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That may be the case for you but certainly not everyone. I, for one, don't care about interviews at all and in all the sports that I have watched (which includes basically everything, including competitive gaming), I sticked to the race/match/etc only. I watch for the competitive spirit and competitors can express themselves through their actions which is how I may become a fan of them. All the "blabla" is unnecessary fluff and if it's even forced on the competitors, of course they should have the right to refuse, without straight up being denied participation.

You can have storylines and build narratives without annoying star players with paparazzi. And you can have press conferences after big events without the current fashion in which the media harasses athletes.

Just to be clear, post match interviews aren’t “paparazzi”, they aren’t randomly followed on the street, they meet at a given place at a given time and interact with cleared media people.

Do they get asked bad questions sometimes? Yes and it’s amazing to see that reporter asking something inappropriate get slammed by the players.

Why is it amazing for the players in the midst of a very emotional moment to have to endure an inappropriate question, and respond with an attack?

People have such a fetish for “Person A DESTROYS Person B” drama that they’re disregarding the humanity and dignity of the people along the way.

> Why is it amazing for the players in the midst of a very emotional moment to have to endure an inappropriate question, and respond with an attack?

It is amazing that people make a lot of money from playing a game, and for making millions in sponsorships from being famous for that game:

> Both sponsorship agreements follow a wave of success for Osaka. The three-time Grand Slam winner defeated 23-time champion Serena Williams in 2018 and became the highest paid female athlete in 2020, earning around $34 million from endorsements alone.

* https://insidersport.com/2021/01/20/naomi-osaka-signs-luxury...

* https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2020/05/22/naom...

* https://sportskhabri.com/naomi-osaka-brand-ambassador-endors...

If she doesn't want to go out there in public, perhaps she should stopping putting herself out there in public.

If you don't want to be rich and famous, but just rich, go run a hedge fund. Many fewer people will know about you and you'll have just as nice a lifestyle.

It's incredible how entitled we think we are to another person's time, attention, and peace of mind just because they had the audacity to be the best at what they do.

If someone does not want to be in the public, they have every right to not be in the public eye.

But when you are paid to be in the public eye, especially with multi-million dollar endorsement/advertisement contracts, then complaining about being in the public eye... seems non-sensensical IMHO.

Someone might want to play tennis at the highest level and at the same time only be in the "public eye" to a medium extent (spectators and broadcast of the actual match) rather than to the extreme. That shouldn't be an unreasonable ask.

> Someone might want to play tennis

Then play tennis.

But when you sign endorsement deals that has your face on billboards that are several stories tall, complaining about being the public eye is disingenuous:

* https://www.instagram.com/p/Bv4DGMdJgcm/

* https://tennistonic.com/tennis-news/60258/naomi-osaka-takes-...

Perhaps she reasonably assumed that if someone pays to put your face on a billboard while wearing your product, then they are paying to put your face on a billboard while wearing your product. Transaction complete.

The expectation that they should accept further exploitation (paparazzi, forced interviews, etc) is a societal disease; these people are human as well.

The only reason why she is paid to have her face on a billboard is because of her activities in the tennis world. If she is unknown to the general public for being a tennis star, then there is no value to the companies paying her for the use of her image.

If she wants the endorsements she has to put up with the fame. The two go hand in hand. She is trading the hassle of extra attention for a big cheque. Besides perhaps Tiger Woods, I doubt a random person of the general public could name a golf player. Which is why Tiger Woods has/had the endorsement contracts.

If have no problem with her just wanting to play tennis, or not wanting to be in the public spotlight. But to agree to be on public billboards, and not-agree to do public interviews, is an inconsistent position IMHO.

Stop taking the multi-million dollar cheques if you don't want the attention. You'll fall into obscurity quite quickly: how many people pay attention to Andre Agassi or Steffi Graf nowadays?

The reason she is paid is because she is one of the best in the world at doing one specific thing. That’s what people enjoy watching her do.

