{"id":300,"date":"2013-10-19T19:07:51","date_gmt":"2013-10-19T19:07:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/?p=300"},"modified":"2013-10-19T19:07:51","modified_gmt":"2013-10-19T19:07:51","slug":"the-nba-uses-marketing-to-attract-young-fans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/2013\/10\/19\/the-nba-uses-marketing-to-attract-young-fans\/","title":{"rendered":"The NBA Uses Marketing to Attract Young Fans"},"content":{"rendered":"

By JOHN WYATT<\/strong> –\u00a0STAFF WRITER<\/em><\/p>\n

Walk into any local Hibbet\u2019s Sports store or any similar sporting goods store, and go look at the jersey section. Chances are that most stocked NBA jerseys will be in youth sizes. The National Basketball Association (NBA) dominates the youth market, attracting more and more young fans as stars like Lebron James and Kobe Bryant take control of the game. But why?<\/p>\n

If you ask someone who did not follow sports regularly to name the best basketball player right now, chances are they would at least say \u201cLebron\u201d or \u201cKobe\u201d (or maybe even Jordan).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The NBA has much more star power compared to other sports, such as football or baseball. Even beyond the obvious superstars, the NBA has a host of unique personalities. Even casual NBA fans know of the antics of players like Metta World Peace or Dwight Howard. Several fans recognize the celebrity status that comes along with being an NBA player.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NBA has been incredible for young people partially because of face time and the lack of constraints upon the players,\u201d senior Zach Stewart said. \u201cThe NFL is constantly worried about behavioral issues and their faces are hidden by a helmet. With the NBA, you get to see the player\u2019s ridiculous on-court antics and assign a face to those antics; it is great entertainment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NBA is driven by these individual personalities. Ira Boudway explained sports individualism in his article \u201cAre NBA Nickname Jerseys Coming Soon?\u201d in Business Week. \u201cWith fewer players in the game and less specialization among them, basketball makes the most room for individual creativity and brilliance,\u201d Broudway said.<\/p>\n

Having these individual personalities makes it much easier for young kids to attach to these stars who can single-handedly win a game for their team, than, say, a quarterback in the NFL who usually relies on other players to score.<\/p>\n

It is because of these strong personalities that the NBA is planning on allowing the Miami Heat and the Brooklyn Nets to wear special \u201cnickname jerseys\u201d for one of their games this season. As of right now, the special jerseys, limited to this game would be changed for players with well-known nicknames, such as \u201cKing\u201d James and \u201cThe Truth\u201d (Paul Pierce). Reactions to the nickname jerseys seem to be split between critics, fans, and even players. Bradley Ryder, a writer for Yahoo Sports, has concerns with the message it will send to kids.<\/p>\n

\u201cMiami and Brooklyn players like LeBron James and Deron Williams are role models to the young and old. It\u2019s an unwritten rule,\u201d Ryder said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the event you\u2019re still on the fence about the jersey idea for Miami and Brooklyn, consider this: The Nets\u2019 Andrei Kirilenko\u2019s nickname is AK-47,\u201d Ryder said. Other writers, however, disagree. Nicholas Duchesne explains in \u201cThose Nickname Jerseys Are a Great Idea\u201d in Slate Magazine that this move celebrates basketball tradition more than it tarnishes it.<\/p>\n

\u201cNicknamed superstars punctuate basketball history from its early days to the present: Earl \u201cthe Pearl\u201d Monroe, Julius \u201cDr. J.\u201d Erving, Earvin \u201cMagic\u201d Johnson,<\/p>\n

Glen \u201cBig Baby\u201d Davis\u2014and on and on and on,\u201d Duchesne said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know these names because basketball spotlights individualism more than the other major team sports\u2014and also fosters a closer relationship between its players and its fans than those sports do,\u201d Duchesne said. Players also seem divided on the issue. Ray \u201cShuttlesworth\u201d Allen, thinks it highlights the fun, playful nature of the NBA during an interview with ESPN.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still kids, playing a kids\u2019 game. Even though we\u2019re now men playing a kids\u2019 game, we still remember where we come from. Everybody had a nickname, and it\u2019s a way to let the fans in a little bit more,\u201d Allen said. Kendall Marshall, a rookie last year with the Phoenix Suns, took to Twitter to share his thoughts on the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe nickname makes it more about the individual. It\u2019s still a team sport. Represent your team, your family, and go out there and play,\u201d Marshall said. This highlights a problem for players like Marshall, who are either too young in the league or not at the superstar level like Lebron to have a nickname. With this new move from the NBA, perhaps it will be a chance for players like Marshall to reinvent themselves and develop a nickname to appeal to the younger fan base.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By JOHN WYATT –\u00a0STAFF WRITER Walk into any local Hibbet\u2019s Sports store or any similar sporting goods store, and go look at the jersey section. Chances are that most stocked NBA jerseys will be in youth sizes. The National Basketball Association (NBA) dominates the youth market, attracting more and more young fans as stars like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}