Thanksgiving Basketball

[jefe]

I'd love to see NBA games on Thanksgiving, too, but they've (wisely) ceded the day to the NFL as well as some college football (Egg Bowl) and college basketball (a premiere weekend for destination "tournaments")

[itrsteve]

Then Kyrie would have another excuse not to play

[Lalouie]

Will the NBA ever have the guts to have NBA games on Thanksgiving? NFL has 3 games scheduled on Thanksgiving: 9:30am, 1:30pm & 5:20pm PST.

I think it would be fun to have 3 big matchups on Thanksgiving or even 2.

NBA needs to start flexing on the NFL!

ummmmm,,,,,,,,,,no

thanksgiving football is an american tradition. it's when familes gather, sometimes w/ friends, ​and the men huddle around the tv to watch FOOTBALL, much like bowl week on new years

the nba would get blow'd out

[cupcakesnake]

For any neutral fan to value an NBA game as much as an NFL game, the NBA would simply need to have less games and hype them more.

There are 17 games per team in an NFL season vs. 82 games in the NBA. That makes every NFL game 5x more valuable in terms or rarity.

17 games is few enough that you can clear your schedule to make sure you watch. You can make it into a big event. You can convince your friends and family who don't care about the sport to clear their schedules and come over for beers and food. You can create a story around every matchup and spend the whole week hyping it up in discussions.

NBA is more of a marathon. You tune into as many games as you can. If you're lucky enough to have friends to watch with, you maybe have some small social traditions in the regular season. I feel like especially since covid, a lot more of us watch basketball alone.

I'm not suggesting the NBA should adopt the NFL model, I'm just pointing out that there's an obvious reason why the NFL is consumed differently from the NBA, and why a single NBA game (unless it's maybe game 7 of a marquee matchup in the finals or WCF) shouldn't be judged by its ability to compete with a single NFL game.

[cupcakesnake]

I'll never understand the love affair with football. Boring as hell for me personally

Which I'm sure alot of football fans would say about basketball. I like them both but definitely don't see how football could be boring.

Yep. I feel like we should all know by now that we, as humans, can get into anything if we invest in it. How many tv shows have we rolled our eyes at people watching until we got past episode 3 and got addicted? Sports are the same. The games are all as exciting as they objectively can be, but we don't invest until we know a little about the characters and stories. I don't follow the NFL (despite playing football in high school and university), but I watch a few games with my brother. If I joined a fantasy league or just kind of followed the games, news, standings for a month, I'd definitely get into it. I'm pretty sure if I watched 10 episodes of the worst sitcom (or even a soap opera or reality television show), I'd fine myself getting into the nuances and forming a personal connection with the story.

I think there are objective differences between the NBA and NFL that are worth talking about. But in terms of on being objectively more excited or interesting... I think we forget about dad's who get way too into their kid's little league or their wife's favorite tv show they were made to watch every night. We're pretty easily entertained once we get into something.

[Stan]

They would get slaughtered in the ratings. They’re so shook by the NFL they moved the TNT games from Thursday to Tuesday lol

[hauntedcomputer]

I'll never understand the love affair with football. Boring as hell for me personally

Which I'm sure alot of football fans would say about basketball. I like them both but definitely don't see how football could be boring.

I used to be a huge football fan. Now I'm bored the endless delays, gaps between plays, instant replay reviews, billions of commercials, the last two minutes lasting 30 minutes of real time. And lately I just can't stand the sheer violence of it, watching guys ram their heads together knowing what is in store for them later on in life.

I forget who said, "Football is the worst of American life-- spontaneous senseless violence interrupted by endless committee meetings."

Of course basketball has a "delay/TO/review" system to squeeze in commercials to taint the ends of games, but at least most of the game is action instead of four minutes per 60-minute game. NBA players are in aggregate the world's best athletes.

[KingFox]

I'll never understand the love affair with football. Boring as hell for me personally

Which I'm sure alot of football fans would say about basketball. I like them both but definitely don't see how football could be boring.

eh, too much stoppage in play for me and i just never really cared to know who is who or learn anything beyond the basics, that's all. I just never took the time to even learn the game the way i have with basketball, so, more power to those that enjoy it. It's just not for me, although 15 times more watchable than Baseball, of course.

[KingFox]

I'll never understand the love affair with football. Boring as hell for me personally

Which I'm sure alot of football fans would say about basketball. I like them both but definitely don't see how football could be boring.

I used to be a huge football fan. Now I'm bored the endless delays, gaps between plays, instant replay reviews, billions of commercials, the last two minutes lasting 30 minutes of real time. And lately I just can't stand the sheer violence of it, watching guys ram their heads together knowing what is in store for them later on in life.

I forget who said, "Football is the worst of American life-- spontaneous senseless violence interrupted by endless committee meetings."

Of course basketball has a "delay/TO/review" system to squeeze in commercials to taint the ends of games, but at least most of the game is action instead of four minutes per 60-minute game. NBA players are in aggregate the world's best athletes.

THIS! Omg just .. no. No thanks.

[Duke4life831]

Just wanted to update this thread and kind of tie a neat bow on why the NBA will never and should never do this.

