Soap opera good for NBA
Drama tiresome, but lucrative
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The NBA gathered their legion of famous people here last night to play some basketball, but there was so much more going on.
The All-Star Game, in particular, is barely about the heart of hoop, which, in its truest form, is competition. And that’s perfectly fine, because, as the weekend’s festivities and endless sponsorships and product tie-ins bear testament, this is a business.
And the NBA does it very well.
So do you.
The synergy between the players, league and fan interaction through social media and other outlets has come into even greater light with all the drama surrounding possible player movement. And while the players may rail against the speculation that surrounds them and see it as a hideous distraction, the league knows it’s true, as well, that it’s helped make them wealthy.
NBA fans have embraced all this like followers of no other sport. (The NFL is bigger as an entity, but the NBA’s players reap greater individual takes through signature sneakers and international endorsements.) And the fans largely leave the writers out of it at times, going back and forth among themselves on Twitter and the like. Where should Anthony Davis wind up? While the Pelicans field offers after the season, the civilians will get to play along.
And it’s that kind of engagement that has driven the league to its greatest financial heights. As much as purists may love the game’s intricacies, stardom is what attracts more dollars. At some point, we all have to admit this. Whether it’s stories about players in traditional media, the players reaching out through their own social accounts or simply fan sites developing communities of their own, the end product is fame. And fame is money. Corporations want famous people endorsing their products. People tune in to watch people that other people are talking about in the classroom or workplace.
In a day and age when more Americans can likely name all the Kardashians than their congressperson, it is big business.
Kyrie Irving didn’t seem happy with this when he spoke with writers in New York 2½ weeks ago in the wake of the Davis trade demand.
“Obviously this has become like an entertainment thing for everybody, so, you know, somebody else is asking for a trade, and I’m thrown into that, and uncertainty comes back on me,” he said. “And at the end of the day, like, I don’t live in this little hub.”
Respectfully, he does. While it’s best for him and the Celtics if he avoids the noise, it nonetheless benefits him because player salaries are based on a percentage of defined revenues. When Kevin Durant turned his anger about one story speculating on his future plans into a postgame rant you’ve seen countless times by now, his coach took it as frustration getting the better of him in that moment. But Steve Kerr went on to point out the bigger picture.
“Maybe there’s more because of the movement at the top of the star players that we’ve seen in the last few years,” said the Warriors’ leader. “But more than anything, this is the modern NBA. There’s so much interest in things that go way beyond the basketball court. It used to be pretty much you just had to talk about basketball.
“We’re all actors in a soap opera. We really are. So we have to deal with that part of it and also understand that that’s a big part of the revenue stream — you know, the intense interest and passion that fans have for who’s going where, what team’s doing what. It’d be nice if everyone could just pay attention to pick-and-roll coverage, but gossip is more interesting sometimes, and we’re all part of that. So you just accept it and deal with it the best you can, and you keep moving forward.”
Kerr expanded on his comments in a radio interview, saying, “It’s part of the deal. As I talk about with our team every year, it’s part of the gig. This is what we sign up for. And, yes, we all get paid for our either coaching ability or playing ability, but we also get paid to be part of the soap opera and the machine, whatever you want to call it — the beast.
“And all the revenue that generates the salary cap, you know, it doesn’t all come from ticket sales. It comes from media rights and all kinds of financial streams that are based on people’s intense interest in the league.”
None of this is meant to defend shoddy — or absent — reporting by those who write or speak about the game for a living, and both players and fans are right to call out offenders. What we’re doing is simply recognizing what’s grown from all this and how it’s seemed to be done more and better around the NBA.
Don’t believe it? Just take note of how little you’ve heard about Bryce Harper and Manny Machado, free agents now, relative to all the talk about what Davis, Durant, Irving and others will do several months hence.