This is the official NBAopoly story. It began in 1992. Morningstar Creations, a partnership of three Massachusetts businessmen, led by Jack Farrell, contacted sports anchor Jimmy Myers. At the time, Myers was one of the top sports broadcasters in Boston – serving as the studio anchor for television coverage of the Boston Celtics basketball games, evening sports host on Boston’s sports radio station WEEI, and he was the host of the syndicated sports-entertainment TV show, Sports Exchange with Jimmy Myers. Morningstar had created a board game called Bostonopoly, one of the first localized versions of the classic Monopoly game. After achieving some success with Bostonopoly, Morningstar wondered about creating a version of the game centered around the National Basketball Association. They believed that Jimmy Myers’ connections in the sports world might help with the launch.
The initial meetings included Jimmy Myers, his producer and business partner, Tony Bennis – along with Jack Farrell and Mark Matanes of Morningstar. Having already cleared the legal hurdles with Parker Brothers over having a board game with a similar concept to Monopoly, Morningstar had created a good looking box design and game board. Myers and Bennis contacted the NBA headquarters in New York to set up a presentation – hoping that they could secure a licensing agreement. Having the game “Officially Licensed by the NBA,” was critical to getting picked up in major stores and at NBA arenas.
The NBA did grant the licensing deal, but then in the celebratory meeting afterwards, Bennis and Myers discovered that Morningstar had never determined how the game would be played, what the rules were, how you would have a winner, what the “pick-up cards” would say, etc. All they had was the game board which used NBA teams instead of the standard Monopoly properties.
During a three day lock-down, Jimmy Myers and Tony Bennis worked 16 hours per day to determine how to play the game. They decided the currency should be “points” instead of dollars – and that the game should be timed for 48-minutes. The next rule established was that the most storied NBA franchises, the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers would be considered the highest valued teams – along with the Chicago Bulls, the top team in the 1990’s. Rather than plan out how the game would be played, they simply began rolling a set of dice and moving around the rough game board with makeshift game pieces – joined at times by different people watching the process. As they landed on spots, Bennis and Myers began establishing the rules.
“Chance” and “Community Chest” from Monopoly were replaced by “Personal Foul” and “Free Throw.” “Go to Jail” was replaced by “Technical Foul – Go to Bench.” You could score extra points with a sneaker endorsement deal – or lose points when a rock concert damaged the arena floor. And, you could grab a team that was in receivership through a hostile take-over. If the game was tied after 48 minutes – there was overtime. At the end of the three days the game truly worked and was actually a lot of fun.
In late April of 1993, the Boston Celtics last regular season game was April 25th. They then had four days before they would host the Charlotte Hornets in the first round of the playoffs. NBAopoly officially launched on April 27th at the New England Sports Museum (then at the Cambridgeside Galleria Mall) during a special event with 200 prototypes of the game that you could purchase while meeting Boston Celtics’ captain, Reggie Lewis – and get his autograph on the game board or box. It was a complete sell-out within two hours.
NBAopoly then got picked up in many major department stores and special meet-greet-and-purchase events were held in Boston, Los Angeles, New York, and Salt Lake City with players such as Robert Parish, Felton Spencer, Charlie Ward, and others. The game was also in high demand at NBA arenas – especially at the Portland Trail Blazers arena where it sold-out many times. On the popular TV show, Sports Exchange with Jimmy Myers, NBAopoly was a prize for audience members participating in the You Call The Play segment – and Tony NBAopoly was played live on Jimmy Young’s sports program on New England Cable News.
During a summer basketball camp run by Boston Celtics players, Rick Fox and Ed Pinckney, all the campers received NBAopoly games donated to the camp. A TV commercial was also produced that aired throughout New England featuring André Stark, Jennifer Schumacher, and Peter Sullivan with Jimmy Myers doing the voice and Tony Bennis directing.
In 1993 and 1994, NBAopoly was a big seller nationwide – but then computer based games began to take over and there were some internal complications at Morningstar. By 1996 NBAopoly was done. There’s also a sad association with the game. Two days after the launch event with Reggie Lewis, the Celtics’ captain and star player, collapsed in the opening minutes of the first playoff game while holding his chest. Reggie was found to have a genetic heart defect with a confusing diagnosis on whether he could ever play in the NBA again. In a stunning tragedy – three months later Reggie Lewis died while practicing basketball.
That is the official NBAopoly story – including the devastating connection with the death of Reggie Lewis.