The NBA season tips off today, and it's an important one for determining the future of the league.
The league is entering its penultimate season under its current media rights deal with The Walt Disney Company's (DIS) -) ABC and ESPN and Warner Bros. Discovery Sports' (WBD) -) TNT. Its current deal was worth about $2.7 billion a year, but reports are saying that the league is looking to more than double or even triple that number for its next edal.
With the negotiations looming, the league is likely looking to put out its best product to sell to the incumbents as well as the likes of Amazon or Apple who could also be in the mix to acquire a piece of the NBA's broadcasting pie.
In order to make its regular season more interesting to attract more viewers, the NBA will be instituting its first ever In-Season Tournament this year on top of the Play-In Tournament that it first introduced during the 2019-20 season.
But one of the biggest drivers of both television ratings and social interaction could simply be the entry of the first pick in the 2023 NBA Draft Victor Wembanyama.
The Frenchman is one of the most hyped draft prospects of all-time coming in at 7-foot-4 with ball handling and shooting capabilities.
An early sign of the hype surrounding Wembenyama was the ratings numbers of the game preseason game between his San Antonio Spurs and the Golden State Warriors. on Friday, Oct. 20. The game averaged 366,000 viewers on NBATV, making it the network's most-watched preseason game of the last 12 years, according to Warner Bros.
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The league's popularity is often driven by its top stars, with some of its best seasons coming during the height of Michael Jordan and LeBron James' careers. Wembanyama is receiving the hype comparable to that of James during his rookie season.
There are sure to be several factors involved in this deal that go well beyond Wembanyama as many experts laid out to TheStreet, but his entry is nonetheless impeccable timing for the NBA.
Wembanyama makes his official NBA debut on Wednesday, Oct. 25 when the Spurs face Luka Dončić and the Dallas Mavericks at 9:30 p.m. Eastern Time on ESPN.
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