The Golden State Warriors picked up a valuable win Monday night over the New Orleans Pelicans, helping bump themselves to the eighth seed in the Western Conference. It was a “heroic” effort to say the least, both metaphorically and literally. After all, the Warriors notched the victory on the first-ever “Arena of Heroes” event, a collaboration between the NBA and Marvel, presented on ESPN. If you happened to catch it on ESPN2, it was, by all means, a first of its kind for the NBA.

It was a merge between two respective behemoths: the NBA in the sports landscape, and Marvel, whose iconic characters have grown exponentially in popularity with theatrical adaptations in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For one night on ESPN, the broadcast would be presented in a Marvel comics format, illustrating a story combining the NBA’s stars with Marvel’s heroes. In a way, the crossover may have been inevitable, with the NBA finding themselves much more synonymous with pop culture day by day.

Monday night was the first of its kind, and Warriors fans got the first taste. For a new template, the broadcast worked fairly well in its debut and in many ways presented the essence of the game in a new way for a new audience (much like the Marvel film adaptations themselves). The superhero connections were straightforward, the broadcast was a breath of fresh air (and sometimes a breath of humor), and by the end of the night, the NBA may have found a format to bring in a new audience. And of course, a Warriors win is always the icing on the cake.

Marvel Heroes and Hero Points

Like any MCU film, we’re introduced to our heroes, and they come in the form of your NBA stars. For the Warriors, Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, and Andrew Wiggins are recruited by (aka assigned to) a respective Marvel hero. In this instance, we have Captain Marvel (Curry), Doctor Strange (Green), and Black Panther (Wiggins). For New Orleans, it’s Zion Williamson (Captain America), Brandon Ingram (Black Widow), and Lonzo Ball (Iron Man) up to the task.

Throughout the game, fans are tasked with keeping track of each player’s “hero points,” aka their statistics, much like you would in a box score. Any positive contribution (made basket, assist, rebound, steal, block) is given (+1) point, while errors (missed shot, turnover, missed free throw) are deducted (-1) point. By the end of the night, you total each player’s contributions then add (+10) overall for the winning team (Golden State).

To no Warriors fans’ surprise, Golden State came out on top thanks to heroic efforts by Steph and Draymond. But in the individual competition, it would be Draymond (10 points, 13 rebounds, 15 assists) who just barely came out on top with a total of 48 hero points, one more than Steph’s 47 (who dropped 41 actual points). By the end of the night, Draymond would be crowned Marvel’s first Arena of Heroes Champion, a title he can relish just as much as his Defensive Player of the Year award.

Pages of a Comic Book

The entire ESPN broadcast was reimagined like the pages of a comic book, from the game score to the halftime studio, to even AR versions of heroes like Iron Man and Black Panther “appearing” in the arena. As the game went on, a comics text box would appear highlighting whenever one of our heroes handled the ball, and a special effect would play whenever a basket was made.

Granted, Warriors fans already envision fireworks every time Steph drops his defender en route to an absurd three-point make, but seeing this play out “Marvel style” isn’t bad either:

And of course, how could anyone not enjoy moments like these? If you needed any better illustration of the phrase “air ball” then NBA x Marvel has you covered:

Has the NBA found a new audience?

When this collaboration was announced, one couldn’t help but think of the NFL airing a special broadcast of the Saints-Bears wildcard game on Nickelodeon. Seeing Spongebob between the goalposts and getting “slimed” anytime a team found the endzone may have seemed a bit silly, but without a doubt, it brought in a new and younger audience to the game of football. The NFL is already a behemoth of success, but it’s always looking for ways to grow.

The NBA may have just found its own template with Marvel’s Arena of Champions, and it seemed like a success in its debut. After all, “hero points” don’t sound too far off from keeping track of a box score and compiling a player’s efficiency rating (PER). The idea of superheroes? Well, every team has their star players or at least hope to have some. And after the month of April, what Steph Curry has done by all means speaks “superhuman.”

Superhero films generally get their sequel, and after its debut, it’s safe to say we’ll see this format again in the future. It’s a fresh new template to bring in a new audience while continuing to merge the NBA with pop culture. And if it leads to a Warriors win, then I’m all for it.