Let’s be honest, the state of sports media is pretty awful. ESPN used to show sports, like the actual games. The only show they had was Sportscenter and what the hell happened to Sportscenter? It’s down to a one host grueling slug fest of hot takes, LeBron James, a little bit of highlights, LeBron James, commercials with LeBron James, then a bit more LeBron James. In fact, after his Lakers got swept, swept, yes swept, by the Denver Nuggets the NBA media focused more on LeBron’s fake retirement consideration than on the Nuggets’ sweep, yes sweep, of God’s favorite child, the Los Angeles Lakers. Nuggets coach Michael Malone came out to defend his players and shine a glaring spotlight on NBA media’s blind spots.

“Michael Malone: You win Game 1 of the playoffs, and all anyone talked about was the Lakers. "Put that in your pipe and smoke it."

“Michael Malone was asked about his comments about narrative being all about Lakers and not Denver in last round and if narrative will be same for Nuggets entering Finals: “If anyone is still talking about the Lakers, that’s on them. They’ve gone fishing. We’re still playing.”

How frustrating for the Nuggets, their fans and NBA fandom in general. LeBron’s blatant attempt to control the narrative after he was swept, yes swept, was frustrating because it actually worked! The media ate it up. ESPN bought it hook, line and sinker. Very few were talking about the greatness of the Nuggets. Where was coverage of two-time MVP Nikola Jokic? Or Jamal Murray’s series? Or coach Michael Malone’s ass whopping of Lakers coach Darvin Ham, who coached, arguably the worst series in the entire playoffs. Those storylines were nowhere to be found and LeBron’s PR move played the NBA media like a fiddle. Traditionally, a fiddle is difficult to play but not sports media.

The NBA has a huge problem. It does not speak about anyone outside of their five favorite players, five favorite teams and whatever pointless TMZ drama takes the day. Who cares which player is now shacking up with a plastic Kardashian? Can we give a struggling Ja Morant some space to get his act together? For the love of God can we get some analysis of the game instead of analyzing players feelings about the game? How come ESPN can broadcast military style war room breakdowns of NFL plays but treat the NBA like it’s just a dunk fest and guys chucking off balance threes? Where is the love of the game?

I’ll tell you where. Nikola Jokic and Jimmy Butler. These guys only want to win basketball games. They have a job to do and they go out and do it every day with no excuses. They don’t care about awards, accolades, headlines, personal stats or any of the other celebritizing garbage that the NBA media pushes. But that’s not to say these two aren’t competitive. They’re two of the most competitive players in the game. Jokic has a competitve fire that erupted on the entire NBA for the past three seasons. Former teammate Facuzo Compazzo said, “It's very hard what he's doing right now…to continuously maintain that level is really hard. Also, I know how much he works. After every game, he's in the gym. After every game! If he played 30 minutes or 38 minutes, after that he takes his jersey off, puts the training clothes on, and goes to the gym. 9PM, 10PM -- he doesn't care. He lives in the club. He's the first who comes in and the last one who leaves.” Nikola exploded on his team during the Suns series, lighting up his sluggish teammates who he needed to win the game because his 53 points wasn’t going to do it.

We all know about Jimmy’s beef with non-competitive teammates telling Rachel Nichols, “I love the game and I don’t do it for any other reason except to compete and go up against the best to try to prove I can hang.” This year, Jimmy refused to hold the Eastern Conference trophy, saying, “I’ll hold the next one.” Later he said, “I don’t play for the Eastern Conference Finals MVP, I don’t play for the Finals MVP, I could care less… I really only want to win a championship”. Butler and Jokic are the no nonsense, blue collar, hard working people that built America, built industrial civilization as a whole. They lead by example, lift up those around them and maintain a humility in the face of stratospheric success. How is the NBA failing to market these guys?

The answer is that NBA media fails to meet these two stars on their own terms. Market these players for who they are. Stop trying to turn them into hollow celebrity marrionettes that dance to the tune of ESPN’s corporate overlords. Sports media try to extract headline making answers from these guys using trap questions, which each deftly avoid like they avoid defenders in the paint. These guys actively deny the superstar role and it frustrates the media. We’ve all had a credit hogging co-worker and these two Hall of Famers are not that guy. Jokic said his 30-20-10 game in the playoffs meant, “Not much. I’m just glad we won the game.” The reporter replied, “I figured you’d say that.”

“Nikola Jokic: I love to share the ball. That’s how I go out. That’s how I play. Since I know basketball I love to pass the ball. My coach back home in Serbia told me, ‘Assists make two people happy points just make one person happy.’”

Jimmy Butler: “I don’t call them role players. I call them teammates.”

Jokic again, “People are trying to tell me my stats and I’m trying to say it’s team basketball.”

