Growing up, I played a number of sports but I was best at football. Football was easily my favorite sport a few years ago. In 2010 two things happened: I stopped playing football (because I graduated high school) and I became interested in the NBA.
Michael Jordan’s last season with the Bulls ended when I was 7. I remember that era, but just barely. While I played basketball for many of the years I was playing football I did not find the NBA very interesting.
When I started to gain interest in the NBA in 2010, not only were my hometown Bulls good again (lead by local kid Derrick Rose) but the league was fun to watch. Since then I have watched more and more of the NBA but less and less of the NFL. I’m not sure when the breaking point was, but basketball is unquestionably my favorite sport.
Here is why I’m bullish on the future of the NBA. Some are personal preference, some are just reasons to believe the league will succeed:
- Personalities. NFL teams have around 50 players on their roster with 22 starters. The NBA have 15 man rosters with 5 starters. With fewer players on the playing field, each player becomes more important. It also becomes easier to follow the different players, their unique qualities, and their relationships with one another.
- Storylines. Check out this Slate article from the crazy stories of just last season. The #1 overall pick forgot how to shoot. Players confronting the opposing team (and former teammates) in their locker rooms after a game. A player tweeting out “I Dont wanna be here”. A player got suspended for throwing soup at an assistant coach. Someone on the internet figures out a general manager’s wife was using burner accounts to leak confidential information. Tell me, what other league has this many crazy stories?!
- Player retention. The NBA has shaped their collective bargaining agreement to allow teams to retain players for the long haul. I’m not a huge fan of this personally, but it helps smaller market teams stay competitive. This improves league balance and national fan engagement.
- International growth. NBA fandom in China skyrocketed when Yao Ming was a star for the Houston Rockets. There are a huge number of top NBA stars from abroad: Greek Giannis Anteokounmpo, Australian Kyrie Irving, Cameroonian Joel Embiid, Serbian Nikola Jokic, Latvian Kristaps Porzingas are all top 25 players. Interest in the NBA around the globe is only going to go up as more and more international players gain stature in the association.
- Safety. I still love football, but at the end of the day basketball is clearly safer. This allows players to play longer, have healthier retirements, and encourages more kids to play.