The Potential Entertainment Value Of New NBA Draft Classes
Social Media For The Win!
Most highly touted NBA draft prospects, given the one-and-done rule in college, are 19 or 20 years old when they leave college and head to the pros. As these potential NBA stars have gotten younger, they have also grown up with social media as a huge part of all of their lives. As a result, these next couple of NBA draft classes have the potential to have the most inter player beefs and rivalries that aren’t purely the result of on-court performance and big time matchups.
Lots of NBA stars, like LeBron James and others, have been successfully using social media to build their brands and push for real changes in society. And then there is the generation that views social media as a way of staying connected, having fun with friends, and sometimes making fun of those friends.
Joel Embiid has really been at the forefront of this. Most NBA fans have seen the tweets that he sends out, whether it be recruiting LeBron, making fun of Bryan Colangelo’s wife’s alleged burner accounts, or any number of tweets about peers. He’s unafraid to speak his mind; that’s an attitude that comes from being extremely comfortable with social media (and it definitely helps to be and All-NBA caliber talent).
The “beef” between members of the 2018 started when DeAndre Alton declared that he knows he’s going to be the number one overall pick to the Phoenix Suns. Marvin Bagley III, another highly touted prospect, clapped back, saying that Ayton’s declaration was disrespectful to him and his other peers. To an extent, yeah it is kind of disrespectful. But Ayton is a very legitimate prospect, with legit skills. If he’s confident enough to make that declaration, go ahead and do it.
This new generation of NBA prospects has grown up in a time where they are confident speaking their mind. Hopefully, such an attitude makes for interesting relationships among players and we can get some good “beefs” between players. Because storylines like that are always great, am I right?
