Back in 2013, John Amaechi wrote a guest blog for ‘Time Magazine’, sharing how the locker room was a workplace for NBA players. The former basketball player opined the space was no different from a work desk or a conference room, except there would be towels and clothes all around. “The main concern for me and most of my teammates was getting a little privacy and being able to get showered and dressed by the time the media came in after a game,” he revealed. If they were lucky enough, they would get dressed and leave before the reporters could get hold of them for interviews. It is 2024 now and not much has changed.

The NBA’s locker room privacy is a hot topic these days. Multiple players like Draymond Green and Paul George have spoken about the issue on their podcasts, desiring changes to occur. “Our locker room is our safe place,” said George in October as he couldn’t comprehend the level of non-privacy in the locker rooms. It’s a place where players change and discuss tactics before they go out to play.

“An NBA locker room is the most non-private place in the building. Like, there’s no privacy. You’re getting dressed. There’s people in the locker room,” Draymond Green mentioned last month about the current situation in the NBA locker rooms. Following the trend, another NBA champion has discussed the locker room issues players face these days.

Ex-Raptors star, Fred VanVleet, made valuable points to change the current locker room situation. “Shout out to the seasoned reporters that got little finesse, you know. They know how to move around. It’s good reporters, but there are also some weird ones… For me, I have always been able to speak, I have always been able to talk, you know. I kind of found my way around but like, some of these kids, I got a team full of 19, 20, 21, 22-year-olds man, and they don’t always know the best way to deal with these people.”

“They don’t always know the right things to say or they don’t really understand that the mic is never off. ‘Oh yeah, I am off the record but I am not really off the record’,” he shared on The Draymond Green Show.

“Your whole a– might be out in somebody’s video while you trying, you trying to get dressed. You know what I’m saying. It’s like I don’t necessarily want to see that, you know what I mean, on the internet. But yeah, we might need to reevaluate that one.”

Green was in complete agreement as he responded with, “That’s the fact, bro.”

Players are faced with a new challenge—media training. But what did Paul George say about the same issue?

Paul George doesn’t like the staring

In October, George reflected similar sentiments to Fred VanVleet. But there was something more that irked him.

He spoke about it on ‘Podcast P with Paul George’ and pointed out how NBA players had no privacy even in the vicinities of showers. What disturbed him the most was that some reporters would blatantly stare at players who were undressed.

“I would say majority of the locker room, bro, they’re naked [when reporters come in]. Like, we’re in towels. We’re naked. We just got out the shower. And then you have these reporters in there and, like, they’re not staring at a wall, you know what I mean?” he shared. “They’re looking at us.”

He even stated that there was a reporter in Washington who was known for doing this. Further, eavesdropping on player conversations and spreading rumors based on that was also something that annoyed him. It seems the issues John Amaechi wrote about in 2013 still prevail.

As players are becoming more vocal about the matter, do you think the NBA will bring about some changes regarding this issue? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.