Mark A. Tatum has been Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer of the NBA since February 1, 2014. David Nienhaus spoke on behalf of SPOX with the deputy head of NBA Adam Silver about the global development of the league and lessons from football.
Furthermore: Why Tatum looks at the World Cup with admiration – and why there will probably be no expansion into Europe in the near future.
SPOX: Mr. Tatum, while basketball is booming worldwide, it’s not really competition for football in Europe, is it?
Mark A. Tatum: I wouldn’t say that. Two thirds of our international players come from Europe, so interest is growing all the time. This is also shown by the subscriptions to our League Pass in Europe, which have grown by 30 percent this season, and the number of followers from Europe in the social media has increased enormously. By the way, our players love football.
SPOX: Joel Embiid, for example, is a big football fan.
Tatum: Absolutely. We were at the game between Chelsea and Arsenal together. By the way, Boston versus Philadelphia was the eighth game in London and sold out after a few minutes. So there seems to be an interest in basketball. (laughs)
SPOX: Courtside will then feature German international players Ilkay Gündogan, Mesut Özil and Shkodran Mustafi.
Tatum: Just as we love football, footballers love basketball. London has become like our European all-star game. Fans come from all over Europe, even from all over the world. It was a complete success on all levels and the match between the Celtics and the 76s was really great. The best advertisement for our sport.
SPOX: Nevertheless, football remains number one in Europe – and almost without competition.
Tatum: We do not see ourselves as competitors, but as common companions in the world of sport who can learn from each other.
SPOX: What can the NBA learn from European football?
Tatum: For example, since this season we have been playing with slightly fewer timeouts.
SPOX: Soccer inspired you?
Tatum: The difference between basketball and football is actually not that big. Both sports are easy to understand and have a certain flow, which is why they are the two most successful sports worldwide. Football has a slightly different rhythm and has a very clear time window for the game length without timeouts and interruptions.
SPOX: “A game lasts 90 minutes,” it says in football. Basketball usually takes over two hours.
Tatum: In order not to interrupt the rhythm of the game so much in the last two minutes of a game, we changed the timeout rule. That makes our sport faster. We are now at an average of 130 minutes per game instead of 135 before.
SPOX: What else inspires you?
Tatum: We have looked at and studied the system of young players in European football and want to learn from it. How players are developed there is fantastic. It is not only about the sports-tactical things, but also about nutrition, health and coaching. The talents are given much more than just things that affect their sport.
SPOX: Many children are born with a football, you could say. How hard is it to make children realize that dribbling with the ball is more fun than shooting with your foot?
Tatum: It is somehow self-evident that the children join a football club at a young age, you are right. From there, it is a superbly developed and structured junior staff system. Football is the undisputed number one in Europe. But we have a long-term plan for the spread of basketball in Europe and of course we know that we have to get the children enthusiastic about basketball very early on. But it will take many years of development and investment to make progress. But we are willing to enter the domain.
SPOX: How could that work?
Tatum: Our professionals are our best ambassadors. That is one way. Take the Frenchman Tony Parker, for example. The reason he wears number 9 is Michael Jordan. He saw him in the “Dream Team” of the USA at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona and was enthusiastic about our sport. If he hadn’t seen Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird back then, he would probably have stuck with football and would now be midfield director at Paris Saint-Germain. We simply have to inspire the children. Our stars like LeBron James, Stephen Curry or Dirk Nowitzki follow in the footsteps of MJ, Magic and Larry Bird.
SPOX: Do you like football yourself?
Tatum: Sure, I love it. I was in England in January and met with the Premier League officials. It’s fascinating how the league works there.
SPOX: And what were your findings?
Tatum: There is not only the possibility to win the league, but also many other competitions, cups, derbies – all things that appeal to the fans. We are currently considering how we can adapt certain things of it.
SPOX: Adapting? In what way?
Tatum: For example, I could imagine a mid-season or post-season tournament in which there is the possibility – based on the FA Cup – to play a league in the league. There are various concepts we can imagine. Ultimately, the point is to consider how realistic such a thing is and how we can implement it.
SPOX: Did your Premier League colleagues tell you what they like about the NBA?
Tatum: The advertising times during a game. (laughs) That’s of course the big disadvantage if you don’t have any game interruptions in sport. How will the necessary advertising time be sold in order to monetize the sport? I also think they like our entertainment during a game and the way our Replay Center works is well received. The exchange and the mutual inspiration is very good – also with the colleagues of the Bundesliga or La Liga in Spain.
SPOX: Let’s talk about the concepts that would revolutionize the NBA season. How quickly do you intend to implement such concepts?
Tatum: We don’t set schedules for change. But we try to implement things as quickly as possible – when they are mature. Like the All-Star Game, for example.
SPOX: This change happened very quickly. Within a year.
Tatum: The idea grew right after the last All-Star Weekend and we immediately started to work out the ideas and finally the implementation. We had to react quickly and prioritised it very highly. When we do things, we always do them quickly and with the approach of bringing about change as quickly as possible.
Page 1: Tatum about the London Game and the “competitor” football
Page 2: Tatum about the All-Star Game, Expansion and the NBA game plan