Even Kevin Durant tweeted, “I don’t think Jokic cares or wants to be a star. Go to work and go home, FaceTime his horses and hop in the pool.”

How can fans not love these guys? Butler and Jokic are much more marketable than they want to be, more marketable than sports media can admit. Since when is being the best player in the world two times in a row an unmarketable quality? Apparently for Nikola Jokic, it is. The responibility lies on the NBA and their media cohorts to market these guys for who they are, not who they want them to be. The media want to run their easy, attention grabbing headlines about a player’s personal life or personal opinions. Oh and there’s always a heaping pile of insults to throw onto a player who was once great, like Dwight Howard or Stephon Marbury, who still love the game and go play overseas. These guys love to ball, market that. Celebrate the game.

It’s formulaic. It’s easy. It’s click bait. And it’s unfair to all the players who bust their ass to excel at this sport. You don’t need to listen to Jeff Van Grumpy’s hundreth anti-basketball rant of the season to see what matters to media executives. Controversy. Why are we parading around NBA analysts that hate the game? Why are their opinions valid? Because they’re on TV? Stephen A. Smith, Jeff Van Gundy, Kendrick Perkins and the entire ESPN empire is not built on recognition of great basketball. It’s built on shit-talking like a bunch of high school girls ganging up on the one they’re all jealous about. Or, even worse, straight up ignoring the prettiest girl in school because, well, she’s the prettiest girl in school and she doesn’t play childish, petty games.

Which brings us back to Butler and Jokic. Arguably, the two prettiest girls in school. These guys don’t play the media game. In fact, they directly deny the media narratives thrown at them.

Jimmy Butler: At the end of the day I’m as normal as they come. It’s not always about basketball. It will never always be about basketball…my daughter’s going to love me whether I win or lose so that’s what I focus on.”

Nikola Jokic: “I didn’t watch Game 5. I was walking with my daughter. I’m lying. I watched the first quarter.”

The NBA media fails to market Jokic and Butler because they’re normal people. They cannot fit these two players into ready made media caricatures. They’re just as competitve as Kobe and Jordan but get none of the credit because they have balance in their life. These men realize they are more than a basketball player, there is more to life. They know that when they’re gone from the game there’s still decades of life to be lived with the people who supported them throughout the seasons.

The sports media cannot market Jokic and Butler because these players are normal, everyday dudes and not the super heroes who sacrifice everything for their careers. This mentality has deeper roots in the nature of modern masculinty and what it means to be a man, a provider and an achiever. At its core modern masculinity, as it’s perpetuated in media, forces unhealthy relationships related to work, family and the sacrifices required for men to “succeed”. The real man sacrifices everything for his goal, even his family, himself and sometimes, the fate of the entire universe. In movies, books and television, the man is a tool of society who is used up and spit out and he likes it. He embraces the self sacrifice for the good of us all. But while being semi-digested by civilization itself, a man’s sacrifice is depicted as the construction of that civilization. If a man does not break his body, mind, spirit and close relationships in pursuit of society’s use for him, is he even a man? If men fail to sacrifice everything then civilization crumbles, right?

This is how Jokic and Butler break the meta narrative that the relentless pursuit of socially imposed goals is the most important thing in the world. It’s not. Jimmy and Nikola know that. All the winning in the world won’t bring back the time wasted at work that should have been spent building the relationships that will matter after the winning is over. Tom Brady famously retired, then didn’t, then got divorced because of it. Athletes saw that. Kobe had his off the court struggles with his family. Jordan too. Perhaps the best analysis of the situation comes from comedian and sports nut Bill Burr in a discussion with his wife, Nina.

Nina Burr: I want to talk to you about this Tom Brady situation.

Bill Burr: What do you mean they won this week?

Later Bill asks why Brady’s retirement fake-out bothers her.

Nina Burr: I’m trying to imagine as his partner...I’m thinking, ‘Cool you’re going to be home more. We’re going to be doing more stuff with the kids.’ I supported you this whole entire time, which I’m happy to do because I’m your wife, but now our dynamic is going to be different and I’m excited for that new dynamic, for you to be home more. And then for you to renege on that because you can’t let go of this career that you’ve proven yourself at for years…but then the pull of the game, the career, again when you’ve already been celebrated and decorated many times, proven yourself seven times, it doesn’t get any bigger than that and you’re telling me that you want to retire, go out on a high note and be with us. Now you’re being pulled back, I’m going to take that personal because you didn’t really want to do that? You really want to go back? You really want to be gone more?"

It’s time for sports media to recognize Nikola Jokic and Jimmy Butler, not as avoidant, reluctant superstars, but as the ideal men in our society: men who work as hard as they possibly can, when it’s time for work but they also love as hard as they possibly can when it’s time for love.