Why The Nets Franchise Is Doomed Without Carmelo
For those of you who know me, I’m an irrationally loyal New Jersey Nets fan. Why? Well, what can I say? I grew up Jersey City for the majority of my childhood. Being irrationally loyal is actually quite appropriate considering the inspiration for this post.
For those of you not paying attention, Carmelo Anthony is all but demanding a trade from the Denver Nuggets. He can walk after the season and become a free agent, but issues between the owners and players over the new CBA coming up in the summer could cause a lock out. If he were to become a free agent instead of signing an extension in a deal that would trade him to another team, he would lose out on tens of millions of dollars.
All reports say his ideal situation is to go to the Knicks, but it’s practically impossible via trade. The New Jersey Nets, with new ownership and management, are doing everything they can to lure him to the Nets so he can be the headline star for the franchise when the team moves to Brooklyn in two years.
Some fans have given up hope that Carmelo would sign an extension with the cellar-dweller Nets, believing it to be better that he opt-out of all that cash and join the revived Knicks. More disturbing however, is that fans think the price is too high – and it is high as hell – to acquire Anthony and would rather keep their draft picks and young stud Derrick Favors and try to build up through the draft like Oklahoma City did.
“Let him go to the Knicks!” some scream.
Here’s the big problem with that.
The classic form of rebranding that takes place in the corporate world doesn’t take place in sports. Sports team fandom doesn’t come from liking a better product. It’s handed down from generation to generation, is amplified by local enthusiasm, group think, camaraderie, and all feelings of pain and joy.
Fans stay fans of their lifelong teams through all kinds of crap. Look at us. There’s no logical reason for us to be Nets fans. For what? A few years of prosperity? And there’s little reason Knicks fans should’ve stayed Knicks fans over the past 12-13 years if the rules of traditional branding applied to sports.
For example, let’s say your favorite brand product in the world was a certain shoe brand. Now what if that company replaced all of its good materials with cheap crap that fell apart in a month, was ugly as sin, etc for over 10 years. Would you stick by that shoe brand and defend it to the death? No, because you like the brand for less emotional reasons than you like your sports teams.
If Melo goes to the Knicks and pairs with Amare while the Barclay Center plays home to what is essentially a high school basketball team by comparison, do you see anyone embracing that team? Do you see any young kids (the most likely prospects being kids of parents who recently moved to NY, especially Brooklyn) embracing the Brooklyn Nets?
No, they’ll fall in love with the Knicks and the generational cycle of Knicks love in NY will continue. The Nets will always be remembered as the team who tried to do anything they could to become legitimate, only to be laughed at and shrugged off by every star player in the League. Worse, shrugged off by a perennial All-Star who decided to go to the hometown rival (Knicks) for less.
About The Author
Anthony Perez
Anthony Perez is a scatterbrained insomniac with aspirations of becoming a film director. For now, he's a strategist at McCann NY. He's been a digital strategist/community manager at StrawberryFrog, digital strategist at the social media agency Conversation, digital media planner at Flying Point Media, and even did door-to-door sales for Quill office supplies. He also helped do research for Greg Verdino's upcoming book microMARKETING.
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