NBA viewership down

[cornchip]

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This is the NBA's fault. It isn't like the NBA is some brand new league. People in their 50's grew up on Dr. J, Kareem, Magic, Bird and saw pretty much the entirety of MJ, Shaq, Kobe, Duncan, Lebron, and Curry. NBA's failure to keep those fans engaged falls on the NBA.

And I completely disagree that the style of play doesn't make an impact. A typical NBA game looks so foreign compared to what older fans are used to and not in a good way.

[ImmortalD24]

NBA is down due to it being a bad product. They milked and propped up LeBron James when it wasn't even necessary when there were a plethora of better stars in the mid-00's to showcase has turned off plenty of fans and now even their kids are not being exposed to such a failed product. Kids today are watching streamers ie Kai Cenat iShowSpeed and using tiktok. NBA needs to figure it out.

[MrSparkle]

My NBA viewership is down. Games aren’t fun to watch anymore.

I buy the 3P criticism. Bottom line is you want 5 guys relentlessly shooting 3Ps, crashing the glass and protecting the rim. Do those 3 things and you’ve got the Celtics. Takes all the nuance out the game, though.

I think there are too many tankers right now, too. Still think they should completely scrap the lotto system. Midseason tournament is also badly designed. Couldn’t care less about it.

Side note- Nuggets were a fun championship team. Beautiful offensive basketball. There’s great talent. IMO the wrong stuff is rewarded. They won a ring, then had to lose depth to avoid cap penalties.

Also, the big elephant to me is sports betting. Combined with social media, the players’ awareness of this stuff has to be distracting but also create nihilism. I can atleast sympathize why Kyrie had his mid-career crisis (uhm, minus the flat earth theory, holocaust denial anti-vax and other conspiracies)- these guys must feel like they’re right in the center of some big money bull****.

[MrTribbiani]

Anybody catch that valuetainment piece on silver?

I think Silver probably should be fired based on his lack of stewardship of the game but the valuetainment segment was so soft, saying that guys like Pop should be censored because they don't like his political opinions. "free speech" but they want all NBA people to be muzzled by the commissioner.

They sure don't dislike NFL guys like Bosa saying they are pro MAGA do they.

Same goes to the comments on that video on yt, so many soft whiners. Here's an idea, stop being so soft that a coach or player's political opinion makes you stop watching an entire sport.

This is a thread about NBA viewership.

Any company, that upsets a huge potential group of customers, is stupid. **** stupid. All leagues should muzzle their players, and coaches to a certain degree. You cannot, alienate gigantic chunks of the country.

Whats affecting the NBA is a myriad of issues, from a crappy boring product, insane hoops customers(yes, they are customers not fans)have to jump through to access the product, and yes, a decidedly left leaning league.

There are a bunch of other issues (gambling being so brazenly combined with the product, has also turned off another chunk of the country)and it all adds up to a dive in viewership.

Saying;

"stop being so soft that a coach or player's political opinion makes you stop watching an entire sport."

Is exactly the reason the NBA has lost almost half their viewers since 2013. Arrogance always leads to downfall.

There are various reasons why the NBA has lost viewers. Regarding political opinions, some folks are hypocrites. They get triggered when a player or coach says something that they disagree with politically, but they would have no problem if that same player or coach said something that they agree with.

[yannisk]

1) Too many regular season games (that mean very little). Teams don't try hard and many star players get load managed. The amount of games have not changed of course but maybe the effort/load managing has.

2) Too many 3 pointers. Everybody is chucking 3s non stop. This has reduced other aspects of play.

3) The league in the past has been carried by the star wing players (Jordan, Kobe, Lebron etc) . With Curry and Lebron on the way out we wait for the next face of the league. Actually I think the talent of the league is amazing and we have some all time greats playing at their peak but for whatever reason they have not managed to captivate the public.

[sashaturiaf]

NBA continually pushing Lebron has backfired. Anyone who has played competitive basketball in their life knows he's just a stat padding player who has no hustle and plays no defense. Any objective coach would bench him. Not to mention all the travels and moving picks he gets away. So right there you turned away alot of basketball fans. Remember all the preseason hype the league tried to build with Bronny? How it became more WWE than NBA? Another big turn off for alot of fans.

