The Audible: Why is Dave Roberts being criticized for being honest?

Jim Alexander: I don’t think I’ve ever seen such hubbub over someone being honest. Dave Roberts acknowledged Tuesday that the Dodgers had a meeting with Shohei Ohtani – effectively fracturing the cone of silence that agent Nez Balelo had attempted to enforce regarding negotiations with his client – and it’s treated as this shocking revelation, baseball’s version of George Washington admitting he chopped down the cherry tree. (Kids, if you haven’t seen that one in your history books, Google it.)

This is an example of how weird the reaction was: On Channel 9’s three-hour news block last night, the crawl at the bottom of the screen normally reserved for important breaking news included, to paraphrase, Dodger manager confirms talks with Shohei Ohtani. Imagine, the audacity of someone to be honest and state the obvious rather than tiptoeing around it, as everyone else in baseball, including his own team’s front office, has done.

I thought it was refreshing. And given reports that members of the Dodgers’ PR staff corralled Roberts after his session with reporters at the Winter Meetings in Nashville, I hope he gave them an earful.

Bottom line: Yes, it’s natural for the agent and his staff – i.e., “Shohei’s camp” – to try to set the terms of engagement. But this warning that any disclosures will be held against you is silly and counterproductive, especially for a sport that needs as much attention and publicity as it can get. Shohei’s free agency is the biggest story of these winter meetings – indeed, the inaction has held up just about everything else for the first two days – and discouraging the release of real information has had the opposite effect, even more speculation and rumor.

You lived it, Mirjam, when Kawhi Leonard – who is similarly fanatic about secrecy – made his choice to come to the Clippers in the summer of 2019. Doesn’t this sound familiar?

Mirjam Swanson: It’s been impossible not to hear echoes of that free agency when following along with the Shohei sweepstakes. Remember when Magic Johnson tipped his hand about the Lakers’ meeting with Kawhi back in that summer of 2019, and how that didn’t help their case to sign him? I remember asking Kawhi about that during his introductory presser.

His response? On the Clippers’ end, “nothing really got out … A lot of things are made up now. You start a website or a blog and push that out and say, ‘Kawhi’s doing this, Kawhi’s doing that.’ But it’s always important to me to have a mutual understanding between everyone and just be transparent, if it’s good or bad, and I feel like that builds a great relationship.”

So, transparency. To me, transparency is what Roberts did – stating the obvious truth. But to the Kawhis and Ohtanis – well, to Kawhi and Ohtani, those are very singular people! – it is a no-no. These guys like control. The demand of silence and secrecy might even be something of a test for how organizations are going to go about handling these athletes’ business. So I don’t think it’s necessarily nothing – even though I agree that it should be nothing.

Like, duh. Of course the Dodgers met with Ohtani.

But Ohtani, like Kawhi, has an expectation of privacy and protection that only the most powerful players can have. And I think that might be part of it?

Or maybe both of those guys are just super-private? Ohtani wasn’t going to give up the name of his dog! And I’ll never forget Kawhi’s response to an innocuous question from a reporter about any Christmas traditions his family might have: “Private. Don’t discuss that with you guys.”

My question is whether Ohtani’s decision takes as long as Kawhi’s did, because that dragged out a long week, days and days of pins and needles for Lakers and Clippers and Raptors fans – all of whom were surprised to learn that not only Kawhi but Paul George was Clippers-bound.

But, yeah, covering Kawhi’s free agency makes me wonder not only where Ohtani will land, but when – and what that club will look like once he makes the decision.

Jim: I just want to know who the Japanese equivalent of Kawhi’s Uncle Dennis might be.

Meanwhile, as long as we’re discussing hoops, I have to admit I was wrong. I thought the NBA’s In-Season Tournament was a pointless gimmick, foisting more weird uniforms and screwy court designs on us but not doing a lot to actually raise the level of early season competition. I severely underestimated, as we discussed last week, how much of a motivation $500,000 a man can mean.

There was a noticeable rise in intensity, especially in the knockout round the last two nights and particularly with the Lakers and Suns Tuesday night. (As excited as Lakers TV guy Bill McDonald was at the end of L.A.’s 106-103 victory, I half expected the fellas to cut down the nets in triumph, sort of like you’d do at the end of an NCAA regional.)

So, yeah, Adam Silver’s mission was accomplished. The trappings may have been gimmicky, but players played hard and those games appeared to really mean something, which you don’t normally see in the NBA until Christmas Day.

Mirjam: The competition aspect of it has been fantastic, no doubt.

The garish courts remain appalling, no doubt.

But if I were a member of the jury, I wouldn’t be ready with a verdict just yet.

