Hot Stove League infiltrates NBA Finals
Back when baseball was king, the NFL was a niche sport and the NBA wasn’t even a gleam in Red Auerbach’s eye, the Hot Stove League got American sports fans through the winter.
Boxing and horse racing also jockeyed for status as America’s pastimes, but neither prompted animated discussion in the offseason like baseball. The Hot Stove imagery stems from fans gathered around a general store’s pot-bellied stove, talking about favorite teams and players.
The imagery was gone by about World War II. America became less rural. In the cities, there were multiple newspapers writing about baseball, and occasional radio reports, and eventually television. Soon enough, baseball was sharing the stage with football and basketball, both of which played games when baseball went dormant.
But the Hot Stove concept lives on. Fans dwell more than ever on players and teams in the offseason. Talk radio. The internet. Social media. The access and the outlet for information and opinion have mushroomed.
The NFL, particularly with its draft, has fashioned itself into a 12-month enterprise. The NBA, particularly with its free agency, is doing the same.
Where will LeBron go? What will Paul George do? Will Kawhi Leonard be traded? The speculation is ceaseless. Timeless franchises like the Lakers, Celtics and 76ers are involved.
This is Hot Stove on steroids. A century ago sitting around the mercantile, player movement was restricted. Only teams determined players’ locale. Free agency was decades away.
An occasional blockbuster trade would spice the winter. Rogers Hornsby for Frankie Frisch. Tris Speaker for Sam Jones. Babe Ruth for cash.
But mostly, hot stovers would debate players — Walter Johnson or Christy Mathewson, Jimmie Foxx or Hank Greenberg, Ty Cobb or Honus Wagner? Or team potential. Is this the Dodgers’ year? Can the Athletics beat the Yankees?
Now, with constant player movement, the discussion is multilayered, especially in the NBA. Who’s moving and where are they going and how will they get there?
And now comes a new wrinkle in the Hot Stove evolution. This is no longer an offseason endeavor. It’s around-the-calendar. It’s in October, when the season is fresh. It’s in January, when the season matures. It’s in April, when the playoffs loom. It’s in June, when the playoffs climax.
In fact, the Hot Stove concept has jumped the shark. There was more excitement, more debate, more opinion, about what would happen after the NBA Finals than what would happen in the NBA Finals, and that was during the NBA Finals.
That’s not good. When the World Series reigned, no one at the gathering place was worried about the offseason. They were concerned with GiantsYankees, Pirates-Senators, A’s-Cubs.
Compare that to last week. The four NBA Finals games ignited no juice. They were mere intermissions for the real business of talking thickly about LeBron’s future. Or the Lakers’ rebuild. Or what the Rockets could do to challenge the Warriors.
Think about that. More focus on what teams could do in the offseason to challenge Golden State than focus on what the Cavaliers could do in this series to challenge Golden State.
Is that problematic for the NBA? The Finals still ruled the television ratings. Last week, Game 3 and Game 4 ranked 1-2 in the Nielsen ratings, with 17.94 million and 16.24 million viewers, respectively. But live sports are about television’s only draw anymore. Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals was the sixth-most watched show last week, with 6.6 million viewers.
Those NBA ratings are slightly up from recent years, though not as strong as the Michael Jordan glory days. But the Warriors’ four-game sweep gave ABC fewer chances to recoup the money from its massive investment.
Dynasties generally are good for league business. They’re not good for individual franchise business, but overall league business, the Warriors’ stocked roster hasn’t harmed the NBA’s bottom line.
Yet when the NBA’s ultimate competition, the championship series, becomes a virtual sideshow, that’s not good. When league chatter centers more on the future than the present, something has gone askew. The long-term ramifications could be huge.
If the NBA Finals fall in luster, the bottom line will be impacted. NBA executives have to be thrilled that their offseason commands such drama. But they also have to be wary when the Hot Stove sets up at mid-court of the NBA Finals.