The interesting thing is that I think basketball's popularity has increased pretty substantially in the last decade, not just in the US, but globally. However, if we think about that in the context of the history of the sport, the increase in popularity is in guys like Lebron and Luka. For younger kids who never saw Jordan play, he is a mythical figure. At this point, even Kobe is probably a mythical figure for a lot of younger fans of basketball. Someone's fandom needs to really grow and develop for them to want to care about the history of the game, and that usually takes time. I'm sure that vintage basketball will eventually see a rise in prices, beyond just the Bird/Magic rookie and Wilt rookies. But it will take time.
There probably aren't many 18-22 year olds collecting George Mikan cards. Likewise, I doubt there are a ton of under 25 collectors who are focused primarily on pre-war baseball.
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