NZB2323 wrote:ryguy613 wrote:JayMKE wrote:If you don’t care why do you care if other people care? I don’t think there is anybody in the world that defends the Pro Bowl, I thought the whole thing was canceled? I think most people would rather NBA ASG was just canceled and they scheduled less back to backs, the only thing people care about are the flowers for making the team.
I think youve missed the point. I brought up the pro bowl not because I claim that people "defend" it. You are correct that nobody cares about it at all, to the point where you arent even sure whether or not its been cancelled....... and YET, NFL fans dont dwell on that, and use it to make some grand narrative about the failings of the sport. Thats literally why I brought it up. Im asking why people are using their dislike of the ASG to endlessly complain and act like the sky is falling in the league.
1. You can’t act like the Sky is falling in the NFL. NFL games accounted for 72 of the top 100 broadcasts last year.
2. With how dangerous football is, it makes sense to make an all-star game less dangerous.
3. The pro-bowl never mattered as much. The season is over. I’ve never watched the pro bowl. I can’t name you iconic moments in pro bowl history. The NBA has Jerry West hitting the game winning shot in 72, Dr. J dunking on Kareem in 77 after the NBA/ABA merger, Magic winning all-star game MVP in 1992 after retiring from HIV, Jordan and Kobe going at each other in 98 and 2002, Kawhi winning All-Star game MVP after Kobe died and they named the game MVP after Kobe.
4. NBA fans complain about the NBA and are upset with the product. NFL fans, for the most part, are excited about the NFL product.
First of all, the sky isnt falling for either the NBA or the NFL. lets get that out of the way. Second, people complain about the NFL literally all the time, with varying degrees of legitimate grievances. Or I guess we just forgot about the horrors of KNEEL GATE! People bitch about officiating, about the over abundance of rules, about the game being rigged, about the game becoming soft, becoming too offense oriented.
The point I was making was not that the NBA and NFL are equally popular, therefore everything is clearly the same for both sports in all ways. The point is that disinterest in a meaningless ceremonial exhibition game is really not indicative of a sport in decline... i mean clearly as you mentioned the NFL still dominates. I can assure you, to any extent NBA ratings are down, it has virtually nothing to do with people missing the good old days of Dr. J dunking on Kareem literally 50 years ago lol. In 1977 the All Star Game was such a popular event that... it couldnt even elevate the NBA to a live broadcast sport. So I kinda dont wanna hear that back then people loved the sport and now, when multi billion dollar tv deals are being made year after year, everyone hates it. Its just not true.
To what I've witnessed, this argument has continuously been an exercise in confirmation bias. People seem to have an axe to grind with the NBA because of... politics, lets just call it what it is... and they want to see the league burn to prove that they were right about people being driven away from watching the game. So people take any excuse to talk about how bad its gotten and how its all falling apart right before our eyes. Any time in the last few years the ratings have gone up, people get quiet... but whenever the ratings level out, people puff their chest out and are like "SEE! SEE! PEOPLE HATE THIS ERA! WAKE UP SILVER!"