The covid leaves many of its figures, Doncic and Durant among them, without the main event of the league. Antetokounmpo has come out of isolation at the last minute. Curry, hope.
American sports drink from its traditions, immobile and unbreakable. Thanksgiving, the fourth Thursday in November, is the holy day of the NFL, which always celebrates its Super Bowl in February. End of Ao it’s for him college football, the madness of march for student basketball, otoo for the World baseball series… And in the NBA, the Yes D is he December 25th: Christmas Day, almost as important as the very Finals. The basketball league begins to have on the day of Martin Luther King (January 18) another of his great celebrations, but Christmas is still his moment: the best games, the best players and the highest income of the entire season.
For all this, the NBA has experienced a last week of heart attack, run over by the micron variant, due to infections that have affected more than 120 players and for a pandemic that has put the competition and its most anticipated day in check. This 25 five games are played: Knicks-Hawks, Bucks-Celtics, Suns-Warriors, Lakers-Nets Y Jazz-Mavericks. That is, ten of the most important franchises in the NBA with seven MVPs in their ranks.
The Madison Square Garden in New York, Antetokounmpo against Boston, the duel between the best team this year (Phoenix) Y Stephen Curry, the two most media franchises of the moment with LeBron and Durant like stars and, finally, the visit of Luka Doncic a Utah. A priori, 13 hours of uninterrupted broadcasting with the best players in the world on the court. The reality, marked by the virus, is far from all that.
The loss of Doncic and the doubt of other stars
Doncic, whose duel last year before the Lakers was the most viewed of the day (7 million viewers) tested positive and is safely discharged, while the NBA works hard to reach an agreement with the players’ union, change protocol and get lower quarantine days of the positives from ten to six, thus increasing the chances of their stars playing. Durant and Trae Young they will not be and Harden Y Antetokounmpo, who were isolated, received the ‘OK’ at the last minute. Urgent measures to save Christmas day as the league calendar bleeds night after night. The competition is not going to stop“We have to live with the virus,” Commissioner Adam Silver announced Tuesday.
The phrase echoed over players and fans, who have had a surreal last week with Matches between substitutes, boys from the development league and others rescued from unemployment that same day, while a quarter of the NBA, which has a 3% unvaccinated, I was infected. Up front, the NFL has decided do not test the asymptomatic and save complications. The next protocol will be key.
50 million in ads
The absence of the NBA stars on Christmas Day be a negative blow to league popularity. First, because December 25 is the date chosen by many viewers to premiere in the season, and second because a large part of the income of the course depends on the television advertising and of the tickets sold for these matches. Silver proyect unos total revenue of 10 billion for this course, improving the 8,000 of the previous one. Of that number, the NBA estimates that the ticketing is he 40%. An amount directly affected by micron sprouts.
On a television level, a few weeks ago the company iSpot tasaba en 50 million dollars advertisers’ spending on this year’s NBA Christmas, for the 28 of the last edition. Without stars, the return of that figure will also be altered. And opposite, again the NFL, which begins to gain ground on December 25 and, after taking 20 million viewers at Vikings-Saints of that day in 2020, today you have scheduled a Packers-Browns at the same time as the Suns-Warriors.
Curry, el salvador
And it is there, at that moment, when the NBA throws its last great hope onto the court: Stephen Curry. The Golden State guard’s season is being the salvation of the competition. His style of play, the return of the Warriors to the top positions and his career, already completed, to overcome the record the triples de Ray Allen They have positioned the two-time MVP as the leader of the audiences and the main Christmas claim. They are performances and popularity that are reminiscent of Michael Jordanstates CBS. The NBA dreams of a historic performance by its star to try to save its big day.
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