Like the headline above, that's how the headlines of sports portals in Serbia looked like all summer. The reader might wonder if basketball clubs Partizan i Red Star, Euroleague participants, engage in sports or terrorism.
There were "bombs", "detonations" and "explosions", "shaking" and fans falling into a "trance" at every possible reinforcement of the two leading basketball clubs of the region... except that most of the announcements remained only on the portals, and there was nothing from the reinforcement.
"Who is Partizan's 'bomb'," asked Informer at the end of July, announcing the arrival of Georgian star Tok Shengelija. "Partizan's 'bomb' is Looney Walker?", wrote the Nova portal. B92 wrote about the "'Bomb' in Humska" because Zack Leday is coming back...none of the three came, nor did many others.
As for Zvezda, Alo reported in June that "a bomb is being prepared at Mali Kalemegdan" because the legend of Ephesus Shane Larkin is arriving. Serbia Danas, on the other hand, wrote about "bombs on top of bombs" because Zvezda supposedly wants Jean Montero, one of the best players in Europe, who went to Olympiakos.
Searching for the keywords "Partizan/Zvezda", "basketball" and "bomb" gives about thirty thousand results...
While the sheep…
Several sports journalists who "detonate" such blanks every day spoke to "Vreme" on the condition that their names are not mentioned.
They admit that this kind of practice is hellish and miserable, but they justify everything with clicks, algorithms and changed habits of the audience.
"I can try as hard as I want to write a meaningful analysis, the kind that used to be the most read ... nobody has time for that anymore, they are not interested in anything that has depth, they are looking for a flash, a bang, a 'bomb'," says the editor of a sports portal.
"Readers are trained to only look for madness, scandal, chaos, minus... It's easy to notice," he adds.
Where did they get that from?
Before this season, there were many rumors about the composition of Partizan. Because Partizan really changed almost the entire team, and the situation in the sports sector of the club is chaotic. There are too many "insiders", semi-information is circulating, and it is an open secret that several Instagram pages directly "pump" on behalf of the club management.
"The sports director tells one thing, the president's entourage another, the net scout another, while the special story is various 'insiders' eager for attention and clicks," says another journalist.
He assesses that Zvezda this summer, with the arrival of sports director Miloš Teodosić, has become somewhat more inaccessible to "insiders", although there is also a question of the division of roles between Teodosić, Milan Tomic and Milan Dozet.
The editor of the sports portal says that, in the hyperproduction of drama, the summer transfer window draws special attention since Partizan and Zvezda are giving millions to the team.
"It's just talk of who will bring whom and thanks to social networks we now have a billion 'sources' because everyone knows someone, an agent, a trainer, a janitor who heard this or that... And those who know directly push it on the air before it happens."
It's about money.
Fans are in a strange situation - which is nevertheless typical of today's fast and superficial media coverage.
They mostly know that the "news" on portals today is worth as much as rumors on social networks, but still they follow and absorb everything, develop theories, hope and annoy. And they even try to "check" for themselves what is true.
The author of this text is in several chat groups where there are Partizan fans and that he has a dinar for every time someone wrote that he was contacted by "a source from the club" or "my man who knows so-and-so"...
The editor of the sports portal for "Vreme" adds that he is painfully aware of everything, but that he does not have the "luxury" to work properly.
"In this world of madness, you literally don't exist if you don't have news that everyone else has reported, and it doesn't matter to them if it's true or not. You look stupid... No clicks, no website. Hell," he states.
Because, he adds, although there are "alternative" sources of financing - especially for the regime media - the portals mostly earn from advertisements, and mostly betting houses advertise. "And no one will advertise where there are no clicks."
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