Here’s why: It’s given the NBA a ratings boost in November and December, yes, but it’s been more of a bump than a bombshell: Tournament games on ESPN and TNT during the month of November, ESPN averaged 1.52 million viewers per game while TNT averaged 1.43 million, increases of 20% and 16%, respectively, over the same time last year, according to CNN.

That’s not nothing, but it’s not tsunami of invigorated interest – and still a drop in the proverbial bucket, of course, compared to the NFL’s 15 million-viewer audience on Sunday nights. Maybe, though, the NBA’s audience for tournament games continues to swell in years to come, when people catch on to how competitive and fun the games will be? It is, after all, just Year 1.

But also I wonder how players will view the experience in future seasons. It’s given us playoff-type buy-in from teams in what’s normally the doldrums of the season – but it could cost the teams that make it to the final, too.

Thinking back to the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces and their first Commissioner’s Cup victory in 2022. That gave them an extra game on their schedule, on the road, and it came at the start of a five-game road trip … by the end of which, they were exhausted and lost two consecutive games.

And maybe readers have heard, but the Aces don’t lose many games; they’re 60-16 the past two seasons – and adding a game with stakes and high emotion to an already grueling regular season took a toll, even on them.

The teams that reach the final of the NBA’s in-season tournament will have an extra game on their schedule, an extra important game, away from home, against a tough opponent – while everyone else is spending a few days resting up. I’m curious to see what the effects might be on our inaugural in-season finalists.

I’m leaning toward: Guilty. As in, I – like everyone else – am finding pleasure in these meaningful November-December games. So I hope it continues, but I am curious to see what the concept looks like and how it’s received in a few seasons.

Hopefully they rethink the courts, at least.

Jim: Amen. And expect some serious load management over the next couple of weeks involving key players. Yes, 500 grand is nice, and so is an in-season weekend in ‘Vegas – of course, Dennis Rodman used to duck away for weekends in ‘Vegas regardless of the schedule – but the NBA’s big trophy is still awarded in June.

Speaking of load management in another form, was it any surprise that Caleb Williams opted to duck out of the Holiday Bowl and spend his energies preparing for the NFL draft? (I think you set the chances of him playing at 0 percent. Good call.)

More to the point, we’ve been talking about this trend for years, players skipping bowl games, and while it’s not ideal it’s certainly understandable for guys who have a chance to play at the next level. And it got me to wondering: With NIL money flowing freely, and the possibility – as surprisingly broached by NCAA president Charlie Baker on Tuesday – of a system where the top revenue teams can not only directly pay players but can operate as a separate division, will we see a day when skipping a bowl game would be considered a breach of contract?

Maybe, at the very least, the player who decides to pass on, say, the Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl will be forced to reimburse the school? (And yes, there is such a game, and bonus points if you can identify where it’s played without looking it up.)

Mirjam: Haha! Jim invoking the *Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl*?!

I’m gonna have to look it up – and I won’t write the answer here, so readers who are so inclined can play along too.

But … yes? Right? That would be part of the contract? You’d have to suit up even for “meaningless” “exhibition”-type games, which is what a Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl game surely feels like to a guy who has hopes of banking in on his talents in a few months?

And that would be fair, right? To expect participation from those being compensated to participate?

Although, I don’t really know. I’m doing more than looking up the Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl these days to try to wrap my head around what Baker and the NCAA’s new stance means for the future of college sports. I’m inclined to cheer it – these college athletes SHOULD be compensated for all their work and time, for all they’re sacrificing and risking on behalf of institutions that are gaining more from the athletes than they are from the schools.

Still, what it looks like and how it all works? I’m going to be glued to what Sportico’s Michael McCann and UCLA’s Chase Griffin have to say about it all as it all unfolds.

What’s your take on all this, Jim?

Jim: My first thought was that Baker’s proposal was a “Plan B,” because the NCAA’s attempts to get some sort of antitrust exemption through Congress appear to have run aground. Since they won’t be getting the “guardrails” they’ve sought through legislation, and since they’re probably going to be forced through the courts to recognize their players as employees, best to get it out in the open now.

My second thought? March Madness will never be the same. I wrote about this last spring when there was talk of expanding the NCAA basketball tournaments – along with the frequent blustering that maybe the big schools should break away to play their own championship tournament and leave the mid-majors and Cinderellas behind.

And if the big revenue schools are allowed/encouraged to go their own way, with different economic regulations, that’s exactly what’s going to happen, an NCAA tournament for the Super Division I and a reconfigured NIT for everyone else.

Mirjam: It’s a lot. Change is coming, change is hard, it’s good and it’s sad and it’s fascinating … and, no, college sports – football, basketball, all of it – won’t ever be the same.