NBA ratings are down cuz: 1. No defense. Team prioritize 3 points 2. Refs call everything a foul, and players always flopping. 3. Refs are very soft, calling technical fouls like giving out candies in Halloween. 4. Players are soft. Load management/entitled players who sit out multiple games. 5. **Top reason: Can't watch games free anymore! You need to have Hulu, Prime, League pass etc. Can’t even watch your own team in your own city! Ridiculous! ** It's not worth it anymore. Even to go see games are hella expensive.
wish we could have stephen A read this to Adam Silverman on air and discus what the fans want to come back but he want like it because it starts with allice being fired
The viewership is down because NBA players are the highest paid professional athletes and they put in the least amount of effort. They don’t even try to hide it. They just flat out don’t care about competing at the highest level or the fans.
Exactly! I went to a game last year. Paid over $500 and the main stars didn't play! It was freezing outside, we paid for the hotel to stay closer to the arena and the main stars didn't play! They played the day before though but because it was a back to back game, they rested.
Don't listen to reporters that work at these networks. These are all old heads talking. The NBA is the first league to 20 million subscribers on TH-cam. 14 million followers gained on Instagram alone last year. The NBA app tripled its viewership last year as well. So unlike other leagues the NBA enacted an excellent multi platform strategy that has the youth and international fans eating it up. Long form is dead. That is why ESPN and FS1 are dying. "With game times of around three hours that aren't always action-packed, NFL games just aren't ideally suited for younger consumers who are no longer used to pay attention to anything for that long". So these other leagues are just living off old people still interested in yesteryear formats
True! Does Adam Silver watch ... anything? In entertainment you need heroes and villains. Everyone can't be a babyface. You need heels too. I like LeBron but he should have embraced the villain role in Miami. Let them hate you like we hate heels in WWE. It's not real hate, we're just playing along. How do you think WWE stays on top of the ratings for 35 years?
Exactly… like bro the other day Hunter dunk on Wemby and proceeded to stare him down and talked his shit and what happened? both of them received a tech🙂 like wtf
It's actually the lack of LOVE for competition, the game, sacrificing to win. My childhood stars MJ, Duncan, Kobe, Dirk, even AI all loved the game more.
I have a lot of respect for those early 2000 Sacramento Kings teams, the original 3 point shooting team…. They were very scary, every one says the golden state change the game, nope it was Sacramento followed up by Steve Nash Phoenix Suns. Deep 3 or Die.
@ there was for years. LaMelo Ball just got $100,000 fine for saying no h*mo. It’s ridiculous. Everybody’s friends nowadays. There’s no rivalry. Nobody really cares. Nobody really wants to be the best or most of them don’t because they all are set for life if they’re smart. They literally only have to play one year of ball to be set for life. The rest is all just for pride.
@@mr.denzelsausageton9719 I can't give you a date but that's like me asking my girl, "When's the last time I cheated?" IT DOESN'T MATTER! Clearly, there was a hole that some feel they dug and you don't get out over night. That stated, for me it's just an overall competitiveness thing. it's just not there for me/
That's only part of the problem 1. Game is a 3 point contest 2. Flopping/weak calls/whining to officials 3. No defense (product of part 2) 4. Lack of competitive spirit/drive
In season tournament that means nothing, the fact that football is on, the fact that there are 80 something games so there are essentially no stakes until later
When teams allow 200 points for an all star game then the players have no pride. Everyone is wealthy and don't have to earn anything any more. Players in the 80 and 90s played with pride. Much better basketball back then.
I agree with Magic. I have been saying this for a while now. There are no longer any rivalries anymore. The last great rivalry was the Lakers vs Kings. Now everyone wants to hang with each other.
What's wrong with mature athletes who choose to rise above hatred? It's just a ball game at the end of the day, compassion and care are signs of real men
@@juansanchez209 There's nothing wrong with being friends. Magic and Ishah were friends off the court. However, on the court was a completely different story...they wanted to kill each other. Rivalries make things more exciting. Don't get me wrong there are plenty of great talent in the league but one of the things that's hurting the game is a lack of rivalries.
- no one wants to defend anymore - everybody wants to be Curry - players don't have the same hunger or aggression - nepotism - they care more about their outfits than play - everything is a foul/soft refs etc...
They're too friendly. Now everyone is hanging out after the game and going to dinner together and taking selfies with each other. It's even gotten to the point that Celtics and Lakers players are HUGGING EACH OTHER! (Tatum x LeBron). Its nauseating. Giannis is the only player that has that Jordan/Kobe cutthroat mentality, where he's NOT interested in hanging out with non-teammates in the offseason and refuses to workout with his competition.
No one wants to talk about it, but the reason they keep comparing the ratings to pre-2018 is because the NBA started getting into politics. You alienate half the fans and expect them to come back? They never did. When Trump got into office the first time the players, especially Steph and LeBron...the two biggest starts, trashed him and the media picked up on it. Why would you ever expect those fans to come back?
Viewership is down because nobody watches live tv anymore and we can't watch live games on steaming platforms without paying almost $100 a month. The whole purpose of having those platforms is to avoid the high price of cable. If the apps gave us the ability to pick and choose which sports/channels we want instead of bundling everything together and making us pay for things we won't use, the ratings would go back up...spread the word Stephen A.!
Everyone already knows all of that. The " no one watches TV anymore " argument has already been talked about to death, everyone agrees. But now were trying to figure out other reasons why the league viewership is down.
@thejedioutcast804 What I'm saying is, if the apps were priced better and more personalized, all sports, not just the NBA, would see an increase in viewership. Why pay $100 a month for something I can go to any sportsbar or Dave & Buster's and watch for free? Why pay extra money for all sports, when the only sport I watch is basketball? You say it's been talked about to death...but have they fixed the issue? That's not "equivalent exchange" Ed...it's a rip-off, and I'm not buying it lol.
This an extremely great point by Stephen A. Blaming the NBA for taking some of the physicality out of the game is the reason for players being more cordial.
Lebron killed the league. He ushered in traveling, flopping and bitchassness in joing friend's instead of competing. He was the founding father of being soft, now they all do it.
@daboiii7822 lmao no it'd a well known fact lebron joined miami to stop kobe, wade said that himself......and garnet allen and pierce are not the same as lebron wade and bosh, Celtics had a great but beatable roster...lebron started the superteam bullshit, no one including the players looked at the Celtics as cheating but I promise u they did when bron went to miami
I can't watch it because the courts literally hurt my eyes. Seriously, they're atrocious to look at. Also, there are way too many commercials. Its practically become unwatchable.
