My sport and strategic communication class has taught and helped me a lot this semester. My favorite assignment this semester was Don’t be the Weakest Link(edIn). That was an assignment where I had to find somebody in my field to interview then make an infographic about the interview then post it to LinkedIn. Even though I had trouble at first trying to get an interview in my field I still loved this assignment because I got to interview and make connections with a basketball coach named Shawn Walker and I learned a lot from him during the interview. Also, I got the chance to make a LinkedIn and learn how to use it which is something I have been wanting to do. I learned about what an infographic is and how to make one too. Also, something in this class that will help me in my sport management field is connections. I got to make connections with guest speakers in the class which will help me in the future. Another assignment I did in my sports and communication class that will help me in the future is an assignment called the Covid Client Campaign. It was a group project that made you take over a sporting event or team and deal with the crisis of Covid. I liked this assignment because it made you interact with people to get to a common goal which is something I will have to do in the future. I also liked this assignment because it is relevant to what people had to deal with. I felt like that Assignment was really helpful because it gave me and everybody else real sports management and strategic communication experience. I also learned a lot from the in-class lectures and class discussions. Something else I can take away from my sport and communication class is what you see now. A website and sports journal. Me being able to learn how to make a website, design a website, then post content on that website is something that is going to be valuable for me. Overall there are so many more things that I have learned in my 3-month sport and communication class and unfortunately, I can’t name them all but it has been a great semester and now it’s time to move on and continue to learn more and grow.

On March 9^th Meyers Leonard was live streaming Call of Duty on twitch. During the game, Meyers Leonard called his opponent an anti-Semitic slur. Immediately after Meyers Leonard called his opponent a racial slur the video surfaced on the internet and he ended the live stream. When the video surfaced on the internet Meyers Leonard immediately apologized on Instagram but it was too late. The Miami Heat put out a statement on Instagram saying “The words used by Meyers Leonard were wrong and we will not tolerate hateful language from anyone associated with our franchise.” The Miami Heat also said in that statement that Meyers Leonard would be away from the team indefinitely and that they would cooperate with the NBA in the investigation of the matter. The NBA Commissioner Adam Silver ended up fining Leonard $50,000, made him go to a cultural diversity program, and suspended him from being around the Heat for one week even though the Miami Heat already said that Leonard would be away from the team indefinitely. Also, Meyers Leonard lost Esports sponsorships from Faze, Astro Gaming, Origin PC, and other gaming companies.  After that Pat Riley and the Miami Heat traded Meyers Leonard to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Trevor Ariza and a 2027 second round pick. In my opinion, the Miami Heat handled the crisis perfectly. The Miami Heat immediately put out a statement about the issue and also suspended Meyers Leonard from being with the team which I think was the perfect move for the situation that they were in. They also cooperated with Adam Silver and the league which was a smart decision. But my favorite and smartest decision that the Miami Heat made was to trade Meyers Leonard for Trevor Ariza and a 2027 second round pick because that moved the controversy and distraction to another team. Also, it got the Miami heat a draft pick for the future and a better and more valuable player to a team that can compete and win in the playoffs this year. In my opinion, Pat Riley and the Miami Heat get an A+ for how they handled everything.

I hope everybody enjoys this new Bingo Board for ODU Sports.

On February 26^th, 2012, a 17-year-old African American boy named Trayvon Martin was racially profiled, shot, and killed for wearing a hoodie by a white man named George Zimmerman on his way back from getting skittles from a store not far from where he was staying. Shortly after his death, his story and case became a big deal in the news. His story became such a big deal it caught the attention of LeBron James and the Miami Heat. Since some of the players on the Miami Heat stayed in Miami and also had children, the story hit home to them. On March 23^rd, 2012, LeBron James tweeted a picture of the Miami Heat in hoodies to bring attention to the issue and support Trayvon Martin. That tweet was on every sporting channel and news source within minutes. But it didn’t stop there. Later that night, LeBron James honored Trayvon Martin again by wearing Rip Trayvon Martin on his shoes during a game against the Detroit Pistons. LeBron James teammate Dwayne Wade also honored Trayvon Martin in the Detroit Pistons game win that night by wearing We want justice on his shoes. After the game sporting channels, and sporting news outlets covered what LeBron James and the Miami Heat did. What they did was so impactful that it made world news networks, and the discussion of their activism continued for days. A post on Twitter and writing on shoes hugely affected sports because before that gesture, it had been a while since activism had been seen in sports. That gesture made it ok for athletes to speak out and show solidarity on other issues, like two years later when NBA players wore I can’t Breathe T-Shirts for Eric Garner. Another reason why what they did was impactful was that it was the first time sports activism had been done on social media. Before that, you never saw athletes posting about activism on social media or trying to be an activist on social media. Mostly everybody took what LeBron and Miami did well, but he received some backlash because some people just wanted him to stick to sports.

