Promotional mailings made to draw voters

It’s not that Mike Cristaldi thinks a trinket wins a vote.

But as the vice president of communications for the Charlotte Hornets – who have become famous around the NBA for the packages they send to media voters promoting players for awards – he figures it can’t hurt.

“I think the value is really to draw attention to the season that the player you’re promoting is having,” Cristaldi said.

That’s why Charlotte has, in recent years, promoted Al Jefferson for All-NBA with a “Big Al’s Paint” kit, including a paint can and color swatches designed to highlight Jefferson’s 2014 season for the then-Bobcats. And why a year later it produced a “Michael Kidd-Gilchrist Security” campaign – complete with yard signs – to promote the forward for the NBA All-Defensive team.

Other teams have made similar promotional pushes, including for MVP candidates.

In 2014, the Houston Rockets sent a James Harden-themed grooming kit to MVP voters, playing off the shooting guard’s trademark beard. It included beard balm and serum and a comb, and printed inside the box, a case for Harden as the MVP.

A year later, the Rockets sent a hardcover book that, when opened, revealed a screen and a Harden-forMVP-themed video. That same year, the New Orleans Pelicans mailed out plush dolls of star Anthony Davis to promote him for MVP.

The phenomenon isn’t new. Before Charlotte, Cirstaldi worked for the Minnesota Timberwolves, who at least twice produced promotional mailers for Kevin Garnett’s MVP candidacy. One year a mock Minnesota license plate went out to voters reading “KG4MVP” and highlighting Garnett’s statistics.

The Thunder didn’t send promotional materials for Kevin Durant’s MVP candidacy in 2014 and likely won’t for Westbrook, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t promoting him for the award.

The team has produced a series of videos starring Westbrook teammates Steven Adams and Enes Kanter discussing Westbrook’s greatest attributes. The videos end with Westbrook highlight reels set to fans chanting “M-V-P!”

There’s an argument that promotional materials don’t do much but collect dust in the desk drawers of voters. But if an eye-catching presentation draws a voter to read more about a player’s case – especially in what figures to be a tight MVP race – it could have some value.

“Most of the MVP candidates, (voters) know them, for sure…,” Cirstaldi said. “But at the end of the day, you want to try to get as much publicity around your guy as possible. That’s what you’re trying to do with a lot of that.”