I agree. Lebrons generation has done irreparable damage to the NBA brand with their actions. And as the face of the league Lebron needs to take responsibility.

Magic and Bird saved the NBA, Jordan took it to new heights but this new generation is doing all it can to squander what goodwill has been built up.

I bet if you play word association now with the general public now on NBA players. "Load management" and "hypocrites" would come up more often than "great competitors"

[MrTribbiani]

Talent depth isn't the issue. Personality depth is the issue. Guys like Jordan, Barkley, Bird, Magic, all had charisma. AI, Kobe, Shaq, etc had charisma. Lebron and Curry had charisma.

Guys today are so worried about their brand that they display no personality at all. No one is going to care about your talent if you have no charisma. Anthony Edwards is the one guy who shows a personality but he's stuck in Minnesota.

It's why Pro Wrestling has had a huge following but Olympic wrestling is boring and no one cares. People want entertainment, skill optional.

It doesn't help that many fans get butthurt if a player says something that isn't considered politically correct.

[Zadeh]

Solution is simple, use the basketball rules.
Plain and simple, call travelling, carrying. Call offensive fouls, allowed to make defense.

Then all the players must play right basketball. Because without offensive protection, without referee favor you have to play right basketball. Not a hero ball, not a ball hog.

Then we can watch true stars, not like created stars like Antetokounmpo or morant. We can watch truly great players, because without referee and commissioner we don't have to watch lebron ****.

Because if the rules use as used to be, one of them cannot score without offensive fouls, one of them cannot dripling without carrying.

I love this game with Bird and Magic. They was showing me what is right in basketball and Jordan was showing what is wrong in basketball.
Stern was need a star after Bird and Magic. And he created biggest marketing star with help of bending rules. More fouls bigger star, more protection because shoes sales was going to moon.

After Jordan he was needs to bend rules more then more. Because needed new shoes salesman like Bryant, Lebron. Then who needs the rules if we rid defense then everybody colud score 70-80 in a game. Lets do this.

And now I cannot tolerate any games more than five minutes In last 12-13 years except if game has Duncan or Jokic.

Three points is not a problem, if you call travelling most of the stepbacks.

Now product is not basketball. Now product is shoe sales, tiktok followers likes , bronny fans likes.

Thats not about basketball anymore. If you are a rich man you could buy a basketball team and let your son play in NBA. No need to skill. Like Formula F1.

But name of the game is basketball.
And if you not market the game, game is going to fading.

If you not use the basketball rules for a high jumping teenager who thinks world created for him. Nba will turn to be WWE.

[MrTribbiani]

I also miss villainous players. These kids are too polished. We need NBA heels. Like 87 Macho Man, 96 Steve Austin. Then get an old color analyst and a new one for games and let them bicker.

Sent from my Pixel 8 Pro using RealGM mobile app

Most fans don't want that.

Whenever a dude like Grayson Allen or Draymond commits a flagrant foul, many fans call for these guys to be suspended for 10 plus games.

Bunch of goddam snowflakes

[tribulations]

Solution is simple, use the basketball rules.
Plain and simple, call travelling, carrying. Call offensive fouls, allowed to make defense.

Then all the players must play right basketball. Because without offensive protection, without referee favor you have to play right basketball. Not a hero ball, not a ball hog.

Then we can watch true stars, not like created stars like Antetokounmpo or morant. We can watch truly great players, because without referee and commissioner we don't have to watch lebron ****.

Because if the rules use as used to be, one of them cannot score without offensive fouls, one of them cannot dripling without carrying.

I love this game with Bird and Magic. They was showing me what is right in basketball and Jordan was showing what is wrong in basketball.
Stern was need a star after Bird and Magic. And he created biggest marketing star with help of bending rules. More fouls bigger star, more protection because shoes sales was going to moon.

After Jordan he was needs to bend rules more then more. Because needed new shoes salesman like Bryant, Lebron. Then who needs the rules if we rid defense then everybody colud score 70-80 in a game. Lets do this.

