Lost in translation

Updated: February 17, 2004, 10:35 AM ET
By Chad Ford | ESPN Insider
LOS ANGELES -- When you have players and media members from 212 countries speaking 42 languages here at the NBA All-Star Game there's bound to be some miscommunication along the way.

Here, cultures collide in some strange and bizarre ways. It's a place where players meet playas, posses meet diplomats, David Stern meets Ludacris, and a fleet of platinum, stretch Hummers and Escalades run side by side with huge convoys of tourist buses.

Along the way, the media horde, armed with microphones, video cameras and notepads records the painful minutia of it all. Of all the events here, in my mind, nothing is as entertaining as Media Day. In the space of roughly 90 minutes, just about everyone is forced to answer stupid questions, including the important questions of life that rarely get addressed and that we know are of great interest to Insider readers everywhere.

Alas, we are dealing with NBA All-Stars here. That means they have been well trained in the art of not answering, instead reciting enough clichés to make any PR director proud.

After Friday's media session, Insider pored over the transcripts, searching among the pat verbiage for the true meaning of NBA life ... some translation required.

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Chad Ford | email

Senior Writer, NBA Insider
  • Senior NBA Writer for ESPN.com
  • ESPN Insider NBA Draft Analyst since 2002
  • Writes ESPN's NBA Draft Top 100 and Lottery Mock Draft

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