It’s time for NBA players to take a page out of the YouTuber’s playbook

NBA players would benefit from hiring videographers to document their daily workout and produce additional content.

Earlier this week, the New York Times ran a story on how social media impacts the way players’ effort is perceived. In an offseason where we’ve seen C.J. McCollum already denounce the way that players’ efforts are perceived from social media, a sentiment echoed by Frank Kaminsky, that story rings especially loud.

It’s not uncommon in YouTuber circles for the high level personalities to also end up with the person behind the camera becoming recognizably famous too. I actually share a name with Phil DeFranco’s cameraman, for example. Editors gain some level of fame too. League of Legends streamer Christian “IWillDominate” Rivera’s editor, who uses the handle “Fedmyster,” turned his success with Rivera into a role with the OfflineTV group. And stories like that are all over the place.

As seen in the New York Times article, players have already started hiring videographers here and there. Charlotte Hornets wing Dwayne Bacon referenced a compilation that he had someone put together for him. Another player who spent summer league with the Pacers, Levi Randolph, actually had a videographer named Jared Brashier document his whole offseason.

With the way social media perception is rising in importance, it’s time for players to start establishing consistent working relationships with videographers like the YouTubers do. Players already hire support staff all the time. They hire their own individual coaches, dieticians and personal trainers already out of their own pocket in pursuit of getting better. But they also hire money managers (sometimes to unfortunate results, as with Tim Duncan), event planners, and other support staff. It would make sense for videographers to be next.

It makes sense financially too. Going back to Frank Kaminsky, there’s an unfair perception that floats around Charlotte media sometimes that he spends too much time goofing off and having fun rather than working.  Having someone there to document that even though he’s having fun, he’s clearly working, would absolutely help to overhaul that perception. Fixing that, then, would drive up his market value, and more than pay back the salary of the videographer on his next contract. Plus increasing engagement with your social media means you earn more on endorsements through that platform, so that you don’t have to do stuff like DeAndre Ayton’s  admittedly funny Call of Duty tweet to get consistent engagement.

Regardless, the NBA is, at its core, an entertainment league, and the players are entertainers. With the shift in the culture of entertainment to one that runs every hour of every day, it’s time that the players do the same and hire and develop relationships with personal videographers to produce content specifically for social media.