It has been a crazy couple of weeks in the NBA. Okay, crazy is an understatement. Between the lockout ending, the whole Chris Paul going to the Lakers, then not going to the Lakers, then going to the Clippers, then not going to the Clippers, then finally going to the Clippers (confusing huh?); it is clear that the NBA has changed.
More than ever, it is clear that the league is a business. A business that is only driven by profit. Sure, it was always this way, but now the owners have more power than ever, and are forcing the league through commissioner David Stern, to exercise this power.
The question is how did we get here? Where did the league go awry? There's no doubt that something has changed in the NBA. Small-market owners are angry. However, the leagues problems extend far beyond this year, in fact the problems started years ago.
For a while in the post-Jordan era, NBA teams weren't very good. Sure there were the Lakers and the Spurs, but for the most part, many teams were not competitive. At that point, the league knew they couldn't market themselves as being competitive, so instead they decided to market their stars. Though the NBA has always been a league of stars, more than ever, the league hammered home that every team has a superstar. Essentially, even if your team was bad, you could still enjoy watching them because they had a superstar. The fans bought into this, and so did owners of small-market teams.
However, recently something happened that Stern and other league executives didn't account for. The new era of superstars decided they wanted to team up with other stars, instead of playing against one another. The Heat did this, the Knickers did this, the Clippers are trying to do this, and many NBA teams are trying to follow suit.
Though this makes teams better and more exciting to watch, it ultimately means that not every team has a superstar, which means that a crappy team has no way to draw in fans. Therefore, the league's branding model, of a league of superstars no longer holds true. As a result, owners are furious when they realize that their team has no superstar. This became clear when David Stern tried to hold Chris Paul hostage in New Orleans this past week (it is still inconclusive on whether Chris Paul developed Stockholm Syndrome, and identified with Stern), in attempt to try and keep all superstars from fleeing small-market teams.
Ultimately, the situation with the NBA shows how important brand identity is.The truth is, that the NBA's brand identity did not match the mindset of their stars. For the majority of today's NBA's stars, its not about being the "man", but instead winning a championship. For years the NBA remained blind to this, and refused to modify their brand identity. Now, with the league in disarray and NBA owners confused as to why they have a team with no stars, Stern and the league must try and rebrand themselves before owners flee.
