Secular, Steven. The Digital NBA: How the World’s Savviest League Brings the Court to Our Couch. University of Illinois Press, 2023. Pp. 240. $27.95 paper.

Reviewed by Łukasz Muniowski

Steven Secular’s book is a combination of two approaches, intertwining first-hand observations and academic works about media studies and geopolitics, most notably globalization. Prompted to write the book due to the political machinations of former NBA Commissioner David Stern, Secular dissects the NBA media machine in great detail. Stern’s heavy-handed tactics, bravery and farsightedness gave the NBA control over its games, generating revenue from transmissions and streaming. Up until 1992, half of the NBA’s revenue was coming from game attendance; by the 2019-20 season, that percentage dropped to around 20 (p. 3).

The NBA was chosen for analysis because of its global impact and business savvy. Secular asserts that “through the case of the NBA, then, the book seeks to illuminate the historical evolution and contemporary state of the sports media industry, as the NBA and its peers have transformed from primarily administrative organizations into multibillion-dollar media enterprises” (p. 7). He does that by putting the NBA alongside Amazon and Netflix as media giants that shape and cater to global entertainment markets. Similarities with other companies do not end there. The way the NBA operates is similar to franchises like Starbucks or McDonald’s, with the products adhering to the league standards while also acknowledging certain local aspects––a process understood as glocalization. This applies to every aspect of the league’s marketing, including NBA-operated professional basketball leagues in Africa (BAL, Basketball Africa League) and Brazil.

The process would be futile if it was not for the on-court product becoming more international––a direct consequence of the Dream Team’s domination during the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, which allowed people on the other side of the globe to see just how special NBA players were. The 1992 Dream Team also gave a whole generation of players something to aspire to. A prime example of the impact of that process was Dirk Nowitzki. Nowitzki wore the number 14 jersey because of Charles Barkley, who wore it on the Dream Team. When joining the Mavericks, Nowitzki saw that the number was taken, so he went with 41 instead.

In order to adjust to the growing public, as well as the way it consumed the products marketed by the league, the games themselves had to change, including the placement of cameras in the arenas to make viewers at home experience the game in its entirety. Interestingly, one of the individuals interviewed for this book by Secular concludes that the COVID-induced “bubble” of 2020 was actually beneficial for the way the league covered games, as it allowed the NBA media to try out new methods and new means to better translate the on-court excitement to the living rooms of millions of basketball fans. Steve Hellmuth, former NBA executive vice president of operations and technology, says, “We had dreamed about all these things and being able to do these things in NBA buildings but were prevented by fans” (p. 165). Call it poor phrasing or honesty, the statement shows a change in focus by the league, one which allows viewers all over the world to consume the NBA while those in the arena are sacrificed in the name of global profits. Not saying that the approach is wrong or right, but the change in the way the league is marketed is palpable, and it is a positive that analysts such as Secular are here to monitor and interpret that journey.

Łukasz Muniowski recieved his Ph.D. in American Literature from the University of Warsaw. He is the author of Three-Pointer! A 40-Year NBA History (McFarland, 2020), Narrating the NBA: Representations of Leading Players after the Michael Jordan Era (Lexington, 2021),and The Sixth Man: A History of the NBA Off the Bench (McFarland, 2021).