National Basketball Association

NBA has ongoing affair with Hollywood

Published Feb. 21, 2011 12:00 a.m. ET

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Major sports are entertainment, so it makes sense the big leagues would be infused with show-business pizzazz, ranging from NFL stars Terrell Owens and Chad Ochocinco’s VH1 reality shows to baseball players such as Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter canoodling with actresses Cameron Diaz and Minka Kelly, respectively.

Still, when it comes to sports gone Hollywood, nothing rivals the NBA, where values once associated with the “Showtime” Lakers of the 1980s — hoopsters rubbing elbows (and more) with movie and pop stars — have permeated the league.

If Washington, D.C., has been called Hollywood for ugly people, then the NBA is Hollywood for tall people wearing shorts — and not incidentally, their wives and ex-wives. At times, it seems the NBA is one big reality show, with everybody getting ready for their close-ups.

The NBA’s All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles — where, as the Los Angeles Times reported, courtside seats for celebrities were the weekend’s hottest commodity — only underscored this symbiotic relationship. The festivities weren’t so much a sporting event as a star-studded variety show.

For TV producers, the assumption seems to be: Who better to represent the lifestyles of the rich and famous than millionaire athletes, and, by extension, those receiving alimony checks from them?

Not only is Lakers forward Lamar Odom said to be contemplating his own reality-show spinoff with wife Khloe Kardashian — one of the “We live our lives on the E! channel” Kardashians — but sister Kim, who once dated Reggie Bush, has switched leagues to the New Jersey Nets’ Kris Humphries. In media one-upmanship, that alone might amount to game, set and match — the Kardashians providing their own “NBA action is fan-tastic!” endorsement.

Still, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. For whatever reason, NBA players — and members of their first and second wives clubs — keep popping up in Bravo’s “Real Housewives” franchise. Former NBA player Eric Snow’s spouse, and now ex, was one of the “Real Housewives of Atlanta.” Scottie Pippin’s wife Larsa is a member of the latest “Real Housewives” set in Miami, as is former NBA sharpshooter Glen Rice’s ex-wife, Cristy. Jason Kidd’s ex, Joumana, meanwhile, turned up in VH1’s “Let’s Talk About Pep,” featuring half of the rap group Salt-N-Pepa.

One-time teammates Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal have had their differences through the years, but both have moonlighted at playing action stars — Kobe in his latest six-minute Nike ad and toting an oversized gun in a commercial for the video game Call of Duty: Black Ops, and Shaq in such forgettable movies as “Steel” and “Kazaam.” Shaq also starred in the ABC series “Shaq vs” and presents comedy events for Showtime, proving more ubiquitous than former Lakers great Magic Johnson, who tried his hand (alas, badly) at hosting a late-night talk show.

In the early days of this NBA-Hollywood love-in, much of it stemmed from the conspicuous success of the Lakers and Jack Nicholson’s longtime allegiance to the franchise. Because nobody is cooler in the movie biz than Jack, there was no better place to be seen than courtside at the Fabulous Forum, and now Staples Center.

More recently, though, it’s clear the relationship has become more symbiotic than that — a mutually beneficial marketing strategy.

For the NBA, showing the world that luminaries from Dustin Hoffman to pop sensation Justin Bieber enjoy watching hoops makes the association look cool to those performers’ fans. For the players, it’s an opportunity to keep the money flowing (presumably to help support those wives and exes) after their relatively brief pro careers end. And for TV producers, basketball stars provide a connection to an audience that otherwise might not be caught dead watching their silly shows.

Is it working? Certainly, NBA ratings are up sharply this year, admittedly buoyed in part by Miami’s team of superstars. Still, TNT’s coverage of Sunday’s All-Star Game surged — to 9.1 million viewers, the highest total since 2003 — and All-Star Saturday Night, featuring the 3-point shooting and slam-dunk competitions, posted a record-setting 8.1 million viewers, up 23 percent from last year.

So unlike many of these reality-show relationships, the NBA and Hollywood looks like a marriage that’s made to last.

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