Magic is 100 percent correct with the addition of the Meta right now being the a heavy amount of the developmenr of the open look 3 for a majority of the plays in-game. Every team wants to be the 2016 Golden State Warriors, and when the shots don't fall, it's a long night for viewership.
@AlphaBuckeye Yeah, I like your style. To many rules to help the offense. Instead of exchanging blows they're exchanging uniforms. I'm not advocating thuggery but the game is way to soft.
It also doesn't help that you can voice left wing talking points or talk about how much you hate Trump openly on the post game interview mic (and be watched by millions) and still not have to worry about any consequences. Meanwhile if you made any kind of right wing talking point or talked about Trump in a positive light it would most likely cut to commercial or the interview would end then and there. Or you would have people lecturing you and texting you about what you just did 10 minutes later when the cameras are off. Im thinking of Greg papabitch, Lebron, and a few others. I don't get how Adam Silver even allows this considering half his audience voted Trump. It's moronic from a business stand point, but I guess you gotta virtue signal and be apart of the " good guys. "
They don't call travels, they don't call double dribbles, the games are scripted calling fouls at key times, players don't play it's rare both teams have their full rosters, casual games aren't competitive and the 3 point nonsense with 4 steps 1 dribble has ruined the game. Take the stupid circle out from under the key. Players need to compete. Men watch sports because it's the ultimate form of Alpha and finding out who's at the top. Basketball looks like a play now. On top of the college game ruined by nil, the sport needs a big change. It's not because players don't hate each other or they haven't found their next unicorn. The quality of the game has degraded.
viewership is down because 1) 4 minutes of game -> timeout -> commercial break 2) 2 more minutes of game -> time out -> commercial break 3) foul, free throw 4) foul, free throw 5) foul, out of bounds 6) timeout -> commercial break 7) back from commercial, still shooting free throw from previous foul & time out 60% of the game is commercial and free throws and fouls. like cut that shit out, we wanna see basketball, not commercial.
9) Coach call challenege -> timeout commercials 10) return from commercials coach challenge still being reviewed -> back to commercials 11) return from commercials refs call supported after review, coach loses timeout -> game will resume after commercials
Magic and Isaiah used to kiss before the game started. Then they'd destroy each other during the game. You can literally confine the "hate" to just the game.
Yeah nobody believed these players hated each other. It was all hard competition. Everyone knew Jordan was friends with Barkley and Ewing back in the day and they all hung out. This revisionist history is insane.
@@emmanuelaltenor9396 Like the commenter said, the hate was confined to the game, not off the court. They went at each other and "hated" each other on the court in regards to competing and trying to win and hating to lose. They all played in each other's Mid-Night Summer Classic and UNICEF summer games
@@truthiscensored I know. That’s not the argument people use when discussing this topic though. They try to make it seem like players did mingle on or off the court. They have an issue with players being friends. It’s been proven long before that you can be friendly off the court and still be highly competitive on the court.
Everyone is shooting 3's. In the 90's you had: PG - penetrate and drive to the basket SG - long-range jump shots and 3's F - Mid-range jumpers C - post-up moves down low All positions had a purpose and you would have players who would specialize in them. Now everyone is looking for a Wembanyama.
Again look at how the game was played in the 90s vs now. Then everyone was on the edge of their seats waiting to see what players were gonna do next. Now.........🤷♂️💤
I’m 58 years old and grew up in the times of the Lakers , Boston, Detroit rivalry’s.. you nailed it!! Took the physically out of the game and it’s morphed into a 3 point shooting game 🤬
1. No defense 2. Too many 3 pointers 3. Whining/Flopping 4. Refs want to dictate game 5. Load management 6. Everyone wants to be friemds 7. Virtue signaling/Wokeness 8. Have to have subscriptions to apps to watch a game 9. Every player is a diva Just some reasons why people stopped tuning in
It’s a combination of everything. 1. We had the best players like Lebron blatantly telling us the regular season isn’t important. And the media echoed that for years, and they even did it this year for Embid. “As long as he’s healthy for the playoffs..” 2. Players are overly friendly, there are few real rivalries between players. 3. The 3 point rate is atrocious. It was cool when Steph was doing it, but I’m not here for role players whose forte is now shooting but they do it anyway. It looks good when it’s going in, but they don’t go in nearly enough. Teams will be shooting 11/36 from 3, who wanna see that? And the fact that’s it been boiled down to “math” all the teams are copying. Lack of diversity in style of play. 4. Streaming illegally, there tons of people stealing the games. 5. Players sitting out. Self explanatory. 6. THE REFS ARE AWFUL. It’s like they get worse every year. Nobody wants to watch imbalanced games based on league favoritism, incompetence, or flopping. 7. There isn’t enough emphasis on defense. 8. Some fans teams suck, so they bow out til they turn it around.
I used to think the no hate narrative was ignorant now I see what they were talking about in the 2010s players didn’t punch each other but there was still beef. Every single warriors Cavs game had aura. Westbrook vs KD was must see tv.
I blame Team Spirit for piss poor viewership. Where’s the rivalry? Hey let’s swap jerseys after the game friendly mentality is what NEEDS to stop, TODAY!!!!!!!They GET paid so damn MUCH that they shouldn’t even want to shake hands after the game. What the NBA is gonna turn into the All Star debacle? I think God should judge some of these stars with giving them a heaping helping of some of their own dirty medicine they prescribe for others and is destroying the NBA.
THE VIEWERSHIP IS DOWN BECAUSE THE NBA HASN'T BEEN CREATIVE ENOUGH WITH IT'S SERVICES YEAR OVER YEAR 💯! WATHING ONLY BASKETBALL IS BECOMING TIRED AMONGST MANY!
