I think the future of the Knicks will be extremely bright for the next ten years. There will be more superstar free agents who will want to join the Knicks. This is also one of the reasons why I think Jalen Brunson cards may be over priced now from a long-term perspective. The biggest winners from the Knicks doing well financially besides the Knicks themselves is actually Villanova University. Villanova will likely see about 10 years of massive free marketing from the Knicks and the Pope with their combined billion plus followers where it can use this opportunity to expand its already billion dollar endowment, academic and athletic programs. Due to the school’s physical proximity to Upenn, there is an opportunity for Villanova to present itself as a near peer to the Ivy League in the next 30 years. Villanova is expanding quietly but rapidly likely completing its merger campuses of two different universities near its own campus into its own on the Main Line, one of the most affluence areas in the United States and home to the headquarters of one of the largest investment companies in the world.
Knicks fans due to their geographical locations are fairly richer than many other fans. This is shown recently when a large number of Knicks fans went to San Antonio and was about 40% of the stadium audience during this year’s Game 1 of the NBA Finals effectively mitigating the Spurs’ home field advantage. The Knicks have so many different good storylines right now with the whole Nova Knicks college teammates thing, developing a strong team culture, Knicks super fans potentially, finally seeing its team win and more that I think it is movie worthy. The NBA being headquartered in New York may have strong incentives for the Knicks to do well in the long run.
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The predicted future of the Knicks, Spurs and the NBA as a League.
The NBA has for years discussed having NBA teams outside of the United States and Canada, will increase the probability of their dream coming true if the league become much more wealthier. The league is already highly internationalized and there are likely already huge markets for the NBA when certain foreign countries have their own NBA franchises. I think the most likely potential for a new NBA team outside of US and Canada is likely in Mexico. Mexico City is one of the largest cities in the world already with probably the most popular NBA G League team playing in an around 22K seat capacity stadium setting attendance records with nearly 20K people attending the game. This is unbelievable when you think about the average size of an NBA G League arena and its average attendance. Mexico with a population of about 130+ million has an NBA fan base of 30 million people. If it makes sense to operate an NBA franchise in Canada with a total population of about 42 million and a fan base of about 8 million, it probably makes sense to operate an NBA team in Mexico City if the league and Mexico can work out the details.
San Antonio Spurs on the other hand will likely not be so lucky. I think their franchise’s golden era began and ended when Tim Duncan retired unfortunately. In the age of social media, the Spurs will have a hard time attracting and developing generational talents who will stay with the team in the long run. With the internationalization of the sports where many talented players are from overseas, they will most likely want to play in big market teams to increase their marketability. Both Wemby and Brunson appear to be injury prone given their injury history. The difference is Wemby is the core and almost everything the Spurs are about on both ends of the floor whereas Brunson plays with KAT and a team full of 3 and D players such as Mikal Bridges who can help the Knicks win without Brunson in the short term. Even though Wemby is a great player, many free agents will be hesitant to play for the Spurs because of San Antonio is a small market.
The NBA as an organization like many professional sports organizations will probably do better when its big market teams consistently do well hence the league itself may have incentives for the big market teams to do well in the long run. I think a future NBA where both of its major markets doing well will allow the league focus on supporting its other important NBA teams in key markets like Chicago, Philadelphia and Dallas become better as well. Ultimately basketball is a global game because it is easy to understand and almost accessible to anyone regardless of their social and economic situation given its lenient requirements for game play such as requirement on equipments which basically just a basketball hoop and a basketball that even one single person can play the game as a sole participant.