On the dud that was 2023-24 Knicks Media Day
The Knicks’ 2023-24 season got off to the most anticlimactic start possible.
NBA Media Day is a day I’ve circled on my calendar every year as long as I’ve been an NBA fan. The day I finally get to see my favorite players wear my favorite colors – orange and blue. The day I get to see the newest Knicks wear those colors for the first time. The day I get to see millionaire basketball players tell us about their summers and act like children in front of a camera.
Since I’m addicted to NBA digital content, I follow all 30 NBA teams on Twitter and Instagram. I get to see every team go through Media Day all at once, and every year I’m startled by the difference in production, presentation and performance from team to team. As per usual, some pulled out all the stops to harvest and distribute as much content as possible. As I scrolled through my timelines and checked in on every franchise, I found myself asking, “Why aren’t the Knicks doing this?” more than any year in the past.
As somebody who lives and breathes Knicks content and wants to see the team ascend back to the top of the basketball zeitgeist, I have a few thoughts about my experience during Knicks Media Day 2023 I just have to get off my chest:
While many teams spent the weeks and days leading up to Media Day building hype through digital content, the Knicks did not publish anything in advance. Some teams, including the Lakers, spent the lead-in days highlighting their longest tenured players by posting collections of old media day photos and showcasing how far they’ve come. This type of content is extremely easy for teams to produce and can kill two birds with one stone: fans get informed about the upcoming Media Day as well as the shock factor of “Wow, this player looked so different [X number of] years ago!” Although I don’t really understand why, it’s possible that the Knicks didn’t want people knowing about Media Day and elected to not publicize the event in advance. The first piece of content the Knicks posted was this video of Jalen Brunson, shared at 2:01 p.m., long after the organized reporter scrums completed around noon. It’s a nice video, but it’s pretty underwhelming considering it’s the first piece of content they published all day and their first mention of “Media Day” since Media Day 2022. It was also published pretty late in a day when fans had been clamoring for photo/video content all morning on Twitter. Those fans were let down.
Many of those fans wanted to see Donte DiVincenzo, this year’s marquee Knick free agent signing, wearing his new threads for the first time. During his morning media scrum, Donte wore a hoodie and was not captured by anyone in a jersey. Around 3 p.m., the Knicks finally posted this photo on Instagram with him in his new kit, reunited with all of his former Villanova teammates. This photo is awesome, and performed extremely well on all public engagement metrics, but Donte’s arrival should’ve been showcased on its own before he was arranged with his Villanova teammates. A photo of Donte standing alone in his new threads could’ve been its own moment, followed by the group shot of him and his fellow former Wildcats. Double the content, double the engagement! I’m writing this at 8 p.m. Monday night and the Knicks are still yet to post a photo of DiVincenzo standing alone in his new uniform. Ugh!
While DiVincenzo is in his first year with New York, RJ Barrett, Julius Randle and Mitchell Robinson are entering their fifth, fifth and sixth years with the Knicks. One staple of Media Day is seeing how much players have grown since their rookie photoshoots. Seeing the evolution of fledgling 19-year-olds into superhero NBA players is fascinating for fans of all magnitudes. It would’ve been awesome to see the Knicks dig into the archives for some old Mitch/RJ/Julius content, and then post it side-by-side with fresh content from today. The Knicks didn’t do that, but The Strickland sure did!
Another staple of Media Day is seeing the players break the fourth wall of formality during interviews with their unique personalities, contrary to the interviews performed earlier in the day and throughout the season with credentialed reporters. Usually, NBA teams hire popular internet personalities, YouTubers or TikTokers to stop by and shoot content with their players. In an ideal scenario, this is a win-win for all parties: the personality gets paid in dollars and in digital attention, while the Knicks are awarded multiple hours worth of engaging, unique, and culturally-relevant content to post throughout the day and the season. In the distant past, the Knicks had Jonah Ballow shoot this type of content with players at every Media Day. Jonah left in 2018, and nobody has taken his place.
(Update: the Knicks shared one Instagram Story of Isaiah Hartenstein and one TikTok of Quentin Grimes dancing with an untagged young girl in a standard interview setting. I have no idea who the girl is, or what the content will end up being, but I’m looking forward to seeing it!)
Instead of seeing Ballow with Barrett today, Knicks fans got to see Eric Wilzig with RJ in a brief Instagram reel. If you’re like me, you have no idea who Eric Wilzig is. After a quick snoop through his Instagram profile, it turns out that Wilzig is the “Resident Magician/Illusionist at Madison Square Garden,” although I have never seen or heard of him until today. Wilzig has some pretty impressive magic, but unfortunately lacks on-camera charisma, struggles with fashion and doesn’t demonstrate an understanding of digital content creation. The reel with RJ was a swing and a miss; as of 8 p.m. Monday, the top two most-liked comments were “Who is this corn ball?” and “Bro did all that magic just for RJ to say ‘that’s crazy’ like he’s seen this every time he’s in Times Square.” Look, I’m not trying to diss Wilzig, or magicians in general, but this was a really low moment for the Knicks. If you want to see how a magician and a sports team can create great digital content together, go watch this clip from Hard Knocks with the New York Jets from this summer.
