{"id":114749,"date":"2024-12-29T10:41:50","date_gmt":"2024-12-29T15:41:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=114749"},"modified":"2024-12-29T10:41:50","modified_gmt":"2024-12-29T15:41:50","slug":"curry-and-lebron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/12\/29\/curry-and-lebron\/","title":{"rendered":"Curry and LeBron a Blessing and a Curse for the NBA"},"content":{"rendered":"

This year,\u00a0Steph Curry<\/a> and LeBron James<\/a> delivered a magnificent game on Christmas day. The ratings<\/a> showed it, with the game reaching an average of 7.76 million viewers and a peak of 8.32 million viewers. While many around the league would say those numbers are great, the problem with NBA ratings and viewership is deeper. The Curry and LeBron rivalry got the NBA back on track, but what comes after?<\/p>\n

Curry and LeBron Blessing and a Curse for the NBA<\/h2>\n

The game between the Warriors and the Lakers on Christmas was the most watched game in five years<\/a>\u00a0and saw a 499% increase from last year\u2019s 8 pm prime game, the one between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Miami Heat. This year, the NBA had an average viewership of 5.25 million across the five games on Christmas.<\/p>\n

The draw is here, and fans definitely want to see more of LeBron and Curry. But the problem for the league is that these two are near the end of their careers, and the NBA has done little to market its young stars.<\/p>\n

Who are the Young American Stars?<\/h3>\n

There is an argument to be made for several young American players, but if we look at under 25 stars, it is a different list.<\/p>\n

We have players like Paolo Banchero<\/a>, Anthony Edwards<\/a>, Evan Mobley<\/a>, Cade Cunningham<\/a>, LaMelo Ball<\/a>, Scottie Barnes<\/a>, Zion Williamson<\/a>, Chet Holmgren<\/a>, Ja Morant<\/a>, Jalen Williams<\/a>, Tyrese Haliburton<\/a>, Darius Garland<\/a>, and Tyrese Maxey<\/a>. Out of those, only Maxey and Edwards were featured in the Christmas games this year. And none of them got the prime 8 pm slot.<\/p>\n

Steph And LeBron Dominate Jersey Sales<\/h3>\n

Last year, Steph and LeBron led all players in the league in jersey sales<\/a>. However, the problem is that only one under 25 young American star made the list. And that is the problem with the NBA: the lack of young American players that can captivate an audience. Out of the top five jersey sales, two are Steph and LeBron, and two are international stars\u00a0Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a> and Victor Wembanyama<\/a>. Jason Tatum<\/a> rounds up the top five, with Luka Doncic<\/a> sixth on the list. Tyrese Maxey is the only American under 25 years old to make it to the top 10 jersey sales last year.<\/p>\n

Young stars like Anthony Edwards, Evan Mobley, Cade Cunningham, and Paolo Banchero were not in the top 15.<\/p>\n

Why the NBA Needs to Market Its Young Stars<\/h3>\n

In an effort to raise viewership for Christmas games<\/a>, the NBA scheduled its two biggest names in the marquee slot, the 8 pm game. The time slot works perfectly, families finish their Christmas dinner, NFL games are finished, and all that is left on TV is the NBA marquee matchup.<\/p>\n

LeBron and Steph, alongside Kevin Durant<\/a>, were the main stars on the Olympic team in Paris as well. The Americans needed every point that the trio scored to win the gold. Yet, the transition to the young stars doesn\u2019t seem easy. Tatum and Haliburton got little to no playing time, while Jalen Brunson<\/a> was not on the team. Ant was the only player who got some quality minutes.<\/p>\n

Yes, the league can milk the Lebron and Curry pairing for a year or two, but what comes after? This year, the top three MVP candidates are not American. Nikola Jokic<\/a>, Giannis, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a> have the highest chances to win the MVP.<\/p>\n

From 2008 to 2018, Americans dominated the MVP award. If we exclude Joel Embiid<\/a> (Cameroonian heritage), no American has won it since James Harden in the 2017-18 season. By the looks of it, international stars might dominate the award for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

The NBA\u2019s Global Problem<\/h3>\n

For the past several years, the NBA has put plenty of effort into making the game global<\/a>. They have had games in Europe, Mexico, China, and other parts of the world.<\/p>\n

But the problem with having global (namely European stars) is that their fans do not live in the US. Giannis, Luka, and Nikola all come from Europe, the Balkans, and the time difference makes it extremely hard for fans there to watch the games. There is a six-hour difference between Easter time and local time in the Balkans. That means when the game is at 8:30 pm, it is 2:30 am in the Balkans. That makes it challenging for fans to watch the games.<\/p>\n

That has always been a challenge, but in the past years, with European players like Giannis, Luka, and Jokic dominating the league, the NBA has had a problem drawing viewership.<\/p>\n

The Steph and LeBron pairing<\/a>, whether they team up or compete against each other, will work for the league for two more years. But what comes after? The sooner the NBA begins to market young stars and feature them in prime time, the better it will be for the league.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This year,\u00a0Steph Curry and LeBron James delivered a magnificent game on Christmas day. The ratings showed it, with the game reaching an average of 7.76 million viewers and a peak of 8.32 million viewers. While many around the league would say those numbers are great, the problem with NBA ratings and viewership is deeper. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5291,"featured_media":114780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,5,25,26,21,62,22],"tags":[2109,3966,306,1417,798,69,38,1133,72,3823,48,2607,2478,4669],"class_list":["post-114749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-celtics","category-warriors","category-lakers","category-timberwolves","category-nba","category-thunder","tag-anthony-edwards","tag-evan-mobley","tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","tag-jalen-brunson","tag-jayson-tatum","tag-kevin-durant","tag-lebron-james","tag-luka-doncic","tag-nikola-jokic","tag-paolo-banchero","tag-stephen-curry","tag-tyrese-haliburton","tag-tyrese-maxey","tag-victor-wembanyama"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5291"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114749"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114781,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114749\/revisions\/114781"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}