Kawhi, Canada & How the NBA has become a Marketing Juggernaut

I’ll admit that when Kawhi Leonard got traded to the Raptors from the San Antonio Spurs around this time last year, I was not as excited as I should’ve been in hindsight. Setting aside the fact that he was coming off of a controversial, injury plagued year with no certainty as to his basketball abilities, he was just plain boring. I couldn’t imagine the basketball world caring about Kawhi other than to speculate on his whereabouts in 12 months.

I don’t think I was alone in not really knowing who Kawhi is because most pundits and media types still don’t seem know him (see Free Agency 2019). He may in fact be unknowable, but what I’m talking about is from a marketing standpoint he had a less than zero presence. His on-court highlight reel was something I’d expect a high school coach to show his JV team; a lot of great positional defense, steals and just sound fundamental basketball. I had been treated to a half-decade of Vince "Half-man/Half-Amazing" Carter, so how could I get that jazzed up about "The Klaw". I actually thought that was coined in Toronto and had no idea he had a logo that was ostensibly owned by Nike. Maybe I’m basketball ignorant, but I’m betting I wasn’t alone on this one.

Off the court, I couldn’t tell you what shoes he wore or if he even had a shoe deal. Apparently, he moved on from Jordan brand in that same tumultuous year. It didn’t matter because I couldn’t see anyone seeking out Kawhi merch.

Fast forward a year, and Kawhi Leonard has effectively become the most famous basketball player on the planet all while playing on the only NBA team outside of the United States. Winning a championship and holding up free agency a la Lebron circa The Decision definitely helps raise your profile.

This goes beyond just winning because Kawhi already had one under his belt by swiping a ‘chip away from Lebron and the Heatles.

Here’s the thing, the New Balance site crashed due to overwhelming demand for "Fun Guy" t-shirts before the Raptors even made the finals, while the whole basketball world was still assuming he was heading to L.A (he still might as of this writing). Read that again. The company I mentioned was New Balance; I honestly thought they only made comfortable footwear for nurses and stay-at-home dads. Those "Fun Guy" t-shirts were going for $200 a pop. That’s an amount I’d have assumed would buy out the New Balance inventory at my local Marshalls last year. These shirts were being boot-legged because they were so hard to get.

We now live in a world where Under Armour can’t sell you Steph Curry branded shoes for as much as New Balance sells Kawhi/Fun Guy T-shirts. This all went down while the former was playing for the best team in the World in the home of tech giants, while the latter was playing in Toronto, Canada.

Ask Major League Baseball what it would give to get Mike Trout this kind of attention. We already know because the commissioner has cajoled him to be more of a fun guy. This is the case, even though, he may end up being the best baseball player in history while playing in/near Los Angeles.

The NBA, whether by accident or otherwise, has figured out how to market its league and stars no matter where they are; or, how reclusive they may be. This was the ultimate litmus test and it may prove more important to the long term viability of the league than any super-max contract structure that exists or may be developed.

It doesn’t even matter where Kawhi plays next year, and that’s the point.