One of my favorite parts of Media Day is sharing the photos of my favorite players on my Instagram story. Usually, I have a pretty expansive crop of official photos to pick from and have to narrow down my favorites to a select few. This year, the Knicks posted a mere total of seven official photos on Instagram. Six are all in one carousel post, which is fine, but most followers will not scroll through that entire thing. This morning, I was looking forward to resharing some photos of my favorite player, Immanuel Quickley, on my Instagram Story. It’s 8 p.m. and the only photo of IQ the Knicks have shared is a goofy photo of Quickley in front of a green screen, buried behind some other photos in the carousel. It didn’t go on my Instagram Story. *shrugs*
It would’ve been really funny to see the stars of the Knicks weigh in on some pop culture and current events today, or just comment on anything culturally relevant. Usually, NBA teams will have a faceless personality hold a microphone (or cell phone) up to a player and ask them silly questions about this type of stuff. For the most part, the responses are fast moving, hilarious, highly engaging, and an overall super-easy piece of content for teams to create and share. The Knicks published none of these today. We didn’t even get to hear what Randle thinks of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce!
One of the highlights of my media day experience was seeing a potential leak of the Knicks’ 2023-24 City Edition uniforms. Judging from the distorted footage of this leak, it looks like we’re finally getting a retro version of the classic ‘90s Knicks jerseys with the signature black trim. Fans like myself have long pleaded for these jerseys to return, so props to the Knicks for doing us right. Unfortunately this leak, which is actually from a video the Knicks published themselves, has already made its rounds on social media and has destroyed the potential shock moment for whenever the Knicks plan to formally announce the new kits. Revealing a jersey like this is guaranteed to be a massive moment for fans, and the Knicks should’ve done everything in their power to make sure nobody was able to capture footage of them in advance of the announcement. Cell phones and cameras should’ve been confiscated, the jerseys should’ve been hidden away, and access to the room they’re in should’ve been extremely limited. Now, whenever these jerseys are formally announced it will be a surprise to few, and many will inevitably say things like “they looked better in the leak!”
One last thing: quote graphics. Quote graphics might be the lowest hanging fruit on the entire tree of digital sports content. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you should have noticed that every sports media organization has spent this year making it a focus to create hilarious quote graphics and etch themselves into eternal meme history – just go look at Bleacher Report. Although there’s a difference between the NBA and Bleacher Report, quote graphics are still an extremely effective tool to share messages that fans will eat up and reshare. Here’s one example from today that I particularly loved from the Miami Heat.
In an era where digital content reigns supreme, NBA players have naturally evolved into around-the-clock engagement factories. Every snap of the camera, every meticulously curated video and every candid quote morphs into digital gold, farming engagement from an ever-hungry audience that, like myself, devours every pixel with insatiable fervor. NBA Media Day, in all its glory and hype, serves this content on a silver platter: the athletes, adorned in the team's vibrant colors, are present, poised, and ready to give their fans a mountain of shareable moments for the season lying ahead.
In stark contrast to this golden opportunity, the New York Knicks' approach to Media Day 2023, from my fan perspective, was a missed layup in the court of digital content creation. A day eagerly anticipated by fans who have thirsted for a glimpse of their favorite players throughout the seemingly endless summer should be a veritable feast of photographs, videos and charismatic player interactions.
Not to mention producing highly engaging content on a regular basis is table stakes and smart business. High-performing digital content not only leads to a more engaged audience more likely to purchase merchandise, it can also lead to lucrative sponsorship deals and also produce AdSense revenue in the background.
I also think it’s worth mentioning that since Leon Rose took over in 2020, the Knicks have been extremely restrictive with general media access and like to keep a lot of inside information under wraps. If the Knicks want to do this, that’s fine, but the burden falls on them to be the best at bringing content to the fans in a timely manner, which they failed at in a big way this year.
While it's acknowledged that certain content may be stored for strategic release throughout the season, the perceptible lack of zest and innovative digital engagement during the Knicks’ Media Day was not only a disappointment, but struck a chord of disregard toward the fans. To witness other teams, with varying levels of digital prowess, maximize the day by building momentum, creating buzz and essentially paying homage to their dedicated fan base, my question lingers heavily in the digital air: “Why aren’t the Knicks doing this?