The last time I was really excited to tune in was The Derrick Rose Bulls Vs The Big 3 Heat. Or Celtics vs Heat. And they really hated each other, Magic has a point. We don’t have any real rivalries
It's how they sell fights. It's how they sell anything. When we know two people genuinely don't like each other or give the impression, we watch. But these guys want to be nice to each other which is fine. But it loses that animosity that war US versus them dynamic
I believe the nba media is also responsible for the decline. Always comparing players from this era to the past to try diminish what players the new generation is doing or media personnels making careers off hating certain players no matter what. It's annoying
Thats good tv, most of thr podcasters do comparison and they got high viewership, the point is those people are right, theres no competitive fire anymore just overpaid divas who just cash in checks, shoot 200 3s and load manage
I remember living in West Philadelphia for a minute. In middle school and high school, going down to the neighborhood playground to play basketball with my friends. Once we picked teams, 2 on 2, 3 on 3 or 5 on 5, I was going at it with my friends like we were playing for the NBA 🏆. On defense I'm all over my man cuz I did not want him to score on me. On offense when I got the ball I want to take him to the hoop for a layup or a jumper in his face. And I was not get n paid. I use to hate my friends scoring on me. Did this every day on the court during the day or at night when the lights were on in the summer. Had the same mindset when playing baseball or football with my friends. I mean if I was shoot n marbles with my friends in elementary school, I wanted to win all of their marbles and send them home without any marbles in their pockets. Thats how competitive my friends and I were. When we played sandlot football, I'd tell my friends: I'm your friend before the game starts, but once we start, when I tackle you there will be no mercy. Getting back to todays NBA players, SOME of them are overpaid and not competitive. IMO!! Many of the NBA players play no defense. IMO! If they do, I call it MATADOR DEFENSE. LLS🤣😂 Oh well!! Its the times we live in. I usually pick up serious interest in the NBA when the SECOND SEASON starts which is the playoffs. BTW, bring back the game as it was played in the 80' and 90''s. The Bad Boy Pistons, The physical NY Knicks with Oakley, Ewing and Anthony Mason. Now thats my kind of basketball. 🏀🏀 Frfr!! 🗣♊️👤Rising
1. The league is too quick to hand out techs and fines every time a player or coach shows a little personality. Discourages athletes from showing the world who they really are, and hurts ratings. 2. Shows like first take and other sports shows constantly hate on the NBA and too often have segments that focus on the negatives. Perfect example is athletes like Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown should be celebrated for not doing stupid stuff off the court and consistently winning since they entered the league, but the media has wasted years trying to break them apart instead of celebrating them. In what world is Joe Mazzulla not a finalist for coach of the year last season, or Jayson Tatum not even a top 3 finalist for MVP last season after having the best record in the NBA by far? In a world where the media constantly hates!
Call me crazy, but people love Steph and the Warriors. If the a warriors were playing well, i think we would see an uptick in the ratings. The other thing is that our favorite players are getting old. Finally, there's not enough poor people coming into the league. All these rich kids coming in the league don't have the hunger of athletes rising up from the hoods of Chicago and Detroit and other US cities.
Back in Jordan, Kobe & Magic Johnson days players didn't want to link up & form Super Teams like they doing in today's era, back then players wanted to prove they can beat other players
I haven't watched a full game in 2 years including the playoffs and finals. I've seen highlights, 3 quarters but not full games. Watching a 2 on 1 or 3 on 2 fast break that leads to a three is just too frustrating to watch.
It’s down because over the years players have been told that everything that they’ve done in a regular season doesn’t mean anything, so there’s more of a desire to just play how they play, and focus all their efforts for the playoffs.
No no no! It’s simple. People like a couple of excellent teams to do really well! They don’t like many good teams. They want to follow their favourites and want them to do well. So if Warriors and Lakers suddenly become the Championship favourites, the viewership will increase drastically. In tennis, when Nadal and Federer and Djokovic were dominating, the viewership was sky high.
there are no rivalries...but its down bc there is no strategic parity. there is just 0 defense. when you create rules that favor the offense for 15 years and defense keeps taking hit after hit, it gets boring to watch.
NFL players put it on the line every week. They play hurt. Regular season and every game counts. NBA players can’t even play back to back nights when they are just fine. Family can pay $200 and not even see a star player who is healthy. Players show indifference to regular season and lots of players who shouldn’t be shooting three pointers do.
The Cavs and Warriors would’ve been that great rivalry. Had KD not gone to the Warriors, that rivalry would’ve been just as heated. They had a lot of tension, were a good match, had the two most popular players on each team, and were in separate conferences.
As an athlete I played to play never hated anyone, but to know fans watched it for hate or the visual of hate and competition. The NBA and NFL will never be rated high as before, most professional players now have played together in some form since adolescence. Hate is going to be difficult to manufacture especially because of social media connectedness.😊
They thought “more points = more excitement”. So they changed the rules to make the game softer. It worked for a little while until it got boring bc once scoring became easy, it was no longer appreciated.
I stopped watching for the same reasons a lot people are commenting but I interviewed a young gentleman for a job he brought out a point I didn’t think about it. He said: “his friends don’t watch the NBA because they are so many other entertainment now days that they don’t want to waste their with it”
Every team plays the same style. No differentiating identity. Load management. Once upon a time, we tune in and marvel at player’s immortal abilities to play physical back to back games, play while suffering from flu, injuries, and rivalries between teams/players were real etc. No more of that, makes them so mortal.
when the fans start to feel like they care more about if their teams wins or loses than the actual teams you have a problem. just like when we found out wrestling or wrestlers were actually friends
The lack of rivalry in the NBA is killing it. In the 80s it was Boston vs Celtics, in the 90s it was Bulls vs every team, in 2000s Lakers vs Kings vs Celtics, now the rivalry are fans of Lebron vs the rest of Basketball lovers around the world 😂
Celtic and Lakers were two superteams with race playing a factor. And in huge basketball markets in separate conferences. A lot of factors went into it besides them hating each other.
@@nickypeeps93 NFL is slightly down, NBA is down, News Networks with the exception of fox is down. However movie going is up. If you're an Anti Trumper who's tired of seeing and hearing about trump you will avoid the tv and find something else to do. It's only gonna get worse next year.
Players went from hating each other to hating fans. I grew up a huge NBA fan. I have not bought NBA gear and don't attend games under any circumstances.
You take away the intensity of defense, you lose the rivalries and competitiveness. That's what makes it a SPORT. Don't ever say basketball is a "sport" when talking about the NBA today. It was a legit sport back then, nowadays it's just ENTERTAINMENT.
Growth and decline is a result of accumulated years of specific practices. 1) improper load management 2) terrible ref calls 3) no player/team narrative. These things need to be addressed now to see results 3 years from now
I think they got too full of themselves from Politics and Messaging. Sometimes I think I am watching the "Democrats who play Basketball" Leauge. and it's gotten old. And Tencent. God help them if they keep letting the CPC (Not China, the CPC) tell them what to do.
