Annother 'great one's' take on all the 'the next great one' talk

[Crusader Knight]

I know this isn't hockey but the nba and nhl are very similar in that they try and market their players to be the next guy to overshadow the rest of the league, yet they never quite reach that level. I think the nhl should stop marketing crosby as the next great one and stamkos and tarveres as the next next great one and such. what happens when they get a high ankle injury and are out for weeks or a career? All the marketing effort becomes wasted; they need to focus more on teams and the actual game in my opinion.

Here's Michael Jordan's take

When I turned pro, the league was looking for a change. I had the personality and the game and a style of play, and all that came together at the same time. All the stars lined up and catapulted everything that came after—23 different shoes, Jordan Brand, everything. It's a phenomenon. How do you explain a phenomenon? You can't. The only advice I can give to someone in the league now is to be original. The consumer isn't dumb. He or she can sense things being knocked off. Originality is what lasts.

David Stern hates when I say this, but in some ways he created his own problem. Look at the way the league markets its players. When I came in, they marketed the athletes themselves, how they performed, what they accomplished. To reinvent someone is very difficult. When you say a player is today's Michael Jordan or today's Magic Johnson, the first thing the public will do is compare him to the real Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson. When the public doesn't see the same degree of success, you've just dug yourself a deeper hole.

You have to show the consumers something they haven't seen before, someone about whom they can say, "Hey, that guy is pretty cool." Magic, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, myself—we didn't start out as the league's partners. We evolved, then the league made us its partners. That's what the league has to do now—find guys who can grow up to be partners. Don't take guys and force them into our mold.

...Keep reading...

[Unruely35]

Ive always been a fan of the third person but...

When you see Michael Jordan today, you see Michael Jordan as a totally honest person

I wonder what his wife has to say about this little tidbit. Ol' MJ isnt lacking for ego, is he??