On the 556th Sporticast episode, hosts Scott Soshnick and Eben Novy-Williams discuss some of the biggest sports business stories of the week, including some takeaways from the NBA Finals-bound New York Knicks, who are playing for a title for the first time since 1999. They haven’t won a championship since 1973.
Soshnick, who covered that 1999 Knicks team, discusses what he remembers from the run to the NBA Finals. He also compares it to this year’s team, which is on a historical 10-game winning streak that rivals any stretch for any team in the history of the league.
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One major difference: the availability of officially licensed merchandise has changed dramatically. The shift to e-commerce—and in particular, the shift of sports e-commerce to a Fanatics-dominated market—has severely limited the amount of places where fans can buy title merch in person. New York City is currently a bit of a wasteland for big box stores like Dick’s Sporting Goods or even Walmart that often sell that merchandise.
The hosts debate which Knicks player has historically sold the most jerseys—is it an old timer like Patrick Ewing or a current star like Jalen Brunson? They also talk about the Knicks’ two potential opponents, both of whom have a very different in-game atmosphere than Madison Square Garden.
Next they discuss Princeton winning another men’s lacrosse national title, the school’s first in two and a half decades. It’s possible that changes across the NCAA, particularly those that are forcing the richest athletic departments to divert as much money as possible to athletes in football and basketball, have re-opened the door for smaller schools to excel in niche sports that they care about.
They close by talking about an expansion of women’s pro volleyball. Billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong is buying a new MLV franchise in Los Angeles for a fee in the $15-$20 million range. Soon-Shiong, who is a minority investor in the Lakers, compared this moment to the launch of the Lakers in the 1940s.
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