Valuing entertainment over competition, combined with inconsistent implementation of an ever changing rulebook, and repetitive biased media coverage have created a formula for free fall. The GOAT debate has alienated so many fans across multiple generations that the game is not celebrated with any type of togetherness or appreciation of the game’s history. Loyalty to money over sport has also played a part in reshaping league culture.
Remove the 3 point line/3 point basket. The game was meant to be played trying to get as CLOSE TO THE BASKET as possible for the easiest shot. The 3 point game makes it IMPOSSIBLE to compare modern players to the historic stars/teams. NBA has become a game of keep - away and 3 point shots.
I think high school/AAU teams becoming super teams full of the next batch of NBA players is an underlying cause of players being “too nice”. Players become friends with each other at a younger age through these teams and grow up with each other. IMO it’s why international stars are looked as “meaner” nowadays, they ain’t friends with nobody they’re here to get paid and play ball.
Rules need to be changed like bringing back hand checking, removing the 3 seconds in the key, and reigning in the refs for over reffing. That's the main factor on why teams don't hate each other anymore. If you re-implement them, you slowly see the physicality return. Players will start hating each other after they elbow and smack each other in the face a few times.
The game is boring now, especially compared to the 90s and 00s. It's not just one thing, it's a combination of factors. The players, even the stars, are boring people. MJ, Barkley, KG, Shaq, Hakeem, etc. They had unique styles of okay because they had unique personalities. Now everyone plays boring because they have boring personalities. Rivalries are boring because players are too friendly and because players switch teams so often so rivalries can't develop. There used to be great rivalries among small market teams, because stars stayed and the rivalry could form organically. I was a Blazer fan, we had rivalries against the Supersonics (location), Lakers (we all hated/respected Kobe), Bulls (Jordan v Drexler) which developed as the intensity and animosity developed. The game doesn't inspire the same way because it is not as much about passion, intensity, and discipline but more casual and calculated. It's less art and more science, and science is boring. Everything Caitlin Clark brings to the game, no NBA can match. Loyalty to her home state (Iowa), rivalries against Angel and South Carolina, passionate and innovative style, interesting personality, respect for the fans. When you're easy to cheer for and fun to watch, ratings go up. When you're hard to cheer for (greedy, disloyal, entitled) and boring to watch, ratings go down. The only players worth watching are European and the league seems afraid to take the attention off of LeBron and Steph and give it to Gianni's, Luca, Joker, and Welby. But since they're unable to produce homegrown talent (Zion, Simmons, Tatum, Ja) that are consistent enough or interesting enough to be the face of the league, Adam Silver is in real trouble. The NBA is losing its soul. The in-season cup, sports gambling, a new all-start game format every year, moving to a different streaming service, none of that is going to save it.
Viewership is down because they make it hard to watch. You have to pay for streaming services that also require NBA league pass, it's really hard to casually watch games like it used to be.
NBA ratings are down cuz:
1. No defense. Team prioritize 3 points
2. Refs call everything a foul, and players always flopping.
3. Refs are very soft, calling technical fouls like giving out candies in Halloween.
4. Players are soft. Load management/entitled players who sit out multiple games.
5. **Top reason: Can't watch games free anymore! You need to have Hulu, Prime, League pass etc. Can’t even watch your own team in your own city! Ridiculous! **
It's not worth it anymore. Even to go see games are hella expensive.
And Lebron/bronny drama, and every fucking player has a podcast, and no real point guards like John Wall type..
@@David2040-q4ti agree with the podcast thing, every player seems to have one and they all just talk about the same topics its mad corny and boring
wish we could have stephen A read this to Adam Silverman on air and discus what the fans want to come back but he want like it because it starts with allice being fired
There are so many more reasons
All that is true. I stop watching it in 2003.
The viewership is down because NBA players are the highest paid professional athletes and they put in the least amount of effort. They don’t even try to hide it. They just flat out don’t care about competing at the highest level or the fans.
Exactly! I went to a game last year. Paid over $500 and the main stars didn't play! It was freezing outside, we paid for the hotel to stay closer to the arena and the main stars didn't play! They played the day before though but because it was a back to back game, they rested.
Don't listen to reporters that work at these networks. These are all old heads talking. The NBA is the first league to 20 million subscribers on TH-cam. 14 million followers gained on Instagram alone last year. The NBA app tripled its viewership last year as well. So unlike other leagues the NBA enacted an excellent multi platform strategy that has the youth and international fans eating it up.
Long form is dead. That is why ESPN and FS1 are dying. "With game times of around three hours that aren't always action-packed, NFL games just aren't ideally suited for younger consumers who are no longer used to pay attention to anything for that long". So these other leagues are just living off old people still interested in yesteryear formats
MLB is highest paying. But yeah I agree.
Wow, had no idea Stephen A, put this much theatrics into his YT posts. Too too much for me to enjoy. Seems perfect for a look at me gen
Viewership is down because football has bullied the nba out of the room. Xmas day used to be reserved for the nba and the NFL even took that
it’s down because they’re not allowed to. the techs destroy any competitive spirit
True! Does Adam Silver watch ... anything? In entertainment you need heroes and villains. Everyone can't be a babyface. You need heels too. I like LeBron but he should have embraced the villain role in Miami. Let them hate you like we hate heels in WWE. It's not real hate, we're just playing along. How do you think WWE stays on top of the ratings for 35 years?
Boom!!! THIS!!!!!!
Exactly… like bro the other day Hunter dunk on Wemby and proceeded to stare him down and talked his shit and what happened? both of them received a tech🙂 like wtf
1000% agree 👍
I started to turn the television off when officials were handing out techs for players staring at them too long
It's actually the lack of LOVE for competition, the game, sacrificing to win. My childhood stars MJ, Duncan, Kobe, Dirk, even AI all loved the game more.
Which is the result of lack of hate that’s why wnba is so much better
Guaranteed contracts
I even remember Shaq/Kobe heated rivalries with the Kings! Man good ole days
@@AlphaBuckeye Probably the last real rivalry.
@@smathews731Boston vs Miami big 3
laker fan here, yea those Sac teams really pushed the lakeshow
Shaq and Kobe didn't like each other either at the time, and they were on the same team.
I have a lot of respect for those early 2000 Sacramento Kings teams, the original 3 point shooting team…. They were very scary, every one says the golden state change the game, nope it was Sacramento followed up by Steve Nash Phoenix Suns. Deep 3 or Die.
