Word: nba
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Dates: during 2010-2019
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...catalyst for the number of players jumping ship after freshman year was a 2006 change in NBA eligibility rules that prevents players from entering the draft until a full year after they graduate high school. Although the outcome of this decision was nebulous to coaches and players alike at the time of its announcement, enough time has passed now to gauge the rule’s repercussions. For the prodigious high school players that used to go directly to the NBA, like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, the route to the pros now involves an obligatory one-year stop...
...never a shoo-in. When Li Ning opened its Portland retail store to the public for an hour on Feb. 15 for its grand opening, sneaker heads lined up for five hours to be among the first to own a pair of BD Dooms, basketball shoes named after NBA point guard Baron Davis. Jay Li admits they lined up "not because of Li Ning but because we have a world-class basketball shoe." (It probably also helped that Baron Davis himself was in the store giving autographs.) Priced between $99.99 and $149.99, a pair of BD Dooms does not come...
What ensues in the sporting world where no standards of excellence or value are set aside is plurality of honor and accomplishment. Awards in the NBA are given to the best non-starter (sixth man award), and in the Olympics athletes are dubbed “most decorated” even if they have failed to win a gold medal. During the 2002 World Series the MLB unveiled their top 10 “most memorable moments” with the top moment going to Carl Ripken Jr. playing the most consecutive games of all time...
...piece of good fortune alone. The truth is, his team began planning well in advance (662 days, by the count of CEO Zhang Zhiyong), focusing on bang-for-buck sponsorship choices. Knowing, for instance, that the U.S. Dream Team would wind up in the basketball finals, but that its NBA-star-packed roster would be too pricey to support, Li Ning sponsored eventual silver-medal winners Spain and bronze-medal winners Argentina. Li Ning - sponsored athletes won 27 out of China's 51 golds...
...These days, the company works with NBA stars like Baron Davis (who has a signature Li Ning shoe, the BD-1) and Shaquille O'Neal (who is under a five-year contract with the brand). But it still maintains its value-for-money approach to marketing - recently making a big push, for example, into badminton, a sport largely ignored in the West but played and watched by some 300 million Chinese. Li Ning - sponsored shuttlecock star Lin Dan graces billboards and TV ads around China, and the firm opened a "badminton paradise" last year in Singapore, its first international outlet...