Naomi Osaka

[bisousx]

I feel for Naomi. She is just a baby to me at 23 and I understand how she feels being frozen by depression and not wanting to play along with public interviews. She was willing to pay the fines, face the consequences of breaking her contract... I don’t think it’s a good look for Piers and the likes to be writing harsh things about this young girl. Good thing Naomi has enough money to do whatever she pleases. Wish her well.

 

[lalame]

I can see why it’s upsetting to get heckled but it doesn’t necessarily follow that would lead to mental health issues, it doesn’t necessarily follow that any kind of negative experience will result in depression as is my understanding, it depends on the person and their ‘wiring. Not that I’m saying she can’t be depressed but that it’s not cause and effect.

To me, this incident is part of a wider problem that reporters just get stereotyped as the villains for doing their jobs.
if they were calling her ugly or useless or chasing her in the streets that’d be one thing but asking repetitive questions about her technique and history playing on clay at a Tournament press conference seems perfectly reasonable to me and to claim they ‘doubt’ you and therefore you don’t want to interact with them is a little unreasonable on that basis considering this is the journalists’ livelihoods.

There's clinical depression and there's being depressed/sad over something that happens to you. Are otherwise happy people not truly depressed if they lose a family member, have a stressful job, break up with their SOs, etc? Doesn't mean it's a capital-D mental institution-level of depression, but one can absolutely be depressed by an everyday stressor, an event, or a lifelong mental affliction. Young women are committing suicide over cyber bullying so I absolutely believe her that the immense pressure and scrutiny would affect her mental health.

If you watch interviews of athletes after games, it's intense. It's not always like "tell me about your technique"... it's sometimes like "so why'd you lose?" "what were you missing?" "what do you think about XYZ being better than you?" "Didn't you practice enough?" You see lots of athletes breaking down during these long interview sessions after games, especially after a loss or something going on in their personal lives. And btw, if you read her statement, she apologizes to the press and says she didn't mean to cast them in that type of negative light.

 

[CarryOn2020]

There is so much more to this story than we know. Just as with H&M, lots of stuff happens behind the scenes. No pro tennis player acts alone, especially the #1’s. They have coaches, family, etc. just like H&M do. Patience.

 

[Genie27]

I feel for Naomi. She is just a baby to me at 23 and I understand how she feels being frozen by depression and not wanting to play along with public interviews. She was willing to pay the fines, face the consequences of breaking her contract... I don’t think it’s a good look for Piers and the likes to be writing harsh things about this young girl. Good thing Naomi has enough money to do whatever she pleases. Wish her well.

I agree - I feel the same way - Save the media attention for those who enjoy it, and leave the introverts alone. The media will still find plenty to talk about, speculate upon etc, but if Naomi wants to avoid the post game circus, why not? I'd hate to have microphones shoved into my face after a gruelling defeat or even a close win, when I've barely had a chance to process it myself.

 

[purseinsanity]

I feel for Naomi. She is just a baby to me at 23 and I understand how she feels being frozen by depression and not wanting to play along with public interviews. She was willing to pay the fines, face the consequences of breaking her contract... I don’t think it’s a good look for Piers and the likes to be writing harsh things about this young girl. Good thing Naomi has enough money to do whatever she pleases. Wish her well.

I don't know what the current drama is with her, but I do know I probably would've had a mental break down if I was subjected to everything she was subjected to at the US Open (?) when Serena lost to her.

 

[lalame]

I watched a presser after one tournament with Serena where a reporter asked her "You normally look happy, but you look dead right now. Why are you so low energy, is it because you beat Venus?" And she said, "It's 11:30 pm, I just had a full day of matches, and I have to wake up early tomorrow for practice. I look like this because I'm dead tired and you guys are wasting time asking me repetitive, irrelevant questions like that." I think these things are rough for everyone, and people sometimes just walk off.

But Naomi's problem, and similar to H/M, is she was naive to think that it's enough to be good at what you do when you're a celebrity. This type of stuff is also part of it. So we're watching that learning lesson happening.

 

[sdkitty]

I feel for Naomi. She is just a baby to me at 23 and I understand how she feels being frozen by depression and not wanting to play along with public interviews. She was willing to pay the fines, face the consequences of breaking her contract... I don’t think it’s a good look for Piers and the likes to be writing harsh things about this young girl. Good thing Naomi has enough money to do whatever she pleases. Wish her well.

