The michael jordan - most marketable player in the AFL

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Feb 23, 2009
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The closest to MJ in the history of our game, and who would be regarded as the greatest VFL/AFL player ever had his career not been cut short due to a knee injury, is John Coleman.
I'd probably say Carey if anyone. But even then it's not comparable to Jordan's status.
 

wanganeen4

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In the sense that Norths supporter base didn't seem to go up significantly from carey being the biggest name in the game.
That theory might work if Chicago had 11 teams in Illinois alone to choose from at the time.
Victoria is a different beast to anything as far as sporting teams.
 

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We'll never be able to comapre it. Footy doesn't have the "franchise player" as a BB team has 5 players plus bench etc. MJ could have started a club from scratch around him. The GC tried that with GAJ, it wasn't quite as successful.
Buddy went Sydney, to live on the harbour with is model wife came close. The marketing team would have been as happy or happier with him than the footy department.
 
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Franklin could have been but he hasn't embraced it. Hird would have been up there too. The saga would have been over in a few months if it had been Brendan McCartney in the hot seat. Can't be much more marketable than front page news from years on end.
 
Feb 11, 2012
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Wouldn't a shitload of that have to do with being in space jam? That's where a fu**load of non sports fans would recognize him from

Air Jordan' Nikes and all those Nike/Gatorade/Maccas commercials.

Like this one:



What really gave his fame an international push was the 1992 Olympics, the star of the first 3 peat, and his 1st retirement after his father was murdered, ending up playing baseball. Best player in the comp leaving at the top of his game makes international waves.

Space Jam was in response to his fame but it certainly pushed it a bit further.
 
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Potentially Tony Modra could have been to Australian rules football what David Beckham was to Association Football (soccer).

Oh if he'd consistently had years like 93 absolutely. I still remember the hype around him in the mid 90s. Greatly helped with a last name that commentators used to just announce he was doing something. 'MODRA'! And its use in everyday SA life when someone tried to catch a ball or something.
 
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Oh if he'd consistently had years like 93 absolutely. I still remember the hype around him in the mid 90s. Greatly helped with a last name that commentators used to just announce he was doing something. 'MODRA'! And its use in everyday SA life when someone tried to catch a ball or something.
The infatuation and hype around Modra in that time period in South Australia has not been matched since with an individual player IMO. Someone on this site once described it as being like Beatlemania.
 

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Ah, no.

He's definitely the biggest of this era, but how can it not be debatable when there's a bloke who has won 3 more majors than him?

And Bill Russell has 11 NBA rings and 5 NBA MVP’s

What’s your point?
 

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Michael Jordan is quite probably the most famous person to ever walk the earth alongside Michael Jackson, John Lennon, Princess Diana, Muhammad Ali, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Cruise & Jesus Christ.

Then comes a close second tier of people like Hugh Hefner, Madonna, Mike Tyson, John McEnroe, Sylvester Stallone and Paul McCartney.

Strictly speaking sportspeople though he would be only second behind Ali with names like Tyson, Babe Ruth, Ronaldo, Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong and Federer all being household words. Even if you do not follow sport you know these names.

There will never be anyone in Australia let alone AFL who will ever be that huge or marketable.

Who do we really have to sell? Elle McPhearson (win), Angus Young (Scott), Heath Ledger (dead), Mel Gibson (Yank)..?

Other than the Rock, Chris Hemsworth is the highest paid actor per movie on the planet at the moment.

So him.

Ben Simmons is the other.
 

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Bjo187

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That theory might work if Chicago had 11 teams in Illinois alone to choose from at the time.
Victoria is a different beast to anything as far as sporting teams.

I'm talking about new fans to the game choosing bulls as their basketball team during that period. Not just in Chicago but in the whole of the u.s and around the world. Manchester United had the same around the Beckham era.

Actually i have 2 friends from overseas and my wife from the u.s that came to australia in about 2005, both those mates are big hawks fans now and i even struggled to get the mrs to be an essendon fan because she loved buddy and the hawks. I'd barely met a hawks fan before that, but it seems every new person to melbourne i met that arrived during that period of time that got into footy seemed to adopt the hawks as their afl team.
 

Choogler

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The likes of Messi and C Ronaldon are bigger world wide than MJ ever was, even Beckham could be thrown in as bigger.
NN and Buddy in Australia.
Those guys live in a connected, instantaneous world and MJ didn't yet was still known by people worldwide.
MJ is far and away the biggest name, most recognisable and most marketable sportsperson ever. Tiger Woods at his peak is the only guy that comes close.
 

blackcat

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If Carey hadn’t done his shoulders too....
shoulders f'ed in adolescence at Hampton Rovers or east sandy

But p'raps that defined his ground game others like may Fyfe(Royce Hart) he would have been floating in front of packs in marking contests
#gametheory #crowdingout #opportumitycost #zerosum

even w Kouts, no player has had dominance in all areas of game, focus, excellence and specialisation come at expense of other parts. Dusty can defend and tackle, but (generic) you idiots* he cannot be an offensive juggernaut expending resources to neutralise an other s game or 18opponents, MJ exception, but different game
*mods and wanganeen4 I ain't calling anyone anything it was regarding commentary(media)who confected this sleight against Martin
 

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Are the WCE supporters mentioning Nic Nat trolling? He’s not even close to being the best ruckman in the game and wouldn’t be in the top 100 players. Fyfe is the most marketable player in WA and it’s not even close. He’s actually a good player as well.
 

blackcat

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It would be Buddy current day here but Buddy lacked the loyalty MJ had for Chicago, which is a very endearing quality. He could have gone anywhere but built Chicago off his back from nothing.
16 -> 18 AFL teams Franklin's prominence spread between more competition for the formula suggested in the OP

*even pro rata caveat, but Carey (part thanks to chicken nixon /davidfalk) part thanks to first proper era of professionalism and more games broadcast on tv, and only really (marketing space in the market) for a single figurehead/pinnacle in the league , yeah Hird Crawford Buckley Richo picked up coupla hunje'ie[sic] contracts p.a. with Nike, <overs> contracts as Nike sought to make a splash
but really my point stands to scrutiny

does not mean Corey McKernan did not surpass his product on the field and the golf course for 24 months, but Carey prolly surpassed that cumulative BigTen but was KellyWoodhouse'FlyingStart Big10

Carey needed competitor like 20yo Brereton when Dernier mimics same output for a dozen years, or Oxe/Ox

to be even close to rivalling him
 

blackcat

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Michael Jordan is quite probably the most famous person to ever walk the earth alongside Michael Jackson, John Lennon, Princess Diana, Muhammad Ali, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Cruise & Jesus Christ.

Then comes a close second tier of people like Hugh Hefner, Madonna, Mike Tyson, John McEnroe, Sylvester Stallone and Paul McCartney.

Strictly speaking sportspeople though he would be only second behind Ali with names like Tyson, Babe Ruth, Ronaldo, Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong and Federer all being household words. Even if you do not follow sport you know these names.

There will never be anyone in Australia let alone AFL who will ever be that huge or marketable.

Who do we really have to sell? Elle McPhearson (win), Angus Young (Scott), Heath Ledger (dead), Mel Gibson (Yank)..?
8 billion people
most have no access to pictures, and pictures in any form of media, most don't know any 'concept' of sport, most have zero idea about Olympics

most have no concept of fame

the question will depend on the formula , dare say w smaller population than China, the most famous ever is Virat Kholi or pm Modi
Not Xi nor Tendulkar
depends on formula, but I consider proletariat in China less likely to come across media pictures, and Tendulkar's 30 years since 16yo debutante does not exclude burgeoning media and low resulting picture spreading to proletariat
 

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