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Most people who celebrate the holiday like to dream of a White Christmas. In the NBA, the color of choice, come Sunday’s 2011 Tip Off, is definitely Green.
From National Basketball Players Association Commissioner Billy Hunter’s $1 million bonus for shepherding his flock through a tense work stoppage to Chicago Bull Derrick Rose’s five-year, $94.8 million contract extension, and on to the NBA’s slew of new league-level marketing deals, it’s beginning to look a lot like the five-month NBA lockout was just a stutter-step on the road to ever-expanding basketball riches.
In the short term, NBA fans are looking forward to a slate of five marquee matchups on Christmas Day, as well as game-changing roster realignments at the Los Angeles Clippers and New York Knicks (also playing in a newly renovated Madison Square Garden), among other teams. In the long term, NBA Commissioner David Stern and his staff are focused on continued labor stability and expanding their digital and global footprint.
Let there be hoops on earth.
As if the entire NBA lockout wasn’t controversial enough, players and fans in key NBA markets were reeling as the league formally opened its shortened training camps last Friday. NBA Commissioner David Stern nixed a three-team trade that would have sent New Orleans Hornets guard Chris Paul to the Los Angeles Lakers and moved Lakers power forward Pau Gasol to the Houston Rockets, among other roster changes.
Stern killed the deal after several owners complained that, in their view, the new collective bargaining agreement that was supposed to stop big-market teams from plundering small-market teams for star free agents didn’t seem effective. The move was also perceived as a power grab by Stern, who—after LeBron James’s and Chris Bosh’s migration to Miami last season, as well as Carmelo Anthony’s move to New York—had made it clear that he didn’t like players dictating where they wanted to go. Insiders maintain he wasn’t going to let Paul do it.
Players expressed their displeasure with Stern’s veto via Twitter and other channels. The atmosphere was a little cold, even for December, at practice courts in Houston, New Orleans, and L.A.
A compressed schedule also has many players and coaches griping. Some NBA teams will be forced to play on three consecutive nights, while some teams will play five games in six nights. The last time NBA teams had to endure such a grind was in 1999—the league’s last lockout-shortened season.
On the spectator side, as training camps opened, a study released last week by Scarborough Sports Marketing examines the fans and cities that should be most excited about the NBA’s return. “With the league coming back, advertisers and sponsors regain their ability to interact with millions of Americans who love the sport,” said Bill Nielsen, vice-president, Scarborough Sports Marketing. “Similarly, the draw of NBA events and the enthusiasm surrounding the teams is imperative to the economic growth of the local markets in terms of bars, restaurants, and arenas.”
Avid NBA Fans make up 9 percent (22 million) of all American adults aged 18 and up. (Scarborough defines “avid fans” as American adults who say they are “very interested” in a given sport.)
According to the study, the top three local markets for Avid NBA Fans are cities in which the NBA is the only major professional league in town: San Antonio (26 percent), Memphis (19 percent), and Salt Lake City (18 percent). Similarly, five of the top seven local markets are home to teams that made the NBA Playoffs last year.