I don't know much about her but I agree, 23 is very young....hope she gets all of this sorted out

 

[CarryOn2020]

Perhaps NO needs her own thread?
Guaranteed to be more drama and more opinions

Just made one for her. Enjoy.

 

[CarryOn2020]

Post your thoughts, opinions, news, here.

Naomi Osaka | Player Stats & More – WTA Official

Get the latest Player Stats on Naomi Osaka including her videos, highlights, and more at the official Women's Tennis Association website.

www.wtatennis.com

 

[Bagatha Christie]

There's clinical depression and there's being depressed/sad over something that happens to you. Are otherwise happy people not truly depressed if they lose a family member, have a stressful job, break up with their SOs, etc? Doesn't mean it's a capital-D mental institution-level of depression, but one can absolutely be depressed by an everyday stressor, an event, or a lifelong mental affliction. Young women are committing suicide over cyber bullying so I absolutely believe her that the immense pressure and scrutiny would affect her mental health.

If you watch interviews of athletes after games, it's intense. It's not always like "tell me about your technique"... it's sometimes like "so why'd you lose?" "what were you missing?" "what do you think about XYZ being better than you?" "Didn't you practice enough?" You see lots of athletes breaking down during these long interview sessions after games, especially after a loss or something going on in their personal lives. And btw, if you read her statement, she apologizes to the press and says she didn't mean to cast them in that type of negative light.

I mean the fact she apologies and concedes the negative light cast kind of proves my point doesn’t it? I think it’s great she’s mature enough at 23 to recognise averse implications. Especially given certain people we know haven’t managed that at 40. I don’t have anything against her.

Part of my earlier point i didn’t express clearly perhaps is that clinical depression isn’t the same as being upset that something bad has happened and that using depressed as a synonym for sad is misleading language. Going from what she has said, it sounds like she has been diagnosed and she has had bouts of clinical depression. That’s a difficult thing to work through. depression also has an spectrum of symptoms duration and severity. It is really over-simplistic to say because some young women have committed suicide in the past over cyber-bullying it follows that someone else will react in that way. In fact a beef I have with Oprah interview is the way she led from MM’s depression to asking about suicide as though that were a natural progression when that’s not how all depression sufferers feel and Oprah is normalising a dangerous extreme of behaviour as part of the standard manifestation of the condition.

You do seem be conflating the press asking questions with bullying with your examples when my main point that was unfair comparison. Yes being questioned on your profession can be really challenging but that’s part of the job- it’s not unfair or unnecessary IMHO. However, of course you should be able to take sick leave if you don’t feel well enough to do your job.

In conclusion, I guess it’s good Osaka can draw a line under this and take a break and come back when she feels better

 

[lalame]

I mean the fact she apologies and concedes the negative light cast kind of proves my point doesn’t it? I think it’s great she’s mature enough at 23 to recognise averse implications. Especially given certain people we know haven’t managed that at 40. I don’t have anything against her.

Part of my earlier point i didn’t express clearly perhaps is that clinical depression isn’t the same as being upset that something bad has happened and that using depressed as a synonym for sad is misleading language. Going from what she has said, it sounds like she has been diagnosed and she has had bouts of clinical depression. That’s a difficult thing to work through. depression also has an spectrum of symptoms duration and severity. It is really over-simplistic to say because some young women have committed suicide in the past over cyber-bullying it follows that someone else will react in that way. In fact a beef I have with Oprah interview is the way she led from MM’s depression to asking about suicide as though that were a natural progression when that’s not how all depression sufferers feel and you are normalising a dangerous extreme of behaviour as part of the standard manifestation of the condition.

You do seem be conflating the press asking questions with bullying with your examples when my main point that was unfair comparison. Yes being questioned on your profession can be really challenging but that’s part of the job- it’s not unfair or unnecessary IMHO. However, of course you should be able to take sick leave if you don’t feel well enough to do your job.

In conclusion, I guess it’s good Osaka can draw a line under this and take a break and come back when she feels better

Let's talk about it in the other thread.

 

[bag-mania]

The only other similarity I see between H/M and Naomi is Naomi gets an incredible amount of vitriol on social media, but the similarity ends there. A lot of the hate she gets is for her appearance, not her actual actions. It starts with her first claim to fame, when she beat Serena Williams in a tournament - Serena had lost her temper with a referee on the court and got penalized for it and Naomi ended up winning. Serena's actions weren't her fault at all but she was booed across the stadium after her win and she was crying on the court. Serena even hugged her and tried to console her. For a 23 year old, it's absolutely understandable to have mental health issues from that type of hate. Of course, it's your job and you deal with it and move on but we're watching the ugly learning experience.

