Media members in the locker room following a game is a tricky situation. The media usually waits for the player to get dressed before beginning the scrum and some players don’t mind beginning before they’re fully clothed. Either way it’s not the ideal situation as some players are speaking and others are still getting dressed while there’s tons of people and cameras in the room. There’s been cases made against media access to the locker room and incidents like this help to reinforce them.
via Chris Haynes of Cleveland.com:
James was sitting at his locker stall with his head down as he scrolled through his cell phone. All he had on was a towel around his waist, so obviously he wasn’t quite ready to address the media.
Respecting his privacy, members of the media either gave him 10 feet of space or interviewed other players until he was prepared to interact.
Then all of a sudden James looked up with a baffled expression plastered on his face and signaled over a team official. Those who saw how his demeanor abruptly changed were curious to what had occurred.
It turned out that James did the equivalent of a no-look pass. Even though his head was lowered, using his peripheral vision, he some somehow managed to catch one of the media delegates taking a picture of him while he was semi-bare.
“That’s not cool, man,” James said. “I don’t miss anything.”
This person denied taking the photo and was able to manipulate his phone gallery in such a way that buried the most recent pictures taken.
An isolated incident? Hardly. This happened the very next night, following Cleveland’s loss in Miami. Haynes:
James was addressing the media at his stall. On this occasion he spoke to the contingent immediately and had not gotten dressed yet. A towel was all he had on at that moment.
In the back of the scrum surrounding him, two media members in plain view were rapidly snapping photos of James with their phones while he was answering questions. This time team personnel caught the suspects in the act and removed them from the locker room.
No still photography is allowed in the locker rooms and team officials have made a point in announcing it more than usual lately and now I see why.