1. No Defense
2. Players Jacking up 3 pointers
3. Load Management
4. Too much politics, social justice, and other BS we don't need
My brother, when was the last time somebody said anything political?
@@mr.denzelsausageton9719 LaMelo Ball just got an insane fine for saying no h*mo. It’s insane
Too much politics and social justice? There's barely any of that hahahaha!
@ there was for years. LaMelo Ball just got $100,000 fine for saying no h*mo. It’s ridiculous. Everybody’s friends nowadays. There’s no rivalry. Nobody really cares. Nobody really wants to be the best or most of them don’t because they all are set for life if they’re smart. They literally only have to play one year of ball to be set for life. The rest is all just for pride.
@@mr.denzelsausageton9719 I can't give you a date but that's like me asking my girl, "When's the last time I cheated?" IT DOESN'T MATTER! Clearly, there was a hole that some feel they dug and you don't get out over night. That stated, for me it's just an overall competitiveness thing. it's just not there for me/
That's only part of the problem
1. Game is a 3 point contest
2. Flopping/weak calls/whining to officials
3. No defense (product of part 2)
4. Lack of competitive spirit/drive
Well said 👏
In season tournament that means nothing,
the fact that football is on,
the fact that there are 80 something games so there are essentially no stakes until later
@MeechDaRapper-sm2vn Those last 2 didn't matter in the 80s, 90s, or 00s.
AAU culture
You guys are just watching highlights
When teams allow 200 points for an all star game then the players have no pride. Everyone is wealthy and don't have to earn anything any more. Players in the 80 and 90s played with pride. Much better basketball back then.
FACTS!!!!
The game is boring shooting 3s and only hitting 30% is a boring watch!!
Facts
Definitely
Go watch boxing
Exactly
This is a perfect description of what it feels like to watch
I agree with Magic. I have been saying this for a while now. There are no longer any rivalries anymore. The last great rivalry was the Lakers vs Kings. Now everyone wants to hang with each other.
Agreed 👍
What's wrong with mature athletes who choose to rise above hatred? It's just a ball game at the end of the day, compassion and care are signs of real men
Cleavend and GS when LeBron was there
@@juansanchez209 There's nothing wrong with being friends. Magic and Ishah were friends off the court. However, on the court was a completely different story...they wanted to kill each other. Rivalries make things more exciting. Don't get me wrong there are plenty of great talent in the league but one of the things that's hurting the game is a lack of rivalries.
@@soda8736 That one was alright but it was missing the tension of past rivalries
Once politics got involved it was over. People don't want to be told by a bunch of millionaires who act like victims how to vote or think.
People literally vote for a celebrity
@@mr.denzelsausageton9719 dude is anti establishment thats why they voted for him. Literally rogue, John Wick of elites.
Trump = GOAT
That has nothing to do with the product. I could care less what their uneducated asses think about politics.
Absolutely correct. Almost the same thing happened to the NFL. they turned it around.
- no one wants to defend anymore
- everybody wants to be Curry
- players don't have the same hunger or aggression
- nepotism
- they care more about their outfits than play
- everything is a foul/soft refs
etc...
Vince McMahon should run the NBA
@@omidfilms there's no females for him to buy off. Try the wnba
The media is also to blame for the nba ratings being down but yall will never talk about it
They're too friendly. Now everyone is hanging out after the game and going to dinner together and taking selfies with each other. It's even gotten to the point that Celtics and Lakers players are HUGGING EACH OTHER! (Tatum x LeBron). Its nauseating. Giannis is the only player that has that Jordan/Kobe cutthroat mentality, where he's NOT interested in hanging out with non-teammates in the offseason and refuses to workout with his competition.
AAU culture
I'll tell you what's nauseating. Watching them exchange uniforms and signing them.
They want to be influencers and fashion icons instead of professional athletes
No one wants to talk about it, but the reason they keep comparing the ratings to pre-2018 is because the NBA started getting into politics. You alienate half the fans and expect them to come back? They never did. When Trump got into office the first time the players, especially Steph and LeBron...the two biggest starts, trashed him and the media picked up on it. Why would you ever expect those fans to come back?
So because NBA stars don't like Trump, his followers don't watch basketball anymore 🤔
Exactly.
Viewership is down because nobody watches live tv anymore and we can't watch live games on steaming platforms without paying almost $100 a month. The whole purpose of having those platforms is to avoid the high price of cable. If the apps gave us the ability to pick and choose which sports/channels we want instead of bundling everything together and making us pay for things we won't use, the ratings would go back up...spread the word Stephen A.!
Everyone already knows all of that. The " no one watches TV anymore " argument has already been talked about to death, everyone agrees. But now were trying to figure out other reasons why the league viewership is down.
@thejedioutcast804 What I'm saying is, if the apps were priced better and more personalized, all sports, not just the NBA, would see an increase in viewership. Why pay $100 a month for something I can go to any sportsbar or Dave & Buster's and watch for free? Why pay extra money for all sports, when the only sport I watch is basketball? You say it's been talked about to death...but have they fixed the issue? That's not "equivalent exchange" Ed...it's a rip-off, and I'm not buying it lol.
Yeah im pretty sure if everyone had cable tv again... rating would shoot right back up
No defense = No traditional fans from 80s and 90s
This an extremely great point by Stephen A. Blaming the NBA for taking some of the physicality out of the game is the reason for players being more cordial.
Lebron killed the league. He ushered in traveling, flopping and bitchassness in joing friend's instead of competing. He was the founding father of being soft, now they all do it.
Nah Kg Paul Pierce an Ray Allen started it all that's what made LeBron switch teams
@daboiii7822 lmao no it'd a well known fact lebron joined miami to stop kobe, wade said that himself......and garnet allen and pierce are not the same as lebron wade and bosh, Celtics had a great but beatable roster...lebron started the superteam bullshit, no one including the players looked at the Celtics as cheating but I promise u they did when bron went to miami
@@MakaveliCVW They had Rondo too lol he came in the league going crazy wit Celtics it was really a big 4 "U KNO IT AN I KNO ITTTTT" #SKIP VOICE 👁️👽
@daboiii7822 what I know is it wasn't a superteam it's clear to anyone that played basketball or have watched religiously
Rating been down since KD did that weak move joining GSW since then it hasn't recovered
I can't watch it because the courts literally hurt my eyes. Seriously, they're atrocious to look at. Also, there are way too many commercials. Its practically become unwatchable.
