The Blog of the Great: Tre' Tipton: May 2013

In basketball, specifically professional basketball, you have those rare superstars who come around and have the power to indirectly effect cities and cities economies. Their presence of living in a particular city is powerful enough to bring loads of more money to that economy and their being in the National Basketball Association also brings a lot to the league, too.
Some of the earliest major superstars were Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain. These two players helped popularized the NBA in the late 50's and early to mid 60's because they were the first two African- American superstars and they "evolutionized" the game because of the height they brought into the game. There had never been a 7' footer in the league until Wilt Chamberlain arrived in the NBA and Bill Russell was barely under 7' feet. There shot blocking, rebounding, and prolific scoring abilities were what set them apart and what popularized them and the NBA helping the NBA increase revenue.
In 2003, when the Cleveland Cavaliers drafted the now 4x MVP, LeBron James, it wasn't obvious just how important his presence was in the city of Cleveland. But, it became quite obvious when one of the more poverty stricken cities in the United States of America was beginning to thrive off of one person, one superstar.
LeBron James, alone, brought 200 billion dollars to the city of Cleveland within a 7 year span just by simply playing in maybe 40 games a year in Cleveland. I'm positive his short times in playing in away games out of town brought great amounts of money to those cities as well. In the businesses included with the Cavaliers organization, he brought in 100 million a year. The Quicken Loans Arena, home of the Cleveland Cavaliers, before LeBron James was drafted was filled with about 11,500 fans in a 20,000+ seating arena. After drafting him, every home game was a sellout at "The Q". Each home game during just the regular season reeled in about 3.7 million dollars in tickets, souveniers, food, and hotels in 82 games which would be 300 million dollars a year. He brought television revenue, jersey sales, and a much higher profile to the city of Cleveland. Now just imagine you living in Cleveland when LeBron left for Miami... with LeBron went all of that money and economical hope.
Now you look at LeBron and all he did for the city of Cleveland and you'd think that that could never happen for another city or the nation in that matter. Well, it was happening about 20 years before LeBron was even drafted. Michael Jordan's economical importance to the nation, let alone the city of Chicago, was ginormous. He was even inspirational to kids from across the nation wanting to "Be Like Mike" because of the different style he brought to the game by twisting and torquing his body in the air and showcasing spectacular dunks and dribble moves.
A year after Jordan came into the league, his investment grew by 1000% and the team worth by 200 million dollars. The movie "Space Jam" grossed about 230 million dollars worldwide. His commercials, "Come Fly with Us" being the top rated, generated revenue of about 80 million dollars. He wrote several books including The Jordan Rules, Hang Time, and I Can't Accept Not Trying generated 17 million dollars in sales. His Jordan Brand cologne had sales of about 155 million dollars worldwide and Hanes Underwear still to this day brings in about 10 million dollars annually. Lets not forget the Jordan/ Nike tennis shoe sales which bring in close to an astounding 1 billion dollars annually. In Mike's playing days, the Bulls' United Center arena was sold out for every home game and rightfully so because everyone wanted to come watch 'His Airness'.
I was drawn to this particular topic because I can never learn enough about basketball and its impact in the country. At first I was having problems trying to narrow down my topic from just the generality of the basketball and its entire economical impact which is why I narrowed down to the impact from certain basketball superstars. I discovered that these two made and are making their particular team's city's and the nation wealthier by being in the basketball industry and sharing their talents with the league. I learned that without LeBron, Cleveland returned pretty much back to a gloomy, poverty stricken city and his presence in Miami has even heightened Miami's wealth and Jordan continues to grow his personal wealth along with cooperate businesses in the U.S. involved with him. One source I found very useful was a piece on CNN about Jordan and I used a ton of info on Jordan off of that site.Overall, though I feel like I learned a lot of material about these two and got a gist on just how much money sports stars make and their importance to the economy.