people will give him an excuse like they did in cleveland. that he does not have help and deserves praise for coming to la and not taking the easy way out like durant forming another super team in a city like houston. rings sell shoes, but lets face it, he probably wasnt going to win anywhere he signed except maybe houston. if he didnt feel houston due to the weather, floods, harden, city. whatever, that is his choice.
to spend a number one draft pick and finally land a mega star only to have a shoe company pay him to sign in a bigger city kinda sucks and ruins the competitive balance of the nba. everyone can agree on this.
Eh...rather the league just get rid of max contracts and the salary cap and make it a free market. Let guys make what they are worth and you may be able to spread out the stars a bit instead of what we have now. Need to get rid of conferences too. Current imbalance is ridiculous. Finals would have been great if it was GSW and HOU this past year.
My heart says no, but my brain says there's no way to enforce that. However, the people saying "it's a free country" are being disingenuous. The NBA could do this as a business decision to improve parity - it has nothing to do with the USA being 'free'. However, unlike other sports (NHL, NFL come to mind) fans don't seem to care about parity in the NBA. They just love the individual players over the sport. So.... it's whatever.
It’s not hurting the league from a money perspective. However, it is hurting the league from an interest stand point. Majority of the people I know that are older than I am, have no interest in NBA basketball. The younger generation actually doesn’t even watch games. They just follow YouTube “experts” that tell them about it. If not for social media outlets the NBA would be in serious trouble.
I just wish the shoe companies wouldn't have made Paul George go to the glamour market of all glamour markets; Oklahoma City.
paul george already secured his shoe deal from his days in indiana. that state follows the pacers and they hold 7 million people. he is not lebron, who gets a shoe deal worth up to a B based on sales volume. or kawhi who is in such a small market he cant even land a shoe deal as a 2 time all star, champion, finals mvp, 2x defensive mvp, and a bunch of all nba first teams and defensive first teams.
Giannis is in a smaller market than San Antonio and in a god forsaken state compared to Texas. How come he got his huge shoe deal? Let's not blame San Antonio for Kawhi being a crypto b**** and outwards a complete bore than noone is interested buying anything he's selling.
i went to a bucks game this season just to see giannis. it was the only rockets game i went to. giannis is a freak and he is very marketable. bucks fans are also die hard fans who buy gear and support their team. each market and player is different. but after checking what his contract was worth around, he could have got more if he were in a major market. they locked him up while he was young and cheap, smart move.
I think you are mistaken. He just signed his shoe contract. I don't know how much it is but they say it is very rich and they will also create shoes. As for his nba contract, instead of smart they were stupid af. 4 years instead of 5 >_<
yes, i saw what it was worth based on rumors of $8 million annually with potential to be worth up to 10. i think he could have gotten a little more starting, say 12 if he played in la, ny or chicago, and maybe starting at 10-11 in houston. giannis is gonna sell based on the way he plays, people love his dunks and playmaking. someone like kawhi who is known for defense needs to play in a big market and always be on national tv games to be appreciated by the fans. for example, no one would know who draymond green is if he played for the kings.
i just wanted to add, the difference he could have made in his shoe deal is easily made up by his nba contract and his current team being able to give him the full max.
look up lebrons last contract and kawhi not being able to secure a shoe deal. lebrons contract is worth up to 1 billion dollars signed in 2016. there is a good chance a large portion of it is tied to sales while sitll relevant as an active nba player. they do this because it is a lifetime deal so they want him to play as many years as possible in the nba. it is based on sale volume. meaning the more he sells, the more money he gets. LA is the urban fashion capital in the US followed by NY. it is not hard to realize he will sell more shoes in NY vs in san antonio based on the teams following and city’s population.
Are we saying that Lebron going to LA has to do with his billion dollar Nike deal? Lakers have been absolute ass for the past like 5 years. If this was true, New York and LA would never miss the playoffs....
melo went to ny lebron went to la shoe companies pay top dollar for scoring superstars. just because the knicks front office is trash and melo doesnt play d has nothing to do with shoe companies paying stars more endorsements to play in major markets. kobe just retired and LA rarely misses the playoffs. blanket statements are too popular on the internet and social media. smarten up.
shoe companies are capable of influencing stars. it is apparant they can give or not give deals to players to sway them into playing for bigger markets. did i say every star? nope. giannis is a perfect example. but they pried lebron out of cleveland with that sweet deal and now they are gifting him kawhi because they dont want to do business with him if he plays in san antonio.
The problem is that it creates a serious competitive balance issue and can lead to collusion and tampering. If you don't regulate it at all, what would stop the Lakers from working with shoe companies directly? It's not pure free agency.
