spurschick
06-15-2005, 08:51 AM
By DAVID ALDRIDGE
Philadelphia Inquirer
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/basketball/nba/golden_state_warriors/11896163.htm
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - Manu Ginobili is besieged.
This pleases David Stern.
The San Antonio Spurs guard is being followed everywhere at these NBA Finals, doing interviews in Spanish and English, clicking accompanying his every movement once he gets off the team bus. It's not only NBA Entertainment cameras following him around, it's everyone with an F-stop.
There's nothing at stake here - maybe just the future of a sports league.
After dominating the first two games of the Finals, Ginobili was not much of a factor in Detroit's 96-79 Game 3 victory Tuesday night. He picked up two early fouls, and the Pistons did a much better job on him, keeping him from his favorite spots.
But Ginobili's impact on the league could be - probably will be - much more than one game, or one series.
Stern is betting the ranch that the Ginobili phenomenon will become old hat in the years to come. As more and more people stateside bemoan the litany of problems in the league, from cornrows to too-young players to the lack of mid-range jumpers, Stern is turning to the other 6 billion or so people on the planet for relief.
And Ginobili, telegenic, young, multilingual and possessor of the sort of game people of all races can enjoy, is a perfect guinea pig to test whether the NBA can undergo a true sea change.
Will kids in South Philly, Kansas City, Phoenix and Macon, Ga., be sporting the "Got Manu?" T-shirts that are so popular in San Antonio, where the Argentina-born Ginobili is revered? Could Ginobili be the NBA's first real international superstar in the United States, a one-name wonder along the lines of LeBron, Kobe and T-Mac?
"To be honest with you, in the U.S., I don't think so," Spurs forward Robert Horry said before Game 3.
"He's got the talent," Horry said. "But I think the communication part is probably going to be a lot tougher. If he's in Latin America, he's mega, a megastar. It's just that I think he has a lot to do with the communication aspect. Because I have a hard time understanding him sometimes."
Spurs owner Peter Holt concurs, saying Ginobili will have many marketing opportunities in the United States, but will be bigger in Spanish-speaking countries.
"He's actually pretty good," Holt said, referring to Ginobili's commercials promoting the Finals.
But if Ginobili, like Yao Ming, is a bigger star outside the United States, does it really matter?
For the last decade, the league has sold itself as a global one, a sport second only to soccer in worldwide popularity. But it was always as an adjunct to the league's strength here at home. Now, the league may need international eyes - and wallets - to carry the load.
In this vein, the NBA is just another American company that is finding success overseas.
EA Sports, which yesterday announced sponsorship of a tournament featuring four NBA teams in Europe in 2006 and 2007, receives half of its annual revenue from outside North America, according to the company's CEO, Larry Probst.
And this isn't the first time Stern's league has gone against the conventional wisdom in search of the next big thing.
It is a variation on the same gamble the NBA took with its national television contract three years ago, when it left the safety and security of weekly games and doubleheaders on NBC for cable television - where the money was. Now, most of Stern's games are on ESPN or TNT, with only a handful of non-Finals games airing on ABC.
The ratings for the NBA on cable have never been higher. But the Finals ratings on ABC have plummeted, not only from the halcyon Michael Jordan days of 14s and 15s, but from last year's Lakers-driven double-digit numbers. Now the league crows about worldwide viewership being up, not mentioning the U.S. decline.
Stern continues to argue that he made the right choice, that the coveted 24-to-49-year-old males are all watching ESPN these days.
"Because we've lived through it, it doesn't dawn on us that we're now talking about 85 million cable households, satellite (and) digital cable," Stern said recently. "A kid growing up today, the debate that occurred when we made our new TV deal: `Oh, you're moving to cable.' We laughed internally. We didn't want to be too insulting to people, but sure, a 12-year-old kid says, `Oh my God, ESPN, that's cable, not over-the-air?' I mean, they have no idea what the difference is. And the fact that "Monday Night Football has now moved from ABC to ESPN, on our watch it became a one-broadcast world."
Stern's hope as these Finals continue surely centers on a six- or seven-game series between the league's two best teams. But he also hopes that Ginobili becomes a one-name wonder, here and abroad.
