Reece Walsh of the Warriors. Photo / Photosport
OPINION:
Reece Walsh had enough.
The speculaton cycle had churned out its latest whimper. The online discourse quickly manifested itself, as Walsh describes, in "red flags" in the dressing room.
The Warriors phenom was sick of the headlines about his playing future which started to interfere with his ability to do his job. So he used one of the few things athletes have full autonomy over: their voice.
"Heaps of people are talking and I feel like it was starting to, not so much stress them out, but a bit of a red flag was getting put up there," Walsh said about why he felt compelled to address the baseless rumours around his playing future.
"If it's not coming from my mouth, don't believe it."
The 19-year-old was outspoken like many of his generation of athletes – via traditional media or increasingly on their own platforms like Instagram, YouTube or podcasts.
Walsh, a teen who's still learning to navigate fame and adulthood, lacks the experience or maturity many of his teammates do, and found safety in speaking to a journalist – like most athletes should.
But athletes are starting to get fed up by the traditional media apparatus, an imperfect model that can be antithetical to its purported purpose, while sometimes dehumanising its subjects in service of broken business incentives. In response, Kiwi athletes like Israel Adesanya and Ardie Savea have started to shun the established media machine in favour of telling their own story, their own way – for better and for worse. The rumour mill perpetuated by the media will only turn more away.
Walsh could stay with the Warriors beyond 2023. He might move on. Ultimately it's completely his call. But he's signed a contract, has never made it look like he's unhappy at the Warriors and will continue learning, growing and weaving through NRL defences as long as he's with the club – the one that gave him his shot at the big time.
He shouldn't have needed to say anything. He couldn't "shut up and play" even if he wanted to. He needed to speak out – and in doing so, found his voice and took the power back.
An old white dude told a black athlete to "shut up and play" on ESPN in the year of our lord 2022.
Chris 'Mad Dog' Russo (nice nickname bruh), an American sports radio personality and clinger-on to antiquated ideas about basketball, didn't like the way Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green flipped off the booing Memphis crowd as he walked to the locker room for treatment after getting elbowed in the face during this week's NBA playoff matchup – and the Mad Dog chose to utter those infamous four words.
Green doubled down on his decision to react to the crowd after the game, saying: "It felt really good to flip them off. You're going to boo someone that got elbowed in the eye with blood running down your face? I could've had a concussion or anything. If they're going to be that nasty, I can be nasty too."
Aside from being a tired and lazy retort – not to mention its gross racial undertones – used by the worst and most divisive people on the airwaves, "shut up and play" and its variations boil down to an outdated and oppressive view of athletes.
But athletes like Green have found success – both on and off the court – for their unfiltered, passionate and outspoken nature. Thankfully, ESPN also had former NBA star turned analyst JJ Reddick on that particular First Take episode to absolutely eviscerate Russo's dumb take:
JJ Redick one of the only respectable people at ESPN pic.twitter.com/JuqsF1GVGg
— dloading (@thedloading_) May 4, 2022
Since retiring from the NBA, Reddick has quickly become one of the best and most interesting voices in sports media, pivoting from high IQ guard to a smart, engaging and refreshing athlete voice in the media.
NBA athletes, like Green and Reddick, are leading the way in the player power era, reclaiming their image, their likeness, their worth, their opinions, and above all, their labour in sport. More and more modern professional athletes – through the rise of social media, collective action and strong player associations (which are basically labour unions) – have awoken to the value they provide and realised they are the fundamental driving force in the commodified world of sport.
The days of muzzled athletes sticking to sport – not by choice – are long gone. Sport is a lot better for it.
Former UFC interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson was the latest fighter to speak out about the MMA promotion's conditions, warning up-and-coming athletes about the UFC and Dana White's greed and exploitation.
"The promoters here, they act like drug dealers sometimes, they just throw around a couple bucks here and there," Ferguson said about the UFC.
"They're like 'C'mere kid, C'mere kid, take this, take this'. If you don't have the will to say no to that stupid shit, you're gonna get f***ed.
"I've been with the company for a long time and they treated me like shit. There's a lot of underlying stuff. They're trying to come out here to search for me to sign my f***ing contract. I'm like, 'you guys are sweating bullets, huh'? That's how you guys make me feel sometimes. It's not fair."
It's not Ferguson's first time speaking out against the way the UFC deals with many of its fighters, and is far from the only fighter sharing their experience on the issue.
I'm the type of guy that has been antoganized, provoked, and threatened to take & not take fights or certain opportunities to benefit monetarily otherwise my family would be have been hurt. -Champ Shit Only 🇺🇸🏆🇲🇽
— Tony Ferguson (@TonyFergusonXT) March 12, 2019
MMA is one of the only mainstream sports without a union body representing athletes' interests – partly due to being a relatively new sport and a lack of federal regulation in America like the sport of boxing. It's left the majority of fighters battling for crumbs within a multi-billion dollar organisation, with, as Ferguson put it, "greedy" owners and executives benefiting while the labour force is left without a voice.
According to a survey with MMA athletes by The Athletic in 2020, almost 80 per cent of fighters are in favour of organising a union with their peers to collectively bargain with promoters. Unionisation support was also backed up by the fans, with another survey showing 74.9 per cent supported the issue. While a path towards unionisation remains unclear, fighters like Ferguson speaking out is a step closer towards a more safe, democratic and equitable workplace for perhaps the most dangerous sport on the planet.
I think it's high time I stuck to sports, my inner boomer tells me (everyone has one). Here's a throwback to possibly the greatest flop in basketball history that re-emerged on Twitter this week. Just an incredible piece of diving. Neymar would be proud.
This was the wildest flop ive ever seen live on a court lol https://t.co/7XCuoeCqmP
— kuz (@kylekuzma) May 4, 2022
The Kiwi resumes his push to finish the 2024 season on a high.