And now I cannot tolerate any games more than five minutes In last 12-13 years except if game has Duncan or Jokic.

Three points is not a problem, if you call travelling most of the stepbacks.

Now product is not basketball. Now product is shoe sales, tiktok followers likes , bronny fans likes.

Thats not about basketball anymore. If you are a rich man you could buy a basketball team and let your son play in NBA. No need to skill. Like Formula F1.

But name of the game is basketball.
And if you not market the game, game is going to fading.

If you not use the basketball rules for a high jumping teenager who thinks world created for him. Nba will turn to be WWE.

This. So much of this. It's such a simple fix that requires the minimal to zero re-invention, rather justbenforcement of what already exists (the laws of the game).

[MavsDirk41]

Talent depth isn't the issue. Personality depth is the issue. Guys like Jordan, Barkley, Bird, Magic, all had charisma. AI, Kobe, Shaq, etc had charisma. Lebron and Curry had charisma.

Guys today are so worried about their brand that they display no personality at all. No one is going to care about your talent if you have no charisma. Anthony Edwards is the one guy who shows a personality but he's stuck in Minnesota.

It's why Pro Wrestling has had a huge following but Olympic wrestling is boring and no one cares. People want entertainment, skill optional.

It doesn't help that many fans get butthurt if a player says something that isn't considered politically correct.

Not sure what players you are talking about saying something that isn’t considered politically correct. Its way too many 3s as the main problem. You think people want to watch two teams combine to take 80 3s in a game?

[timdunkit]

Just my two cents - nobody cares as much about the basketball as they do the storylines. The storylines aren't as engaging anymore, particularly as teams/players have devalued what the regular season means.

[MrBigShot]

NBA continually pushing Lebron has backfired. Anyone who has played competitive basketball in their life knows he's just a stat padding player who has no hustle and plays no defense. Any objective coach would bench him.

Thanks for the laugh

Let me guess, you don't hoop. You're a fantasy sports and 2K player.

Errr, wrong.

You don't win 4 championships by being a stat padding player that any "objective coach should bench"

[John Murdoch]

I will saying that Olympics opened my eyes to how bad our refs are compared to Fiba ...much smoother flow of the game and they dont take 10min to review a 5 sec play

[Homer38]

Silver did nothing good to improve the product and now this is maybe too late.Way too many 3s,the load management is embarrassing,no defense,too many commercials,etc...

[SpreeChokeJob]

What really hurt the NBA in the past was the strike. I remember the league losing a lot of viewers during that time. The only thing that resurrected the league was Linsanity because a lot of people stopped watching due to being turned off by greed. There have been bumps up like the Curry James finals matchups, but nothing to capture the eyes of the casual viewers since. Most people in America can’t name more than 5 NBA players. The league isn’t interesting besides to die hards. I think Silver was successful in finding money sources to fund the salaries today, but I don’t think the media partners will be happy with what they paid for. It’s probably why Silver locked up such a long term media contract and why so many owners are bailing when they used to be pass ownership down to their kids. There’s going to be a lot of headwinds in the future for the league. The increasing salary is unsustainable. Every basketball decision has to be made based on greed like adding gambling which could backfire in a very bad way.

[Dominator83]

:roll: My NBA viewership is down. Games aren’t fun to watch anymore.

I buy the 3P criticism. Bottom line is you want 5 guys relentlessly shooting 3Ps, crashing the glass and protecting the rim. Do those 3 things and you’ve got the Celtics. Takes all the nuance out the game, though.

I think there are too many tankers right now, too. Still think they should completely scrap the lotto system. Midseason tournament is also badly designed. Couldn’t care less about it.

Side note- Nuggets were a fun championship team. Beautiful offensive basketball. There’s great talent. IMO the wrong stuff is rewarded. They won a ring, then had to lose depth to avoid cap penalties.

Also, the big elephant to me is sports betting. Combined with social media, the players’ awareness of this stuff has to be distracting but also create nihilism. I can atleast sympathize why Kyrie had his mid-career crisis (uhm, minus the flat earth theory, holocaust denial anti-vax and other conspiracies)- these guys must feel like they’re right in the center of some big money bull****.

