Additional news, names and numbers from this year’s NBA Finals:
■ SPONSORSHIP UPDATE: Having the Finals in the Bay Area for a second consecutive year proved convenient for Emilio Collins, executive vice president of global partnerships for the NBA. The league wants to tap further into Silicon Valley for its partnership roster.
While in California for Games 1 and 2 of the Finals, Collins met with league partner Cisco, a sponsor since 2007, and made the rounds with other undisclosed Bay Area tech firms.
“We are spending a lot of time in the technology sector,” Collins said.
Among other league sponsors, Samsung’s NBA deal is up this summer, as are the league’s deals with Taco Bell (a partner since 2009), Foot Locker (2004) and Diageo (2013).
Collins said discussions with each continue.
“We are right in the middle of them now,” he said, adding that the talks involve ways to expand the existing deals. Representatives of the partner companies could not be reached at press time for discussion of the deals.
The NBA has already added one new company to its fold this summer. The league signed mouth guard maker Shock Doctor to a multiyear promotional and licensing agreement to run across the NBA, WNBA, NBA D-League and USA Basketball. The deal is effective immediately.
Shock Doctor has player endorsement deals with Kevin Love of the Cavs and DeMarcus Cousins of the Sacramento Kings, but the NBA deal is its first league-level deal.
Look for the NBA this summer also to complete the design of its new 24-second clock and the testing of its new timekeeping system as part of the leaguewide deal it signed last year with Tissot. The new system will debut in the NBA next season.
■ TEAM BUSINESS: The NBA is on track to sell more than 300,000 full-season tickets again next season, crossing a threshold it first reached for the 2015-16 season, according to Amy Brooks, executive vice president of the NBA’s team marketing and business operations division. The league’s renewal rate is about 85 percent, on par with expectations, Brooks said.
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The Sixers, with the No. 1 pick in the coming draft, are top-five in new full-season ticket sales.
Photo by: NBAE / GETTY IMAGES
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“We are tracking to come very close to where we were last year,” Brooks said. “Strategically, for some of our high-demand teams, there is a limit. It is an inventory management strategy.”
Like this past season, about half the league’s teams expect to sell at least 10,000 full-season tickets.
The top five teams at this point for new full-season tickets sold for next season are (in no ranked order) the Atlanta Hawks, Boston Celtics, Charlotte Hornets, Philadelphia 76ers and Sacramento Kings.
The Hawks, Hornets and Celtics are selling off their respective playoff appearances this year. The Kings are selling off their move into new Golden 1 Center this fall. What about the Sixers, who finished 10-72 in 2015-16?
“They are selling hope,” Brooks said. The team got a jolt last month when it won the league’s annual draft lottery.
■ SEATS AT THE TABLE: After years of tinkering with its NBA pregame show, ESPN executives appear to have settled on a desk with Sage Steele, Doug Collins and Jalen Rose. The trio has been together for three seasons, and ESPN executives expect the show, “Countdown,” will remain in place for the foreseeable future.
“We’ve got some great continuity with ‘Countdown,’” said Mark Gross, ESPN’s senior vice president of production and remote events. “Continuity helps with the chemistry. It helps with having a sense of how people react to things or how to set certain analysts up. It just makes for better TV.”
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The “Countdown” lineup of Steele, Rose and Collins is sticking.
Photo by: ESPN IMAGES
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ESPN has been trying to get its pregame team to match the consistency of its game crew, where
Mike Breen,
Jeff Van Gundy,
Mark Jackson and
Doris Burke have worked together for seven years. Additionally, Breen has set a record for calling the most NBA Finals at play-by-play (11), while Van Gundy holds the record for the most as an analyst (10).
While that group built its rapport, the pregame group could not find a similar rhythm. It also suffered from comparisons to the award-winning
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Jeff Van Gundy and Mike Breen are record setters.
Photo by: ESPN IMAGES
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“Inside the NBA” on TNT. ESPN tried different hosts, including having
Michael Wilbon in the lead role, and it burned through a number of analysts, including
Magic Johnson,
Bill Walton and
Bill Simmons.
But ESPN executives say the current crew is providing what the network wants from a pregame show.
“It’s no secret that we’ve had various combinations of talent on the ‘Countdown’ set over the last
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Hubie Brown keeps it to the league, even in blowouts.
Photo by: NBAE / GETTY IMAGES
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few years, but we feel like we’ve got now a really nice team with Sage hosting and Doug providing the coaching expertise and Jalen providing the player expertise,” Gross said. “We feel like we’ve got the right folks on the set and the right chemistry. They’re all able to provide different perspectives.”
■ FILLING TIME: NBA broadcasters have had a lot of airtime to fill this postseason as the league has suffered through a rash of lopsided games. Games 2 and 3 of the Finals were decided by 33 and 30 points, respectively. The Eastern Conference Final, similarly, had three if its six games decided by more than 25 points, leading ESPN’s TV crew during one of those games to discuss their favorite TV shows — with Van Gundy reminiscing about “Hawaii Five-0.”
Former coach Hubie Brown, who is calling his 15th NBA Finals for ESPN Radio, takes a different approach to calling blowouts. Speaking the day after the Cavaliers’ 30-point Game 3 Finals victory, Brown said he likes to remain focused on the game.
“You can never forget that you’re selling the game,” Brown said. “The key is that you stay within what is news within the league itself, and then if you are going to go back, you’re going back into the history of the league or the players who became legends in the league or the teams. You want to keep them so that they have references all the time.”
Brown said he tries to remain conscious of the ever-growing international audience. This year’s Finals are being telecast in 59 countries.
“You have to remember that this game is not just being seen or heard in the United States,” Brown said. “Consequently, you cannot let up in trying to have excellence of the telecast or radiocast.”
■ ON THE MOVE: The NBA’s team marketing and business operations group saw another departure recently, with senior vice president John Abbamondi leaving to become executive vice president of ticketing, suites and hospitality for Madison Square Garden Sports starting next month. Abbamondi follows former TMBO executive Jordan Solomon, who also left the league office in February to become an executive vice president at MSG Sports.
Brooks said she expects to fill the vacancies in her department within a few weeks.
Meanwhile, at the team level, the Atlanta Hawks have hired Pete Thuresson as senior vice president of corporate partnerships. Thuresson comes to the Hawks after working as vice president of corporate partnerships for the Los Angeles Clippers. He started his new job last week.
— John Lombardo and John Ourand
