The NBA has become quite the summer phenomenon, and not just because the NBA Finals now are played in June.
The NBA Draft, while not rising to the public-interest level of the NFL Draft, is a bonafide event that commands the attention of the sporting crowd. And NBA free agency , with its July 1 liftoff, has become an even bigger sensation. Fans are glued to their phones, waiting for the latest nugget of news concerning the latest contract agreement.
Baseball once owned the free agency market. The big signings of the 1970s and into the 1980s were winter thunderbolts.