Loser Language: Examining National Basketball Association Players’ Image-Repair Strategies Following a Loss

While the vast majority of image-repair research in sport settings focuses on individual deviancy, recent scholarship has called for the examination of image-repair strategies following competition losses. Utilizing extant theoretical tenets of image repair, this mixed-method study sought to measure and analyze the image-repair strategies used by National Basketball Association (NBA) players following losses during 2022 and 2023 postseason competition. Analysis revealed that NBA players on teams that lost frequently employed strategies of corrective action, deference, bolstering, mortification, and defeasibility. In addition, the individual statistical performances of NBA players had no significant impact on the use of image-repair strategies. The findings of this study suggest that teams and athletes treat losing as a significant crisis, resorting to small sets of mostly accommodating styles of image repair. Implications for both academicians and practitioners are discussed.