"Thursday's game between the Las Vegas Raiders and Dallas Cowboys was watched by an estimated 38.351 million viewers"
https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl-raiders-cowboys-thanksgiving-most-watched-regular-season-game-in-30-years-202547826.html

For comparison, the most watched NBA game of all time was game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals. That was watched by 35.9 million people. So last night's Cowboys/Raiders game was more watched than any NBA game ever. There is a reason the NBA pulled the TNT games on Thursday this year until the NFL season is over. There isn't a competition between the NBA and the NFL. It is what it is.

[Optimus_Steel]

I'll never understand the love affair with football. Boring as hell for me personally

Which I'm sure alot of football fans would say about basketball. I like them both but definitely don't see how football could be boring.

I used to be a huge football fan. Now I'm bored the endless delays, gaps between plays, instant replay reviews, billions of commercials, the last two minutes lasting 30 minutes of real time. And lately I just can't stand the sheer violence of it, watching guys ram their heads together knowing what is in store for them later on in life.

I forget who said, "Football is the worst of American life-- spontaneous senseless violence interrupted by endless committee meetings."

Of course basketball has a "delay/TO/review" system to squeeze in commercials to taint the ends of games, but at least most of the game is action instead of four minutes per 60-minute game. NBA players are in aggregate the world's best athletes.

I have to agree. I used to be a big football fan but the last 5-6 years I've watched less and less, to the point that this season I have not watched one single min of a game (despite my fav team winning the Superbowl and the greatest QB ever), we didn't watch any football this Thanksgiving and you know what I loved it, didn't miss it at all. Looking back, I don't know why us Americans put up with it. Think about all the stoppage of time (does it make sense to stop the clock in a incomplete pass with how often modern teams throw the ball?), the constant commercials (kickoff or punt then commercial, or TD commercial extra point commercial kickoff commercial), approaching 1 min between plays, the sheer number of rules and weird intricacies, penalties and the referee stopping play to formally announce what the penalty was adding wasted time. Approx 3:15 is the length of a game with so little actual action, it's way too much fluff for so little juice. There are other entertainment options out there without the hassle.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using RealGM mobile app

[RRyder823]

Will the NBA ever have the guts to have NBA games on Thanksgiving? NFL has 3 games scheduled on Thanksgiving: 9:30am, 1:30pm & 5:20pm PST.

I think it would be fun to have 3 big matchups on Thanksgiving or even 2.

NBA needs to start flexing on the NFL!

If by "flex on the NFL" you mean get "demolished by the NFL" you might have something here

Sent from my SM-G975U using RealGM mobile app

[jokeboy86]

Just wanted to update this thread and kind of tie a neat bow on why the NBA will never and should never do this.

"Thursday's game between the Las Vegas Raiders and Dallas Cowboys was watched by an estimated 38.351 million viewers"
https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl-raiders-cowboys-thanksgiving-most-watched-regular-season-game-in-30-years-202547826.html

For comparison, the most watched NBA game of all time was game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals. That was watched by 35.9 million people. So last night's Cowboys/Raiders game was more watched than any NBA game ever. There is a reason the NBA pulled the TNT games on Thursday this year until the NFL season is over. There isn't a competition between the NBA and the NFL. It is what it is.

That’s insane and the only reason I can think of why this specific game did so well is 1. the Cowboys are doing relatively well and when they’re good like the Yankees and Lakers their an even bigger draw than normal. 2. I underestimated how many fans across the country the Raiders may still have and the Raiders brand is still strong even with them not being in CA. Otherwise nothing about that game screamed must watch to me because I figured the Raiders were collapsing and their season was done due to all the off field events.

[Duke4life831]

Just wanted to update this thread and kind of tie a neat bow on why the NBA will never and should never do this.

"Thursday's game between the Las Vegas Raiders and Dallas Cowboys was watched by an estimated 38.351 million viewers"
https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl-raiders-cowboys-thanksgiving-most-watched-regular-season-game-in-30-years-202547826.html

For comparison, the most watched NBA game of all time was game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals. That was watched by 35.9 million people. So last night's Cowboys/Raiders game was more watched than any NBA game ever. There is a reason the NBA pulled the TNT games on Thursday this year until the NFL season is over. There isn't a competition between the NBA and the NFL. It is what it is.

That’s insane and the only reason I can think of why this specific game did so well is 1. the Cowboys are doing relatively well and when they’re good like the Yankees and Lakers their an even bigger draw than normal. 2. I underestimated how many fans across the country the Raiders may still have and the Raiders brand is still strong even with them not being in CA. Otherwise nothing about that game screamed must watch to me because I figured the Raiders were collapsing and their season was done due to all the off field events.

NFL ratings in general this year has seen a significant boost. Its basically every week now that Sunday afternoon games are drawing 20+ million viewers. Cowboys play every thanksgiving and its not like this is the best the Cowboys have been in the last 30 years. I think its a mix of everything, NFL ratings in general have been doing really good, Cowboys are solid, and Raiders have a pretty wide fanbase.

NFL is just a TV ratings juggernaut and the NBA better hope the NFL doesnt decide to make Christmas an annual thing with multiple games. That would be a major hit for the NBA.