during the round 13 AFL match between the Hawthorn Hawks and the Essendon Bombers at Melbourne Cricket Ground on June 27, 2015 in Melbourne, Australia.
Australian NBA star Andrew Bogut says Australian sport stars need to be allowed to show off more of their personality to the media.
Bogut, who has been in the NBA system since 2005, has witnessed firsthand how American sporting clubs allow their athletes freedom to speak their mind and show their personalities and he believes Australia should do the same.
“We’re supposed to be more humble and say it’s all about the team and all that kind of stuff even though you know half the guys saying that don’t really mean it, it’s just what they’ve been media trained,” Bogut told SEN this morning.
“Especially with the AFL, it’s all about the club, it’s all about the inner sanctum, and it is, you want it to be about team first, but I still think personalities, the 80’s and 90’s era of football were great to me because you had so many personalities.
“It’s media training. I can see through media training straight away, we have to do it every year, we’re forced to do it.
“I definitely think it’s club imposed and I think we see it with our national team a bit, you know it’s team first and don't try to stray outside the lines which makes things vanilla.
“I’d rather just tell it like it is, give your opinion, I think conflict and controversy isn’t a bad thing at times.”
Bogut isn’t shy of speaking his mind, especially on Twitter, nor is rising Aussie NBA star Ben Simmons.
Earlier this week, Simmons was asked who he thought the NBA’s rookie of the year should be and his response was "who would I pick? Me, 100 percent."
This is the kind of honesty and personality that Bogut wants to see from AFL and other Australian sports stars.
“With social media and whatnot the NBA has figured out guys are going to do it regardless, we might as well do it in a controlled setting and try to help them and media train them to get the right message out,” Bogut said.
“If I’m asked a question, whether it’s about basketball or how to put a painting on the wall, I’m going to answer it.
“I might not be right, but that’s going to be my opinion and I’ll deal with the consequences of it.”
Bogut joined the LA Lakers in 2017 and was waived by them in early 2018 but he says his NBA career is not yet over.
“I still think I’ve got basketball left in me it’s just a matter of when and where,” Bogut said.