A very interesting topic and one, which has definitely come about, even more this off season, with Kevin Durant signing with a much bigger market team (Golden State) rather than sticking to the smaller market in Oklahoma City.
Playing in a bigger market brings about greater opportunities in terms of endorsement deals and a lot more national televised games. Not that KD needs the attention of national TV games, but it always helps bringing in more dollars.
Playing in a smaller market hasn’t seemed to affect a few teams in the NBA, with one main example of the San Antonio Spurs, being one of the most successful franchises in the last 20 years.
Currently the Spurs rank 11 in the market, which isn’t all that bad, but for a team so successful you’d expect them to be much higher up on the list.
Kevin Durant has gone from a very successful team in OKC (Small market with a rank of 17 in the NBA) who’s current value of $950Mill, is practically dwarfed by the team he has moved to (Golden State). Golden State’s current value stands at $1.9 Billion (yes Billion with a B) according to Forbes List.
Funnily enough they only come in at 6. The Two teams who top the list may have some rich history but have been nothing short of awful of late. The Lakers come in at 2 (valued at $2.7Billion) with the New York Knicks coming in at Number 1 valued at $3 Billion!!! Clearly success has 0 to do with anything, as it is obvious both the Knicks and the Lakers continue to bring in the crowds heavily based on Tourism in both bigger cities.
This is why the New Orleans Pelicans had to spend big on Anthony Davis. Eyebrows (or Brow in his instance) were raised when he signed his 6 year $145Million deal last season, and when you look at it now, he has been one upped by none other than Mike Conley of the Memphis Grizzlies signing his $150Mill + deal. These two teams rank horrifically low, so spending big on key Free Agents to entice others to come to these small market teams is a must.
New Orleans rank last in the NBA valued at $650 Million, with Memphis only slightly above them at 25th $780 Million. New Orleans is such a great city, with a lot of tourists coming in and out to visit Bourbon Street, but let’s face it…they’re a football town! If you ain’t the Saints…not many care about the hoops! Which is why they needed to sign the Brow to such a deal to try and make him the face of a struggling franchise (and a future MVP of the league) to try and bump their value up and make this city a little more than a Football town!
It’s clear success doesn’t always come on the court (there’s some real bad teams making a lot of money!) but at the end of the day…it’s all about Location Location Location!!
Dave Bauk