Concerned is an appropriate word since Matheson admits to “some” frustration, the qualifier diminishes the impact.
He’s been around the league long enough to not lose sleep over it. I’d venture that it’s the combination of a large, rabid fan base (which naturally comes with a lot of good and expectedly a vocal, negative fringe contingent, as one finds in any other significant market in any pro sport), the fact that he’s hearing it while playing in his home city and, even if the blurb didn’t say it, there is always a toxic fallout for family and friends that will trickle down to him.
Dumb takes are also to be expected from the usual suspects hunting for clicks and who don’t do their homework.
Overall, the guy comes across as a caring teammate who doesn’t hide from the media and who does his best to answer in French and I’m sure there is a majority who appreciates him for the class act that he is as well as the career year he’s had.
Hopefully, he sees that there is more than enough good to help him put the harshly negative takes in proper perspective.
I liked how when Hutson was announced to be coming to the team, it was him and Suzuki that welcomed Hutson in person. I thought that said a lot about how valued he is.
The actual quote is "I see it. I see the way people talk about me sometimes, and it’s frustrating,"
He goes on to talk about teams needing both safe player and risk takers who both know when to make their moves.
Then "I think some people get a little excited online. I take that into account. I feel like everybody I’ve ever met in person has nothing but good things to say, so that’s always fun."
Then there's almost two dozen extra paragraphs and it seems more to the effect that Arpon was slanting the title and tone of the article. AKA, he asked numerous questions and threaded together a plot from a number of answers that had similar themes.
Edit: For
@Runner77 In regards to Hutson, Matheson has some stuff to say too. He starts out saying the two of them not only have similar playstyles, but similar personalities and that was something he noticed during their dinner. He's later quoted as saying "So he has a lot of great potential, and I’ll definitely do my best to help him as much as I can, and learn from him too as much as I can.” “I think Lane makes our team a lot better and I like to think that I do too.”
Hopefully I haven't overstepped my bounds because there are at least 15-20~ish paragraphs of article I haven't described.
My big problem with Basu is that during this article he is very clearly either asking questions or using answers to questions that Matheson provided to other reporters. That said, he doesn't bother telling you what the question was, he only decides to write 2-3+ paragraphs of his own interpretations and biases before presenting a quote from Matheson without the context of the question that prompted it. Hack journalism, but not as hack as the usual bottom feeders, he's coated it with a thin veneer.