage of the league is bad, you would think that would lead to change. Unfortunately, no one appears interested in making that change.

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.