This Week in Basketball: Jonathan Givony’s Twitter Account Was Locked, And How FIBA Was Embroiled In This Situation
July 23rd, 2023
by Alan Lu
This past month, DraftExpress’ head honcho and ESPN’s draft analyst Jonathan Givony had been covering the FIBA U-18 European Championship at Nils, Serbia to report on some of the most talented under-18 year olds that are playing overseas. While this tournament is at a level that’s very far away from the NBA, it is a tournament that features some of the best young basketball players from overseas that could potentially be stars in the future. Moreover, Givony’s information and coverage on draft prospects and basketball players have been quite reliable and useful over the years, and he is a well-respected member of the basketball community.
(Twitter/@DraftExpress)
During this tournament, it was reported that there was heavy rain and unsafe conditions, such as a slippery wet court that players played on, and reportedly, the tournament continued to march on through despite this.
What happened next was unexpected, and Jonathan Givony reported that his Twitter account was locked, and that the complainer was FIBA, perhaps as a result of his reporting and directness to what he saw in those events.
On the other hand, head of FIBA’s communications office, Sakis Kontos disputed Givony’s claims that his account was locked because of his reporting, but rather due to a copyright claim, and Kontos had stated that Givony was shockingly not granted a media accreditation to their tournament this year.
The turn of events is surprising because DraftExpress has been analyzing basketball players for over two decades now and Givony is one of the most prestigious NBA draft analysts to come across the basketball landscape. FIBA has been around for a long time and is a world-renown entity that hosts sporting tournaments from around the world. But it raises clear eyebrows about FIBA’s decision to not grant Givony a media credential and to bar him from posting a certain video on social media.
Now it is entirely possible that maybe they suddenly revoked his access or no longer granted him the authority to post videos at their event during this tournament, which may have led to his account getting locked, but it’s hard to know for sure.
But either way, what is certain is things did not have to go down like this. If they had a problem with his reporting or methods, they should’ve gone to him first and be direct with him instead of avoiding him and going immediately to Elon Musk to tell him to lock his account on Twitter.
It is my opinion that Givony’s tweets were truthful reporting in his own voice and thus were not malignant, but it’s possible that it was interpreted as such that led his account to getting locked. Also, it was alleged that other accounts were allowed to post similar videos from the FIBA U-18 European Championship at Nils, Serbia without incident or complaints from FIBA or Twitter, which suggests unchecked favoritism from FIBA towards some, and unnecessary censorship towards others, and that this was their retaliatory measure against Givony amidst all of this.
The result from all of this is unfortunate and it seems like it was FIBA’s attempt to silence him and his style of reporting. But just as bad or worse, FIBA kept allowing the games to play in terrible playing conditions that included a slippery wet court and in an environment that caused multiple players to get hurt, and that FIBA allowed their tournament to keep playing while attempting to silence Givony’s work just makes them look like an unscrupulous entity that cannot be trusted. On the plus side, FIBA later acknowledged that they made a mistake in letting those games continue in dangerous conditions, but it looks to be too little, too late, as players have gotten hurt and injured as a result of those games having been played in those circumstances.
Maybe there’s more to this story, maybe there isn’t, but things didn’t have to go down this way. Jonathan Givony’s account didn’t have to get locked. Also, FIBA didn’t have to keep marching on to play games in very unsafe conditions. Players need to play in safe conditions to allow them to have the best chance to stay healthy, and reporters need to be allowed to cover games honestly and accurately to the best of their abilities, and it seemed that FIBA failed them at both measures.
If FIBA had a problem with Givony, they should’ve gone to him directly. It didn’t have to go down this way. They didn’t need to try to hit him up with a DMCA strike, and it’s worrisome that they seem to allow some but not other basketball sites to show video footage of their tournaments. Because of these unfortunate events, one important voice in basketball may have to find alternate means or routes to cover FIBA events to avoid further sanctions, which is unfortunate for everybody.