Halfway through the decade, the NBA has entered a state of turmoil. Despite a new, lucrative TV deal, questions remain about the long-term health of the league. Sagging viewership, uninterested fans and general lack of optimism have put the NBA in the crosshairs. But why? Why has a league that, even recently, felt important on a grand scale, fallen from the public attention? The answer isn't simple, but this series seeks to find it, and along the way attempt to identify some antidotes to the NBA's ailments. Read the first stories in the series here and here.
The NBA is a league built on personality and faces. What separates the NBA from its most commonly compared counterpart, the NFL, is that we, the fans, can see the faces of the players. In theory this should foster a connection between consumer and player, driving interest, and in turn, views and ratings. However, as NBA ratings continue to decline and lag (far) behind the NFL, something is abundantly clear: the NBA is fresh out of faces.
This isn’t to say that there aren’t still gifted or bankable players in the NBA. In fact I would argue that the NBA is more talented than ever and the league has plenty of high-profile, prominent stars. But, there is a disconnect between the most talented players and the most profitable players. The most popular players such as LeBron James, Steph Curry or Kevin Durant are no longer talented enough to break into the upper-echelon, yet the NBA is reluctant to move on from these aging legends.
Young fans who tune in to these games are connecting to older players instead of rising stars. The NBA is so worried about its ratings continuing to plummet that they are scared to not show the likes of James and Curry even as their abilities decline.
There are key elements that make up someone who can serve as the face of the league. Obviously, the most important ingredient in this stew is the level of talent; the face of the league can’t be the 30th best player. They also need to be entertaining on some level, whether that be their play style or personality (preferably both). They need to win games, not just in the regular season, but also the playoffs. Serious injuries and scandals must be avoided in order to be available and marketable. Typically, they must play for a big-market team. Lastly, history has shown that the face of the league should be American.
I understand that my last stipulation for superstardom seems weird, but I am simply going off the history of the NBA. Whether or not it is fair or right, doesn’t really matter. Throughout time (with few exceptions) international stars have struggled to connect with American audiences. As young American stars fail to check those boxes, as the league goes global, and international stars ascend, it’s time for the NBA to reexamine who the face of the league ought to be.
Consider this: the Golden State Warriors are among the league leaders in nationally televised games (excluding NBA TV games because of regional blackouts). They are a big-market team with one of the biggest stars of all time. Yet, does anyone believe that the Warriors (and by proxy, Steph Curry) really deserve to be on national television this often?
Sure, from a strictly financial sense, yes, the Warriors are a draw, but the NBA is hamstringing itself by doing so. Nationally televised games present an opportunity for young, up-and-coming talent to be elevated from League Pass purgatory.
There are plenty of budding stars yearning for the chance to be put on a grand stage. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has led the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 44-10 record thus far. Gilgeous-Alexander might win his first MVP this year, but does the average NBA fan know just how good Gilgeous-Alexander is? Would they believe him to be contemporaries with Jalen Brunson or Steph Curry? It’s plausible, and part of that could be due to the fact that Brunson and Curry both appear on national television far more Gilgeous-Alexander.
Again, I can’t ignore other factors such as market size, but in certain cases, the NBA should. Gilgeous-Alexander is on track to fill the sufficient boxes to be the face of the league. While he is not American, he is Canadian, which, for all intents and purposes, is close enough. The Thunder have 15 nationally televised games, just over half that of the Warriors’ 24. The NBA knew that the Thunder would be good heading into this season yet improperly rewarded them. The NBA is only hurting itself by pushing an inferior product to its audiences.
Of course, any conversation about the NBA’s future face is not complete without a mention of Victor Wembanyama. Wembanyama is the beacon on the horizon for the NBA — the prince that was promised, capable of enthralling the American masses despite his foreign heritage. I would argue that the biggest hurdle for international players is the language barrier, but Wembanyama has literally trained for this since he was a teen.
It also helps that Wembanyama looks different, that much goes without saying. A slenderman, he looks more like an Alberto Giacometti statue than an NBA player. Wembanyama does just about everything so effortlessly. No matter what he is doing, he makes it look easy.
His enlarged frame allows him to achieve on-court feats few NBA players would even dare. This makes Wembanyama the perfect player for the internet age as he turns routine actions into highlight plays (the number of NBA players who can go half the length of the court with one dribble is a very limited list).
Wembanyama also seems to be connecting to American fans in real ways. His drive and motor are apparent from interviews, his alien plays wow viewers, and the quirks in his personality are starting to show (chess in the park anyone?).
Wembanyama may only be in his second season, but he is undeniably one of the best players in the league. In a recent article for The Ringer, Kirk Goldsberry lays out several stats and graphs that depict Wembanyama’s rise but none more than his on/off numbers. When Wembanyama is on the court, the San Antonio Spurs are a top-10 team in net rating and a top-5 defense. When he’s off the court, the Spurs’ net plummets to No. 29 and the defense to No. 25.
Credit where credit is due, the NBA knows they have a special player on their hands and are at least doing something to promote him. It isn’t an accident that the Spurs are playing a pair of games in Paris against the Indiana Pacers. You would then think that Spurs would be playing in a healthy amount of nationally televised games to expose Wembanyama to a national audience.
Yet, this isn’t entirely true. While the Spurs may have more nationally televised games than plenty of other teams, they sit right around the league average. Which would normally be fine, but because Wembanyama is the future of the sport, he deserves more of the spotlight.
In the 2004-2005 season, LeBron James’ second in the league, the Cleveland Cavaliers appeared in 20 nationally televised games. They finished with a 42-40 record and missed out on the playoffs. Even though Cleveland was a middling team they were given a large, national platform because of James.
It’s been reported that Wembanyama, as a prospect, was seen on the same level that James was and has proved that to be fact thus far. But, the NBA is failing to treat Wembanyama as the all-time prospect that he is. If the NBA’s worry is that Wembanyama is not as much of a draw as older, more established stars, they would probably be correct, but Wembanyama cannot become that draw unless he is thrust into the public eye.
I’m not sure if I can make this clear enough: the NBA only has itself to blame for the predicament that it is in. Its general reluctance to let go of the previous generation and hesitance to shine the limelight on international stars has damaged the league. There is a path forward if the NBA has the resolve. It may mean sacrificing television ratings for a few years as they transition to this new era.
Perhaps, now that Luka Dončić is a Los Angeles Laker, his shiny, new stage will allow him to fill the void. He ticks many of those boxes so it’s realistic to think that he could take up the mantle. The NBA is as deep as it has ever been and there are stars on virtually every team. I’m positive that, given the opportunity, there are more than enough players to act as the face of the league. Guys like Wembanyama and Dončić and Wembanyama are ready and hungry. It’s on the NBA to uphold their end of the bargain.
