By: SportsguyPaul1
The Orlando Magic and Brooklyn Nets just shocked the NBA landscape. Both teams won their first game by upsetting the Toronto Raptors and Philadelphia 76ers respectively. This has NBA executives scared for a couple of different reasons. One of the reasons is market size. Just look at the Market sizes the Magic and Nets are in. Yes, the Nets are technically in New York City but being in Brooklyn they are still and always will be the little brother to the New York Knicks. One reason why is the Nets ranked 30th for home attendance this season while being in NYC, the biggest city in the United States, only averaged 14,941 fans. The Knicks averaged 19,002 fans ranking 9thin attendance this season. The Magic are located in Orlando which is known for Disney World. Also, it’s where you go when you and your family are on vacation. The Magic ranked 18th in attendance averaging 17,561 fans per game. While Toronto is in the top three largest cities in North America. Philadelphia is one of the largest cities in the eastern United States and led the league in attendance this season.
Star power in the East
Another key reason is Star Power on the teams. I want you to without looking it up name three players and the Nets and name three players on the Magic. For the Nets the First name was, of course, D’Angelo Russell. Ok, you have two more but now you have hit a speed bump. Well, how about Magic? Nikola Vucevic is one, maybe you will get Evan Fournier. Stuck again ok well imagine being a Casual Fan who really only watches basketball during the playoffs because you wanna see the BIG NAME players. Well, can you name three players on the Raptors? Even Casual fans can guess Kawhi Leonard and Kyle Lowry. Also Serge Ibaka most people know. How about the 76ers can you name three. Of course, you can Joel Embiid, Jimmy Butler, Ben Simmons, and most people could name more. But you see the difference on how easy it is to remember the big name players on big name teams. Especially with Lebron out of the east and the playoffs star power has already diminished.
So as you can see Saturday has already given the NBA executives nightmares about the future where star players are out of the playoffs. Also, one where smaller market teams make the second round. So just keep an eye out for what the Nets and Magic do in this playoffs. They could also impact the NBA financially in a big way.
