The NBA has moved one step closer to becoming soccer. Besides the frequent flopping that's fooling officials, frustrating fans and interfering with the flow of the game, the league's board of governors agreed to allow ads on jerseys, in the form of patches, beginning in the 2013 season. Said sponsorship patches would also appear on the jerseys sold in stores. What fan wouldn't want to pay to be a billboard? Why merely root for a team when you can cheer for a corporation? Braces yourself for uniforms by Unilever. If you back the T-Wolves, you'll be forced to back T-Mobile, too. And since the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are people, we're sure you'll get the same satisfaction supporting Joe Johnson as you will supporting S.C. Johnson.
Under this equally greedy and grotesque arrangement, the Clippers will be sponsored by Great Clips, the Lakers by Land O'Lakes, the Kings by Burger King, the Suns by SunTrust (or Sun Life), the Pacers by Pace salsa, the Magic by MagicJack - oh, wait, women's soccer already tried that one. Why not take the intrusive idea even further and sell space within a team's name, that way Denver, proactively applying synergy to brand management, can put the prefix "Mc" in front of Nuggets? That plan would be as tasteless as the product promoted.
Ew, ads on jersies? That is terrible. Is it by league or by player?
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