Ben Gilbert: belief

Transcript context

…I really hope that other sports and certainly I am much more qualified to talk about baseball and football, having played both myself for close to 15 years, there’s just been no innovation in either of them really, in terms of how the game is played. And I hope these other sports and managers and coaches in other sports at all levels can look at the NBA and say there is so much value and power in not feeling like we have to stick to tradition in the way that’s always been done in how these games are played and that fans will react super positively and love new innovations. I mean, stuff like in baseball, like you should never bunt. It’s statistically proven that bunting is terrible. Just like football, like you should go for it on fourth down way more often than people do but there’s such conservative environments that people don’t do these things. And I hope the NBA is going to drive some more innovation than other sports as well as people see how well audiences react to it. I think the NFL had an amazing 20-year run up to call it five years ago where they really turned the NFL into a family sport. It’s not the thing that dad does and drinks beer on the weekend with buddies at the game. Like it’s a thing that like they’ve really turned it into a family product where you have people over and the whole family gets into it and the broadcast is much more tailored around entertainment than it is like a gridiron sport. The Super Bowl is the best implementation of that. But I don’t think we’ve seen much evolution beyond that yet. I think the NFL is riding high now but the NBA is more the stock that I would buy right now. Yeah. Well, the NFL has a huge liability on their hands that I don’t see any way out of it with the concussion issues. I played football for over 10 years myself throughout middle school, high school, college and loved it. But if I could go back and make those decisions again back at every level, I would not play. It’s just not worth the risk.…

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