Let's talk about it in the other thread.

Okay, I'm going to put one more here since it is about the comparison with H&M. As I find out more about Naomi I think I now know what Piers Morgan was talking about. Let me play devil's advocate and see if it changes anyone's feelings at all.

In the last year alone Naomi made (depending on where you read it) somewhere between $35 to $55 million. She made about $5 million of that from winning tennis tournaments. The rest came from lucrative endorsement deals with big companies, among them Nike, Beats by Dre, Mastercard, Louis Vuitton, and Tag Heuer. She makes so much money she overtook Serena Williams and Naomi is now the world's highest paid female athlete.

Whether she likes it or not, Naomi the celebrity athlete is a brand (in a way Harry and Meghan could only dream). As such she has a team of publicity agents, sports agents, lawyers, and others, all working in tandem to ensure her financial success. She does commercials and print ads for her companies which requires her to perform in the presence of many people.

She also has an agreement with Athlete Speakers (https://www.athletespeakers.com/speaker/naomi-osaka) where for a fee of $100,000 and up, you can hire Naomi to be your keynote speaker, make a corporate guest appearance, or get her to come for an exclusive meet-and-greet. Is that something a person who suffers from incredible "shyness" does?

Here's where the comparison to Harry and Meghan comes in. Naomi seems to be perfectly fine with public speaking and answering questions if it is for something fun or lucrative, like a paid appearance. Is it possible she just doesn't like talking to the press because she's not getting anything out of it? Isn't that similar to Harry and Meghan not wanting to do their boring royal assignments and instead starting to market the hell out of themselves? Is that what Piers meant?

 

[Bagatha Christie]

Hopefully she will feel better soon.

 

[lalame]

Okay, I'm going to put one more here since it is about the comparison with H&M. As I find out more about Naomi I think I now know what Piers Morgan was talking about. Let me play devil's advocate and see if it changes anyone's feelings at all.

In the last year alone Naomi made (depending on where you read it) somewhere between $35 to $55 million. She made about $5 million of that from winning tennis tournaments. The rest came from lucrative endorsement deals with big companies, among them Nike, Beats by Dre, Mastercard, Louis Vuitton, and Tag Heuer. She makes so much money she overtook Serena Williams and Naomi is now the world's highest paid female athlete.

Whether she likes it or not, Naomi the celebrity athlete is a brand (in a way Harry and Meghan could only dream). As such she has a team of publicity agents, sports agents, lawyers, and others, all working in tandem to ensure her financial success. She does commercials and print ads for her companies which requires her to perform in the presence of many people.

She also has an agreement with Athlete Speakers (https://www.athletespeakers.com/speaker/naomi-osaka) where for a fee of $100,000 and up, you can hire Naomi to be your keynote speaker, make a corporate guest appearance, or get her to come for an exclusive meet-and-greet. Is that something a person who suffers from incredible "shyness" does?

Here's where the comparison to Harry and Meghan comes in. Naomi seems to be perfectly fine with public speaking and answering questions if it is for something fun or lucrative, like a paid appearance. Is it possible she just doesn't like talking to the press because she's not getting anything out of it? Isn't that similar to Harry and Meghan not wanting to do their boring royal assignments and instead starting to market the hell out of themselves? Is that what Piers meant?

I don't know if he wrote up a longer thing about Naomi but just judging from the tweet, he seemed to think it was stupid for someone to "pull the mental health card" so to speak.

I agree with you, it's her job and she's supposed to do it. She's not in the right to think she can avoid it. But I think a major difference between her and M/H is that she's not trying to profit off the mental health bit as if she's some guru now. She was just saying "I'm not going to do this, and here's why." And yes, it was wrong, and she clearly is learning that. But I have some sympathy because she is so young, she's very new to this, and she has been under so much scrutiny already that this doesn't help I'm sure. M/H... they're making their struggle their brand, whereas Naomi literally hides under towels while sobbing after matches. She wants to disappear, not be on every streaming show.

 

[lalame]

I think she's clearly talented but was too young and maybe too shy to hit fame so quickly. In a sport, if you make it, you make it, but doesn't mean you've got all the other skills/interests necessary for fame.

I mean, anyone remember when she was sobbing with her head under a towel after that infamous Serena match?


I think she has a really bright future ahead of her, but just a "yikes" to see these hard lessons play out in the public.