Interesting article about the NBA marketing and Jordan

Nike pushed the tactic first, Stern just ran with it.

 

The biggest problem with the NBA isn't the star system. The refs, the long seasons, over expansion and dilution of talent, etc..... somehow MJ is to blame for all of that?

I think MJ made the league a success beyond their wildest dreams. The owners and Stern grew complacent because of their success. They have grown stubborn with the success that MJ has brought and the product has suffered.

As far as players being more selfish because of MJ? that's just total BS, there were plenty of ball hogs before Jordan came along. You're telling me Kobe would have been Magic Johnson if he never heard of Jordan? Please, some people are born with a alpha dog mentality/hero complex.

 

Jordan was the greatest.


Goofy article.


Obviously he could not guard Wilt in the post. What a stupid thing to say...

 

I just love that advertisement.

 

I see that the Nike marketing worked perfectly...

 

Great journalistic ability

 

Those were the glory days of the NBA. It seemed they could do no wrong. The personalities on the court, with their "grudge matches" drove the league to people who didn't care about the game, otherwise. You knew the stars of each team, and each had his own persona. You tuned in to root for your guys and to root against the guys you really didn't like.

Then those guys retired....and there was not the next set of interesting personalities to market. Ratings plummeted. The product they were selling had fundamentally changed...it was still basketball, but for a good period of time, the NBA was selling personalities who happened to be playing basketball.

This article is about 10 years late.

 

I actually agree with this article. The glorification of individuals is at an all time high.

It's still a common trait to this day. It's rarely the Lakers against the Cavs, but Kobe against LeBron or Yao against Howard or Howard against Shaq or any other combination you can think of.

No one really embraces the concept of team basketball anymore. It's always the star and his supporting cast. Without that one guy, the NBA suffers. It was clearly evident a few years back when the Spurs and the Pistons met in the finals.

The NBA has spent has put forth so much time and effort into glorifying individuals that when a well rounded team without the guy (Spurs-Pistons of 2005, for example), the NBA loses.

 

I actually said the almost exact same thing in the past. The marketing of individual players has made basketball star-centered rather then team-centered. The whole "T-Mac never got out of the first round" thing, as if winning is an individual achievement rather than a team achievement, is a testimony of this kind of mentality.

In a way, Jordan was a big part in turning basketball into that direction. It is not his fault that he was so amazingly entertaining to watch. It mainly the marketing. But he did coin the term "supporting cast" to describe his teammates. In his mind, and many post-Jordan fans mind, role players are there to help the superstar (rather than the team) win.

You can look at how the younger posters (people who got to know basketball after Jordan's emergence) here react to an article like this and know exactly why this is so true.

 

Ehhh .

IMO, this is both a good thing and a bad thing. The only problem I really see in the NBA is that there isn't enough white NBA players in the NBA.

One you see a white superstar in this league, you have lots of the Caucasian demo watching the NBA.

 

Then who is better than Micheal Jordan?

It isn't just marketing, you can see it even today.

Kobe, LeBron, Wade, Howard are all one helluva players. You can't name one player better than those can you? So there's a reason why those players are advertised.

It isn't just advertising, Micheal did so much for basketball like 2Pac did for hip-hop for example.

Everybody wants to be like Mike, you know? It just goes with it...

 

Exactly.

For better or for worse, Nike and to a lesser extent Gatorade are responsible for the Jordan-fueled success of the NBA during the 80's and 90's. Stern gets so much credit for saving the NBA when in reality he just to showed up at the right time. He also just happened to be smart enough (no big feat there) to realize what Nike was doing and got on the bandwagon. To this day I don't think a lot people realize how much those Nike ads changed the game or David Stern's career.

 

Bill Russell, Wilt, Kareem......

Michael Jordan could be the best. Maybe he's not. I'm just saying that basketball greatness does not begin and end with MJ. Many arguments can be made for other players as the greatest player of all time.

When I watch the old Bulls game clips, and I see the "Jordan rules" in action, it really makes me wonder how much better Jordan is than Kobe or Lebron or Wade. If Kobe gets the same calls as Jordan, I can see him winning 3 more championships and ending up with 7 championships (1 more than Jordan). Everyone saw how the refs gave Wade a championship in '06 by calling every tiny touch fouls on the Mavs. And even right now, we see Lebron getting those same calls and nearly advancing to the finals by himself.

MJ is a great player, no doubt. But the greatest? that's debatable.

 

While it is certainly debatable whether or not Jordan is the GOAT there is no rational argument for believing Kobe is as good as Jordan was. No matter what you look at or what adjustments are made for them playing in different era Jordan comes out far ahead in wins, stats, rings...you name it.

Jordan got calls alright. He also went to the basket with a fury that Kobe has never demonstrated. Jordan earned his calls by taking his lumps.

 

Wow brick wall of text article and yet fails to mention the the biggest culprit of them all.

Kids gather up cause its time for some history lesson.

This right here is responsible for changing the NBA forever.



Back in the 80's the NBA went nuts when Nike created these babies for Jordan. Stern was so anal about it that he banned Jordan from wearing them in a game. MJ never gave a rat's ass about Stern so he still wore them and got fined $5000.

Now the real point is Jordan by disobeying Stern and the league created this persona of rebellion against societal conformity which led to millions of kids eating up these kicks like crack. Jordan instantly became an icon of the counterculture and his 'Be Like Mike" phrase was the aspiration of millions of kids and teens. Style was established first and substance came later to vindicate the entire Jordan counterculture.

Today the NBA lacks anybody with the personality to capture the imagination of the fans and still have the talent and skills to deliver at the highest stage. Kobe. Lebron, Wade...all have some those charateristics but no one has truly created their own brand or persona to match what they can do on the court. Prime example of this was Kobe in Spike Lee's documentary which was uninspiring and flatout boring to watch. Each of these guys are trying too hard to imatate Jordan's style whether its the shoes, the moves, the swagger. Today's players are just trying to repackage the same stuff Jordan created in hope of flying it by unsuspecting fans.

The next great basketball legend has to do something new something different to connect with today's fans.