The promotion of her as an athlete could focus on videos, photos and live spectatorship of the thing she actually does well. She can remain super famous in the context of her sport and people can otherwise leave her alone. Taking a sponsorship should not mean allowing someone control over your life outside of work.

The blind acceptance of the idea of “this is the way this industry has always been run, you better accept it or get out of the way” is how people like Weinstein ever had any power. Good on her to stand up for her well-being and point out the obvious flaws and exploitation in these systems that no one wants to address. That’s how change happens.

> The promotion of her as an athlete could focus on videos, photos and live spectatorship of the thing she actually does well. She can remain super famous in the context of her sport and people can otherwise leave her alone.

And the OP's article is about her (not) doing interviews in relation to the exact context of where her fame is.

Perhaps there is a misunderstanding: I do not think she should be hassled walking down the street, except maybe a fan wanting a selfie with her (which she has the right to decline). But we're talking about participating in things in the context of her career in the tennis world.

If tennis fans wanted to watch some randos play, they could go to their local park and watch two unskilled yahoos (try to) bounce the ball back and forth. But people pay to watched skilled professionals perform at an elite level. These players get their living from being a public spectacle on the court.

If anyone wants to simply pay tennis in peace they can join a private club and smash the ball out of the public eye. But you won't be paid to do it. Every career has its pros and cons.

There is certainly no changing your viewpoint on anything.

For the sake of basic human empathy, I hope that the industry starts to see things Osaka's way instead of yours.

It's absolutely insane that it's the 21st century and we're still having heated debates on whether or not people deserve the most basic level of privacy and autonomy.

>But when you are paid to be in the public eye,

I beg to differ. She is competing in a tennis competition. To do this she should be required to play tennis, and nothing else, not "be in the public eye".

Pro athletes have done basic media days, outreach, and non-antagonizing interviews. Why do they need to do more than that? Why does the default need to be for the public to obsess over them?

On one hand I agree with you; on the other hand, they are getting paid to perform, and that includes the interview by contract. The problem with performances such as those interviews, or theatre plays, is that they need to be done in a timely manner. I think it is reasonable that their career worsens if the reliability is not there - even if there are perfectly legitimate causes for it such are not being emotionally able. Same way there are career issues if you break a leg during a tournament.

Regarding dignity, these people do have alternative paths to earn money, so if they choose a job that they find undign, they can just resign.

Because that is what the markets have determined. There weren’t always post match pressers and clearly the sport has determined that there is a value to having them.

Also, inappropriate questions are very rare but I was just using that as a personal example of what I enjoy but there are also good bits in those pressers on mentality and good examples of composure with a loss that people can learn from. There’s a lot people can get out from a champions mindset which you otherwise wouldn’t get unless they choose to release a book later in life.

> Because that is what the markets have determined.

So what? Markets aren't a god or a person. Championship tennis is about as far away from a free market as you can imagine.

But how do you prevent people turning against sportpeople when they show disdain at taking a bit of heat for a defeat ?

I'd be super worried my sport league would start looking like a bunch of snotty elitist who refuse to lower themselves at people's questions. It's really really hard to feel pity for a multi-million advertisement model who happen to play tennis :s I almost feel like if she can't do that, maybe we shouldn't watch her and she'd be left alone.

I guess they depends on whether you, as a fan of the sport, prefer athletic excellence in the game being played vs being make-believe friends with athletes.

The acceptance of fame being pushed as something to worship just seems so gross

I don’t disagree that it’s possible but if a player refuses to give an opinion or to interact with media it doesn’t make building narratives easier. “Player X has this record vs Player Y” isn’t that compelling in itself.

It is funny that refusing to talk to media is itself generating buzz about the sport so maybe Naomi knows how to spin a narrative better than I know haha.

Athletes refuse to talk to the media now because of the antagonizing acts by the media.

So you don't think that the Grand Slam should be a tennis event, but a tennis and press conference event.

Personally, it strikes me as very weird and even unfair you can be disqualified for something that has nothing to do with playing tennis.