LEARNING MODULE 💡

Third Time’s a Charm 🏀

There’s a new sheriff in town. It's no secret that the NBA’s American superstars of the past 15 years are aging out of the game. LeBron is 39, for goodness sake! 👴 

The end of an era often leads to a regime change, and that's exactly what we've seen in the NBA over the last six years. International players have reinvigorated their takeover of the league, and this time they're serious as an international player has won the MVP award for the past six years.

We use MVP voting scores to investigate the three international attempts at a coup for basketball stardom. ⬆️

Attempt 1 - A solo mission: 1993-94
The first peak on the chart is all thanks to one man, Hakeem “the Dream” Olajuwon. 🇳🇬 The Nigerian-born star won the MVP in 1994, the sole torch-carrier for the international cohort in the NBA MVP race with 34% of the vote share.

Attempt 2 - Teaming up: 2005-07
The second peak on the graph is thanks to the duo of Steve Nash 🇨🇦 and Dirk Nowitzki. 🇩🇪 Both players finished in the top 3 in MVP voting for each of these 3 years and garnered 64% of the vote share in 2007.

Attempt 3 - Here to stay: 2019-Present
The international squad now fills the MVP ballots each year. Luka Doncic 🇸🇮, Nikola Jokic 🇷🇸, Joel Embiid 🇨🇲, Giannis Antetokounmpo 🇬🇷, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander 🇨🇦 perennially sit at the top of the league and for the first time this year, a majority of the players on the ballot were born internationally, garnering 90% of total votes.

The general globalization of basketball has been a trend for years. 🌎Infrastructure and global scouting have improved significantly on the NBA side as teams have international scouts 🛩️ and development camps overseas to find and foster the next wave of players. See this great article on how a scout found Giannis playing in Greece.

Plus it’s a network effect. 🔄 International stars inspire the younger generation in their home countries to pick up a basketball.

Imagine being in a small town in Slovenia and watching Luka make it to the NBA finals - I’d give it a shot too! 🏀

THIS PAST WEEK ⏮️

Kings of Europe 👑

Let’s fly across the pond to Wembley Stadium where Real Madrid won their 15th Champions League title on Sunday at Wembley Stadium.

The Champions League is the most important club soccer tournament on the planet. The best teams from leagues across Europe come together to battle it out for continental supremacy, with the winner being crowned the best football club in the world. 🌎

That club is Real Madrid.

In Taylor Swift terms, one could argue Real Madrid has had its "Eras" ⏳ with three distinct periods defining their campaign.

👶 Early Days
When the Champions League began in 1956, Real Madrid was shot out of a cannon, quickly winning the first five years in a row and establishing themselves as the gold standard for European soccer.

⭐️ The Galácticos
After a 30-year championship drought, Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez began purchasing superstars from all over the world. Players like David Beckham, Ronaldo (the OG), and Zinedine Zidane were bought in quick succession, leading to three championships in five years.

👯 Zidane 2.0
Winning as a player is cool, but have you tried doing it as a coach? Zinedine Zidane became the manager of Real Madrid in 2016 and quickly picked up where he left off, winning three Champions League titles in a row. He became one of only seven to win the title as both a player and a coach.

Some say it’s harder to keep the lead than to take it but Real Madrid might argue otherwise. Since the Champions League began they have been breaking wind for the rest of Europe, fervently leading the pack without slowing down. We love a dynasty here at SportsBall! 🤴

Diamond Hands 💎

If you invested in big tech companies in 2019, you’d be sitting on a nice stack of cash right now. But there’s one sports company that's outperforming them all—Dick's Sporting Goods. 📈

DKS stock is up 547% in the last 5 years and popped another 16% after earnings last week. Here are a few highlights from their earnings transcript:

• 🏷️ Quarterly Sales rose 6.2% to over $3B in Q1.

• 🏪 Successful expansions of their new House of Sport concept stores where people can shop, train, get fitted for goods, and actually play sports on fields and courts in the store. There are currently 14 of these sporting goods meccas around the country with plans to build more.

• 📱 Their GameChanger App grew to over 5 million unique users. This app hosts scheduling, scorekeeping, and live streaming for youth sports, diving further into the youth sports ecosystem.

All these factors, along with generally good business practices, have led to over a billion in profit each year and consistent stock price growth for the retailer. 💰

THIS NEXT WEEK ⏩

NBA Finals 🏀

The Boston Celtics took a quick 1-0 lead last night in the NBA Finals that’s riddled with storylines from Kyrie Irving to Kristaps Porzingis. The next game is on Sunday at 5PM PST.

Stanley Cup Finals 🏒

The first game of the Stanley Cup Finals is tonight as the Edmonton Oilers take on the Florida Panthers. The Oilers are looking to be the first Canadian team to win the title since 1993.

EXTRAS 📊

Skate to Survive 🏒

First, it was F1, then cycling, then golf, then NASCAR. Now it’s finally hockey’s turn to get their own Drive to Survive style documentary series coming out on Amazon Prime in the Fall.

While we at SportsBall have been living in the light of hockey fandom for a while now, it’ll be wonderful to get more people interested in the best sport in the world 🌎

Golf 🤝 Hypebeasts

The collaboration you didn’t know you needed dropped this morning between TaylorMade and KITH. They’ve come together to make the worlds coolest golf clubs, boasting a gradient finish on the irons and an iridescent putter.

Claire has been saying she really needs a new putter so don’t be afraid to send one of those our way, I’ll make sure she gets it! 🎁

Unfortunately, if you’re reading this it’s probably too late to get your hands on these goodies as they dropped at 8AM PST this morning here.

Ya Big Sap! 😭

For those looking to shed a tear this Friday morning, watch this interview with Bob MacIntyre as he won a PGA tournament last weekend with his dad as his caddie. He gets emotional about sharing the spotlight with his father who’s just a self-proclaimed “grass cutter”. Great accents too. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