Can anything give the NBA postseason and trophy more prominence amongst the average American?

The Game Room
1

Here’s what I mean:

The NFL has the SUPER BOWL. Everyone knows what it is, even if they don’t care. It’s evocative. It’s iconic.

MLB has the WORLD SERIES. Same thing.

The NHL has the STANLEY CUP. Same thing.

The NBA has… the “NBA Finals” and a trophy that the vast majority of the populace has no clue as to the name of. Hell, even college basketball has MARCH MADNESS and the FINAL FOUR.

This is likely the result of the NBA being the newest of the leagues by far, so they’re pretty behind in establishing that kind of mythos in the mind of the nation. What, if anything, can the NBA do to “catch up” in this regard?

2

In general, nobody in the US cares about trophies. The Stanley Cup is the exception, here, but then, hockey is squarely in fourth place among American sports. Do the other trophies even have a name, beyond “The Super Bowl Trophy” or whatever?

Really, all it comes down to is that the NBA championship doesn’t have a name. I don’t think this is a matter of age; the other names started when those leagues were very young. It’s just, nobody bothered to name it. And by now, it’s probably too late for any name to stick.

3

Every real football fan knows what the Lombardi Trophy is. But it’s the Super Bowl Ring that gets all the attention.

4

In the case of the Stanley Cup and the World Series, yeah, that’s true. The Super Bowl, OTOH, came along 46 years into the NFL’s existence, and at its outset, it was a matchup game between the two teams which had won their own leagues’ championship games (which had the unromantic names of “the NFL Championship Game” and “the AFL Championship Game”). However, those two leagues were in the process of merging when the Super Bowl came into being, and the Super Bowl effectively became the NFL Championship Game in 1970.

5

Not sure it matters. Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, and Final Four roll off the tongue easily but they’re still not the actual NCAA championship.

Maybe the NBA could market the finals as the Jordan Cup or something, but I’m not sure it would make much of a difference.

6

Not sure it matters. Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, and Final Four roll off the tongue easily but they’re still not the actual NCAA championship.

Maybe the NBA could market the finals as the Jordan Cup or something, but I’m not sure it would make much of a difference.

7

Sorry, that was awkwardly worded. That should have been “the Super Bowl became the championship game for the NFL in 1970.” (What had been the NFL Championship Game and the AFL Championship Game effectively became the NFC Championship Game and AFC Championship Game, respectively, in 1970.)

8

NBA fans seem pretty happy calling it “The Finals.”

Any attempt to stick a new name on it now would probably not take. These things get stuck in the mind.

Baseball has three major individual awards; the MVP Award, Cy Young Award for best pitcher, and Jackie Robinson Award, and I bet most of the sports fans reading this don’t know what that last one is. It’s the official name of the Rookie of the Year Award; they named it that in 1987, 40 years after Jackie Robinson won the first one. The thing is, by that time people had been calling it “Rookie of the Year” for 40 years, and that name has stuck to it like glue, even though it’s been called the Jackie Robinson Award almost as long now. Even MLB’s own website about it only mentions its official name at the end of the explanatory paragraph, as if the copywriter forgot and had to quickly fit it in:

If you rename the NBA Finals I have a feeling you’d get the same thing. No one would call it by its new name.