Why Do We Trust Lebron James and Amazon?
Many NBA players had to make a tough choice in participating around the NBA boycott - but why were all eyes on one?
On April 15, 1947, twenty-six thousand fans gathered at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn to watch their home baseball team, the Brooklyn Dodgers, beat the Boston Braves on a bitingly cold afternoon.
With 2 RBIs off Braves ace Johnny Sain, Brooklyn’s Pete Resier was the unequivocal star of a largely uneventful win. But we remember April 15 vividly today not for Sain, Resier, or any actual highlight in the game.
We remember it specifically for the major league debut of the Dodgers second basemen: the son of Georgia sharecroppers, a promising Negro league player named Jackie Robinson.
Jackie Robinson’s debut, a footnote in contemporary papers, is hailed today for breaking baseball’s color line, an unwritten rule born out of the entrenched segregation of the time that had stopped decades of managers from integrating the leagues. Robinson’s act of courage, coupled with manager Branch Rickey’s defiance, has made an indelible impression on both baseball history and the history of sports demonstration at large.
But how did Branch Rickey become the right person to break the color barrier? In many ways, he was an unlikely revolutionary. A teetotaler and devout Christian who refused to play in Sunday games, he rarely used profanity. He even had the nickname - the Mahatma - to describe his reverent spirit. Many said he being in his presence was like being in the presence of Mahatma Gandhi himself.
When he wanted to go against the status quo and build out baseball’s farm system or open the door for Jackie Robinson to break the color barrier, it was balanced it with other areas of his life that were less offset by risk.
In his book Originals, Adam Grant talks about the concept of risk portfolios.
“Half a century ago, University of Michigan psychology Clyde Cooms developed an innovative theory of risk. In the stock market, if you’re going to make a risky investment, you protect yourself by playing it safe in other investments. Coombs suggested that in their daily lives, successful people do the same thing with risks, balancing them out in a portfolio. When we embrace danger in one domain, we offset our overall level of risk exercising caution in another domain. If you’re about to bet aggressively in blackjack, you might drive below the speed limit on your way to the casino. Risk portfolios explain why people often become original in one part of their lives while remaining quite conventional in others.”
Another great example of how risk portfolios manifest themselves is the source of Branch Rickey’s name - Gandhi, himself.
He lived modestly in a self-sufficient residential community (an ashram), ate simple food, and undertook long fasts as a means of self-purification. His contemporaries often described him as a living saint. Nevertheless, he took charge of the Indian National Congress and led an anti-colonial protest that ended 90 years of British governance in India.
The crux of risk portfolios battles a commonly held myth in marketing and sociology - that going against the status quo is a pattern for trailblazing humans and brands. Rather, many are risk averse. Many understand that you have to play the game for a bit before you can deviate from it - in fact, some of the most successful brands build what psychologist Edwin Hollander calls idiosyncrasy credits, a concept in social psychology that describes the capacity to acceptably deviate from group expectations.
Idiosyncrasy credits are simple - the more positively disposed impressions you have made in others, the more credit you have available to make risky or disruptive choices. Branch Rickey built up a supply of idiosyncrasy credits. Gandhi did as well. Over time, the accumulation of these credits led them to move minority influence and large ideas a long way.
Another interesting way to think about this concept is through the recent events surrounding NBA Star Lebron James.
What does Lebron have to do with risk?
Most people know Lebron James, so I won’t riff too much on why he is important. One of the NBA’s greatest players of all time, his league accomplishments, endorsements, and his charity work in his hometown of Akron have earned him reverence amongst his NBA contemporaries.
When the NBA boycotted games last week to protest the police shooting of Jacob Blake, few players hesitated in supporting the Milwaukee Bucks, who prompted the protest. But many eyes around the sports player were around one - Lebron.
What would Lebron do? Would he play? Would he continue the protest across the playoffs? Would the league be suspended again? Udonis Haslem allegedly even pressed Lebron to make the ultimate decision, saying he had the obligation as the face of the league.
So what did Lebron do? He set up a call with owners and even talked to President Obama about structuring the right protest. The league eventually continued, although the promises by owners, including establishing a social justice committee, remain in question. But many are convinced it could have been in almost total jeopardy if James had used his influence to revert his decision.
How did Lebron get to this point? Idiosyncrasy credits. His first few years with the Cavaliers went about as well as a city could hope from its franchise star - consistently quality play, multiple playoff runs, and even a trip to the NBA Finals.
His decision to move to Miami was widely panned - leaving a team he had given hope to without a championship. He became a villain, one of the most widely disliked personalities in 2011 - his championship runs in Miami, heroic return to Cleveland and championship has restored some of those credits.
James is now viewed as a great husband, father and philanthropist. He is able to make the decisions he can with earned influence from the credits.
How does this theory impact brand marketing?
It’s the same reason why it’s easier for brands like Nike and Amazon to take large marketing risks that others can’t.
Nike’s spot around Colin Kaepernick, while controversial, was able to be greenlit because of Nike’s long successes with motivational branding and exceptional product.
Amazon’s upcoming supermarket is a bold play in a saturated space that already includes Safeway and many others - but Amazon’s goodwill built through years of guaranteed service for prime users could lead many of those same users to give the new supermarket a try.
Risk comes down to deposits - how much can a brand take a risk-averse approach before it finally gets the chance to move influence in any direction? Anecdotal examples suggests our trailblazers may be much more conventional than we think.