Choice to be Legends or Forgotten Now Rests on Shoulders of This Team's Stars

Cautionary tale from Razorback history proves branding is about championships, not stats

Author:
Kent Smith
Publish date:
Mar 8, 2023 2:18 PM EST

In this story:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The window is about to close on the 2022-23 version of the Arkansas Razorbacks no matter how things shake out over the next few weeks.

The only question left is how hard it's going to slam shut.

Just a handful of days will determine whether this group can get it together and become legends, or spend the rest of their lives known the next Rotnei Clarke.

A big chunk of Razorback fans are scratching their heads right now because they either don't remember who Clarke is or are trying to pull together some notable memory of his time at Arkansas.

For the record, Clarke should be an Arkansas and college basketball legend. Instead, he's the greatest player no one remembers despite his time only ending 10 years ago.

He was a scoring machine. Clarke put up 20 or more points 26 times in college. His bad games were in the high teens.

For instance, in one five game stretch, he went for 51, 16, 16, 26 and 32.

He dropped 24 on No. 2 Texas. There was also a 26 point game against No. 22 Kentucky and 36 he rained down against No. 19 Vanderbilt. No. 3 Marquette took 24 points to the chin.

The man was a living stats algorithm.

That Clarke was able to put up those kinds of numbers and barely register as a blip in the memory of so many die-hard basketball fans in Arkansas says everything the players of this current team need to know and take to heart.

So many people tug at today's athletes while telling them to be aware of their brand.

What they don't spend a lot of time on is that their brand is reliant upon so much more than their stats. The biggest part of a brand is whether they met their potential and how they made the people most directly impacted by their brand feel.

Clarke's brand wasn't winning. He once lost 14 out of 16 as a Razorback.

Not only did his stats not matter, but people almost began to resent him for it because he kept getting his stats and Arkansas kept losing. One of the most prolific shooters in Razorback history helped usher in one of the most prolific stretches of losing in school history.

Fans often don't remember his accomplishments because that was a dark time for them. The team was highly disappointing and devoid of memorable winning moments.

As a result, they pushed Clarke to the backs of their minds and some completely erased him.

Stats don't matter. Go get all the empty stats you want and no one is going to care.

The path to building a brand is through winning. It's through setting ego aside and making the people who support you and your team feel good through your success.

The guy who scores 14 points per game with eight rebounds and a couple of charges while working within a team to win a championship has a brand that is way more powerful with advertisers than some guy who puts up 26 and keeps losing while everyone around him loses also.

There is no bigger platform for players to create value for themselves than the next few weeks. Potential stars may have been a big fish in their tiny fishbowls up until this point, but in the vast sea of people who are about to be responsible for buying an athlete's merchandise and tickets to see him perform, those players are an invisible unknown.

This is the one time of year those walking pocketbooks will watch college basketball.

If wannabe stars never learn to be coachable, grow as team players and raise the greatness of those around them, then no one remembers them because they weren't even good enough to even be in a historic upset. They're just some guy who lost in an 8-9 or 7-10 game that no one remembers being played.

That only leaves a player with either no brand, branded a disappointment, or branded a loser. Those aren't marketable.

However, a player with all the heart in the world who leads a group of overachievers to the NCAA Tournament while leaving it on the floor and making a group of average players look better than they are has something that everyone wants associated with their company or product.

If players on this Razorback team are anxious to move on and do their NBA thing, they need to understand that this is the beginning of their NBA thing.

Prove you are a winner. Create memorable moments.

Keep your personal brand on television in some of the most valuable promotional time outside of the Super Bowl for as long as possible.

Make the world fall in love with you for your heart, character and unwillingness to lose. Become a household name by leading a team to greatness.

If for some reason there is resentment for Razorback fans and bitterness at Musselman for trying to push players to greatness, the best way to get back at everyone is to actually do the only thing those people wanted for you in the first place.

Win.

Eyeballs are important to a brand and a potential future NBA star needs to be in front of as many as possible for as long as possible convincing them that his merch will make them a winner and that his presence on their team will make them a champion.

Razorback stars who embraces doing it the right way have earning power from Memphis all the way to Dallas for the rest of their lives long after the bright lights of the NBA fade, if they ever turn on at all.

So, go get your stats above all else young men if that's how you are wired. It won't get you anywhere, but you'll have a cool story about a game no one will remember to take with you into the future.

Or, listen to a man who is known as one of the greatest tournament coaches of all time, figure out how to play as a team, and become the dominant force that not only pushes as one for championships and legendary status, but pushes together for the betterment of each other's brand.

Choose true greatness and Arkansas fans will care for life.

Choose to be solely about yourself as you close this chapter, and we will try to make sure we get the stats right when it comes time to write the "remember this guy that everyone forgot" in regard to your career a decade from now.