Free NBA Swag: Then and Now

August 25, 2009 – By: Bill Zimmerman

Bill Zimmerman is a writer and editor at The Indiana Gazette in western Pennsylvania as well as a freelance writer whose work has appeared in magazines and Web sites such as Sole Collector, Marine Corps Times, Elite Fighter and AllHipHop.com. Bill also won a Pennsylvania Newspaper Association Keystone Press Award in the sports category in 2008. You can view more of his work at BillZim.com.

It looks like I picked the wrong year to hit up NBA teams for free stuff.

Apparently the poor economy hasn’t just affected Wall Street and Main Street, it found it’s weigh to NBA arenas too. In July, Commissioner David Stern announced that fewer than half of the league’s 30 teams were profitable during the 2008-09 season.

Earlier this year, I learned that teams are being a little tight with their cash when I revisited a mission that I once embarked on nearly two decades ago: writing to NBA teams to see what they would give to a fan.

As a youngster in the early ’90s, I acquired “Free Things for Kids,” a cheap lad’s guide to multiple companies, organizations and non-profits that would shell out free swag in response to a letter or a self-addressed stamped envelope. Thinking I would soon be swimming in a sea of free video games, comic books and action figures, I was disappointed to learn that pencils and stickers were the typical offerings.

One section listed the addresses of all the major professional sports teams. I chose a handful of my favorite NBA teams, wrote a quick letter, smacked a saliva-soaked stamp on an envelope and waited for my booty. In every letter I’d aim high, seeking an autograph from an NBA star. Of course, my first correspondence was with the Chicago Bulls, who were fresh off their first championship. I received a team schedule and a bumper sticker. No autograph, but it all came in a snazzy envelope emblazoned with championship insignia. Over the course of a few years, I sent letters to a handful of teams, and acquired a tiny collection of stickers, team photos and other knickknacks. Almost all the teams’ replies came with an entry form for the fan club or an order form for team merchandise. (The stingy Supersonics only sent a merchandise flyer, although it did feature team mascot/hairy freak Sasquatch modeling some of the gear.)

Earlier this year, I dug up the NBA artifacts that I hung on to, and again corresponded with each of those teams through hand-written notes in my best pre-teen scrawl in an effort to see what a team would offer a (fake) young fan in 2009. The results were much more disappointing – although I did nab that elusive autograph. Only two responded, and the Bulls replied more than four months after I wrote my letter. Here are the results of my totally unscientific study into the financial state of the NBA: