NBA stars like Giannis Antetokounmpo don't need to move to LA or NY for success

NBA stars like Giannis Antetokounmpo don’t need to move to LA or NY for success | Opinion

Posted by Admin December 21, 2024 NBA

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It seems like every day there’s a new article or TV segment around the idea of some Giannis blockbuster trade.

Tyler Hathaway
| Special to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

For years, Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo has dealt with incessant rumors of his departure to teams such as the Miami Heat, the Los Angeles Lakers or the New York Knicks. It seems like every day there’s a new article or TV segment around the idea of some Giannis blockbuster trade in which he gets sent to a team in a big city — leaving small market Milwaukee without its marquee player.

No matter how much Giannis reaffirms his commitment to Milwaukee, whether it be by signing three contract extensions throughout his tenure as a Buck or by saying, “This is my city” while emphasizing the “Bucks” on his jersey after throwing down a dunk, commentators will never stop perpetuating the rumor of his supposed desire to leave the team.

Antetokounmpo is not the only NBA star to constantly have the idea of their departure from their small-market home thrown around. LaMelo Ball, the guard for the Charlotte Hornets, has faced the same types of commentary Bucks fans are used to. Much of the pre-draft conversation about New Orleans Pelicans star Zion Williamson was about the possibility of him becoming a New York Knick, with ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith famously having a meltdown after the Pelicans won the first pick and not the Knicks in the 2019 NBA Draft.

Instead of being overly dependent on big city markets, the NBA needs to take a page from the NFL’s playbook. Fans want to watch the best teams in the playoffs every year no matter if they’re from New York City, Kansas City or Green Bay, which is the smallest market in the NFL but ranks as the 20th most valuable sports franchise in the world. That’s the key difference between the leagues. The NFL has promoted its teams in such a way that it’s not where you play, but how you play, that determines your coverage and perception.

NBA discussions oversaturated by Knicks, Lakers and Celtics

The perception in the NBA is that only a handful of teams matter. During ESPN’s pre-game coverage of the NBA Finals between the Celtics and Dallas Mavericks in 2024, they dedicated entire segments to the Lakers’ head-coaching search. As a matter of fact, it’s seemingly become impossible to watch any sports show talk about the NBA without the mention of the Knicks, Lakers, or Celtics.

Even teams in smaller markets who are succeeding this season, such as the Orlando Magic, struggle to get airtime in televised NBA discourse. It’s not like small-market teams are never good in the NBA, and that it’s only the big market teams that can succeed. The Bucks won the title in 2021 and the Denver Nuggets in 2023 despite being from smaller metro areas.

The issue is that the NBA’s ratings are so big-market dependent that it almost feels like commentators feel forced to advocate for the success of these big-market squads. In the current Ultimately, the NBA Finals would get drastically more viewers if the matchup was Lakers-Celtics than if it was Rockets-Magic.

However, the way to get it so your ratings aren’t so big-market-dependent is to of course appeal to the smaller markets, which means not to talk about and promote the Lakers and the Celtics as much and focus more on teams like the Rockets and Magic. It’s on the league and its talking heads to generate buzz and excitement about these less popular teams so that when the playoffs start fans are genuinely interested in watching their games.

NBA would be stronger in long run by supporting cities like Milwaukee

In the current state of the NBA, a situation in which the Lakers are in 9^th place in the West and the Sacramento Kings are in 3^rd place in the West, the lions share of the attention is focused on the Lakers. What happens when the Lakers miss the playoffs or get bounced in the first round? Nobody has been promoting or talking about the Kings all season, so fans don’t watch. The lacks of interest in Sacramento becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Instead of the media constantly theorizing and fantasizing about Giannis Antetokounmpo in Los Angeles or New York City, the league and its analysts need to promote Antetokounmpo on the Bucks. The same goes for Charlotte and LaMelo Ball, Orlando and Paolo Banchero, Sacramento and DeAaron Fox, and so on.

The more teams that people are excited to watch throughout the season, the more people who will ultimately tune in come playoff time. Instead of your ratings being dictated by the success of a small group of teams, have them be dictated by the strength of your collective of stars scattered throughout the country. The more teams who have stars, and the more you advertise the number of stars in all sorts of different places, the more people will watch — like when Antetokounmpo and the Bucks claimed the NBA Cup championship on Tuesday.

Tyler Hathaway is a senior at Marquette University studying journalism.