I have noticed the majority of sports talk conservation about the NBA revolves around the same few teams and/or players (Heat, Knicks, Lakers, Bulls, Celtics, and w/ the arrive a Durant, the Thunder). Most of the other teams are barely referenced unless there is a particular controversy that day or highlight reel to play. In the NFL a variety of teams and players are talked about constantly and analyzed. There are even shows dedicated to giving fans an inside look at coaches playbooks and game strategies and what kind of offense and defense to use. I can't remember the last time ESPN dedicated significant time to show a particular NBA team's playbook. Mostly, they ran clips of a dunk or a buzzer beater. How can a sport be popular if the media only talks about 20 percent of the teams?
NBA is the most star driven league... Lebron, Wade, Kobe, D-Rose, Dwight, Melo, and all the other stars will always dominate the headlines. Especially the ones in the biggest media markets.
National media coverage is that way with all sports not football. The NFL and college football to extent are just on an whole different level and honestly can't be legitimately compared to the NBA, MLB, NHL etc
I'm not so sure about that. Yes, Harden is a superstar, but he's not the right kind of superstar. I'm talkin the Lebron James, Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, Derrick Rose high flying super athletic superstars. Is it right? Hhheeelllll no, but is it the case, I'd say it is.
There was a time when baseball was basically dominated by the Yankees, and it didn't deter popularity around the country. Basketball came into prominence when it was marketed as Bird vs. Magic, Lakers vs Celtics followed by Jordan dominating everything. This may deter some local fans of crappy teams, but helps overall marketing.
This! In Europe no one give a **** about NFL, even american soccer more popular there lol I guess similar to other parts of the world..
Not globally. All those other leagues...NHL, NBA, even MLB has more global presence. NFL is king here in the states. I've always thought it should remain that way too.
I blame Michael Jordan (that man just said bad words). I do though. What he did for the NBA's ratings during the 90's cannot be recreated. Jordan was what everyone wanted to see. A 6'6" SG who could do it all. His vertical, dunking, shooting (shot was smooth and required his athleticism), clutch factor, and finishing abilities. It was so long ago that people are forgetting how great he was. Some people want to re-live his greatness and fill a certain void with something, so they try to compare him with LeBron or Kobe. He was respected by every official and he made (and missed) a lot of game winners. If he won that's great, if the Bulls were down then they were at the line (and he got there as easily as Harden did). Once he left he NBA ratings plummeted. Now you have an NBA that is trying to regain those ratings by using many star players (not just one star player). They don't want to make Kobe the next Jordan, because then they would lose a lot of ratings once he retires. Jordan had fans. The NBA wants NBA fans. Not Kobe or LeBron fans, but fans of the game (including the players). MJ >> Kobe >> LeBron >> whoever's next
Am sure you must have heard of Manchester United. But have you ever heard of Norwich City, Swansea, Fulham, etc...? That's your answer right there.
Yup, pretty much this. I imagine Harden will get the Kevin Love/Raptors Chris Bosh/Tony Parker type love. Everybody knows he's great, and everybody knows he's one of the best, but he won't be talked about at the level he should be talked about.
this guy is only talking about national media such as ESPN. Why would worldwide popularity be relevant?
Harden is a stat geek superstar. He might be the greatest stat geek superstar of all time, where the disparity between his contributions to his team as perceived by those who understand advanced metrics and by the casual fan are greatest.
Well popular or not. Jeremy Lin was the top searched athlete in google for 2012. And #7 for people searches (almost on par with One Direction). So I guess you can say that NBA is pretty popular in some ways. http://www.google.ca/zeitgeist/2012/#the-world/athletes
