Lonzo and the Ball family are kind of the first of it's kind, but this has kind of been brewing for a while and social media is aiding in changing the landscape for young hoopers.
These high school players man are full fledged stars by the time they get to college, let alone the NBA. Lamelo is a full fledged star before his senior year of high school. More and more young hoopers are going to come to the table demanding bags in the future because of this.
Like Drake is out here posting to his 30 something million followers him in a Zion jersey man. These dudes are stars and there's always been young stars, but because of Instagram it's a bit more tangible. If you're Like lamelo or zion or some ****, imagine Nike trying to give you like 200k deal when you already are a gigantic influencer with Million's of followers.
Young ****** get paid
how much power do they hold?! I'm positively electrified to see where this goes...man, if that 5000 preorder thing is legit.
I watched Kanye whine in an interview that the "industry" wouldn't let him connwect with manufacturers to make his clothing line.
Lavar figured it out though.
this is why I had zero respect for Kanye's approach to that whole thing.
you're a mulitplex-time Grammy winning artist and recognized icon of sartorial style (it's all relative, roll with me) with an international media platform and global fanbase along with what has to be approaching half a billion dollars in wealth and assets, and you're crying that you can't get your clothing line off the ground?
get a helmet, my guy, sheezus.
Can we all acknowledge how crazy this entire thing is? This is like NBA 2K MyCareer come to life lol. I can't wait to watch Lonzo's rookie year.
this is more or less the approach all athletes with the juice should take. these people have no idea of their value to the cities, media markets and leagues their talents help support. it's why I'm firmly against the idea of a salary cap, but that's another story.
I hear and feel all of this, I just can't salute ppl (LaVar) who's foundation is built off going Trump mode with the outrageous troll statements.
I don't own a MAGA hat either, but the guy is President so ya really can't argue with results.
i guess I should contribute to the thread...
LaVar is largely apolitical. it's also not really a racial issue. of course there are racial undertones at play, but there's been nothing overtly racist, like what happened with Adam Jones in Boston. if there was, i missed it in this thread.
what you have to realize in sports and business in America is that it inherently intersects with "race."
without going into a whole thing about owner demographics and use of public funds in some of the country's most troubled cities, I think I can sum up my point by saying that the South Eastern Conference became dominant in high profile college sports right around the Civil Rights movement...and let's be clear, the central reason certain athletes ever took the field or court for those schools is because they were sick of getting their **** pushed in by Grambling and Georgia Tech.
since those days, these schools have enjoyed trillions of dollars of resources and coverage as a result of their success driven by the uncompensated efforts of the athletes they employ.
they often even get first dibs on new talent, who in many cases grow up dreaming of suiting up in states they should barely even visit thanks to efficient continuation of the system.
take a look at the players at the next SEC game you see, then take a look at the stands and tell me it's not about race.
as for how it relates to the Ball saga, it's really not hard to see how a man outside The Circle picking at the financial underpinnings of the whole arrangement is a no-go for Nike'nem.
from the
"independent athlete branding" conversation comes the
"proportional labor/management compensation" discussion, and from there it could lead to an open forum on the level of sway that entertainers of all stripes have in a society engineered by corporations to consume their talents as a delivery vehicle for advertisement and commerce.
...at least, that's my theory.
Because that's the only way this doesn't flop.
