The athletes hold the same status as celebrities in society. While media attention comes as a part and parcel of the athletes’ lives, there could be harmful repercussions of such constant exposure. Something that the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Chet Holmgren would agree with, especially after the recent shocking incident involving an NFL star.

The weekend wasn’t as relaxing and cheerful for the San Francisco 49ers, as their rookie, Ricky Pearsall, met with a brutal incident in broad daylight. The incident occurred on Saturday near Union Square where a 17-year-old man allegedly tried to rob his expensive Rolex watch. The wide receiver didn’t give in easily, he fought back, but little did he know that his resistance would reward him with a bullet in his chest. This unfortunate event greatly affected his teammate, Deebo Samuel. The 28-year-old took to social media to deliver a strong message to his followers regarding the privacy of players. A huge support came from Holmgren, who shared the post on his IG story to bring more awareness.

In the post, Samuel recorded a clip while driving his car, highlighting the dangerous effects of filming a public figure without their knowledge could push them into jeopardy. Holmgren certainly shares similar views and is against such practice as his IG activity suggests.

Besides Holmgren, even the Mavericks star Luka Doncic opened up about his strong dislike for cameras and desire to have more privacy. There have been many instances in the NBA where private information got leaked, creating a lot of chaos, something the league aims to crack down on even more.

Chet Holmgren isn’t the only NBA star fazed by privacy concerns in the NBA

After a relatively successful rookie season with the Thunder, Chet Holmgren has established himself as a reliable asset in the squad. With his success on the hardwood, the fan following has increased on social media. So it is quite obvious to be concerned about security and privacy, as many of his contemporaries have suffered from its effects.

Every basketball enthusiast knows about the infamous altercation between the Warriors’ Draymond Green and Jordan Poole. The story didn’t end at the punch that the former attempted, it kept showing the angles to it. Disappointed with where it led, the VP of the National Basketball Players Association, Garrett Temple, said, “The Poole video was something that just should not get out because it was so disturbing.”

Apart from this, the heated disagreements that occur in the locker rooms also come out in the public eye. Not only that the players are scrutinized every now and then for mumbling on the arenas that are read thoroughly by lip-reading experts to present it to the fans. Things went out of proportion when the Sixers’ swingman, Kelly Oubre Jr. met with an accident and the cops couldn’t find the video footage of his hit-and-run incident. A popular media enterprise allegedly hacked his home security camera to get the video.

With Holmgren’s recent appeal for more privacy, one thing is certain, the privacy concerns in the league are far from an afterthought and it is something of a priority for Adam Silver to solve.