On Friday, Kyrie Irving put out the following statement (from his iPhone notes app, because that’s how we do things in 20202). He cites the COVID-19 pandemic as the means to justify his not speaking to the media. From the statement.

My goal this season is to let my work on and off the court speak for itself.

The obvious meaning of this is that he’s not going to talk to reporters at all this season.

Now, it’s easy to brush off statements like this from a guy who thinks the Earth is flat. But I think it’s a sign of a bigger problem to come for sports journalism.

COVID-19 is going to change how sports journalism is practiced in the U.S.

That’s a very real fear among sports journalists. In talking to many of them, informally, over the past few months, that’s a common theme and a fear. That teams are going to seize on COVID-19, on the social-distancing requirements that have become necessary and common, and use them to take player access away permanently.

During the pandemic, sports journalists are conducting post-game interviews via Zoom, rather than seeking out players in the locker room. This is necessary, and everyone understands the situation. But there’s a real fear among reporters that once the pandemic is behind us, that teams will continue this practice rather than go back to the way it was in the BeforeTimes.

We can have a long discussion about whether or not sports journalists should value access to sources as much as they do. But that’s a separate discussion from this. The fact is, access to sources is important to sports journalists. Two generations worth of media sociology research has demonstrated the importance of access to sources in American journalism, and that holds true in sports journalism as well.

So as we begin to unpack the impact that COVID-19 is having on our little corner of the world here, it’s important to start here. That to sports journalists, being forced to do interviews by Zoom, not having the ability to have one-on-one conversations, of players and coaches being able to put out statements from their iPhones rather than being transparent and accountable to fans and the public is a fundamental retelling in how they do their jobs.