The ‘B’ in Baron Stands for Blog
I love the Golden State Warriors, and the addition of star point-guard Baron Davis almost three years ago has helped turn around one of the two hopeless sports franchises I have been a fan of since childhood (the other is the Cubs, yeah). Other than being an amazing basketball player, having Jessica Alba as a best friend, and leading his team to the biggest upset in NBA history last year, Baron is a blogger, and quite a good one at that.
Baron’s blog represents one of the best qualities of blogging — giving people access to information, personalities and insights into things they never had access to before. For example, who would have ever know that the Warriors had a book club if Baron hadn’t written it in a blogpost? Who would have known that he started an education focused foundation called Teamplay? (As a side note, I really like the fact that the Warriors have a book club — as I wrote in my last blogpost, reading leads to good things. Like, say, an NBA title?)
Since he started his blog, Baron has exposed a side of himself that people most likely did not know about — for example, he’s literary (favorite book is To Kill A Mockingbird), he’s a philanthropist and he’s against the Iraq war. For sports stars, marketing themselves has become far more important than ever before. Athletes are traded and signed to huge contracts not only for their skills, but also for how many seats they can be responsible for filling in a stadium.
Outside of sports broadcasts, athletes have only been represented in shoe or underwear commercials (Bo Jackson, Michael Jordan) at the mercy of the sponsoring company. Baron’s blog is a great example of how blogging offers a great way for athletes to reach their fans, market themselves how they want to, and touch their fans on a personal level without the influence of the powers that be. This personal connection will keep fans as fans even if these players get traded, retire or sit out with an injury for an extended period of time.
More and more athletes are jumping on the blog bandwagon, some more eloquent than others, and their blogs will undoubtedly be successful since this is the first time people have really had this kind of access to the professional sports world and to athletes before.
Bo may know football, baseball, soccer, cricket, hockey and golf, but I don’t think he knows blogging.
Baron does.
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