[employee84Participant]

With Lebron, Curry, KD and others at the end of their careers, who is the next face of the league?

Zion and Ja could have been the face of the league, but they both blew it. Embid, Joker, Luka and Giannis haven’t grabbed the spotlight outside of their play. Ant Edwards to me alittle too immature.

Not sure about Vic or Chet yet. Big men need big personalities.

I think Tatum could be the guy. Especially if they win it this year.

Thoughts?

[NorrinRaddParticipant]

Interesting take… The face of the league by popularity seems to be Embiid, although (up for debate) Imo Jokic has been the best player. The other face is Luka Doncic for here and the future… and in the very short future I think it’s Wemby. Cooper Flagg and perhaps even Ace Bailey could be in the future conversation some time someday as the face. Zion and Ja are good enough, but yeah like you said they blew it with bad behavior… Tatum is one of the guys now for sure due to the winning of the Celtics.

[Blackhole1374Participant]

First, in regards to the Embiid statement, he has been by far the most remarkable player this season, but I don’t really see him as the face of the league due to the amount of hate he gets for how he plays with flopping for fouls and “injury” concerns; which I understand Lebron is, has, and always will be hated but that was just due to his dominance and everybody’s team could never beat him imo.
For the next stage, recency bias might be occurring for me with Haliburton. but Indiana has def had growth as a team this year and he seems to be a really likeable guy with good character. Next, Idk much about his personality but maybe Paolo’s growth could throw him into the spotlight but it will be tough with the success of Tatum and the Celtics. With that, Tatum seems like he could be handed the face of the league but even as a Cs fan I don’t see too much personality from him making him likeable or not for everybody, he just doesn’t seem to wanna draw that much or that kinda attention to himself.
Overall, I think it is pretty open and there is no Lebron or Steph comparison right now.
Could this be due to the major increase in talent as of late? I feel like aside from this coming draft, every draft has a potential face of the league and nearly every team has a major star or multiple which takes the spotlight away from everyone pretty evenly.

[NorrinRaddParticipant]

Looks like Embiid’s injury concerns were pretty legitimate. Not sure he will ever be the same. As remarkable as he has been, he played less games than other marketing MVP candidates. He may have had a better peak game here and there, but as for the year I’d still slightly take Jokic – even on a per game level. He plays more games and does more in the overall game on a more efficient basis doing everything in slightly less minutes/game. And yes – last year Jokic was absolutely robbed of MVP. As Embiid was the “most remarkable” player lately – not the best overall this year and definitely no last. I’m not even talking playoffs either. If we included that, Jokic has a title.
As for Haliburton, hey anything’s possible… He’s having a great year and Indiana’s pretty good. Statistically speaking over the year Haliburton on a per game level has to be in the top 10. Only thing though is how marketable is anyone from the Indiana Pacers? We’ll see…
Paolo Banchero could be every bit as good and marketable as Holmgren I would think. He might play similar to Tatum, but much younger… He could be peak Tatum in the future.
A guy I don’t think anyone mentioned was SGA. Not sure how marketable he is being such a model citizen in a place like OKC, but they are winning and he should be an MVP candidate himself.

[HitsterParticipant]

Best player or most marketable are two different things. To even consider the best player at the moment is hard IMO. As far as worldwide fame I’d say LBJ and Steph are the top two. But Steph wasn’t voted an All Star starter this year so is his popularity not what it was.

I’d say Wemby will become the global face of the NBA if he stays sound. I’m based in the UK and he got a lot of general mainstream sports coverage that few other rookies ever got. LBJ and Shaq were probably the most hyped players in their first year or two in the NBA in the UK after MJ exploded. Shaq was much more mainstream than say Hakeem who was the better player at the time.

I think Wemby, Doncic will be the main faces in the next few years. Whoever the Lakers get in to replace LBJ will get a lot of hype. Cooper Flagg will be the next US Great White hope and has elite playing tools already. I haven’t seen much of Airious “Ace” Bailey but that name screams great marketing and if he is a very elite athlete he could be a huge name.

[GronounoursParticipant]

Honestly, I’m not sure why anyone would ask themselves that kind of question. Who cares who’s “marketable” or not? As if anyone could answer it anyway…

It’s like sneakers deals. Who could possibly be interested in such trivialities?

[employee84Participant]

Not sure why anyone would ask who the face of the NBA will be the next decade? There’s a slew of HOFs at the end of their careers that have carried the NBA the last 10-15 years.

It’s not rocket science, just conversation. Also, this may shock you, but ALOT of people are actually interested in the next sneaker deals.

[NorrinRaddParticipant]

This AJ Dybantsa kid looks legit… maybe he’d be considered too.

[Author]

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