BOSTON — You may long for the old Boston Garden and its parquet floor shot through with dead spots. You may miss the short shorts of John Havlicek and Larry Bird. But the championship banners — all 17 of them — are still here in this newer arena called TD Garden, and they tell the story of one of the most iconic franchises in sports.
But I didn’t come for history.
Instead, I wanted to know how the N.B.A. has become the Netflix of sports properties, a league whose players are helping transform the way sports are being bought, sold and consumed in much the same way the streaming services have changed entertainment.