Bryan Curtis has the solution for boring NBA postgame interviews

After Wednesday’s Game 2 win over the San Antonio Spurs, Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander caused a stir when he seemingly said something extremely honest during the post-game interview.

SGA appeared to call out his teammate, Isaiah Hartenstein, saying that his defensive effort against Victor Wembanyama wasn’t as good as it seemed. He would later backtrack at the post-game press conference, saying he didn’t hear the question well, then realized it and offered a better answer.

Regardless of how true that explanation is, SGA provided a rare thing: An NBA post-game court interview that offered something of substance and intrigue.

On Wednesday’s episode of The Press Box, which was posted before Game 2, co-hosts Bryan Curtis and David Shoemaker discussed the dearth of interesting questions posed to Wembanyama following his epic Game 1 performance, and held it up as an example of how these conversations often feature generic questions that yield generic answers.

Curtis then posited a solution, which he aptly dubbed The Curtis Maneuver.

“Let’s say that you are a sideline reporter. Here’s what you do,” said Curtis. “You walk out onto the court, you bring a portable monitor.”

“You’re selling this like bringing a portable monitor is… like a feat. It’s very straightforward now,” added Shoemaker. “Just like, here’s my iPad.”

“You walk out, and you use this portable monitor to show Wemby the play of the game,” continued Curtis. “And then you ask him, what were you thinking when this happened? It’s a terrible question, but guess what? It’s interesting. Because everything he says in response will be news. It will be used to tell the story of the game. And more importantly, it pulls us out of the world of ‘How big was this win?’ Questions that no player has any idea how to deal with. And brings us down to practical things.

“And Wemby got asked about that in the postgame, and he was like, ‘You know what was going through my mind? I was like, slow down.’ Like he was thinking about process. Slow down. Don’t just jack this up. Go through your, go through your motions. Shoot it like you’d shoot it. And he did. It worked.

“You would at least get something. Because the postgame is so hard. It is botched so many times. I just want information about the most interesting thing that happened during the game.”

Honestly, we’re on board with The Curtis Manuever. It’s not even new; we see it happen in NASCAR and other sports, and it’s even happened with NBA post-game interviews a few times.

Being a sideline or courtside reporter can sometimes be a thankless role, and you often don’t get the credit you deserve for advancing storylines and updates. But if there is an area that audiences point to when they’re frustrated with the role, it’s generic, open-ended questions that don’t allow for answers that add anything to the moment. And any solution that could help reduce that is welcome.