Our first lesson at Beneath the Boxscore comes from the abundantly corrupt microcosm of the National Basketball Association.
Let's approach this particular lesson as a hypothetical.
 |
| "Are you sure you can afford to pay me that?" |
It is 1991. You are a wildly popular, hall-of-fame-bound, NBA
basketball player whose career approaches its inevitably sad denouement.
It is nearly inconceivable that your brand as a global product will
ever be as strong as it is, and can be safely assumed to plummet when
your career ends. While some had success post career (OJ!, Jim Brown,
Arnold Palmer), and you have a magnetic personality and are a compelling
pitchman, you are in trouble of being lost under the immense shadow of
the even more sellable Michael Jordan.
