NBA TV Ratings Down

[Coolbreeze44]

Some Good Choices Here

[60WinTim]

Some Good Choices Here

It's worth mention I enjoyed not seeing Pop's mug on the Spurs' bench tonight!

[WildWolf2813]

it's way more nuanced than one singular person.

I'd argue if you're pinpointing any NBA decline on one person, let alone the people you named, you didn't love the game that much to begin with.

[Coolbreeze44]

it's way more nuanced than one singular person.

I'd argue if you're pinpointing any NBA decline on one person, let alone the people you named, you didn't love the game that much to begin with.

That's why I allowed you up to 3 picks. Doris is quite possibly the worst analyst ever, and the other 4 all use their position to try to exert political influence. Whether you like it or not, It is a HUGE reason the league is declining in popularity.

[Q-is-here]

I think one of the things happening is a changing of the guard in terms of superstars. Curry, LeBron, and Durant are no longer at the peak of their powers or on legit contending teams and guys like Jokic, Doncic, Tatum, and SGA just don't generate as much buzz.

[kekgeek]

Pretty simple, if you use a streaming service the majority of the time it costs extra money to watch your local team and it’s not cheap. You can’t watch replays and your local team live on league pass if you live in that market.

It’s harder than ever to watch your local sports team legally. How high would the numbers be if we count streameast numbers were people are watching for free

Also there are no super teams. Like the Boston guys are amazing but their starts are boring. There is no rooting against the Lebron Miami teams or the super team warriors.

Then with the new apron rules it’s hard to make trades so speculation is an all time low.

[Coolbreeze44]

You guys make solid points and they may be part of it. But a large segment of the audience has left the sport due to politicization by some of the biggest icons. Other factors in no particular order are the money players are making, load management (another Popovich issue), players forcing their way off of teams, and large market bias. The league is kind of eating itself, and if the WNBA could ever get its act together, they could capture a lot more of the attention.

[WildWolf2813]

it's way more nuanced than one singular person.

I'd argue if you're pinpointing any NBA decline on one person, let alone the people you named, you didn't love the game that much to begin with.

That's why I allowed you up to 3 picks. Doris is quite possibly the worst analyst ever, and the other 4 all use their position to try to exert political influence. Whether you like it or not, It is a HUGE reason the league is declining in popularity.

the NFL hasn't been affected by political stances at all... depending on which side you take, which is why I can't subscribe to the idea of political influence in of itself being a problem. If Rudy wanted to do that dance after a dunk or a block or whatever, the people who get mad at Popovich or LeBron or whoever, wouldn't say a word. When Rudy says "f*ck Fauci" on Twitter, nobody pinpoints that as some contribution to why we're turned off from sports. The ones who believe political influence is ruining the NBA aren't mad at politics. They're mad at the stance, and the ones who cry about that weren't really watching anyway.

There's several points of criticism, but the popular one is that fans hate the three point barrage and in turn, hate how analytics and the drive to be efficient has come at the expense of entertainment. That's the big thing and that's become a problem with most sports. We hate it when athletes think (in more ways than one). We prefer instinct take over instead of trying to make the right play. We as fans watch basketball to see larger than life figures do stuff we couldn't imagine dreaming of, yet what we see we think we can replicate that at the local Y.

[Q-is-here]

Going back to Kek's point, I also wonder if the formal ratings capture engagement via folks that largely watch game recaps and highlights on YouTube or other platforms versus taking the time to watch the game on TNT or ESPN.

I believe there is a very highly engaged set of fans that simply don't watch entire games, but watch the highlights, pour over the box score, listen to podcasts, etc.

Obviously the ratings hasn't put a dent in the valuation of franchises and the new media deals, so how important is the metric to begin with?

[Lipoli390]

Pretty simple, if you use a streaming service the majority of the time it costs extra money to watch your local team and it’s not cheap. You can’t watch replays and your local team live on league pass if you live in that market.

It’s harder than ever to watch your local sports team legally. How high would the numbers be if we count streameast numbers were people are watching for free

Also there are no super teams. Like the Boston guys are amazing but their starts are boring. There is no rooting against the Lebron Miami teams or the super team warriors.

Then with the new apron rules it’s hard to make trades so speculation is an all time low.

I think you’re right, Kek. I’d add over-reliance on the three-point shot to your list. It’s made the game less interesting. Your last point is an important one. The new apron rules have really put a dent in a lot of the transactional intrigue that has driven interesting in the NBA.