NBA commissioner David Stern was given the opportunity for a televised gloat session after the league and the players' union avoided a pending lockout. In amongst the discussion of the agreement and how it was reached, Stern made a comment that few of you may have seen or noticed, possibly due to the fact that three people were watching the Finals as it was, and two of you hit the remote for fear of having to listen to Bill Walton spout off about how terrrrrrrrrible the play in the first half was.
Lucky for you, I stuck with it and caught what he said, and why it makes me fear for the future of the league. Stern mentioned how the new agreement allowed the league to promote its younger generation of players, its potential superstars. He's dead wrong if he thinks this is the approach the league should be taking.
If nothing else, the low ratings of the NBA Finals should have shown David Stern that marketing the superstars of the NBA isn't working for his league. In a league built around promoting the young guns like LeBron and 'Melo, or the more established stars like Shaq and KG, exactly none of these players were in the Finals.
The casual fan was trained to believe that these players are the faces of the NBA. They want to see the superstars throwing no-look passes or dunking on each other. They don't want to see Tim Duncan hitting bank shots from 15 feet, or see Rip Hamilton coming off of a curl to hit a teardrop jumper. When presented a defensive battle between players who they don't know, or who are nondescript and generally unexciting, they tuned out in droves, making sure to TiVo "Dancing With the Stars" on their way off the couch.
So far, the telegenic superstars of this generation don't appear to have the killer instinct to win it all. Stern was able to build a global marketing empire around Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and Michael Jordan in the '80s and '90s because inevitably, one of those stars was in the Finals every year. It didn't matter that ratings suffered when they weren't in there, because they always were. In the rare case where one of those players wasn't around come June, the NBA did a better job of marketing the Bad Boys or whatever other team was around. The NBA has failed to market the teams this go around, and it's hurting their bottom line.
So what's the solution? How can the NBA get its mojo back with the casual sports fan? It should take a lead from Major League Baseball. For the past two postseasons, baseball has posted record ratings. And as great as individual players like Manny Ramirez and Derek Jeter have been, and as potentially marketable as young stars like Mark Prior or Dontrelle Willis are, it didn't matter what was on the back of their jerseys. Depending on which uniform they're wearing, they might not even get their names on there — they're just another number. But the name on the back of the jerseys didn't matter. What mattered was the name on the front.
MLB sold the fans of America on the chance to watch the Cubs and Red Sox fight to win their first World Series crowns in generations. They sold them on the chance to watch a young underdog Marlins team with a crusty old manager battle the Evil Empire itself, the Yankees. They watched one of the greatest rivalries in the game between New York and Boston become a little less one-sided. It wouldn't have mattered if replacement players were in those uniforms — they were sold on the teams, not the players.
The NBA failed this year, and they paid for it in the ratings and all of the potential marketing nightmares that come with a Finals series down drastically in the ratings without Shaq and Kobe. The league failed to capitalize on the potential Duncan Dynasty in San Antonio, or the story of the Pistons being underdogs in an effort to defend their championship belts. They even had the opportunity to steal the script from the NFL, which is bouncing from the boon of the Patriot dynasty. Stern and the rest of his team up in New York failed to do so. And it's going to hurt them right where they'll notice it the most — in the wallet.
The NBA garnered some positive publicity through its ability to avoid a harmful lockout. What the league needs to do now is refocus its energy on marketing the sport and the team, and not five or 10 guys who can alternate bright smiles and thuggish scowls. Take a lead from the other leagues and promote the name on the front, not on the back. It might pay dividends down the road.
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