The NBA was bullied into beauty
Six takes on the NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Final from the Club Sportico crew
The Stanley Cup Final starts Tuesday night. The NBA Finals tip-off a day later. Here are six things we’re discussing heading into the championship tilts…
What I Learned 🤔: Online bullying... works? The Larry O’Brien trophy is making a stupendous return to center court of the NBA Finals this year, where it appeared from 2005 to 2009. I mean, just take a second to soak this in in all its glory.
The league got rid of the trophy on the court because players perceived decals on the court to be slippery or unsafe. But the NBA never came up with an alternative. So, for years, you could turn on the TV during the Finals and it would look just like a January Wednesday night on ESPN. During June last year, complaints on social media were so prevalent that the league basically downloaded a 720p clip art image of a trophy and digitally dumped it on the court to try to appease fans.
I asked the NBA SVP of on-court and brand partnerships Christopher Arena why the trophy came back this year, and he told me directly: "Listening to the fans. There was a groundswell to do it, and we listened."
The lesson here is: be louder and more negative on social media. It's time to rise up and complain about the fact that the Spurs aren't allowed to wear their Fiesta jerseys for the Finals. —Lev
What I Don’t Understand ☀️: The dominance of southern NHL teams continues. Regardless of who wins this title, it will be the sixth time in the past seven years that the Stanley Cup winner came from a warm U.S. city. Theories abound—Warmer weather is more attractive to players! There’s less pressure in non-traditional hockey markets! Florida and Nevada have no income tax, which helps in free agency! It’s just a coincidence!
I asked a version of this exact question to then-Florida Panthers exec Shawn Thornton last year on the podcast. This was his answer:
I’m not sure what to believe, to be honest. The Arizona Coyotes went 12 years with just one playoff appearance and then equaled that total in their second year in Utah. I think it’s just a small sample size? —Eben
What Surprised Me ⭐: The Knicks ($9.85 billion) are worth more than twice what the Spurs ($4.5B) are. But online? San Antonio actually holds an edge. As of this time last year, the Spurs had 16.5 million combined social followers, while NYK came in at 14.2M. Wemby has likely brought in even more international fans for SAS over the last 12 months.
On TikTok, their popular content could hardly be more different. Six of the Knicks’ top posts highlight Celebrity Row.
Unsurprisingly, the Spurs’ most popular clips focus on their on-court stars.
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
According to YouGov polling, the Spurs are tied with the Warriors and Lakers as the third-most popular NBA team. The Knicks are in 9th on that metric, with their strongest support coming from 31-to-40-year-olds (34% popularity). —Jacob
The Owner on the Hot Seat 💸: As crazy as this might sound, the billionaire owner of the Carolina Hurricanes is actually feeling some heat right now. In addition to his NHL team, Tom Dundon led a group that bought the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers earlier this year, and he has quickly drawn viral criticism for various cost-cutting methods. They’ve reportedly ranged from large layoffs, limiting the travel of some players, and having coaches check out of hotel rooms early to eliminate added fees. Some fans are calling him “El Cheapo.”
Dundon’s eight-year reign as an NHL owner has been remarkably consistent. The Hurricanes have made the playoffs every year, with four conference finals appearances, but they never made it to the Stanley Cup Final, let alone won. A championship would go a long way toward burnishing his reputation, but also give him an easy thing to point at as proof that he knows what he’s doing. —Eben
What Made Me Laugh 😂: There’s a strong case to be made that a Knickerbocker is a person from NYC as much as it is the article of clothing they’re named after. And yet, I’ll be thinking of this as the all-clothing matchup. May the best lower-body accessory win! —Jacob
What We’ll All Be Watching 📺: There’s been a lot of (reasonable) grousing of late about how complicated it is to watch sports these days. But for the Stanley Cup and NBA Finals, it’s as easy as ABC. Sports are basically taking over the broadcast network for the next fortnight, with games on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week. Expect to see a couple mentions of ESPN’s 2027 Super Bowl too…
With a long series, ABC should hope to broadcast the most-watched NBA Finals since 2019, at least. —Jacob
Club Sportico is a community organized by Sportico, a digital media company launched in 2020 to cover the business side of sports. You can read breaking news, smart analysis, and in-depth features from Eben, Jacob and their colleagues at Sportico.com, and listen to the Sporticast podcast wherever you get your audio. Contact us at club@sportico.com.