My professor posed an interesting question during one of my recent sports management classes: could the face of the NBA be a foreign-born, international player? The discussion was inspired by a segment on a recent episode of The Will Cain Show, which can be viewed here.
To become the face of the NBA, or any professional sports league, a player must be one of the best in the league and display a certain amount of charisma, according to Cain. The former is obvious, but the latter is an understated necessity; it’s why Tim Duncan, as great as he was, never had a chance to be the face of the league. There’s a lot more to being the face of a sport than just being good and entertaining, though.
What, if anything, would hold international players back?
Cain proposed two reasons why an international player could not become the face of the league. To be fair, he didn’t claim it was an impossible task, only that these reasons would hold the player back.
- We have to be able to pronounce/spell the player’s name.
- The player must have strong English skills.
I have to be honest: whenever I write “Antetokounmpo” for the first time in any of my column’s I have to copy and paste it from Google. I’m not the only one struggling with Giannis’s surname, however. During the All-Star draft TNT ran a bit mocking Charles Barkley’s inability to pronounce his last name. Giannis has been in the league six years now and the front-runner for the MVP award; if we haven’t learned how to pronounce “Antetokounmpo” by now, will we ever? On the other hand, Giannis has entered first-name-only territory with LeBron and Kobe, which could potentially offset any lingering concerns with the spelling and pronunciation of his last name.
As far as the second point, I don’t consider this a serious issue. Most of the international players have developed very strong English skills. The nature of the sport requires them to, unlike baseball. Language barriers held some international baseball stars’ celebrity status back. Ichiro is the epitome of this, as Cain says. However, there are no Ichiro’s in the NBA. The league’s stars are in front of cameras all the time. Hell, Giannis stole the show during the All-Star draft live on national television.
Who is the next face of the NBA?
Considering LeBron still has a few years left on his lease, it is difficult to narrow down who could usurp his position. The list starts with perennial MVP candidates (in no particular order): Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, James Harden, Anthony Davis and Giannis himself. A collection of young players have the potential to enter the equation, including Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, Luka Doncic, and Duke’s Zion Williamson. I believe that Curry, Durant, Embiid, Williamson and Giannis have separated themselves from the rest of the group.
- Curry has to be the favorite; in fact, there’s an argument that the two-time league MVP has already surpassed LeBron. He’s been the league leader in jersey sales, an imperfect but telling statistic, for the past three seasons. Curry revolutionized the sport with his three-point shooting. Players across the globe are learning how to play the game by emulating Curry’s style; Trae Young will not be the last rookie to draw comparisons to the baby-faced assassin. Curry would be a fitting successor to LeBron, as the two coincidentally were born in the same Akron hospital.
- Durant’s résumé has steadily made him an unassailable top-15 player of all time. He has one league MVP, two Finals MVP’s and four scoring titles to his name and is the active leader in points per game. Additionally, Durant has three MVP runner-ups, including in 2009-10 when was was a mind-numbing age of 21. He’s still only 30, so he has a few years of great basketball left in him. Furthermore, with a move to the Big Apple this summer, Durant’s legend could explode.
- Joel Embiid is the least likely of the five players, but as an international player, he’s worth discussing. He’s the league’s dominant center, with a style that mimics a modern Olajuwon. Embiid is a fan favorite on social media, constantly clowning his opponents (and even their fathers). However, he’s less compelling in interviews, where his incredibly deep voice and tendency to mumble can sometimes make it difficult to understand him (Will Cain FTW). Still, Embiid’s incessant trash talking proves he has the necessary charisma and he’s got the game to back it up.
- Williamson has yet to play a minute in the NBA, so how could I possibly think he could become the face of the NBA? Well, take a look at the comment section of any Sportscenter or ESPN post on Instagram: it’s littered with dozens of unoriginal jokes like “thats cool but what did Zion eat for dinner?”. The major sports networks have already over-saturated the market with Williamson content. Time will tell if Williamson develops into an MVP-caliber player worthy of being the face of the NBA, but he has already proven that he can capture our attention in a way no teenager has done since LeBron.
- Giannis’ case is obvious as he’s the heavy favorite for the MVP award this season at only 24 years old. The aptly named Greek Freak is an inconceivable hybrid of prime Shaq’s at-the-rim dominance and Magic Johnson’s point-forward transition brilliance. It’s a matter of when, not if, Giannis becomes the league’s best player, and he may even be already.
I’ve spent a significant amount of time discussing who could be the next face of the NBA and whether or not he could an international player. Let’s look at the issue from another angle that one of my classmates proposed.
What if LeBron was from outside the United States?
LeBron was practically the face of the league before he was in the league. His rise to stardom started long ago, where earned the nickname, “the Chosen One”, and dubbed the heir to Jordan as a junior in high school. Furthermore, he got drafted by his hometown team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, and turned a once-incompetent franchise into a title contender by himself. In 2014, LeBron chose to come home and return to play for the Cavaliers in free agency, citing his personal mission to bring a title to his beloved hometown. If LeBron was born in another country, all of these critical narratives would cease to exist.
LeBron’s popularity perhaps reached an all-time high this past summer when he opened up a public school for at-risk children in his hometown of Akron, Ohio called the I Promise School. If he opened this amazing school in, say, Yaoundé, Cameroon (Joel Embiid’s birthplace), would we have even noticed, let alone dedicated as much media attention as we did about the I Promise School? The answer is no.
I have to feel that at some point LeBron’s accomplishments (8 consecutive Finals, comeback from down 3-1 in the Finals, youngest player to reach 30,000 points and endless more) would have inevitably made him the face of the league. His accomplishments are simply overwhelming; when the G.O.A.T. debate becomes a serious discussion, you have to be the face of the league. However, I do think that it would have taken significantly longer to occur. A foreign-born LeBron likely doesn’t become the face of the league until after his second title with Miami in 2013.
I have a hard time picturing a post-LeBron NBA. He’s been the face of the league since before I started followed the NBA in 2012. I still haven’t fully come to grips with the fact that LeBron’s not on the Cavaliers anymore, so I can’t even imagine what the league will look like when he retires. Nick Wright and Skip Bayless will probably be looking for a new field of employment.
On a serious note, I do believe it’s possible for an international player to become the face of the league. Giannis has proven to be one of, if not the best player in the league. He transcends the factors that could withhold an international player. However, he still has an uphill battle to fight. Curry and Durant already own superior résumés and more league-wide popularity (especially if Durant joins the Knicks). Sports media already seems to want Williamson to be the next face of the league and that might be all it takes for him.
Giannis can take the throne by force by leading Milwaukee to a title in the next couple of seasons. There is a road where an international player is the face of basketball in the very near future, but Giannis will need to reach even higher than he did in the above image to turn it into a reality.
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