Football is a team sport, where only a few elite stars are recognizeable without their jerseys.
The NBA, in contrast, sells their sport through their stars. The culture of the sport is flash over substance, and that's best portrayed by the stars of the league and the highlight reel plays. Truth is that fans are much more likely to know the shooting percentage of Lebron James than they are to know the passing percentage of Peyton Manning. For that reason, as a marketer, I can see the value in this promotion:
NBA fans wear jerseys of the best players no matter what team they are on. Walk into any NBA arena on game day and you will see not only jerseys of the 2 teams competing, but also multitudes of Lebron and Kobe jerseys, etc.
However, this promotion shouts, "our team doesn't have stars, and we won't be winning any championships, so if that isn't a draw to watch our team, hopefully we can bribe you with these jerseys". This is blatantly and brutally disrepectful to all of the TRUE Nets fans. Even if there are only 5 of them and even if they are on the way out.
Dear Nets Management,
When you move to Brooklyn I hope you have a commitment to winning and to your fan base because that is Knicks country and New Yorkers are proud and loyal. They have stood by the Knicks during years of losing seasons. They still sell-out every game and have a season-ticket waiting list years long. To gain any market share you'd better have a damn good product.
- thanks to Mike R. for sending me this flier.
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