The NBA’s encroachment on Super Bowl week and what the future could hold

There are times when the rivalry between the NFL and NBA feels one-sided. Maybe it’s American football’s overwhelming popularity in this country – four times as much as basketball or baseball. Perhaps it’s events such as the NFL’s Christmas Day union with Netflix, casting a shadow over the NBA with Beyonce’s star power and an assortment of games.

Even with another classic Christmas duel between LeBron James and Stephen Curry, and a subsequent declaration from ‘Bron – “Christmas is our day” – the NFL’s holiday push felt like a Brotherly Shove with its near inevitability.

But the NBA found a way to get its lick back.

It was hard for me to hear what was going on during Super Bowl week in New Orleans because the NBA trade deadline was louder than a bomb. It started with a Shams Charania tweet in the midnight hour that some thought was a sham because of this kicker – Luka Doncic to La La Land, Anthony Davis to Dallas. But it was true, and what resulted until the Feb. 6, 3 p.m. ET trade deadline was a series of rumors and realness that captured sports fans’ interest.

Was the Luka trade an end to the “player empowerment” era? Is Kevin Durant going back to the Warriors? How will the Jimmy Butler-Pat Riley feud end? It wasn’t enough that those questions were definitively answered. They were solved in a way that reminded me of how the NBA marketed itself during my formative years, with clever commercials and a willingness to engage smaller markets.

Shifting the conversation from the NFL is no small task, and certainly, the Super Bowl itself shines brightest in the American sports landscape. But there is a path for the NBA to steady itself against the NFL’s autumn and winter winds in the years to come, and it starts with star power.

With respect to Davis’ capacity for dominance on both ends of the floor, it never made sense to raise him up as an heir to James from the celebrity perspective. When he ultimately deferred to the King in a basketball sense, it made the Lakers’ future murky, even with a championship on the pair’s resume.

That is no longer the case. “Luka Magic” isn’t just a plan for L.A.’s basketball future, it’s a plan for the NBA’s as well.

We have a hard time letting go of basketball icons. Look how long it took us to truly appreciate James independent of Michael Jordan’s shadow. Even now, in the presence of Nikola Jokic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Anthony Edwards, casual fans are still checking for Bron, Chef Curry and KD. The Olympics were a teaser of the game’s international presence and the passing of the torch through brotherly banter between the likes of Edwards and Durant. But the NBA can’t rely on a spike every four years. With the Luka-LeBron partnership, it doesn’t have to wait any longer. The NBA’s future is now.

The rhetoric regarding “player empowerment” matters as much now as the rhetoric regarding Luka’s conditioning. Both are convenient excuses to hate on generational talents, and hate doesn’t need logic, only motive. But there are times when that contempt is righteous indignation. “I know it’s not true, but it’s a motive … for a long run here,” Doncic said about criticism of his conditioning.

I feel the same way about narratives surrounding player empowerment. Butler, who was traded to Golden State, isn’t in the same tier as the aforementioned stars, but that didn’t stop him from getting what he wanted – an exit from Miami to the tune of $121 million over two years from Golden State. That saga might be frustrating to NBA purists, but at this point, it’s the cost of doing business.

This also underscores the point of controlling narratives that might work against the NBA’s best interest. You would never see an NFL production take tireless aim at its spotty refereeing, or the supposed preferential treatment for the perennially successful Kansas City Chiefs. And yet, the NBA’s most popular show on TNT makes it a regular occurrence to discuss 3-point volume shooting or grumbling about players in contract disputes.

I remember when the NBA had a sense of marketing when it came to rising and present stars. It’s not a coincidence that the Charlotte Hornets, next to the Chicago Bulls, had the most popular Starter jackets some decades ago. The league celebrated its eccentricities, whether it was Muggsy Bogues’ big game despite being 5-foot-3, or Larry Johnson’s pre-Madea antics. Add Alonzo Mourning to the mix, and the Hornets became iconic in the mid-90s.

I was a teenager walking around the Nike Peach Jam in 1998 and being handed a Fun Police badge, a Nike promotion which surrounded a young Kevin Garnett with a mix of NBA stars, such as Gary Payton and Jason Kidd, in addition to role players like Terry Porter and Tom Gugliotta. We think of Scottie Pippen as a sidekick to Jordan, but he was the leading man in a McDonald’s commercial when he swiped the fries of Mourning, Reggie Miller and Patrick Ewing, a callout to his defensive prowess.

Maybe the league can take a page from its female counterparts. The jersey retirement ceremonies for A’ja Wilson and Caitlin Clark were a perfect precursor to the view of Wilson’s new shoe. Angel Reese is a one-woman billboard, with her face on a McDonald’s meal and a cereal box. Ant-Man has done a few commercials, but what about Gilgeous-Alexander? Maybe instead of freezing out Trae Young, the league could put one of its unappreciated, but flashy guards in a spot or two. Again, the goal has to be sustaining interest beyond this dynamic and legendary trade deadline.

The NBA should seriously consider some changes to All-Star Weekend to continue the momentum – perhaps adding some star power (and a larger prize) to the dunk contest. The secret might be as simple as making the league fun again. Magic Johnson and Larry Bird made the league fun, same as Jordan. Despite the complaints about competitiveness, what people really want to see is a colorful league, both in how it presents its product and players.

Maybe you see the Luka trade as the NBA catching lightning in a bottle. Perhaps you see it as a Laker-loving conspiracy, rising from an outer realm known for frozen envelopes and perfidious ping-pong balls. Either way, it’s fun.

More importantly, it takes a nation’s conscience away from football and back to hoops, which has given the NBA new life.