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Why would they do that?
Jamal Adams was at the Knicks’ game last night sitting next to Giants QB Daniel Jones and WR Sterling Shepherd.
They put a shot of Jones and Shepherd on the jumbotron and announced their presence over the PA. They ignored Adams.
Honestly, he’s the biggest NFL star of the three right now.
Why would they humiliate Adams like this?
The answer to this is pretty simple. The Giants are media partners with MSG. All the Giants in-house TV shows are on MSG.
The Jets are media partners with SNY and have shows on there.
Welcome to the sometimes petty world of media partnerships.
After the game, Jones was a guest on an MSG show they often air after games – “MSG 150.”
Adams was not on.
If you are booking a show, who would rather have on – Adams or Jones? Adams is ratings gold because he’s charismatic and is given to saying newsworthy things. Jones is a like a robot with the media, never straying from the company line. And this isn’t a criticism of Jones. He actually did a heck of a job last year with questions about Eli Manning, whether he was backing him up or starting, and he never slipped up and said anything newsworthy. The kid actually did a terrific job not “going for the cheese” as they say.
Also on this show, MSG Knicks analysts Alan Hahn and Wally Szczerbiak were talking about new Knicks president Leon Rose. Surely, they were wondering what kind of job a former agent would do running a NBA franchise. Probably not, since they both work for MSG.
Maybe I’m a dinosaur, but I just not into this media partnership stuff. It’s an oxymoron. Media partner? How are you going to objective analyze a team’s play on the field or court if you are partners with them?
But whatever you think of this media partnership stuff, why would MSG do that to Adams.
Is it really going to make a big different in the grand scheme of things if they introduced all three and put all three on the jumbotron? Would this have made Jets season-tickets sales explode, and take away from the Giants? Probably not.
For goodness sake, why do that?
They owe Adams an apology.
MSG Network used to be the gold standard of local cable sports networks.
Remember the days of SportsDesk and Bob Page, who would criticize everyone under the sun, including in-house teams? It was a highly entertaining show.
Now that channel has become one big infomercial for all things MSG – the Knicks, Rangers, Giants, concerts in the building.
Look, there is nothing wrong with them promoting their products, but it’s more entertaining when it’s not so overt, and there is more balance.
I don’t like watching infomercials whether they’re selling vacuum cleaners or sport teams.
Do you?
Adams now realizes it’s time to become a Brooklyn Nets fan, which might not be a bad things at this point, with Kevin Durant taking the court next year joining Kyrie Irving.
March 3, 2020
Premium will return by 9:30 pm on Wednesday.