I actually got a headache watching one of the cup games. The court design was a disaster
When KD went to the warriors that was it for me personally
Magic is 100 percent correct with the addition of the Meta right now being the a heavy amount of the developmenr of the open look 3 for a majority of the plays in-game. Every team wants to be the 2016 Golden State Warriors, and when the shots don't fall, it's a long night for viewership.
Lebron brought that AAU buddy buddy chit to the nba. Would be nice if guys really went at one another like they did back in the day
Man look at all the top HS recruits now ...they all friends be making videos w each other like where the Dawgs at
I don't know how to fix the AAU culture mindset
@@soda8736 easy, take flagrant fouls out of the game.
@AlphaBuckeye
Yeah, I like your style. To many rules to help the offense. Instead of exchanging blows they're exchanging uniforms. I'm not advocating thuggery but the game is way to soft.
It also doesn't help that you can voice left wing talking points or talk about how much you hate Trump openly on the post game interview mic (and be watched by millions) and still not have to worry about any consequences. Meanwhile if you made any kind of right wing talking point or talked about Trump in a positive light it would most likely cut to commercial or the interview would end then and there. Or you would have people lecturing you and texting you about what you just did 10 minutes later when the cameras are off. Im thinking of Greg papabitch, Lebron, and a few others. I don't get how Adam Silver even allows this considering half his audience voted Trump. It's moronic from a business stand point, but I guess you gotta virtue signal and be apart of the " good guys. "
Dude, why every video no matter what the subject you Trump voters come out of nowhere whining he won the election and you’re still bitching
They don't call travels, they don't call double dribbles, the games are scripted calling fouls at key times, players don't play it's rare both teams have their full rosters, casual games aren't competitive and the 3 point nonsense with 4 steps 1 dribble has ruined the game. Take the stupid circle out from under the key. Players need to compete. Men watch sports because it's the ultimate form of Alpha and finding out who's at the top. Basketball looks like a play now. On top of the college game ruined by nil, the sport needs a big change. It's not because players don't hate each other or they haven't found their next unicorn. The quality of the game has degraded.
Even these top HS recruits now all bestfriends ...i think social media made people more accessible and easier to be friends
viewership is down because
1) 4 minutes of game -> timeout -> commercial break
2) 2 more minutes of game -> time out -> commercial break
3) foul, free throw
4) foul, free throw
5) foul, out of bounds
6) timeout -> commercial break
7) back from commercial, still shooting free throw from previous foul & time out
60% of the game is commercial and free throws and fouls. like cut that shit out, we wanna see basketball, not commercial.
8) illegal streams... you have no idea how big the audience there.
9) Coach call challenege -> timeout commercials
10) return from commercials coach challenge still being reviewed -> back to commercials
11) return from commercials refs call supported after review, coach loses timeout -> game will resume after commercials
Magic and Isaiah used to kiss before the game started. Then they'd destroy each other during the game. You can literally confine the "hate" to just the game.
Yeah nobody believed these players hated each other. It was all hard competition. Everyone knew Jordan was friends with Barkley and Ewing back in the day and they all hung out. This revisionist history is insane.
@@emmanuelaltenor9396 Like the commenter said, the hate was confined to the game, not off the court. They went at each other and "hated" each other on the court in regards to competing and trying to win and hating to lose.
They all played in each other's Mid-Night Summer Classic and UNICEF summer games
@@truthiscensored I know. That’s not the argument people use when discussing this topic though. They try to make it seem like players did mingle on or off the court. They have an issue with players being friends. It’s been proven long before that you can be friendly off the court and still be highly competitive on the court.
The Cavs and Warriors were the last rivalry until KD ruined it
Everyone is shooting 3's. In the 90's you had:
PG - penetrate and drive to the basket
SG - long-range jump shots and 3's
F - Mid-range jumpers
C - post-up moves down low
All positions had a purpose and you would have players who would specialize in them. Now everyone is looking for a Wembanyama.
Well put!!
Players care more about their pregame outfit more than the game. That’s the problem
Again look at how the game was played in the 90s vs now. Then everyone was on the edge of their seats waiting to see what players were gonna do next.
Now.........🤷♂️💤
I’m 58 years old and grew up in the times of the Lakers , Boston, Detroit rivalry’s.. you nailed it!! Took the physically out of the game and it’s morphed into a 3 point shooting game 🤬
1. No defense
2. Too many 3 pointers
3. Whining/Flopping
4. Refs want to dictate game
5. Load management
6. Everyone wants to be friemds
7. Virtue signaling/Wokeness
8. Have to have subscriptions to apps to watch a game
9. Every player is a diva
Just some reasons why people stopped tuning in
It’s a combination of everything.
1. We had the best players like Lebron blatantly telling us the regular season isn’t important. And the media echoed that for years, and they even did it this year for Embid. “As long as he’s healthy for the playoffs..”
2. Players are overly friendly, there are few real rivalries between players.
3. The 3 point rate is atrocious. It was cool when Steph was doing it, but I’m not here for role players whose forte is now shooting but they do it anyway. It looks good when it’s going in, but they don’t go in nearly enough. Teams will be shooting 11/36 from 3, who wanna see that? And the fact that’s it been boiled down to “math” all the teams are copying. Lack of diversity in style of play.
4. Streaming illegally, there tons of people stealing the games.
5. Players sitting out. Self explanatory.
6. THE REFS ARE AWFUL. It’s like they get worse every year. Nobody wants to watch imbalanced games based on league favoritism, incompetence, or flopping.
7. There isn’t enough emphasis on defense.
8. Some fans teams suck, so they bow out til they turn it around.
I used to think the no hate narrative was ignorant now I see what they were talking about in the 2010s players didn’t punch each other but there was still beef. Every single warriors Cavs game had aura. Westbrook vs KD was must see tv.
I blame Team Spirit for piss poor viewership. Where’s the rivalry? Hey let’s swap jerseys after the game friendly mentality is what NEEDS to stop, TODAY!!!!!!!They GET paid so damn MUCH that they shouldn’t even want to shake hands after the game. What the NBA is gonna turn into the All Star debacle? I think God should judge some of these stars with giving them a heaping helping of some of their own dirty medicine they prescribe for others and is destroying the NBA.
THE VIEWERSHIP IS DOWN BECAUSE THE NBA HASN'T BEEN CREATIVE ENOUGH WITH IT'S SERVICES YEAR OVER YEAR 💯! WATHING ONLY BASKETBALL IS BECOMING TIRED AMONGST MANY!
