Michael Jordan played during a time when social media didn’t exist, something the NBA legend is very thankful to this day when comparing his career to Tiger Woods’.
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The digital age has had a massive effect on the way sports, games, and most importantly players are covered and looked at. People are free to write, Tweet, or post whatever they want about whoever they wish.
There are, of course, both ups and downs to this, but Michael Jordan is definitely happy that he didn’t have to deal with all the ‘toxicity’ and pressure social media has brought upon athletes in the current era of sports.
Michael Jordan Speaks Up About How Social Media Could Have Altered His Career And How Tiger Woods Dealt With It
Jordan played much before social media took off, and he is extremely happy about that fact. In an interview with Cigar Aficionado, Jordan revealed how he felt about this notion, even brining up Tiger Woods in his answers:
“Tiger [Woods] played at his peak somewhere toward the end of my career. Then, what changed from that time-frame to now is social media — Twitter and all those types of things. And that has invaded the personalities and personal time of individuals. It’s to the point where some people have been able to utilize it to their financial gain and things of that nature. But for someone like myself — and this is what Tiger deals with — I don’t know if I could’ve survived in this Twitter [era], where you don’t have the privacy that you’d want and what seems to be very innocent can always be misinterpreted.”
You can watch the full interview here:
Several current day NBA players have also spoken up about how social media has made for a very dark and troubling environment in the league. J.J. Reddick would say:
“It’s a dark place. It’s not a healthy place. It’s not real. It’s not a healthy place for ego — if we’re talking about some Freudian sh*t.”
Kelly Oubre would also add:
“I hate it. It’s a generational thing, I would say for sure. It’s something that I really don’t like — the stereotype about my generation.”
Indeed, one of the biggest shortcomings of social media is the adverse effect it has on the minds of people. Sitting through and reading negative comments, posts, or whatever else can become very troubling.
More than that, there are always people who find a way to mix up stories and portray a convoluted sense of what actually happened, just like Jordan mentioned.
Players are often torn apart, and the mental effects can be severe. It’s probably why Jordan feels like he couldn’t survive in this era as the game was completely free of the madness that is NBA Twitter back then.
