The Ringer Staff released an article today outlining the 15 biggest challenges for Adam Silver, now that he’s signed a large contract extension. The entire piece is a good read, with the first challenge being “who will be the next face of the league?”. This was Howard Beck’s answer:
> Maybe it will be Victor Wembanyama, with all that mesmerizing size and skill. Maybe it will be Anthony Edwards, who shows Jordanesque flashes on the court and an impish charm off it. Or Tyrese Haliburton, who’s just now flirting with stardom and seems ready-made for advertisers. Or Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Or Tyrese Maxey. Or Scottie Barnes.
Some of it felt a bit tongue-in-cheek (in reference to Darko’s rant), but it was wild to me to even see his name in there.
You can read the full article here: https://www.theringer.com/nba/2024/2/1/24057067/adam-silver-nba-commissioner-anniversary
by -vinay
20 Comments
Given how much of a bias there is to scoring to evaluating players, I feel like Scottie’s name drop there was *very* much tongue in cheek.
If Maxey’s name wasn’t there, I would say yeah it’s probably tongue-in-cheek.
But with him there I think it’s honest. I’d say he’s comfortably on that second tier of young stars alongside Maxey and others. Wemby, Ant, SGA and Hali are on another level IMO
Victor not being American makes it less likely. Edwards has had some public scandals that make him less appealing in that role. Hali and SGA are in pretty small markets which isn’t ideal for face of the league. Maxey isn’t even the best player on his team. Scottie is in Canada so that’s a barrier.
There isn’t really a clear young rising star that fits that mold right now. I’d say Tatum is the most likely due to combination of his level of play, being American, and playing for a big market.
“Maybe it will be Victor Wembanyama, with all that mesmerizing size and skill. Maybe it will be Anthony Edwards, who shows Jordanesque flashes on the court and an impish charm off it. Or Tyrese Haliburton, who’s just now flirting with stardom and seems ready-made for advertisers. Or Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Or Tyrese Maxey. Or Scottie Barnes.
The league might need them all, too, because in the next half decade, it’ll also be losing Kevin Durant (35), Russell Westbrook (35), Jimmy Butler (34), Damian Lillard (33), and Kawhi Leonard (32).”
He mentioned Scottie for a reason. There’s no need to look too deep into this, lol. People who cover the league do actually know that he exists and could be part of the next wave of stars after the “old guard” has left the game in the next five years. He’s not some forgotten player just because Toronto isn’t really doing anything of significance these days.
Y’all do remember that the same American media people want to believe doesn’t care about Toronto also made him rookie of the year, right?
Scottie at least has the potential do-it-all thing going on with freakish athleticism.
6’9 agressive huge point guard with wild passes, big blocks, and three level scoring is a ceiling with a pretty unique skill set.
Not sure why but I feel like I most easily see it being Anthony Edwards
With lebron and steph aging and soon to retire, that title is wide open. The NBA pushed really hard for zion, simmons and then ja, but all of them have been under a lot of bad press recently and haven’t turned out to be the players thwy were supposed to.
NBA is now pushing for victor and luka to be the next players, but idk how receptive american fans will be of foreign players.
You need the perfect mix of charisma and talent to be that next guy, which scottie has but he has to still take another leap.
Dick time
Love the guys at the ringer. But…
I’m a Canadian living in the US. The American sports media (mainstream, Fox Sports. ESPN, etc…) will never let Scottie be the face of the NBA as a Raptor. They never cover the raptors unless it is covering the other side of a trade.
Not only do they not cover us, they trash us when they do. Colin Cowherd trashed Drako’s ref rant. Colin clearly didn’t watch any of the game, he sounded like an idiot and it didn’t stop him from going all in. (He is a known Lebron Sycophant as well.). A few guys like Wilbon are objective about Toronto, but we get little airtime there either.
They made so many excuses for the 2019 championship. “The warriors lost, the raptors didn’t win”. It discredits what we did against the bucks and Philly that year, and yes the Warriors had injuries, but we still won it against the team they had on the floor. What were we supposed to do?
I try to watch both America and Canadian sports media, podcasts etc… both are bias, but the US is brutal on the raptors (and jays, they don’t give a shit about hockey) when they speak about it.
Love Scottie. The face of NBA Canada is good. I’m happy with that.
“face of the league” is pretty subjective but I’d say Tyrese Haliburton is like the GenZ Steph Curry.
I’ve heard press talk about difficult marketability with SGA. He’s very professional and private, personality wise he’s not super charismatic like ANT or even Scottie and Maxey. Kinda like Kawhi but like less of a bit.
It’s gonna be someone ppl don’t know about yet. We will probably go into another transition period like with Kobe after Mike when Lebron retires. Talent level is crazy rn so the top 3-5 all have debatable cases for being the face. Unfortunately for NBA this is the first time the top players are all international and hard to market the same as the previous faces. I think Ant fits the type the best but he’s not the safest bet.
I honestly think Scottie has a decent chance. But he has to catch up to a lot of the other guys skill wise first. Saying maxey is hilariously dumb, he’s a great player but he’s on a team with Embiid lol.
I personally would guess Haliburton, very outspoken. The problem is that Indiana isn’t exactly a lock to be contenders like a team like the thunder.
Did Luka die?
How come he didn’t mention Giddey?
Those are all super young guys, other than Shai who is close to his prime. The next up guys are the guys that are already dominating the league right now.
Jokic, Giannis, Embiid. They have the disadvantage of not being American but I really believe that Jokic for one is generational and is going to get at least 3 championships.
Whatever happens the next “face of the league” needs to dominate an era. At the very least they need to constantly be in the finals.
Or JORDAN NWORA
It’s whichever one of those guys that forces their way out to play in LA/New York. Probably Edwards.
It’s Luka
Anthony Edwards, Scottie, and Maxey are never going to be good enough.
SGA might if he wins titles with OKC.
Hali is a long way away because of his team.
Wembanyama might be the best player from this group but Spurs will have to actually win championships.
It will be Ant or Chet. A non-American will not be the face of the league, neither will a player playing in Canada.