ESPN: NBA Player's Performance Overseas Already Damaging NBA Brand

[Euroleague]

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop


By Henry Abbott
ESPN.com
Archive

Damage to the NBA brand

A couple days ago on Twitter, David Thorpe asked: "How's it gonna look when NBA players playing overseas get sent home because they are just not worth what they were being paid?"

Since then, DeJuan Blair -- a starter on one of the league's best teams in San Antonio -- was let go by his Russian team.

It's not that Blair didn't play well. His numbers were solid. It's also not that he has a big attitude -- quite the opposite.

The problem appears to have been simply that they could get similar production for less from any number of other players. He was good, but the amount they paid him, in that league, is reserved for greatness.

Thorpe has long maintained that the very best NBA players are in a class by themselves. No other league in the world has players like Dwyane Wade and LeBron James. But after those top stars, whether that's 30 or 40 players, he says it's very hard to tell anyone apart. The non-star NBA players, he says, are interchangeable with professionals all over the globe, which he sees in his own gym every summer, where, for instance, Italian Serie A starters hang comfortably with NBA rotation players.

Meanwhile, consider soccer's English Premiership, which includes some of the most valuable global sports franchises like Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool. Strictly because that league, and those teams, are seen as the best in the world, they are well-positioned to become not just England's favorite teams, but the world's favorite teams. They don't just play London, they play New York and Tokyo, too -- and when they get there they find fans wearing their players' jerseys and chanting their team chants.

Those teams pay like crazy for the most expensive talent in the world, and that talent gives them a shot at developing lucrative global audiences.

The NBA has a similar opportunity. Will sports fans in China, India and Brazil insist on NBA basketball on their televisions? Will they buy expensive official NBA merchandise?

If they are convinced it's far and away the best basketball league in the world they will. But the perception that the NBA is in a class by itself ... it's damaged just a little in Russia today when Blair is sent packing. And it's entirely possible that we'll see more of the same in other countries, which could hurt the NBA's ability to present itself as head-and-shoulders above the rest of the globe.

[Miserio]

[KokeAyne]

Meanwhile, consider soccer's English Premiership, which includes some of the most valuable global sports franchises like Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool. Strictly because that league, and those teams, are seen as the best in the world, they are well-positioned to become not just England's favorite teams, but the world's favorite teams. They don't just play London, they play New York and Tokyo, too -- and when they get there they find fans wearing their players' jerseys and chanting their team chants.

This is not a good comparison.

[Euroleague]

[Miserio]

He's 1 million times better than 2 times MVP Anthony Parker that's for sure.

[Hondo]

I agree with you on that one. There's no way Steve Francis II deserved MVP. It belonged to Wade, James, Howard or Durant.

[Go Getter]

I agree with you on that one. There's no way Steve Francis II deserved MVP. It belonged to Wade, James, Howard or Durant.

62 wins says you're off point.

[Euroleague]

He's 1 million times better than 2 times MVP Anthony Parker that's for sure.

He was absolutely awful throughout the entire NBA playoffs. If he is the MVP of the NBA, then the NBA is a joke.

[Euroleague]

I agree with you on that one. There's no way Steve Francis II deserved MVP. It belonged to Wade, James, Howard or Durant.

Yeah, he has to be the worst MVP in history.

[Go Getter]

He was absolutely awful throughout the entire NBA playoffs. If he is the MVP of the NBA, then the NBA is a joke.

Too bad the MVP is a regular season award you moron

[Go Getter]

I have to be the worst ISH poster in history.

agreed.

[Miserio]

He was absolutely awful throughout the entire NBA playoffs. If he is the MVP of the NBA, then the NBA is a joke.

Your post didn't have anything to do with what I post. I said he's 1 million times better than 2 TIMES MVP ANTHONY PARKER. What can you say about that?

[chains5000]

I wouldn't have given the award to Rose, but it's not like he was the worst choice.
The playoffs don't matter.

[Euroleague]

Too bad the MVP is a regular season award you moron

You mean like how people here call Sabonis Euroleague MVP, even though the actual season MVP award did not even exist then.......

Whatever.

You mean like how people already tried to derail this thread with Parker.....winning an award that the fans vote online for and that the voters of the media have to pick based on TEAM play and not individual play?

[chains5000]

Your post didn't have anything to do with what I post. I said he's 1 million times better than 2 TIMES MVP ANTHONY PARKER. What can you say about that?

It could be said Parker's game is better suited for FIBA ball, where Rose could have problems considering his weak shot.
Of course, nobody can prove this, so why bother?