Slightly OT: ESPN's weird man crush | The Boneyard

Slightly OT: ESPN's weird man crush

lonsharkin51

lonsharkin51

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Does anyone know why ESPN seems so committed to the idea (that no one else seems to share) that Bronny James is far and away the biggest story of this college hoops season? It's seriously kind of creepy.

Edit: The thread title is supposed to read "Slightly OT," but for some reason it won't let me do that.
 
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It would be awesome if people on this board could figure out ESPN is a business that is trying to make money. They don't like any player or team. They don't hate any player or team. The like more money and hate less money.
 
7774 said:
It would be awesome if people on this board could figure out ESPN is a business that is trying to make money. They don't like any player or team. They don't hate any player or team. The like more money and hate less money.
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So having a weird fixation on Bronny James somehow nets them more money? I'll buy that, but I'm not sure how that works.
 
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fireford said:
Well:

1) His dad is kind of famous
2) He's been getting national hype since he was about 13.
3) He's recovering from a heart issue
4) His college is in a big media market

Do we need any more reasons?
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So you're saying you agree that he's the biggest story in college basketball this season? Maybe he is. Maybe it's just me who doesn't care. Fair enough.
 
lonsharkin51 said:
So you're saying you agree that he's the biggest story in college basketball this season? Maybe he is. Maybe it's just me who doesn't care. Fair enough.
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I wouldn't say he's the biggest story but I can see why ESPN is getting a lot of mileage out of the story for the reasons I listed.
 
He's the son and namesake of a living legend and one of the greatest NBA players of all time. For our market, Imagine if in 40 plus years Paige Bueckers has a Paige Bueckers Jr? A PBJ if you will. It would set the boneyard ablaze.
 
AzzisBraids said:
He's the son and namesake of a living legend and one of the greatest NBA players of all time. For our market, Imagine if in 40 plus years Paige Bueckers has a Paige Bueckers Jr? A PBJ if you will. It would set the boneyard ablaze.
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She is going to have a kid when she’s in her 60s? That in itself would be quite an amazing story.
 
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The average sports fan doesn't care a lick about college basketball until March, and having a name player like Bronny James brings those people in to watch their programming. Not rocket surgery.
 
lonsharkin51 said:
So having a weird fixation on Bronny James somehow nets them more money? I'll buy that, but I'm not sure how that works.
Expand ...
Most people watching ESPN are not avid college basketball fans. They don’t know who the best players are, and would not notice or care if ESPN talked about them. They do recognize “Lebron’s son.”
 
lonsharkin51 said:
So having a weird fixation on Bronny James somehow nets them more money? I'll buy that, but I'm not sure how that works.
Expand ...
Here's the thing. College basketball isn't a popular sport. At all. People don't really care about it. They care about the tournament, but November - Feb college basketball is a niche sport. So there is a very small population of people who really care about college basketball, and then this giant population of people who don't care. Bronny is very valuable, because he will get clicks from the giant population of people, not just the very small population of people.
 
phillionaire said:
The average sports fan doesn't care a lick about college basketball until March, and having a name player like Bronny James brings those people in to watch their programming. Not rocket surgery.
Expand ...
I don't even watch ESPN much. I was referring to their website, where there have been more than two dozen Bronny James stories (no exagerration) in the last two months.
 
This thread went down the road of a 60 yr old woman having a baby that becomes a women’s basketball star. Well from what I can gather most who are posting on this board today may not really care what happens 40 years in the future.
 
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The Paige example had me confused at first as well but I think what is being said is Paige will have the superstar baby 20 years or so from now when she's 40-ish and then 20 years after that said baby will set the world on fire. Hence the 40 year timeline.
 
lonsharkin51 said:
Does anyone know why ESPN seems so committed to the idea (that no one else seems to share) that Bronny James is far and away the biggest story of this college hoops season? It's seriously kind of creepy.

Edit: The thread title is supposed to read "Slightly OT," but for some reason it won't let me do that.
Expand ...
Kind of like the fascination with Charlie Woods
 
lonsharkin51 said:
So having a weird fixation on Bronny James somehow nets them more money? I'll buy that, but I'm not sure how that works.
Expand ...

For the same reason that Swift dating Kelce sells Kelce jerseys to girls that don't even like football. Not for me to understand it - just to acknowledge it.
 
lonsharkin51 said:
I don't even watch ESPN much. I was referring to their website, where there have been more than two dozen Bronny James stories (no exagerration) in the last two months.
Expand ...
It drives clicks and page views. They got you talking about it didn’t they.
 
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It's still ridiculous. They hype a video of Bronny making a shot during a game where his team got crushed.
 
7774 said:
It would be awesome if people on this board could figure out ESPN is a business that is trying to make money. They don't like any player or team. They don't hate any player or team. The like more money and hate less money.
Expand ...
If that's their goal they don't seem very good at it, given the massive round of lay offs they just had.
 
If they were posting multiple stories about Ismael Plet from Arkansas-Pine Bluff that might be weird and creepy …
 
People watch Bronny-related content. Doesn't matter how good he is--he generates clicks.

There's no conspiracy here.
 
fireford said:
Well:

1) His dad is kind of famous
2) He's been getting national hype since he was about 13.
3) He's recovering from a heart issue
4) His college is in a big media market

Do we need any more reasons?
Expand ...
Yes
 
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