NBA viewership down

[OkcSinceSGA]

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Yea no thanks.

[Meat]

which one is it? Viewership with the whole world watching or tv ratings in america? which is down?

[NyKnicks1714]

Guys, here's the REAL reason the NBA is losing viewers: "thing I personally don't like about the NBA"

[cornchip]

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Yea no thanks.

I've seen a sequence like this at least 15 times this season. What's sad is I've gotten used to it until I realize how ridiculous it is.

[Warspite]

This argument about past vs current players is like apples to orange in some regards. I mean with all the specialized coaching and huge advancements in nutrition and training if u are going to make the comparison you have to assume that the older players will have access to all this which would make a big difference or the newer players only have access to what the older players had. I feel like these are significant and make a big difference.

No, that’s the whole point of this argument lol. We are saying players today are way more skilled than players back then BECAUSE of better/way more training and a lot because of how much we learn from the players that came before. And you say, well if my guy back then wasn’t at all the player he was and i transform into a way better player through heightened training and so on, he would be just as good. I mean, sounds a lot to me like you’re agreeing that players today are better at the sport of basketball than players back then.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, player comparison is just that. We compare them on how they were. We know EXACTLY what player a, b, c, d, and e could do back then and we know exactly what the ones today can do. We know EXACTLY where they could shoot from, how good they were from each spot, off the dribble, off the catch, going left, going right, how far a defender needed to be for it to be considered a good look, left and right hand dribbling, right and LEFT hand finishing (this one would blow your minds if anyone here did the slightest research) and so on. I always hear people on here say the only thing today’s players are better at is shooting. What? Lol. They’re better at everything except maybe post up player because turning your back to the goal you’re trying to score in might just not be the smartest way to go about it, who’d a thunk it.

Sure we can take any player from back then and give them Currys shooting and Kyrie’s handles and left hand and a euro step and so on, but then you’re not even talking about the same player anymore, you’re talking about some completely made up version of him.

The problem is that today's players are no more impressive (skilled) to todays kids than DivII basketball players were to kids in the past. No matter how good they are vs the past they don't have the skills to Wow kids like the players did in the past. When DrJ, Magic or MJ was on TV it was a must-see event, but today's fans simply are not excited or impressed with todays NBA player. In every NBA arena at least 30% of the fans are looking at screens during the game. Durant scored 43 points at the last game I attended but I spent most of the game watching NCAA football on my phone.

The only reason for me to put an NBA game on my TV is if I want to fall asleep fast.

[SOUL]

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Don't bring facts into a thread!

[wco81]

Bill Simmons says he doesn't see this supposed sameness of play styles.

Says players are far more skilled than even 20 years ago. Skill level of guards like Arenas who actually made All NBA teams back then, don't compare to players of today.

[JayMKE]

Get 3 pointers down and play more defense

[Harcore Fenton Mun]

Everyone's more skilled = they only shoot threes

[10DayContract]

Basketball is "better" today, but I don't think that matters. People have mentioned it already, but the league is only as strong as it's strongest star(s). The NBA craves dominance and dynasties. It's all they basically promote about the past, and if there is no superhuman figure or team, the NBA won't break through to its highest level.

[breezypeezy]

Thread reads like a consistent rejection of 3pt play dominant action.

Thats too much smoke to ignore where the fire is.

[K N U C K L E S]

Some of the issue is that the new NBA stars are mostly non-Americans. The NBA media (and typical American NBA fans) don't want to have non-Americans as the face of an American basketball league.

I don't know if I'm a typical NBA fan, but I never noticed that most new players are non-Americans and never think about where they're from. The only thing I notice is that everybody is addicted to the 3. Even if the numbers say the 3 point explosion isn't actually hurting the game, most fans don't care about the numbers. If the three point explosion looks ugly to them, they're not gonna watch. This is why the Democrats lost the election. They just crunched numbers and didn't actually talk to people.

[K N U C K L E S]

The other main reason for the decline in viewership to me is the massive increase in player movement. Growing up the two conferences felt way more stable for a period of time. You were invested in stars rising to the top with their team. You had rivalries building up. These days within a few seasons the NBA seems to be flipped on its head. In the NFL people don’t care as much but given how small rosters are in the NBA, players moving is far bigger a deal.

Is there anyway besides money to keep players on 1 team from most of their career? I'm sure that wasn't the only reason players played on 1 team most of or all of their career in the old days. Are agents to blame? Aren't they encouraging players to take more money more than players are wanting to take it . Aren't how much money players are making dictated by the market more than how much players themselves think they're worth? Maybe free agency is doing more harm than good? Someone in MLB is gonna have a billion dollar contract in a few years. There's probably gonna be salary bubble in sports like the housing bubble in 2008. There's actually another housing bubble right now because of interest rates and because corporations are buying houses with cash and building apartment buildings in their place.

[Jamaaliver]

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[Cavsfansince84]

The thing I don't really get about the league's hesitancy to take any sort of drastic action regarding all the 3's is if anything it would only make people curious to check it out which should at the least drive up ratings in the short term if not also the long term. Taking away the corner 3 absolutely has to be looked at in the off season which would allow defenses to extend more without having to worry about a second pass to the corner. I simply do not trust refs to enforce any other rules that would curb 3's and offense because its been proven time and time and time again that they simply won't because Silver sees a month of defense and gets scared and tells them to stop enforcing them. The corner 3 has got to go for at least 1 season.

[Nate505]

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Yea no thanks.

No thanks? That was amazing, exciting stuff! Because three points are worth more than two, hence 50% more excitement or something.

[Tor_Raps]

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Why would they do that when they could tell you LeBron is 40 years old and 5 days old lol.

[Chuck Everett]

The thing I don't really get about the league's hesitancy to take any sort of drastic action regarding all the 3's is if anything it would only make people curious to check it out which should at the least drive up ratings in the short term if not also the long term. Taking away the corner 3 absolutely has to be looked at in the off season which would allow defenses to extend more without having to worry about a second pass to the corner. I simply do not trust refs to enforce any other rules that would curb 3's and offense because its been proven time and time and time again that they simply won't because Silver sees a month of defense and gets scared and tells them to stop enforcing them. The corner 3 has got to go for at least 1 season.

That's what the G-League should be for, to experiment with certain rules. Every NBA franchise has a team now. But, whatever.

[Cavsfansince84]

That's what the G-League should be for, to experiment with certain rules. Every NBA franchise has a team now. But, whatever.

It's perfectly fine to use the g league in that way but it still isn't really going to tell Silver and the league office what effect a rules change will have on TV viewership because the g league has almost none and that's the main thing they care about.

[Green89]

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There's been a lot of great matchups this year that were not nationally broadcast.