With the New York Knicks in the gutter of the Eastern Conference standings for the umpteenth year in a row, the franchise is hiring the same brand marketer the Brooklyn Nets employed recently.
According to Scott Soshnick in Bloomberg on Thursday, the Knicks are hiring Steve Stoute and his brand facelift agency called Translation. Translation has worked with the Nets along with the NFL, AT&T, and Anheuser-Busch.
“We have a ways to go,” Stoute said in an interview. “People can say what they want, but the world knows when you get it right — when the New York team is winning — basketball is better. When the New York Knicks are right, the NBA is a better place. That is the opportunity.”
While the Knicks are both less watchable and popular nowadays, the reality is that stems from New York's lack of winning. The Knicks fired second-year head coach David Fizdale a quarter of the way through his second season in the Big Apple (he signed a four-year contract). Since then the team had slight success with interim coach Mike Miller, but have since crashed back to reality and will more than likely be contending for a top-five pick in the 2020 NBA Draft rather than a spot in the playoffs.
Soshnick adds that Stoute's Translation wants to develop advertising campaigns that uses the franchise's history, alumni, and arena for the rebrand.
Despite the cosmetics, the Knicks are still far away from truly contending and becoming a relevant and competitive franchise again, and that will continue until the win-loss record is adjusted.
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