Calacus Weekly Hit & Miss – Gregg Popovich & Leeds United
Every Monday we look at the best and worst communicators in the sports world from the previous week.
HIT – GREGG POPOVICH AND BECKY HAMMON
San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Becky Hammon made history by becoming the first woman to serve as a head coach in an NBA regular season game against Los Angeles Lakers on New Year’s Eve.
Hammon has been working with San Antonio since the 2014-15 season, but her in-game move to Head Coach – due to Gregg Popovich’s ejection – became national news with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris tweeting about it.
While Hammon deserves all of the credit for continuing to be a key role model for women throughout America in helping to remove gender barriers in sport, Popovich should also be praised for his comments on the topic which were a testament to the environment that he has created in his 25 years as head coach in San Antonio.
“As you all know, we’re very participatory. I like to have my coaches coach. The Lakers were her scout team. It made total sense for her to take over. That’s what we’ve done for decades. That’s nothing new,” Popovich said.
“But on the bigger question of her having taken over a NBA game, to me, it’s not a big surprise. To a lot of other people it meant a lot. I can understand that. She’s somebody who’s very skilled and could very easily fulfil the duties of a head coach in the NBA. That goes without saying.
“There are women in every other endeavour in the world, whether it’s government, science, technology, aviation, it doesn’t matter what it is. Women do the same jobs as well and better than men. That’s a fact. There’s no reason why somebody like Becky and other women can’t be coaches in the NBA.
“On a larger scale, that’s why it wasn’t a big deal to me — because I know her. And I know her skills, and I know her value and I know her future is very, very bright. I understand the attention it got, but in all honesty, I assumed that most people already knew that she was qualified to be a head coach in the NBA.
“We didn’t hire Becky to make history. She earned it. She is qualified. She’s wonderful at what she does. I wanted her on my staff because of the work that she does. And she happens to be a woman, which basically should be irrelevant but it’s not in our world, as we’ve seen as it’s been so difficult for women to obtain certain positions. It was business as usual for us.”
Popovich could’ve taken the chance to praise the organisation or even himself for providing Hammon with such an opportunity, but he was right to put all of the emphasis on her credentials and why she was so deserving.
As Popovich stated, the hope is that this story will cease to be news as more women are able to showcase their abilities in high-profile sports roles, but it’s important to shine a light on role models like Hammon to inspire the next generation of female athletes, coaches, and officials.
MISS – LEEDS UNITED PROVOKE PUNDIT PILE-ON
Official football club social media accounts have evolved from simply posting results and links to an official website to a two-way communications channel with fans.
Leeds United have won a lot of plaudits after returning to the top flight for the first time in 16 years this season, playing a dynamic form of football.
After beating West Bromwich Albion 5-0, TV pundit and former England international Karen Carney observed that the Leeds’ style and promotion owed something to the rest players had during lockdown.
She said: “They outrun everyone, and credit to them. My only concern would be, will they blow up at the end of the season like the last couple of seasons? I actually think they got promoted because of Covid in terms of it giving them a bit of respite. I don't know if they'd have got up if they didn't have that break.”
It was a fair comment and Carney’s opinion rather than being stated as a fact, but the Leeds official Twitter account then shared the clip, prompting thousands of trolls to target and abuse Carney.
Targeting an individual is never appropriate on social media, much less so when by an organisation, but sometimes, mistakes can be made.
The key, as with any sort of crisis, is to recognise the error and fix it quickly: in this case, that means deleting the tweet and offering a full apology for the consequences it provoked, which were obvious to anyone who has ever used social media, particularly in the public eye.
But Leeds owner Andrea Radrizzani, who has overseen such progress at the club since he took over in 2017, doubled down and endorsed the tweet.
“I take the responsibility of the Club tweet,” he said on Twitter. “I consider that comment completely unnecessary and disrespectful to our Club and particularly to the fantastic hard work of our players and coaches whom were understanding on the pitch for the last two championship seasons by all stats.”
The tweet and the club’s official response to it led to widespread outrage, with Women in Football echoing the sentiments of many when they said: “Whether you agree with the comment or not, singling out & ridiculing an individual on an official club account is not what we’re here for. Karen Carney is a well-informed pundit. This tweet is inciteful & inappropriate. Not a good look now, or at any time.”
The story has gone global, with USA Women’s World Cup winner Megan Rapinoe tweeting: “Shame. Shame. Shame. Thicken up that skin y’all. Also, don’t come for @karenjcarney she’s a National treasure.”
Leeds had many opportunities to realise the damaging consequences of their tweet, and they subsequently issued a statement – notably NOT on Twitter – in response to the abuse Carney has suffered: “Leeds United completely condemns any abuse received by Karen Carney on social media following last night’s Premier League game with West Bromwich Albion.
“Everyone at our club respects Karen greatly for all she has achieved in the game, as well as her work in the media and the charity work she undertakes.”
Given the abuse, it was too little, too late.
Carney, meanwhile, has deleted her Twitter account and the tweet remains live as of January 4, almost a week after it was first posted.
According to The Athletic, Leeds have spoken to Carney’s representatives and invited her do a TV report at their Thorp Arch training ground before their televised FA Cup third-round match against Crawley Town.
This situation is a case study in how a lack of empathy or understanding can create a crisis that affects reputations and individuals. Certainly Leeds have lost some goodwill as a consequence.
Rather than inviting her to their training ground, their staff, from the top down, need education into the daily challenges that women in football face to avert problems like this occurring again in future.