Hi. I’m Jeff. I run InsideHoops.com. Everyone who works in basketball or sports publicity who has heard of the internet knows about this website. We’re one of the world’s leading sports websites. And if we yell about something, word spreads, and directly or indirectly everyone who follows basketball closely quickly hears about it. Either by reading InsideHoops.com, or hearing from a friend who does, or reading a newspaper or another big website who heard about it because we said it, etc. etc. etc.
And now, my point. And yes, there is one, aside from reminding everyone that InsideHoops has a massive and extremely influential readership: No one promoting Semi-Pro got in touch with us to see a media screening of the movie before it came out.
I’ve seen literally every single basketball movie or documentary weeks in advance, for years now. All of them. Except Semi-Pro. Why is this?
Heck, just a few days ago I saw a screening of a basketball film I’m not allowed to even talk about it. Almost no sports media members have seen it yet, other than a select few. It’s terrific and you’ll hear about it in the near future.
Well, I just went to RottenTomatoes, and checked out the Semi-Pro reviews. And they’re awful. That site counted 109 reviews (none of which seem to be from anyone who works in basketball — it’s as if only “regular” movie reviewers got to see the film in advance) and it got a ranking of 25 percent. That’s out of 100. That’s very bad.
So, do PR people know the movie stinks? And therefore did they avoid inviting people like me in advance, because they didn’t want me to tell you it sucked?
And, I went to some basketball magazine websites, and a few of the big TV network-owned sites, and I don’t see any reviews of the movie. Just promotional stuff.
Anyway, I’m not saying a single bad word about the movie. Maybe it’ll be fun. Just saying, if InsideHoops isn’t seeing an advance screening of a basketball movie, then it’s quite likely that either the movie stinks, or the company needs to hire new PR people.
