No respect

A lot of it is about market size, but it's also the national media (really ESPN and lesser so TNT) is all about selling personalities. Other than Grayson Allen, the Bucks really don't have anyone you can hate, and he's obviously not a star.

I forget who it was (although I think it was Paul Pierce), but after they were let go from whatever pregame show they were on, it was mentioned how they were ordered to talk about LeBron as much as possible. LeBron is a polarizing figure and people tune in to watch him (or hear about him) both to root for him and against him. He's a mercenary.

Harden, Irving, and Durant are controversial guys that generate conversation and eyeballs/clicks. Harden's strip club visits are legendary. Irving is one of the most disliked players in the league by fans for the crap he pulled in Boston and Cleveland. Durant, of course, ring-chased going to Golden State (even though he was their best player). People get angry and passionate in conversations about these guys. It's the same reason people watch polarized versions of news. Anger equals engagement.

Sure, being in LA and NY is part of it, but Kawhi and Paul George (and to a lesser extent, Julius Randle) barely get mentioned (and they play in the same cities). They are all pretty regular, boring guys (at least publicly).

Giannis should be a bigger story on a regular basis than he is, but after he decided to stay in Milwaukee there wasn't a narrative you could argue about relative to him and he's almost impossible for anyone to dislike. After he stayed in Milwaukee, they tried to build a narrative to argue about that he just wasn't ever going to be good enough to win there and he wasn't a real clutch player. Then he dropped 50 in a Finals closeout game. If LeBron had done that, there'd be retrospective documentary on it already playing on ESPN. It seems like it barely gets mentioned for Giannis.

Middleton's persona is exactly like his play. Solid, almost spectacularly boring yet effective, quiet, another guy that's difficult to dislike. Holiday literally won teammate of the year before he left New Orleans.

It's just like why the Packers get media attention for the last 30 years. Favre was a personality you could market. Rodgers is probably the most hated player in the NFL right now. That sells.