How a basketball player ( or really any athlete) deals with the media should have zero bearing on whether or not they can lead their respective teams.
Ahh, you want to be careful about letting your own biases lead you into absolutes here.
History contradicts you, particularly Celtics history. It's worthy of note that Bird had a serious antipathy for the media when he arrived in Boston - just a few years later he used it to lead his team to a Finals victory over the Lakers.
You're totally off-base saying media relationships have no pertinence to locker room leadership. Do they always? Of course not. But the savvy - Bird - can use the media adeptly to lead a locker room.
If you read what I responding to, this backs up what I was getting at; Auerbach and the organization weren't stupid enough to deal Bird just because of the way he dealt with the media early on.
If a guy appears to be sulking in a media interview, it doesn't really offer any insight on how the guy is in the locker room with teammates or on the court.
Since its history lesson time, take a look at Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, Marshawn Lynch, Randy Moss (first two years with Pats at least), and several other athletes.
Numerous guys haven't faired well with the media in the past and done quite fine when it comes to their actual job (playing sports).
Its foolish to think that you can make a proper assessement on a guy's leadership abilities by studying the body language of a guy when he's being interviewed. It shouldn't really mean squat.
I'm not sure how that's "totally off base" at all. Fine, we can remove the absolutes if you wish but there's plenty of history to back up what I'm saying.