The NBA's image problem can be traced to "some of the
sneaker companies," who have taken players like Knicks G
Latrell Sprewell and 76ers G Allen Iverson, both of whom
"have had checkered pasts, and played up those parts of
their personalities," according to CNN/SI's Phil Taylor.
Taylor adds that "maybe the problem is that the advertisers
are looking at a narrow group of people. The NBA wants to
appeal to everybody." Taylor: "A lot of the NBA's image
problems would be solved if the sneaker companies and the
people who put those commercials out there ... concentrated
on some of the guys who are good guys both on and off the
court and don't have these checkered histories" (CNN/SI,
6/26). But Iverson's Reebok rep Que Gaskins said that
"Madison Avenue is finally starting to see that the urban
consumer is powerful." In an Op-Ed, NBA author Larry Platt
wrote that "a new generation of companies realizes that the
American consumer has changed," and added that the AND 1
"American Dream" ad featuring Sprewell is "as socially
groundbreaking as it gets in the insular world of pro
sports." More Platt, on Sprewell: "Like the in-your-face
music that informs the game, Spree is here to stay, saying
in effect ... 'Deal with me.' And kids would have it no
other way" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 6/27).
FREE OF SPREE? ESPN's Mike Lupica, on Sprewell's impact
in N.Y.: "If you consider the fact that Latrell Sprewell
comes into the season as public enemy No. 1 and ends the
season in New York as the people's choice, so much happened.
... But as far as basketball was concerned, it happened on
merit" ("Sports Reporters," ESPN, 6/27).