Below you will see a link to my LinkedIn. That link will show you a recent interview infographic with Elizabeth City State University Men’s Basketball Coach Shawn Walker.

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6779128754590621696updateEntityUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_feedUpdate%3A%28V2%2Curn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A6779128754590621696%29

https://www.instagram.com/p/CL0s7j6rIwe/?igshid=1h5gdnxoaobbk

https://www.instagram.com/p/CL0tFJwrg2O/?igshid=l94jbx8bgqtf

The New Way of L.A.

The value of public relations is significant. Public relations is something that can make or break a sports organization. Bad public relations affected the sports organization that I’m about to talk about for years. The Sports Organization I’m talking about is the Los Angeles Clippers. The Los Angeles Clippers is a basketball team in the NBA. For a very long time, the Los Angeles Clippers have been a team that has never been on anyone’s radar. The Los Angeles Clippers rarely ever win, and they also have never had a real identity. I have always loved basketball. I have been watching basketball ever since I was a little kid. As I got older, I even learned the history of basketball. One thing I have learned is that the Los Angeles Clippers have never changed. The Los Angeles Clippers have always been the little brother organization to an NBA team called the Los Angeles Lakers. The Los Angeles Lakers are a sports public relations dream. They win way more than they lose, and the Lakers always had prominent personalities to market, and they are still in the news or trending, and it’s rarely ever controversial.

On the other hand, the Clippers are the exact opposite. The Clippers rarely win, rarely ever have anybody to market, and are seldom in the news unless it’s for something terrible. The clippers were what cricket is to major sports. I say that because cricket may be a good sport, it may get some ok ratings but compared to the big sports they have to go up against, like the NBA, NFL, or MLB there inferior. But just like cricket, the Clippers have hope. In 2014 when the Los Angeles Clippers once again underperformed in the playoffs and had their owner sell the team because of racist comments. It looked like the clippers franchise was over. It looked like the team relocating and changing their name was imminent. Then five years later, the Clippers got 2-star players named Paul George and Kawhi Leonard. A move that single-handedly saved the team from a competitive and public relations standpoint. Ever since then, the Clippers have been as famous and competitive as they have ever been. They rebranded the whole team and have made multiple commercials that got a lot of air time on ESPN. When I saw their very first commercial, I was surprised because the Clippers were a team that rarely succeeded in branding; as I said earlier in the article, I have watched and studied basketball my whole life, and that was the first time I had ever seen the clippers do a commercial or anything public relations related. It’s crazy that all because of 2 players, rebranding, and strategic marketing, the Clippers went from one of the worst teams to one of the most notable NBA teams. That is a prime example that anything can happen in sports.

ODU Sports Insider: Jordan Rucker

My sports media consumption diet lately has consisted of Twitter and Instagram posts from sports journalist and sports pages. Also I get my sports news from Google and sporting channels like espn and tv shows like sportscenter, First Take, and Undisputed. I consume all those types of content multiple times a day. My Sport media consumption has changed drastically in 5 years. 5 years ago I used to consume sports news from google, ESPN, and tv shows like sportscenter and First take like I do now. What I used then but don’t use now though is apps like espn and the nba app. Mainly because all that information is already on social media. If I’m getting all the sports updates quicker from social media apps there’s no reason to have the espn and nba app anymore. 5 years ago social media apps existed but it wasn’t as relevant. Now if there’s a big deal in sports you’ll most likely see a sports journalist tweet about it first then you’ll see the tweet on espn. Instead of 5 years ago Espn or Google is the first place you would see or hear that information. It seems like now I get probably 80% or higher of my information from social media sports journalists and sports pages. But 5 years ago 80% or more came from the espn and nba app notifications and articles. Also another thing that is different are articles. 5 years ago when you got your information it would be in a full article and you would have to read about it or skim through it. But now with social media all notifications are maximum a couple of sentences which makes everything quick and easy. In the next 5 years I don’t see sporting channels or tv shows going anywhere but I do think besides tv the majority of sporting news consumption will be on social media. I predict that the old article sports journalists would be pretty much nonexistent and that sports journalists would basically be social media journalist now. I also predict that 5 years from now more people will stream major sporting events because I feel like the technology will be more advanced and all the streaming services will be used to it so there will be very fewer lags and less bugs. If I could wave a magic wand and make one change to the sport communication landscape I would probably advance the live sport streaming services. I would do that because it would completely take out cable so the price for sports and other shows would now be low. Which means a lot more people would be consuming sports and there would be a lot more sporting event communication. Also we would possibly have the option to go back and watch old sporting events depending on the streaming service which would also keep people communicating about sports.

Blogged by: Jordan Rucker