Back in July, the NBA seemed to have struck gold, as LeBron James — the most famous athlete in North America and maybe the world — joined the league’s premier franchise in the entertainment capital of the world at or near the peak of his powers. The NBA should have retweeted the news with a money bag emoji.
Alas. The Lakers’ post-Kobe malaise was stronger than an aging LeBron’s ability to extract L.A. from mediocrity. L.A. fell out of the playoff race in February and found itself eliminated in March.
Not only is the NBA left with a moribund Lakers franchise, but for the first time in a long time, the league will have a postseason without its bigger star.
To be sure, this is an absolute disaster for the league, the Lakers, and LeBron.
James, for his part, came to L.A. to give his young family everything they desired and to build his second act as an entertainment mogul. Space Jam 2 is coming. LeBron’s Spring Hill Entertainment is producing projects left and right. Bronny James will possibly be the most famous high school player since his dad.
But L.A. was also about returning glory to a storied, but broken franchise. It was about growing James’ personal legend in an already legendary jersey, joining the pantheon of Mikan, Baylor, West, Kareem, Magic, Van Exel, Shaq, and, yes, Kobe. It was about bashing up against the Warriors from another angle, maybe with another star partner.
It wasn’t about winning 35 games and being on a beach by Easter.
LeBron’s status as a Lakers legend is currently somewhere between Karl Malone and Gary Payton. This is a nightmare.
No one needs to explain why this is such a dark twist for the Lakers, who can’t seem to climb out of a pit of their own making. They finally recruited a major free agent — the biggest free agent of all! — and this is the result. It’s like saving up for years to afford a new car and smashing it on the way home. What an incredible letdown.
As for the NBA, not only did it not get to see the full potential of a star as bright as LeBron under lights as bright as they are for the Lakers in L.A, but the league now doesn’t even get its biggest star in the playoffs at all. The Eastern Conference playoffs haven’t always been super compelling in the past decade and a half, but the league could always sell fans and casual viewers on the presence of LeBron. Just watch, and you could be a witness to something glorious.
That promise will be unfulfilled this spring.
In fact, if the ratings go sour through the playoffs, this could show the NBA the perils of relying on one star for so much. It shouldn’t be lost on anyone that this league suffered mightily when Michael Jordan retired for the second time after the 1997-98 season. So much of the league’s success in the ‘90s was wrapped up in Jordan and the Bulls’ dominance. When that ended, the league (and the one shoe company so heavily intertwined with the league, Jordan, and, not coincidentally, LeBron) didn’t really have a quick pivot in their arsenal.
The NBA has other exciting superstars to put on a pedestal. Many of those exciting superstars will be in the playoffs. Perhaps this postseason without LeBron can be — instead of a drag on profits — an opportunity to continue to build up the next LeBrons.
Giannis Antetokounmpo, given his incredible talent, shocking physicality, and golden personality, seems to be the obvious successor for LeBron’s Golden Boy of the NBA title. Giannis plays for the East’s top-seeded Bucks, a team without a ton of recent success, but one with a fairly storied history in the earlier decades of the league. Antetokounmpo has a global fan base, and he’s much like LeBron in the sense that he has captured the hearts of the casual fans who experience him as well as the hardcore basketball fanatics. Like LeBron, Giannis is for everyone (except the haters in Boston or Philly).
The NBA put Giannis and the Bucks on Christmas Day ... in the noon game against the Knicks.
If Giannis is the next LeBron in a marketing sense, the league needs to make marketing him a bigger priority. That can start now in the LeBron vacuum, with the Bucks looking like a legit NBA Finals threat and Giannis potentially winning MVP. Assuming the Bucks don’t exit early, this postseason should be all about making sure every kid in this country moderately interested in basketball spends the entire summer emulating Giannis on the court and asks for an Antetokounmpo jersey and his shoes (the Nike Freak 1s reportedly hit this summer) for their next birthday.
Zion Williamson, of course, will be a huge opportunity for post-LeBron marketing largess. Luka Doncic, Trae Young, a redeemed and post-burner Kevin Durant, James Harden, Kyrie Irving, Ben Simmons, Donovan Mitchell, the young and smiley Kings, Joel Embiid, the leftover Warriors, maybe someday Anthony Davis, maybe someday Karl-Anthony Towns — there are options. But the NBA and Nike need to start investing in the players to get anything of them in a position to capitalize on true global fame when the opportunity strikes.
Otherwise, I suppose we’ll all just wait for Bronny.
https://www.sbnation.com/2019/4/8/18299012/nba-playoffs-2019-no-lebron-james-lakers
2019-04-08 14:00:00Z
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