The last time I was really excited to tune in was The Derrick Rose Bulls Vs The Big 3 Heat. Or Celtics vs Heat. And they really hated each other, Magic has a point. We don’t have any real rivalries
It's how they sell fights. It's how they sell anything. When we know two people genuinely don't like each other or give the impression, we watch. But these guys want to be nice to each other which is fine. But it loses that animosity that war US versus them dynamic
I believe the nba media is also responsible for the decline. Always comparing players from this era to the past to try diminish what players the new generation is doing or media personnels making careers off hating certain players no matter what. It's annoying
Thats good tv, most of thr podcasters do comparison and they got high viewership, the point is those people are right, theres no competitive fire anymore just overpaid divas who just cash in checks, shoot 200 3s and load manage
The NBA became too woke and too soft
It's just that simple
When they all crash on you for being correct, the Right has your back SAS. You’re right, they need drama on the court just like in our communities
I remember living in West Philadelphia for a minute.
In middle school and high school, going down to the neighborhood playground to play basketball with my friends.
Once we picked teams,
2 on 2, 3 on 3 or 5 on 5, I was going at it with my friends like we were playing for the NBA 🏆.
On defense I'm all over my man cuz I did not want him to score on me.
On offense when I got the ball I want to take him to the hoop for a layup or a jumper in his face.
And I was not get n paid.
I use to hate my friends scoring on me.
Did this every day on the court during the day or at night when the lights were on in the summer.
Had the same mindset when playing baseball or football with my friends.
I mean if I was shoot n marbles with my friends in elementary school, I wanted to win all of their marbles and send them home without any marbles in their pockets.
Thats how competitive my friends and I were.
When we played sandlot football, I'd tell my friends: I'm your friend before the game starts, but once we start, when I tackle you there will be no mercy.
Getting back to todays NBA players, SOME of them are overpaid and not competitive. IMO!!
Many of the NBA players play no defense. IMO!
If they do, I call it MATADOR DEFENSE. LLS🤣😂
Oh well!! Its the times we live in.
I usually pick up serious interest in the NBA when the SECOND SEASON starts which is the playoffs.
BTW, bring back the game as it was played in the 80' and 90''s.
The Bad Boy Pistons, The physical NY Knicks with Oakley, Ewing and Anthony Mason.
Now thats my kind of basketball.
🏀🏀
Frfr!!
🗣♊️👤Rising
NBA Basketball 🏀 is all “ 3 Point Shots “
That’s Why 🥃🔥
Three point was never ment for entire game
Lebron was never as good as Kobe, he’s bad for the NBA.
1. The league is too quick to hand out techs and fines every time a player or coach shows a little personality. Discourages athletes from showing the world who they really are, and hurts ratings.
2. Shows like first take and other sports shows constantly hate on the NBA and too often have segments that focus on the negatives. Perfect example is athletes like Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown should be celebrated for not doing stupid stuff off the court and consistently winning since they entered the league, but the media has wasted years trying to break them apart instead of celebrating them. In what world is Joe Mazzulla not a finalist for coach of the year last season, or Jayson Tatum not even a top 3 finalist for MVP last season after having the best record in the NBA by far? In a world where the media constantly hates!
I'm glad hate is down, because kids are watching, and they don't need that crap .
Call me crazy, but people love Steph and the Warriors. If the a warriors were playing well, i think we would see an uptick in the ratings.
The other thing is that our favorite players are getting old. Finally, there's not enough poor people coming into the league. All these rich kids coming in the league don't have the hunger of athletes rising up from the hoods of Chicago and Detroit and other US cities.
Back in Jordan, Kobe & Magic Johnson days players didn't want to link up & form Super Teams like they doing in today's era, back then players wanted to prove they can beat other players
Jordan and Barkley used to play golf during the regular season. They were buddy, buddy.
But they played their butts off during the game - especially when they played each other.
@@travisjazzbo3490and these players dont
@@ianmaxwell1282nope😂😂😂😂😂what u watching
I haven't watched a full game in 2 years including the playoffs and finals. I've seen highlights, 3 quarters but not full games. Watching a 2 on 1 or 3 on 2 fast break that leads to a three is just too frustrating to watch.
It’s down because over the years players have been told that everything that they’ve done in a regular season doesn’t mean anything, so there’s more of a desire to just play how they play, and focus all their efforts for the playoffs.
The things players hate are actually playing games
Product on the court, PERIOD
No no no! It’s simple. People like a couple of excellent teams to do really well! They don’t like many good teams. They want to follow their favourites and want them to do well. So if Warriors and Lakers suddenly become the Championship favourites, the viewership will increase drastically. In tennis, when Nadal and Federer and Djokovic were dominating, the viewership was sky high.
3 point contest or flipping to get to the free throw line… then complaining to the ref if you don’t get the whistle
Honestly, people don’t want to see Jokic or Luka Doncic. If Curry and Lebron and Durant start excelling again, then it is 100% viewership increase 😂
That’s really it. The most popular and marketable players are old and not on contenders. They aren’t going to attract the casual fans.
Pretty much the their fanbase has checked out now that they are not the leading contenders
The owners, GMs, players don't have a loyalty base. The best players search for easy championships, leaving "fandoms" with no more favorites.
there are no rivalries...but its down bc there is no strategic parity. there is just 0 defense. when you create rules that favor the offense for 15 years and defense keeps taking hit after hit, it gets boring to watch.
The fact is that the NBA is an entertainment business and the product hasn't generated the same level of dramatic storylines as in the past.
NFL players put it on the line every week. They play hurt. Regular season and every game counts.
NBA players can’t even play back to back nights when they are just fine. Family can pay $200 and not even see a star player who is healthy. Players show indifference to regular season and lots of players who shouldn’t be shooting three pointers do.
The Cavs and Warriors would’ve been that great rivalry. Had KD not gone to the Warriors, that rivalry would’ve been just as heated. They had a lot of tension, were a good match, had the two most popular players on each team, and were in separate conferences.
As an athlete I played to play never hated anyone, but to know fans watched it for hate or the visual of hate and competition. The NBA and NFL will never be rated high as before, most professional players now have played together in some form since adolescence. Hate is going to be difficult to manufacture especially because of social media connectedness.😊
Lebron getting fans ejects for heckling him is another reason ratings are down.
Let’s go back to those great Detroit teams of the late 80’s and
early 90’s and see some mean and tough defence.
Its down because young men are drawn to MMA and video games.
