This week my son showed me some videos of AAU highlights and I was stunned. Eighth graders doing tomahawk and 360 dunks…eighth graders! Makes you wonder what is happening and whether it is physically good for the kids. Researchers are starting to look at the injuries of todays young NBA stars, and whether they are the result of the wear and tear of playing 100 games per year starting at age 8. Interestingly, many of today’s top NBA stars including Kawhi Leonard, Damian Lillard, Steph Curry, Paul George, C.J. McCollum, and Pascal Siakam all attended mid-majors and were not regarded as high prospects out of high school. Basketball is also more suited for social media than any other major sport and having a solid mid-range game won’t make you a viral star like Zion Williamson. So, expect to see more young players stretching their physical limits to the nth degree. Zion himself is already getting injured at an alarming rate. I think he is the most talented NBA prospect in a generation, I hope his best plays aren’t already behind him.
On Friday evening, the LA Dodgers won game one of the 2024 World Series over the New York Yankees in glorious fashion, with Freddie Freeman hitting a walk-off grand slam home run in the bottom of the 10th inning. For Dodger fans, the game could not have been scripted better...
I once read that sports are a universal language. Regardless of ethnicity or what language you speak, almost everyone speaks sports. No place has that been more evident than the Olympics, where every four years, we are moved by images of athletic rivals from around the world shaking hands and embracing each other in moving displays of sportsmanship.
The NFL markets its brand as well as any enterprise in the world. I heard a comedian once say that the NFL is so popular, it has its own day. NFL football is huge. Each NFL franchise brings in approximately $400M a year in revenue; almost double the annual revenue of NBA teams and 2 ½ times as much as MLB clubs.