I think the big thing your leaving out is, your a Bulls fan. Kinda hard to get excited about anything these days

26 years post MJ and we still have not found the island of relevancy, and it's not even in our view either. We're just lost in the ocean.

Also of course, as i mentioned in a previous post, I can't even watch their crappy product anymore unless I'm at home in front of my TV with an antenna on it. I usually watched via streaming CSN (legit legally). They took that away from us and I'm not paying $20 a month unless Cooper Flagg is on the roster next year

[MrTribbiani]

Talent depth isn't the issue. Personality depth is the issue. Guys like Jordan, Barkley, Bird, Magic, all had charisma. AI, Kobe, Shaq, etc had charisma. Lebron and Curry had charisma.

Guys today are so worried about their brand that they display no personality at all. No one is going to care about your talent if you have no charisma. Anthony Edwards is the one guy who shows a personality but he's stuck in Minnesota.

It's why Pro Wrestling has had a huge following but Olympic wrestling is boring and no one cares. People want entertainment, skill optional.

It doesn't help that many fans get butthurt if a player says something that isn't considered politically correct.

Not sure what players you are talking about saying something that isn’t considered politically correct. Its way too many 3s as the main problem. You think people want to watch two teams combine to take 80 3s in a game?

I've heard some people get mad at players for trash talking other players, even though those same people always talk about how players need to be less "buddy buddy." They contradict themselves all the time.

Regarding the 3s, I personally prefer the offensive schemes of today's NBA. I personally don't wanna watch players spamming mid range jumpers or posting up every other play.

[Marvin Martian]

The criticism of the NBA product is laughable. They have changed the rules over the past few years to preserve the integrity of the game and prevent abuse by the players.

The NFL on the other hand, changes the rules to favor offense and make it illegal to play defense but their ratings don't take a dip?

This is obviously political. The NBA community is largely liberal so mainstream media is praying for their downfall everyday.

[Chuck Everett]

I think Silver probably should be fired based on his lack of stewardship of the game but the valuetainment segment was so soft, saying that guys like Pop should be censored because they don't like his political opinions. "free speech" but they want all NBA people to be muzzled by the commissioner.

They sure don't dislike NFL guys like Bosa saying they are pro MAGA do they.

Same goes to the comments on that video on yt, so many soft whiners. Here's an idea, stop being so soft that a coach or player's political opinion makes you stop watching an entire sport.

This is a thread about NBA viewership.

Any company, that upsets a huge potential group of customers, is stupid. **** stupid. All leagues should muzzle their players, and coaches to a certain degree. You cannot, alienate gigantic chunks of the country.

Whats affecting the NBA is a myriad of issues, from a crappy boring product, insane hoops customers(yes, they are customers not fans)have to jump through to access the product, and yes, a decidedly left leaning league.

There are a bunch of other issues (gambling being so brazenly combined with the product, has also turned off another chunk of the country)and it all adds up to a dive in viewership.

Saying;

"stop being so soft that a coach or player's political opinion makes you stop watching an entire sport."

Is exactly the reason the NBA has lost almost half their viewers since 2013. Arrogance always leads to downfall.

There are various reasons why the NBA has lost viewers. Regarding political opinions, some folks are hypocrites. They get triggered when a player or coach says something that they disagree with politically, but they would have no problem if that same player or coach said something that they agree with.

I'm a conservative guy for the most part and I love/watch the NBA, however, if you alienate half the viewing audience, I am not sure what people expect to happen. You can name call those people 'til you're blue in the face, but their not so silent protest/boycott seems to be working. They can live without watching professional basketball, apparently.

Those of us who are still watching, just want the product to improve. I could care less about the ratings. Just make the game better to watch. Why can't we enforce the rules? All of these loose interpretations hasn't made the game more interesting to the American casual fan, so why not at least experiment with calling the game properly in the G-League to see if it improves game play. Something else must be afoot and my sense is the NBA doesn't want to do it because without the league mandated refereeing, a lot of guys would look objectively worse and thus not be worth their reputations. Better to let Gobert get crapped on via everyone than a plethora of "offensive" stars.