Wrong demographic
Dumb out of touch take by you. Those have been around for decades
@@jrcrit8843yep and younger generations start following it and growing up with it. Same with Fortnite, TikTok
They thought “more points = more excitement”. So they changed the rules to make the game softer.
It worked for a little while until it got boring bc once scoring became easy, it was no longer appreciated.
I stopped watching for the same reasons a lot people are commenting but I interviewed a young gentleman for a job he brought out a point I didn’t think about it. He said: “his friends don’t watch the NBA because they are so many other entertainment now days that they don’t want to waste their with it”
Magic is not talking about literal hate... He talking about heated competition...
Every team plays the same style. No differentiating identity. Load management. Once upon a time, we tune in and marvel at player’s immortal abilities to play physical back to back games, play while suffering from flu, injuries, and rivalries between teams/players were real etc. No more of that, makes them so mortal.
In the 80's when Magic and Larry played, we had less options for entertainment. We had cable with only 50 channels. Now we have 1000's of options
when the fans start to feel like they care more about if their teams wins or loses than the actual teams you have a problem. just like when we found out wrestling or wrestlers were actually friends
The lack of rivalry in the NBA is killing it. In the 80s it was Boston vs Celtics, in the 90s it was Bulls vs every team, in 2000s Lakers vs Kings vs Celtics, now the rivalry are fans of Lebron vs the rest of Basketball lovers around the world 😂
Celtic and Lakers were two superteams with race playing a factor. And in huge basketball markets in separate conferences. A lot of factors went into it besides them hating each other.
Tell the truth now. Tv viewership is down across the board since the election. People are tired of hearing about Trump everyday. I don't blame them.
@@Badguy10472 you’ve won dumbest comment of the day
You must be one of those people with TDS. Imagine bringing him into this. It's so unhealthy.
Maybe of the year
@@nickypeeps93
For Real 😂😂
@@nickypeeps93 NFL is slightly down, NBA is down, News Networks with the exception of fox is down. However movie going is up. If you're an Anti Trumper who's tired of seeing and hearing about trump you will avoid the tv and find something else to do. It's only gonna get worse next year.
Players went from hating each other to hating fans. I grew up a huge NBA fan. I have not bought NBA gear and don't attend games under any circumstances.
Its none of those things.. its cause the brothers today are soft as f
Basketball is boring. Same s*** over and over again. If you've seen one 3 pointer, you've seen them all.
It's not hate, they just need to put effort to compete.
The league has been slowly neutering the competitiveness out of the game since ‘malice in the palace’
Selective hate from media. Nuggets bad, where’s pressure on Jokic?
The players don't get close enough to each other to hate each other. For three!
You take away the intensity of defense, you lose the rivalries and competitiveness. That's what makes it a SPORT.
Don't ever say basketball is a "sport" when talking about the NBA today. It was a legit sport back then, nowadays it's just ENTERTAINMENT.
Players get suspended for games when they hate each other
Even if numbers are going down I don’t see anyone taking a pay cut. Seats are getting filled and they are raising prices
Growth and decline is a result of accumulated years of specific practices. 1) improper load management 2) terrible ref calls 3) no player/team narrative. These things need to be addressed now to see results 3 years from now
I think they got too full of themselves from Politics and Messaging.
Sometimes I think I am watching the "Democrats who play Basketball" Leauge. and it's gotten old.
And Tencent. God help them if they keep letting the CPC (Not China, the CPC) tell them what to do.
It’s not “hate” … there’s just no competitive mentality.
Valuing entertainment over competition, combined with inconsistent implementation of an ever changing rulebook, and repetitive biased media coverage have created a formula for free fall. The GOAT debate has alienated so many fans across multiple generations that the game is not celebrated with any type of togetherness or appreciation of the game’s history. Loyalty to money over sport has also played a part in reshaping league culture.
Remove the 3 point line/3 point basket.
The game was meant to be played trying to get as CLOSE TO THE BASKET as possible for the easiest shot.
The 3 point game makes it IMPOSSIBLE to compare modern players to the historic stars/teams.
NBA has become a game of keep - away and 3 point shots.
I think high school/AAU teams becoming super teams full of the next batch of NBA players is an underlying cause of players being “too nice”. Players become friends with each other at a younger age through these teams and grow up with each other. IMO it’s why international stars are looked as “meaner” nowadays, they ain’t friends with nobody they’re here to get paid and play ball.
SA woke up and chose violence
They didn't hate, but they had competitive hate
Rules need to be changed like bringing back hand checking, removing the 3 seconds in the key, and reigning in the refs for over reffing. That's the main factor on why teams don't hate each other anymore. If you re-implement them, you slowly see the physicality return. Players will start hating each other after they elbow and smack each other in the face a few times.
The game is boring now, especially compared to the 90s and 00s. It's not just one thing, it's a combination of factors.
The players, even the stars, are boring people. MJ, Barkley, KG, Shaq, Hakeem, etc. They had unique styles of okay because they had unique personalities. Now everyone plays boring because they have boring personalities.
Rivalries are boring because players are too friendly and because players switch teams so often so rivalries can't develop. There used to be great rivalries among small market teams, because stars stayed and the rivalry could form organically. I was a Blazer fan, we had rivalries against the Supersonics (location), Lakers (we all hated/respected Kobe), Bulls (Jordan v Drexler) which developed as the intensity and animosity developed.
The game doesn't inspire the same way because it is not as much about passion, intensity, and discipline but more casual and calculated. It's less art and more science, and science is boring.
Everything Caitlin Clark brings to the game, no NBA can match. Loyalty to her home state (Iowa), rivalries against Angel and South Carolina, passionate and innovative style, interesting personality, respect for the fans.
When you're easy to cheer for and fun to watch, ratings go up. When you're hard to cheer for (greedy, disloyal, entitled) and boring to watch, ratings go down.
The only players worth watching are European and the league seems afraid to take the attention off of LeBron and Steph and give it to Gianni's, Luca, Joker, and Welby. But since they're unable to produce homegrown talent (Zion, Simmons, Tatum, Ja) that are consistent enough or interesting enough to be the face of the league, Adam Silver is in real trouble.
The NBA is losing its soul. The in-season cup, sports gambling, a new all-start game format every year, moving to a different streaming service, none of that is going to save it.
Viewership is down because they make it hard to watch. You have to pay for streaming services that also require NBA league pass, it's really hard to casually watch games like it used to be.
There´s truth to the fact that it has become too difficult to watch sports in general.