Los Angeles Lakers: A players brand is what sells and keeps fans emotionally involved
The Los Angeles Lakers are trying to trade before the deadline of February 7th, and all the teams use their most popular players as trade bait.
It’s hard not to get angry because the Los Angeles Lakers are being open to trading away the farm. Believe me, I have written about my feelings on the subject. It’s not like the Kobe Bryant days when he was drafted before Twitter and Instagram came into existence. Can you imagine if people started following Kobe when he played in high school for an AAU team?
The way high school basketball is covered today is by mostly unpaid local sports media who do it for fame and exposure by broadcasting digital content in social media.
I started covering Shareef O’Neal, Cole Anthony, and Cassius Stanley early on, but as they played through the AAU circuit, these young men became household names before they committed to a college. Kobe probably wouldn’t have gone No. 13 in the 1996 NBA Draft but, instead, No. 1 and Jerry West would not have been the only GM who knew he was going to be a star.
Things have changed.
Let’s take Lonzo Ball for example. His popularity started in AAU ball and when he played for Chino Hills but blossomed as he became an NBA Lottery pick during his days at UCLA. His business value was supreme coming out the 2017 draft due to his popularity.
How many of Ball’s uniforms have you seen Lakers fans wearing? His jersey ranked No. 12 of all NBA Players in 2018. Lonzo Ball had more than twice the amount of impressions and about five times the amount of posts then the No. 1 pick on social media when he got drafted No. 2 overall.
PLAYERS WITH SOCIAL MEDIA BUZZ AROUND NBA DRAFT (Per Nielsen Sports Social24)
PLAYER TEAM POSTS IMPRESSIONS
Lonzo Ball Lakers 268,000 1.2 billion
Markelle Fultz 76ers 34,000 540 million
Jayson Tatum Celtics 60,000 260 million
Josh Jackson Suns 29,000 231 million
De’Aaron Fox Kings 35,000 121 million
It baffles us that the Lakers are so willing to trade away Ball. But, we surmise it probably has to do with LeBron’s desires, and maybe sales have dropped off recently or aren’t projected to be as high.
When the Lakers were down and out, the team store at Staples Center was full of two jerseys: Jeremy Lin and Kobe Bryant. And even then, the team was tanking at the time, those two players remained very popular in China. Cha-ching!
Markelle Fultz was drafted No. 1 overall based on his popularity and potential going into the draft. The media made a story out of which player would go first, and along with the hype, the 76ers would have looked bad if they didn’t take Fultz.
The Philadelphia 76ers thought that Fultz could be a big brand. It’s all about money and business. What was best for the Lakers was to draft Lonzo Ball, the local star.
The proof is in the pudding, they say. Somehow the NBA No. 2 pick ended up in the center of the Rookie photo.
PricewaterhouseCoopers developed a report on the state of the sports market each year by survey’s professional sports executives. In their recently produced 2018 survey report they concluded the following with regards to digital content (including players and teams social engagement):
"“Branded content, be it on sponsors’ digital channels or on those of rights holders, is the other area respondents believe sponsors should be focussing on to drive ROI. This reinforces our belief that all stakeholders need to be in the content game, where those with the most engaging and authentic content win.”"
Why did LeBron go to Cleveland? Chris Paul to the Clippers instead of the Lakers? Patrick Ewing being drafted by the Knicks? Why does the MVP award go to a different player each year? The NBA’s job is to produce superstars, superstars generate more money for the league.
It’s also about the NBA making more money and the need for better competition between opponents. The teams share revenue. Fans in those cities bought more jerseys and tickets when they had big stars playing for them. It seems every year, the NBA schedule is developed to draw the most fans for sponsors and tickets and advertisements.
It was something that Bobby Portis, who was traded from the Chicago Bulls to the Washington Wizards on Wednesday evening, touched on during an interview recently with NBC Sports Chicago.
Bobby Portis is all in for rumor szn pic.twitter.com/1l1e61BEH9
— Bulls Talk (@NBCSBulls) February 5, 2019
The NBA teams look at players followers and activity, the more the merrier. The smaller footprint a player has with fans the less popular teams they play for. Pau Gasol‘s name was used to lure other players, using him as trade bait because he was popular and a great player.
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Just look at the 2017 NBA All-stars. Twelve All-Stars moved teams, nine of them were by players choice through free agency (LeBron James, Paul Millsap, Gordon Hayward, and DeAndre Jordan) or trade demands (Paul George, Kawhi Leonard, DeMarcus Cousins). Boogie Cousins was first to be traded, and that happened during the All-Star game.
When each player was talked about in the media with regards to trades, they sold more jerseys and they gain popularity even if they lose some in the process. The NBA teams track social impressions during trade talks and upcoming free agency time periods.
The media gets views and impressions on their tweets as well, so the more salacious the rumor from “sources” the better the number of replies, retweets and like. Tweets are posted by Adrian Wojnarowski and Shams Charania among others citing “sources” who they never divulge, causing undo heartache and speculation.
Sometimes you have to follow fact checkers you trust like Ramona Shelburne and Eric Pincus to make sure you have Lakers information you can bank on.
Those two are my broadcast idols and I only listen to them. A lot of the times the reporter’s sources are the player’s agents who stand to make a ton of money. Fans are played like silly putty (that’s reusable clay for you millennials).
Anthony Davis has 3.3 million Instagram followers and 1.6 million Twitter followers. Lonzo Ball has 6.1 million followers on Instagram and 920,000 followers on Twitter. Kyle Kuzma has 2.7 million followers on Instagram and 565,000 followers on Twitter. This can have something to do with trade talks.
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But, even though this may be taken into consideration, in the end, the trade will have to result in more money for both the Pelicans and Lakers. For the fans, it’s all about their emotions based on each player, the front office and the head coach. Don’t forget though, the more emotion and sentiment from fans, the more money everyone makes.