Honesty in my option I think it is going to be Anthony Edwards. I always thought it was gonna be Zion. But the consistency isn’t there. And just seeing Anthony Edward plays over the past few years it’s hard to put someone next to him for that spot. Tatum I can see but he don’t seem to be a dog like Ant. But I love Tatum game though!
The premise that the face of the NBA needs to be American is flawed.
Shohei Ohtani is the new face of the MLB and they’re gaining viewers for the first time in a while
Giannis, Luka and Jokic are perfectly fine faces of the NBA
Ohtani is probably the best baseball player to ever live though, it’s ridiculous how good he is
Shohei Ohtani isn’t the face of the league and can’t even promote the league due to the language barrier.
MLB is gaining viewers because the rule changes made baseball far more palatable in this microwave era.
The face of the NBA needs to be American. It’s more than just who’s the best player.
Cooper Flagg is a good bet if he pans out. Americas been looking for a men’s basketball great white hope since Larry Bird and we saw Caitlyn Clark did for the WNBA.
Ohtani was not exactly accepted in that way for quite a bit. But even going further back, there has always been conflicts of nationality in the MLB. And of course before that, race. It’s a very old sport, MLB just got that prejudice out of the way earlier. The resurgence of the World Baseball Classic has also greatly helped showcase Ohtani and the other intentional players.
The NBA has been spoiled with Americans. 70s, Kareem. 80s, Magic and Bird. 90s, Jordan. 2000s had Kobe and Shaq. 2010s had the trio of Lebron, KD, and Steph. Of course there were plenty of amazing international players too: Hakeem, Dirk, Mutombo, etc. But the Americans had the best players each decade. The media never had to consider an international player the face of the league. Arguably, this is the first generation of American players that doesn’t have a historically great player compared to the previous generations. Tatum, Booker, Ant, KAT, and so on aren’t likely to go down as top 25 player of all time. At least not compared to Luka, Jokic, Giannis, and even Wemby. But the media is desperate to get an American player as the face again. Ja, Zion, and now Ant. The Olympics could have helped promote, for example, Wemby. But the focus was on the big 3 of the 2010s once again.
The timeline of the first highly popular Asian player in the MLB, Ichiro, lines up exactly with that of Dirk and Yao.
There’s no significant difference there other than the NBA media making a glaring mistake, and like you said, even that mirrors the delayed acceptance of Ohtani.
Hideki Matsui as well for a couple years there.
s/o Godzilla
Giannis is a good one but the other two don’t have the personality to be the face of the league
Giannis about to turn 30. Not sure he’s the future.
Luka totally does