Does a Globalized NBA Need Its Stars in Beijing?

The commissioner of the NBA, David Stern, has a dilemma on his hands. As commissioner — and in having a close ally in Val Ackerman, who runs USA Basketball and is a former commissioner of the WNBA — Stern probably would like to see America easily win the gold medal in basketball at the Beijing Olympics. It would be good for business, domestically. But Stern cannot get out in front and cheer the Americans on: It’s not a tidy move, considering that basketball consumers in Canada, Europe, South America, and China possibly would see Stern cheering only the Americans in the Olympics. Other countries have NBA players on their rosters, such as China’s Yao Ming, Spain’s Pau Gasol, and Argentina’s Manu Ginobili. Germany will feature Dirk Nowitzki, and Andrew Bogut will play for Australia.The Beijing Olympics will be just another stop for Stern and the NBA in what is now a year-round promotional tour. Kobe, LeBron, Dwayne Wade, and the American team began their games in China with the first of a series of tune-up matches yesterday in Macao, completing a 114-82 rout against Turkey. There is always a risk that one or more of Stern’s players could get injured and miss games. But Stern and the majority of his owners, along with the majority of the National Basketball Players Association, have decided the exposure and the opportunity of making money from a global audience is worth the risk.The big question that needs to be asked is this: Do the Olympic Games really need an American team, made up of professional stars, to be showcased anymore? The NBA has globalized. There are preseason games scheduled in Europe this fall, and it has a partnership in China in not only establishing grassroots basketball leagues, but a professional league as well.NBC Universal — which is comprised of NBC, various cable TV networks, and a broadband site — wants to promote the big American names, in the hopes of drawing bigger ratings domestically. But NBA games are now available worldwide. Do the Olympics really deliver more eyeballs for Stern? Apparently, he thinks so, and so does the International Olympic Committee, a group that would rather have well-known professionals in the Games than athletes struggling to make ends meet for a shot at Olympic gold. It is all about making money.The NBA jumped into the Olympics after the 1988 team failed to win a gold medal for the second time in 16 years. It was a marriage that ultimately helped the NBA far more than the Olympics, and the NBA ended up taking center stage in Barcelona in 1992 with the famed Dream Team.The road to the globalization of the NBA started in 1964, with Red Auerbach taking an All-Star Game through Europe, because he was tired of seeing the Soviet Union defeat mere college students. The trip ended up in Cairo, as Auerbach and the team could not enter the Soviet Union.But the NBA started globalizing in earnest when Ted Turner began rising as a cable television mogul. Turner, the owner of the Atlanta Hawks, was trying to figure out how he could contribute to the end to the Cold War: He had already established CNN International, and his international sports event, the Goodwill Games, a friendly competition between America and the Soviet Union in 1986.Turner sent his Hawks to the Soviet Union for the 1988 preseason training camp. In August 1989, Turner received a present from the failing Soviet Union: His team signed Aleksander Volkov. Volkov was the second Soviet to sign with an NBA team that summer, as the Golden State Warriors inked a deal with Sharunas Marciulionis in June.On October 12, 1989, the Amateur Basketball Association of the United States of America became USA Basketball and allowed the NBA to participate in the running of the organization. The International Basketball Federation had changed its policy toward the use of pros in the Olympics, and that gave the NBA a global opening.The 1992 Dream Team was conceived soon after. The team’s roster included Charles Barkley, Larry Bird, Patrick Ewing, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, Chris Mullin, Scottie Pippen, David Robinson, and John Stockton, among others. Chuck Daly, who had won back-to-back championships with Detroit in 1989 and 1990, coached the team.The NBA was ready to take over the global basketball industry, but it had one minor detail that needed attention: The squad was going to sweep through its opponents, but it also had to keep everybody happy, and giving everyone minutes was going to be Daly’s biggest problem.“It wasn’t quite as easy as it looked,” Daly said in an interview with this writer years later. “In dishing out the minutes, there was a lot of sensitivity. But we had a good time and they were so superior about it. I mean, there was never a guy late. There was such respect for each other. It was peer respect. It was an unbelievable experience.”The team won eight games, by an average of 44 points a game, and gave the NBA a global marketing platform that enabled Stern and his owners to brand globally. There is a lot of money to be made in slapping a logo on a T-shirt and selling it in Barcelona or Beijing. The Dream Team was a smashing success, and soon after that, another North American sport looking for a global platform shut down its season for Olympic exposure — the National Hockey League. Major League Baseball owners are considering putting a hold on the 2016 season if the International Olympic Committee restores baseball as an Olympic sport.The Beijing Olympics will bring the American stars of the NBA to China, and that is very important to the NBA. But what’s should be more important to the league is realizing that its players now go beyond America, as many of them are also playing for their home countries. Through this international exposure, the NBA can sell that much more merchandise, to a much wider audience. That is why NBA players are participating in the Beijing Games. The gold medal opportunity is nice — but there is real gold in merchandising opportunities for the league, teams, and players.evanjweiner@yahoo.com

Does a Globalized NBA Need Its Stars in Beijing?

Does a Globalized NBA Need Its Stars in Beijing?

More from the New York Sun

The True Tragedy of the Death of Jason Arday

America’s Richest School Khanna After Congressman Pitches Government Loans for Wealth Tax Payments

Europe’s Record Drought Is Pulling Ancient Secrets From the Danube

Indonesia Quake Tests Nation’s Preparedness Upgrades Since 2004 Aceh Disaster

Midwest Primary Results Could Foretell Rise of a DSA-Backed Presidential Nominee in 2028

Chautauqua, Which Once Launched a Grand National Idea, Charts a Course Back to the Political Center

Western Pacific Left Without American Aircraft Carrier as China Ramps Up Military Activity

‘The Brink of War’ Gives Reagan’s Reykjavik Summit the History Channel Treatment

More from the New York Sun

The True Tragedy of the Death of Jason Arday

America’s Richest School Khanna After Congressman Pitches Government Loans for Wealth Tax Payments

Europe’s Record Drought Is Pulling Ancient Secrets From the Danube

Indonesia Quake Tests Nation’s Preparedness Upgrades Since 2004 Aceh Disaster

Midwest Primary Results Could Foretell Rise of a DSA-Backed Presidential Nominee in 2028

Chautauqua, Which Once Launched a Grand National Idea, Charts a Course Back to the Political Center

Western Pacific Left Without American Aircraft Carrier as China Ramps Up Military Activity

‘The Brink of War’ Gives Reagan’s Reykjavik Summit the History Channel Treatment