The NBA will begin miking players and coaches during nationally televised games, starting this week.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports “coaches will wear wireless microphones throughout” nationally televised games, starting with this week’s TNT NBA doubleheader. Cameras will also record “pregame, halftime and postgame meetings” from team locker rooms.
If this were not invasive enough, coaches will now be interviewed live during games, and future plans have players getting microphones “sewn into their uniforms.”
WNBA coaches are already miked for nationally televised games; since the 2005 WNBA All-Star Game, live microphones have been placed on coaches, and during the 2007 WNBA Playoffs, viewers were able to listen in on team huddles during the final seconds of the games.
Judging past history, NBA coaches are not likely to take this very well. In 2000, when the NBA elected to put microphones in team huddles, several coaches resented the move. The league fined the Raptors and Sonics $100,000 for having coaches refuse to wear the microphones during an NBC telecast. The fines were later withdrawn, after a compromise between the league and the NBA Coaches Association.
