NBA Media Day: 5 uncomfortable storylines to keep an eye out for

Training camp and preseason are largely viewed as the precursor to a fresh year of basketball, but the new season truly starts on NBA Media Day. It’s an opportunity to bring players, coaches and staff together in an official fashion for the first time since the offseason reshaped each group from just months prior. It’s usually a joyous day for players and fans alike with plenty of fresh memes and juicy soundbites for NBA Twitter to salivate over.

It’s also a huge opportunity to clear the air over things that unfolded in the offseason, and this summer, there was a lot more off-court news than you’d expect. Between legal trouble, organizational shifts, harsh criticisms and massive player movement, NBA Media Day 2022 will offer a setting to clear the air and start fresh for many teams.

Keep an eye on these storylines, which might be awkward, but loom over the impending season.

NBA Media Day: Sarver will be front and center for the Phoenix Suns.

Besides a few tweets, there hasn’t yet been much of a chance for the players and staff of the Phoenix Suns to speak about the report on Robert Sarver and his decision to sell the dominant share in the organization. Although he’s far from a beloved figure, many of these players are sure to have established some level of rapport with the man who embedded himself into the team.

Sarver was present at games, practices, shootarounds and promotional events for the Suns. Maybe the team would’ve been better off if he was an absentee Managing Partner, but that wasn’t Sarver’s style. He liked to be seen and make his presence known. Therefore, every one of those players is going to have an opinion on him and the situation that unfolded.

So even while the Suns try to focus on earning the top seed in the Western Conference once again, Sarver will still be the center of attention for this organization — at least on NBA Media Day.