On LeBron James’ head and trying to take photos at basketball games

When LeBron James knocked his head into a video camera in the middle of an NBA Finals game the other night, I empathized with everyone involved.

In case you missed it, here’s the aftermath with a few replays as well.

As someone who’s played basketball for most of my life, I have rolled my ankle more than once on walls that are too close to the end of the court.

Usually these thing happen to the best athletes. A less athletic player — say Matthew Dellavadova — would have just fallen on his side and never been able to start to catch himself. Given a wider berth, LeBron would have probably caught himself and been able to not hit the floor. His ability to even think about not falling down on this play was just another example of his ridiculous athleticism.

You can be athletic and fall to the floor, though. Shaq was one player who was crazy athletic for his size, but he knew how to fall really gracefully in order not to get hurt. I’m not sure that’s something LeBron’s ever learned.

What about the camera man?

I’ve shot basketball in a lot of gyms over the past three years. In high school gyms, I can choose to sit or stand, and I can shoot from virtually any place along the baseline. Sometimes there is a lot of space between the baseline and the wall, but in some places there isn’t.

At college games, I’ve also shot in about a half-dozen arenas, ranging from Mott Gym to McKeon Pavillion at St. Mary’s, to UCSB’s Thunderdome, to Pauley Pavillion, the Honda Center, the KFC Yum! Center, Maples Pavillion, and University of Dayton Arena, among others.

In the larger facilities, the set-up is generally the same. Squares that are about two feet by two feet are marked with tape on just one side of each baseline (the other half of each baseline is usually reserved for cheerleaders). The squares are generally for still photographers. Live TV cameras are often shoulder-held by camera operators on rolling chairs.

LeBron hit an NBATV camera located in one of the squares. He dove right into it, literally head-first.

So, what does the NBA do? If we are going to move the photographers, where do we move them to? The truth is, while the baseline provides a lot of good opportunities for photos, the angle isn’t always the best. That said, I don’t know anywhere that would be feasible and better. Sitting along the sideline in one of those $1000-plus seats can be more ideal for some shots, but there is zero chance a photographer gets to sit there. Sight-lines are too important to mess with in large arenas to put photographers anywhere else.

I’ve also heard people who don’t know photography calling for the NBA to have more robotic cameras. While probably really costly, this might work all right for video cameras, but would seem virtually impossible for still shots. Maybe still shots are out of fashion. Maybe people will have no use for them at some point. But I doubt it.

Honestly, getting great shots of basketball from just the right angle is the hardest of any sport, in my opinion.

Which is why there is not a great option for the NBA. The things they can change, it seems like they have. The two rows of squares have been moved back a foot or two recently. The basket stanchion has been pushed back a few feet. Beyond that, I’m not sure what else there is to do. I suppose you could push photographers farther back and give up the cost of some of those prime seats under the basket. We know the odds of that happening.

What I hope doesn’t happen is that less photographers are allowed to be there. At any given time, up to 20 or so photographers could be focused differently on a bunch of different parts of the floor at a major basketball game. Different photographers in different places allow for the game to be covered in a variety of ways, something basketball tends to struggle with more than other sports like football or baseball. The variation of where you’re located and who/what you’re focusing on can have a huge impact on the quality of a photo.

Here’s an example of why it was great to have various photographers at different points around the field during an amazing NFL play. 

Maybe some day the NBA will find ways to maintain fan experience in the arena while giving us more opportunities for various still and moving picture angles. Until then, players are going to have to learn how to fall better and photographers are going to have to be a little faster to bail on their shots.

The media and players have always figured out a way to get along, eventually.