{"id":183,"date":"2018-03-11T13:00:57","date_gmt":"2018-03-11T17:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/s18-psci274\/?p=183"},"modified":"2018-03-11T13:02:04","modified_gmt":"2018-03-11T17:02:04","slug":"183","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/s18-psci274\/third-blog\/183\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Baller Brand: An Unconventional Model"},"content":{"rendered":"

Each year on November 8th<\/sup>, thousands of the best high school basketball players sign their National Letter of Intent, officially handing over their rights to the NCAA. While many Division I basketball players receive a full scholarship to attend their respective university, the NCAA prohibits athletes from seeking compensation for the use of their names, images or likenesses in television broadcasts, video games, and memorabilia sales. Additionally, besides for their scholarships and meager stipends, athletes are prohibited from being compensated by their university. Additionally, last year, the NCAA posted $1.1 billion in revenue, while individual high major basketball programs often see tens of millions in annual revenues themselves.<\/p>\n

Participating in college basketball, which effectively economically disenfranchises players from profiting from their own likeness, has become a \u201ccommon sense\u201d form of hegemonic domination. When high school coaches refer to \u201cplaying at the next level\u201d, they are ubiquitously referencing playing in the NCAA. While the vast majority of college athletes will never have a marketable enough image for the NCAA rules to have a significantly negative economic effect on them, for \u201cBlue Chips\u201d, or the top players in each graduate class, this rule is highly unprofitable. In the United States, the NCAA has hegemony over the sport of basketball, especially since the NBA shut out the best high school athletes from being able to turn professional straight from high school, with the institution of \u201cArticle X\u201d in 2005.<\/p>\n

However, one dad is attempting to tear down the entire model that the NCAA has dominated for decades. Led by the bombastic, outlandish, and imposing patriarch, Lavar, the Ball family has taken the basketball world by storm. Not only has Lavar figured out how to dominate the mainstream news cycle, but his merchandising company, Big Baller Brand, has achieved extraordinary success. \u00a0While the oldest Ball son, Lonzo, took a traditional route, playing through high school and one year at UCLA before making it to the NBA, Lavar Ball calculated that it would be in his two younger sons\u2019 best interest to fully circumvent the NCAA. By avoiding the restrictive NCAA, and placing his sons LiAngelo and LaMelo in a professional league in Lithuania, the two younger Ball brothers have been able to use their popularity to sell Big Baller Brand merchandise with a surprising amount of success. While LiAngelo and LaMelo\u2019s basketball skills are debatable, their celebrity is undeniable, as they have amassed 2.3 million and 3.6 million Instagram followers respectively. Though it is unclear whether or not they will spark a \u201crevolutionary\u201d trend, their actions can certainly be characterized as counter-hegemonic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Each year on November 8th, thousands of the best high school basketball players sign their National Letter of Intent, officially handing over their rights to the NCAA. While many Division I basketball players receive a full scholarship to attend their … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1909,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-third-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/s18-psci274\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/s18-psci274\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/s18-psci274\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/s18-psci274\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1909"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/s18-psci274\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/s18-psci274\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":185,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/s18-psci274\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183\/revisions\/185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/s18-psci274\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/s18-psci274\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/s18-psci274\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}