NBA Playoffs Marketing Watch: Hornets Fans In Headbands

For "trendy, back-on-the-bandwagon Hornets fans, the improbable fashion statement of the moment is the old-fashioned terrycloth headband," as several Hornets players wear them, according to Tim Whitmire of the CHARLOTTE OBSERVER. But while the team "hasn't found enough of the sweat-soakers to do a giveaway" at Friday night's Game Three against the Heat, it "hopes to hand out headbands before the next home playoff game" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 4/26).

WERE THEY UNDERRATED? 76ers Senior VP Dave Coskey, on G Allen Iverson placing fourth in THE DAILY's survey on the most marketable players in the NBA (4/25): "Iverson jerseys are flying out of stores. It doesn't really matter what the poll says, because in Philadelphia — where our focus is — I'm not sure he could be any more popular than he already is" (Phil Jasner, PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS, 4/26)....In Toronto, Garth Woolsey, on the notion that Raptors F Vince Carter's marketability is hurt by the fact that he plays outside of the U.S.: "That Carter somehow suffers from northern exposure is easily refutable: NBA fans everywhere certainly take notice of him — they vote him into the all-star game on tidal waves of support. And it is not as if he is currently [waiting] for endorsement opportunities, Nike included" (TORONTO STAR, 4/26). The Raptors finished with the fifth-highest NBA road attendance this season (#33).