Philadelphia Inquirer
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/basketball/nba/golden_state_warriors/11896163.htm
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - Manu Ginobili is besieged.
This pleases David Stern.
The San Antonio Spurs guard is being followed everywhere at these NBA Finals, doing interviews in Spanish and English, clicking accompanying his every movement once he gets off the team bus. It's not only NBA Entertainment cameras following him around, it's everyone with an F-stop.
There's nothing at stake here - maybe just the future of a sports league.
After dominating the first two games of the Finals, Ginobili was not much of a factor in Detroit's 96-79 Game 3 victory Tuesday night. He picked up two early fouls, and the Pistons did a much better job on him, keeping him from his favorite spots.
But Ginobili's impact on the league could be - probably will be - much more than one game, or one series.
Stern is betting the ranch that the Ginobili phenomenon will become old hat in the years to come. As more and more people stateside bemoan the litany of problems in the league, from cornrows to too-young players to the lack of mid-range jumpers, Stern is turning to the other 6 billion or so people on the planet for relief.
And Ginobili, telegenic, young, multilingual and possessor of the sort of game people of all races can enjoy, is a perfect guinea pig to test whether the NBA can undergo a true sea change.
Will kids in South Philly, Kansas City, Phoenix and Macon, Ga., be sporting the "Got Manu?" T-shirts that are so popular in San Antonio, where the Argentina-born Ginobili is revered? Could Ginobili be the NBA's first real international superstar in the United States, a one-name wonder along the lines of LeBron, Kobe and T-Mac?
"To be honest with you, in the U.S., I don't think so," Spurs forward Robert Horry said before Game 3.
"He's got the talent," Horry said. "But I think the communication part is probably going to be a lot tougher. If he's in Latin America, he's mega, a megastar. It's just that I think he has a lot to do with the communication aspect. Because I have a hard time understanding him sometimes."
Spurs owner Peter Holt concurs, saying Ginobili will have many marketing opportunities in the United States, but will be bigger in Spanish-speaking countries.
"He's actually pretty good," Holt said, referring to Ginobili's commercials promoting the Finals.
But if Ginobili, like Yao Ming, is a bigger star outside the United States, does it really matter?
For the last decade, the league has sold itself as a global one, a sport second only to soccer in worldwide popularity. But it was always as an adjunct to the league's strength here at home. Now, the league may need international eyes - and wallets - to carry the load.
In this vein, the NBA is just another American company that is finding success overseas.
EA Sports, which yesterday announced sponsorship of a tournament featuring four NBA teams in Europe in 2006 and 2007, receives half of its annual revenue from outside North America, according to the company's CEO, Larry Probst.
And this isn't the first time Stern's league has gone against the conventional wisdom in search of the next big thing.
It is a variation on the same gamble the NBA took with its national television contract three years ago, when it left the safety and security of weekly games and doubleheaders on NBC for cable television - where the money was. Now, most of Stern's games are on ESPN or TNT, with only a handful of non-Finals games airing on ABC.
The ratings for the NBA on cable have never been higher. But the Finals ratings on ABC have plummeted, not only from the halcyon Michael Jordan days of 14s and 15s, but from last year's Lakers-driven double-digit numbers. Now the league crows about worldwide viewership being up, not mentioning the U.S. decline.
Stern continues to argue that he made the right choice, that the coveted 24-to-49-year-old males are all watching ESPN these days.
"Because we've lived through it, it doesn't dawn on us that we're now talking about 85 million cable households, satellite (and) digital cable," Stern said recently. "A kid growing up today, the debate that occurred when we made our new TV deal: `Oh, you're moving to cable.' We laughed internally. We didn't want to be too insulting to people, but sure, a 12-year-old kid says, `Oh my God, ESPN, that's cable, not over-the-air?' I mean, they have no idea what the difference is. And the fact that "Monday Night Football has now moved from ABC to ESPN, on our watch it became a one-broadcast world."
Stern's hope as these Finals continue surely centers on a six- or seven-game series between the league's two best teams. But he also hopes that Ginobili becomes a one-name wonder, here and abroad.