LDNMagic90 wrote:pepe1991 wrote:I don't think average fans attention span is big enough.
Go back in 2020.
So Lakers have Lebron, winning championship. Giannis is apsolute monster and is achiving something historical.
Warriors still have 3 HOFers. Jokic is having historical season for a center.... Yet League Pass is being sold on notion that some mediocre 30-42 team will be in bubble. League is going against any logic to expend Bubble just to put them in.
Ofc i'm talking about team nobody gives a f*** today. Pelicans.
From "most exiting young team" ( who actually was very mediocre ) to team nobody cares about ( but who is actually good team) in span of 2 years.
Why? Because that hype in 2020 was sold to same people who in 2022 only care about Banchero, Victor, Smith ,Scoot or Mathurin.
I call those fans pedofans. In no other sport there is such an sick obsession with teenagers. And as soon they mature as playres
( literally turn 22,23) they move on from them in never ending obsession to find new younger players.
So by the time Magic start compete for anything, there will be some 17 years old 7'6 dude who is yet to shave but shoots 3 point shots with his foot, while blindfolded and some mediocre team that gets him will be hottest team to watch, according to media who's job is to hype living s*** out of those players.
There is some food for your toughts. Victors Wembanyama played 227 min in Euroleague last year . Good luck finding more than 13 min of footage from it, despite fact 50 Europien countries and over 500 000 000 people had somewhat free access to watching those games. Do you know why footages don't exist? I have few theories. Mainly because last year pedofans were too obsessed with making videos about Banchero, Smith, Holmgren..:But as soon as they were drafted, pedofans already found new object of desire. So now we have footages of Victor in French league that pretty much nobody, including Franch media, doesn't normally cover all that much.
NBA is masterful at selling illusion. They keep fans of bad teams engaged by hyping living piss out of draft to encurage them to daydream about draft & sucking for "new Lebron".
In same time, fact that teams are good- win, keeps current fans.
That's why there is such a hate toward "threadmill" teams. Nevermind fact that almost every single championship team was threadmill at some point, because you can't jump form 20 wins to 65 wins over span of 9 months.
While I get your point about the NBA and overhyping young players (which is a very valid point). Is this not really the same in most of the big sports in the world? I’m not sure if NBA is any worse than let’s say the premier league in overhyping young players etc.
I think it’s a problem in sports as a whole, take Man Utd. In the past 10 years how many of their young players were hyped to be the next big thing or as good as the class of 92’. When in reality there’s a handful of very good players that have come from that academy. Same with the England national team and to a lesser degree the Spanish national teams, they hype whoever is in the youth teams calling them the next Ronaldo, Xavi, Iniesta etc and they flame out and end up on a mid table team.
The problem is that social media is so integrated in our lives that people end up searching for the most viral moment instead of actually paying attention. During this WC for example, you would think Ronaldo has been Portugal’s best player because anything he does (he is one of the greatest don’t get me wrong) goes viral pretty much, but you have Bruno Fernandes who has actually been playing a lot better than him not really getting the same hype.
In a nutshell I just think social media has ruined a lot of people (especially younger peoples) perception of sport.
Yea but in soccer/football nobody will shove youth down fans throat if it becomes clear that player doesn't contribute after 1 season. Where in nba you have situations where :
1) rookie year , rookie is shielded from all the critics
2) sophmore year ,still untouchable ,but not critics bulletproof
3) third year, some sobbering up, but still " he is just like Billups" nonsense
4) year 4, at this stage good teams flush the toilet, bad teams keep wasting time ( Mo Bamba )
Soccer doesn't really operate like that. They send you on loan if they can't find better role for you. Look for example Adnan Januzaj. Guy was Man Utd massive "potential". He played a lot in one season, 18 games in premiership in second, and midway through second they were already fed up with constant mediocrity with massive hype. By age of 22 they already sent him to loan , and he never returned.
Fast forward years later, guy is deep bench player on Sevilla that is falling apart ( 2 games played this year ).
And there is massive amount of kids that big teams buy at age of 16-17 who never play for them. On my Croatian team you had : Pasalic on Chealse - 0 games played, but 5 loans, Palaversa on Man City- 0 games played, 3 loans ( guy is 22 ) and maybe most notorious example , goalkeeper Matej Delač, who Cheealse bought at age of 16. He spent literally whole his career on loans ( like, 12 years of loans) , to the point it pretty much ruined his career.
The problem is that social media is so integrated in our lives that people end up searching for the most viral moment instead of actually paying attention. During this WC for example, you would think Ronaldo has been Portugal’s best player because anything he does (he is one of the greatest don’t get me wrong) goes viral pretty much, but you have Bruno Fernandes who has actually been playing a lot better than him not really getting the same hype.
100% agree but tabloid media who are doing that are almost always, by default, American & UK media. They have titles like "Ronaldo, Portugal beat Uruguay" , where Ronaldo was meh, literally tried to steal goal from teammate, but they know his name gets clicks, and as you said, Fernandes playing phenomenal, but his name doesn't get clicks.
Difference, however, is that soccer has bit more respect when it comes to selling hype. There isn't serious media outlet that will put teenager and nitpick parts of his game to compare him to Messi. Serious media would be, in soccer world,ridiculed for ages.
But NBA lives off sellind bull***

This was ESPN's front page cover in 2013. You have teenager who is yet to step foot in nba, who averages 17 ppg, 1,5 assist and 6 rebounds on some mediocre 56% TS in college- to player, who at his age ( 20, sophmore year) averaged 27-7-7 in nba.
Again, if you are tabloid media , who hires non-professional writers & will post rumors like TMZ, fine, sell your itegrity for few clicks, but how can somebody as big and important as ESPN do this ?
If you are writer you have to feel dirty while writing stuff like this, or you know nothing about sport you are payed to write about. Witch would probably be even worst.
But imo, it's just , as i've said, agenda. They are told to hype those guys before draft, follow them in rookie year, than abblenden them & find new shiny toy to write year later. Where are articles about Suggs,Barnes, Mobley, Green or Chade this year? They don't exist. Where are Lamelo Ball or Edwards this year or even last year? Gone with a wind. You are only interesting to them as long as you are rookie OR if you are in center of a drama OR potential top 10 player, so guys like SA Smith, Skip Bayless and NFL players can do their scripted performances and spit BS for clicks in front of camera.
Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans. -John Lennon