Gilbert Arenas and JJ Reddikk debate the NBAs future after Lebron and Curry retire

[nightwing2016]

I think the midseason tournament is Silvers plan to change the marketing to what you discussed. More team breakdowns, push rivalries, etc. The only flaw is the fans are so heavy into “championship or nothing” for judging a team/players. I don't think fans will care.

I honestly think the mid season tournament is a mistake. Once someone gets injured in it that is going to get mixed with a quickness. Really a mid season tournament should be used to promote the g league and the talent there with the teams using players that never play as a showcase. The nba just needs to pivot and take the lumps that is going to come with that pivot. They should also put a team in Seattle.

 

[nightwing2016]

It’s not because football is in the DNA of the country and not because the NBA promotes stars only.

The NBA, before 1980 was comfortably behind MLB and was closer to the NHL in popularity And revenue.

Obviously it’s not that way anymore.

The NBA’s most popular periods are defined by the best player being on the most dominant team.

MJ was revolutionizing the nba before the bulls was a dynasty, the nba has always been at its best when the product was good in many markets and people all over the country can engage with it. The reason people talk about the eighties and early nineties before the expansion really begin was because you had good to great teams across the country

 

[mastermind]

MJ was revolutionizing the nba before the bulls was a dynasty, the nba has always been at its best when the product was good in many markets and people all over the country can engage with it. The reason people talk about the eighties and early nineties before the expansion really begin was because you had good to great teams across the country

The story of the 80s was Bird vs Magic.

Jordan was great, but those two and those teams captured the country.

And the NBA of the 70s had 7 different champions and I think 15 different finals participants and that decade was seen as a nadir.

The 80, less finals participants and some truly awful teams made the playoffs and that’s the golden decade.

 

[Javed]

Fans are going to needs more players to root against. Jokic and Giannis are great players and fun to watch but if the causal fan isn’t a Nuggets/Bucks fan they're probably not tuning in.

 

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

It'll be interesting to see the culture shift once foreign players take majority hold of the star market. Globally, it'll still be the same, but I don't know how it'll fare in this country.

Soon it'll be the first time the NBA ever goes through a phase where its biggest stars will be foreigners.

 

[threattonature]

Larry Bird was damn near autistic and was one of the biggest stars. I think Jokic can be marketed in that lane of only caring about basketball. He's already getting that "he's not like the others" type hype. If he gets the title I think he can become a huge star for bringing in more white people. Plus like Bird he does have the game to back it up, just missing the team success up to this point.

 

[Shadow King]

The NBA has always been thrived when a)there was an active dynasty/ies; and b)always thrived with the Lakers and Celtics in the news...

There will be another dynasty coming soon, there always is. Maybe it's Denver, maybe it's someone else. But there'll be another one soon. Dynasties ramp up engagement for folk rooting against them, and folk rooting for them drawing more bandwagon fans and haters alike...

So that part will take care of itself. San Antonio was an offbrand market that turned into a dynasty. The market don't really matter if there's a dynasty that increases engagement. Denver isn't even a small market nor an offbrand location, it's the biggest city in the country between East Texas and Phoenix, that's a wide swath of land, coverage, people. I've seen Broncos fans in Idaho and both northern and southern Utah. No one thinks Denver is some offbrand market the way these dudes talking in the video ...

The five smallest NBA cities are, in order, New Orleans, Salt Lake, Memphis, Oklahoma City, and Milwaukee. The NBA will be fine if a dynasty emerged from one of them. Dynasties have always carried this league, and another dynasty is coming soon enough...

The other part that many brothers hit on, is the NBA shyts on its teams as far as marketing. It's always been too Laker and Celtic reliant. The Knicks and Sixers get decent coverage even when bad, I guess so do the Texas squads over the last half-decade. Miami is actually under-marketed, given they've been the premier East team for a quarter century AND are in major market. The League has to decentralize its coverage of being so dependent on Boston and the Lakers...

Denver isn't small but it still falls outside of the monster metros that draw the most attention.

 

[Heavy_Handz]

The league always rolls on when stars retire. If MJ is the most recognizable superstar NBA player in history who helped transform the way that fans view the NBA forever after then who is going to depart now that is going to send the League into a deep depression?

 

[HoldThisL]

Nikka said Jokic shoes .

For real though, Gil is right. The NBA is superstar/big-market team centric.

 

[ISO]

I’m looking forward to it tbh maybe now the discourse around the league will change

 

[Apollo Creed]

It’s a good question. There isn’t a person for casual fans to give a fukk about yet Jokic, Luka, Embiid, and Giannis (even Wemby eventually) aren’t playing on the most popular teams and honestly aren’t charismatic due to the fact they aren’t native players. Accents and even personalities aren’t easy to promote. Ja messed up his brand, Zion stays fat.

The only way this changes is a player leads their teams to win a few championships and casual fans start wanting to watch excellence. 1 win isn’t enough.

Flipside this could be all part of Silvers goal for parity, he’s been pushing it and maybe team rivalries will become a big draw.

I think Silver wants the NBA to be like the MLS. I don't think Messi or Ronaldo are known for their social skills but more so just being good as hell and rich as hell. I could be wrong though

 

[ISO]

NBA doesn’t market markets they market stars

Cleveland and Oklahoma City were draws

San Antonio was a dynasty

NBA’s big markets and classic franchises haven’t done shyt for the most part in a long time

 

[Fresh]

The league will be fine. There's always someone to fill the vacuum.

real post


some people really need to calm down
I mean shyt I learned my lesson after Jordan retired and eventually...another SG(Kobe) does a great job of carrying the torch, then you have Bron and Steph, there is someone either lurking in the shadows or on the way to be the star or costar of the NBA


also, I actually don't mind a different team winning the championship every year, imo it's fun because it's unpredictable

 

[Gritsngravy]

It’s dudes getting drafted every year, and they mostly domestic
If anything we might be getting a golden age soon, we already got a couple of foreigners playing great, its a couple of Americans who are playing great and some got potential to take the next step
Last three drafts for instance, Cade, jalen, mobely, Barnes, davion Mitchell, paolo, Chet, Jabari, Ivey, sharpe, jalen Williams, jalen Duran, walker kessler
It’s a lot of talent with a lot of potential in the league, can these front offices and coaches groom these dudes?

 

[Stick Up Kid]

NBA does have a superstar problem, been saying that for a couple of years.
There was always a smooth transition dating back to the 80s in the NBA

When Magic/Bird fell off, they gave it to Jordan, then to Kobe,Iverson,Shaq, then to LeBron,Steph, KD..

There's too many foreign and boring "superstars" in the NBA that dont move the needle.... nobody is gonna rush home to watch Jason Tatum... there's not gonna be any stan wars on social media between Embiid and Giannis stans