You are correct only for people who like basketball. For people like us, it is true that it really doesn't matter what the players wear off the court. We watch them because they play good basketball. But that is not true for those middle class people who only watch basketball once a year maybe during the championship series or when their companies give them tickets. If the NBA is perceived as thuggish, it will turn these people away because they have many other entertainment options. I am no marketing expert. But what I know is that marketing's two main goal is to solidify the hardcore customer base (the fans), and to lure the interest of the indifferent people (the middle-upper class people who don't care much about sports). Dressing more professional will not turn away the real fans, urban or not. (That's why Bell's comment, while not as dumb as GOAT makes it, is wrong.) Dressing unprofessional, however, will turn away the indifferent people. Stern is not stupid.
What you still don't get is that you don't market to or appeal to big business. You market to people. Big business comes in if there are fans - period. No amount of marketing is going to attract them. It's purely a numbers thing for big business. If there are fans with revenue potential, they will advertise. If not, they won't. Except for a specific subsegment of companies, these images aren't concerned with image. Certainly the types that do sports-related marketing are not, whether it be basketball, football, or baseball. So the question is how do you best grow your fan base? Bell has a valid argument that the youth market loves the current style and they may be miscalculating by taking the style out of those players. Now, if the NBA wants to market to a different segment, that's fine. But "business" as you keep arguing is not that segment, and whether dressing in suits will fix the problem (as opposed to the sluggish style of play for the last decade) remains to be seen.
Hey Raja Bell. Most of us with jobs playing less than 10% of your salary have to wear slacks & nice shirts & ties & even sports coats to work too. Get over it. Hey maybe the NBA will be like my office and if you chip in a $5 donation to support breast cancer research every few months, you get to wear jeans that Friday.
I will once again ask this question to all of you who are in favor of this dress code and are calling Raja Bell stupid for having a valid argument: Do you know anyone who has chosen not to watch the NBA because of the way players dress in interviews? Let me follow that up with a sub-question: If so, have they realized that they're the world's dumbest people and not Raja Bell? Seriously, I watch basketball because I love the game and the competition. The second I even remotely care about what a player is wearing off the court, remind me to check to see if I still have a sack and then immediately call Time Warner to get the Lifetime Movie channel, because I'm a woman.
Yes, my wife. No, she is not dumber than Raja Bell. Read my post above. I think Stern is not concerned about the hardcore fans like you and me. He's concerned about people like my wife, who also have the power to tell their kids not to watch the NBA if they think the NBA culture is having a bad influence to kids.
Making A.I. not have his jewelry out before the game is going to make your wife watch the NBA? You may get 5 seconds of tv coverage of AI walking in wearing dress shoes now. I really can't imagine people that wouldn't watch before now watching. A.I. dressing more white collar isn't going to change his personality or attitude either. He would've ranted about practice regardless if he was wearing a polo. This rule is nothing but a nuisance on the players and another example of Stern acting as judge, jury and executioner. BTW your wife trying to restrict your kids from watching the NBA might actually make them more likely to watch it.
Kids turn off the TV. The guy who talks about practice is very dangerous because he has tattoos and he wears his hat backwards. He's the boogeyman. Don't turn on the TV until he wears a suit.
It's not about AI or anyone. It's not just the 5 seconds of TV. It's the whole image the NBA projects in the long term, long after AI has retired. The league wants to move away from that image. Why do you think car salesmen wear suits? It makes the cars better? No, it's all about image. BTW, I don't agree with the jewelry part of the rule either. I guess it just doesn't look good with professional outfits? It's the fights, the gangster image, the attitude of disrespect etc. that some parents are worried about. Parents know that kids model after their heros. If they think that the "heros" aren't good models for their kids, they will try to steer the kids away from them. Why do you think the league came down so hard on Ron Artest? Stern is not stupid. Some of you think he's a dumb tyrant out to torture the players just because he can. I mean, I don't even like Stern. I can't believe I am defending him. But this thread is about Bell's comment on marketing the NBA. I think the dress code makes marketing sense.
