Former NBA champion Jim Chones, who won a ring with the 1980 Showtime Lakers, believes the relationship between fans and players has changed since his era. In decades past, the NBA was purely a sports league, one that provided entertainment to those in the seats or watching on television. Now, though, he says, it’s an entire “social network.”
“This fan is different,” Chones tells the Guardian. “If you’re basing what a fan is on traditional values and issues and character, you’re going to miss the whole boat.”
