Zach Lowe Needs to Watch More than Two NBA Players

I'm a fan of Zach Lowe. I think he is one of, if not the smartest writer of the NBA that is doing that job right now. He does his research, watches a ton of games and is knowledgeable on not just the game, but the players too. His podcast is the only primarily basketball podcast I listen to. I do listen to "The Flagrant Ones" as well, but they do way more jokes than "The Lowe Post" does. Zach Lowe's podcast is for basketball junkies, NBA junkies, such as myself.

I have found myself getting annoyed lately when I listen to him talk. He is still as informative and knowledgeable as ever, but he is constantly pumping up two players that I am not a fan of, Luka Doncic and Nikola Jokic. Now, before the internet weirdos come at me, I can acknowledge their ability, they are very good NBA offensive players and Jokic is a deserving champ and two time MVP. But, to hear Lowe talk about them lately, it is almost as if they never make mistakes and they are the only two NBA players worth mentioning and/or praising.

It has gotten so bad for me that I have found myself timing how long it takes before he mentions one or both players in any new episode. I watch some people on Instagram do the same thing, as a joke. But I want to see how long he can hold himself before he simply must bring them up. Even on episodes where he is not necessarily talking about the Mavericks or Nuggets, Lowe will find a way to shoehorn the two of them into a conversation. The longest it has taken before he has brought up one of the two guys in a recent episode was 23 minutes. This was an episode that was well over 90 minutes long. He only lasted less than a third of the run time before he had to let everyone listening know that he is a fan of these guys.

I get it. You like the way they play the game. You cannot find any criticism to give them. You want nothing but the best for them. You married a Croatian so you must feel some weird obligation to like European NBA players. These are your two favorite teams, and clearly your two favorite players. But, you are a journalist and analyst as well. That is supposed to be a non biased job. From what I was told at a young age when I was thinking journalism might be a good route for me, I wouldn’t have lasted too long because of my love for Michigan football. My folks let it be known that, if I were to pursue a career in journalism, that love could stay, but never be talked about openly amongst readers of whatever publication I may have ended up writing for, and that was a nonstarter for me. But the landscape has changed with major journalism it seems. You can be a fan and openly talk about that fandom. You can be a fanboy, a fanatic, a super fan and most people will just look the other way. Zach Lowe has taken this angle and run miles and miles and miles with it. I was listening to his most recent episode and David Thorpe brought up Shai Gilgeous Alexander as an MVP candidate, the top candidate in his eyes. This was after Lowe went on a rant about "Luka's last season push for MVP". Also, I despise that he calls this dude by his first name only. I can guarantee that Luka Doncic doesn't ever think twice about you Zach. So, after he went on his rant, Thorpe said why he thinks SGA is the frontrunner for MVP, Lowe's silence spoke volumes. Someone wasn't giving one of his guys the full on credit he thought he deserved. So instead of going into a nice debate, because Thorpe threw stats at Lowe, one of his favorite things to bring up when talking about Doncic or Jokic, he just sat there quietly with nothing to say. That stuck with me.

And lately, when speaking of Jokic, he will constantly say how he is the "greatest basketball player in the world" in one breath, then begrudge Giannis Antentekoumpo. I guess Zach Lowe may need to be reminded of some more stats. They both have two MVP's. They both have the same amount of titles, one. And Giannis is much, much, much better defender than Nikola could ever dream of being in his entire career. Oh, and the Greek Freak is a much more fun player to watch play the game for me. And why doesn't Lowe like the Harden/Doncic comparison I wonder. They are pretty much the same player. They are both volume shooters. They both get assists. They both stop the ball. They both need the ball to be effective. I don't get why he can't just accept the fact that they are basically the same player. Oh, and one more thing on Luka Doncic. Lowe is so quick to talk about Doncic's greatness in the playoffs. And again, he is a very, very good playoff basketball player. But at the same time he will go in hard on the two guys picked before him in the draft, Deandre Ayton and Trae Young. Make no mistake, Luka Doncic is a more skilled player than both of those guys, but he has gone just as far as Trae Young has in the playoffs. They have both been as far as the conference finals. As for Ayton, well, he has been to the NBA Finals, and played pretty well. So, I guess that means Ayton's playoff success is technically better, right? 

The way Lowe speaks of these two guys is almost erotic and kind of gross. He will never begrudge them, but he is quick to point out flaws of other superstars. He will give them all the glory for team success, but blame other players for holding teams back. He has become what I feared he might be, and that is a knock off Bill Simmons, who is one of the most loathsome journalists on the planet. I hope he fixes this fascination with these two guys, but it doesn't seem likely. I wonder how they would react if they knew about his love for them. I'd have to guess they don't know and most likely don't care. But I would be creeped the hell out if someone I had little to no interaction with talked about me the way Lowe talks about these two guys. It feels odd. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet.

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