The NBA should welcome bona fide stars like Anthony Edwards, not fine them

Michael Malone’s inner monologue may be too profane for him to share on live television.

“I was, man, walking off the field at halftime — you should hear some of the conversations I’m having with myself,” he said Wednesday after Denver allowed 71 points in the first half of an eventual 139-120 victory over the Hawks.

And if there’s anything this NBA season has taught players and coaches about how to talk to the media, it’s to speak your mind. Also comes with a price tag. Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards was fined three times last month for using profanity in postgame interviews, with the bill increasing each time to a total of $200,000.

When Malone arrived in the locker room, he was seemingly no longer filtered in what he said out loud to his players.

“Coach gave us a very enthusiastic and fun speech at halftime,” Nuggets center DeAndre Jordan said after the win over Atlanta.

The main thing? “It’s embarrassing,” as Malone said.

The details? You may have to rely on your imagination.

I’ve been thinking a lot about Edwards’ recent contract with the league. This has nothing to do with my day-to-day work on the Nuggets beat, in theory. But then again, it kind of does.

Edwards is an increasingly famous player who just led his team to a breakthrough in the Western Conference Finals; who was introduced as a face of the league during last week’s Christmas fixture list; whose appeal lies as much in his personality and directness as in his certified ability to get buckets. He’s must-watch TV in every sense of the word, as much as Nuggets fans might hate to admit it.

And last time I checked, the NBA is in the middle of a TV ratings crisis.

I have publicly stated that I don’t care about grades. But it seems to me that a 23-year-old superstar as cocky and blunt as Edwards is exactly what the NBA needs now that LeBron James and Steph Curry are nearing retirement. Is the league helping or hurting itself by training this superstar from a young age to repress his natural language?

Additionally, what message does this send to other players, especially those on lower salaries, when they see the fines Edwards incurred simply for profanity?

I worry that this will erode players’ sincerity and slowly lead to a more reserved and cliché-prone population of athletes. So, yes, I selfishly worry that this will affect my work by extension.

Professional athletes already tend to dislike dealing with the media. The constant fear of financial punishment just for talking off the cuff with us is another reason they hate this obligation. That’s all Edwards does when he swears. He is himself. It’s not for the cameras. Last spring in Denver, I approached him to ask a follow-up question about something he had previously said about his admiration for Jamal Murray. He had already finished his postgame media scrum that evening, but he graciously granted me a brief one-on-one interview, during which he used several expletives.

I don’t mind writing around these, as long as the citation is substantial. “If you can find me someone who doesn’t think Jamal Murray is one of the best (expletive) guards in the league, then they’re crazy,” he told me. I think you can probably figure out what he actually said.

If you don’t want to take my word for it, listen to longtime Timberwolves reporter Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic, who tweeted after the third fine: “I honestly believe Ant can’t stop swearing.” He’s not trying to sound tough. He is not overtly provocative. He starts rolling and can’t stop it.

The league does not publicly monitor players and coaches for every swear word during every interview. (That would be impossible to follow, especially considering the tendency for athletes to produce their own podcasts.) If someone blurts out a harmless swear word while talking to a beat writer and it appears in an article , this is generally not reported – although Howard Beck reported for Sports Illustrated in 2022 that the NBA was also issuing other fines and warnings behind the scenes, and that former Nuggets center DeMarcus Cousins ​​​​had been privately “cautioned” for using several profanities in an interview. with Andscape.

Whether or not the fines match the TV cameras, it’s often the same for the players. The media is the media. An interview is an interview. The message that it’s best to filter yourself will be conveyed whether there’s an ESPN hot mic or just a few audio recording devices present. (While we’re at it, I should point out that cable TV seems to be getting more and more vapid in terms of profanity regulation these days. If that’s no big deal to the NBA’s broadcast partner, ESPN , when Pat McAfee brings guests to his show, so why should the NBA consider it a breach of decorum if a player swears on the same network?)

This topic is not new and boils down to the question of where to draw the line. The NBA is making it clear that Edwards will cross one this season. This is excessive insulting, without a doubt. But a lot of people too. If you want a product to be more authentic and appetizing, hanging beads is not a good way to achieve that in 2025. There are more important lines to draw.

Malone is known for being witty with the media, and he can be just as fiery. Just last weekend, he criticized the Sacramento Kings – his former employer – for firing coach Mike Brown and for doing so over the phone. Earlier this season, he gave one of the most honest quotes of the year after Denver’s terrible defensive performance against the Knicks: “(Expletive) that. We do not empty (the loss). You don’t blush when you’re embarrassed.

After the Nuggets’ win Wednesday, he explained, “I told them at halftime, I like the fact that we’re 7-3 in our last 10 games. And I like the fact that we have the No. 2 offense in this game. stretchable. But what bothers me is that we have the No. 22 defense in this sequence. … This is going to be a hell of a month for us. We’re playing some really good teams, and if we think we’re just going to beat everyone, we’ll just sit at home watching the playoffs.

Malone has been doing this long enough that he’s generally a pro at self-censorship. When he wants to – or maybe when emotions take over and he can’t help it – he lets out an occasional beep. But for the most part, he has plenty of experience expressing candidly how he feels to the media without going there.

That’s all well and good, but does that make someone think they shouldn’t use swear words at all?

Want more Nuggets news? Subscribe to the Nuggets Insider to get all our NBA analysis.

Originally published: January 3, 2025 at 5:45 a.m. MST