Went to a game recently and BOTH teams played pretty badly….tons of airballs, missed layups under the rim, one player passed a ball into the crowd. And YET, the final score for both teams was over 100 points. No defence meant it was just taking shot after shot after shot and law of averages said some would go in. Felt like watching warmups.
Before 30 years people had only TV and they watched basketball on TV. Today people have TV and internet and they can watch basketball on TV or something other on the internet. Let's talk about defence : 2021-22: 110.6 Points per Team ( 12.4 3PM per Team)/ 1988-89 The Bad Boys Pistons Era: 109.2 Points per Team (with only 2.1 3PM per Team). What you say about that ? And late 1990s and early 2000s basketball was slow with small number of shots. Small number of shots- small number of points. More shots- more points. More 3s - more points.
@ Yes, I understand the concept of why the scores are higher now. This video is about why the ratings continue to tank, not about why the style of play has changed. One of the answers is clearly because watching players jog up and down the court taking stabs at 3’s (the bulk of which end up as airballs) while nobody even tries to block them is boring. All teams are doing it now and it’s a part of what is leading to viewers checking out of the game, at least for me personally. Sure, there are other reasons (streaming, internet, stars sitting out of games etc….) but the fact that the actual game for a lot of people is more dull to watch (even with inflated totals) is one of them. Watching two mediocre teams play and score over 200 points between them should have seemed fun, but it wasn’t.
@@lindsayhoffman2688 "...two mediocre teams play and score over 200 points ..." Did you ever said that about The Bad Boys Pistons Era ? That happened 1988-89 and 1980s I watched on YT : Hakeem 48 points (1997.). That was terrible. Hakeem playing isolation and 8 to 9 players standing and watching 1 on 1. Hakeem against opponent. That were NBA games 1990s - isolation (1 on 1) era.
@ I used to find basketball fun to watch, I don’t anymore for the reasons stated above and I no longer watch it, representing one of the people who has contributed to the tanking ratings this video IS ABOUT. Hence why I felt comfortable sharing MY perspective on why people are tuning out, as I am one of them. I appreciate your thought out stats argument, but it doesn’t really apply to my personal opinion on how the game has changed for me.
As someone from a non-US country who only enjoys the NBA very sporadically and has for some years, these are my main reasons for simply not engaging with the game anymore: 1. Style of play - Personally I comepletely agree with Shaq. It is not very viewer-friendly to see 3 after 3 getting chugged up. I understand that it is "efficient" but my god is it boring. I would personally watch 100 games of prime Russ over 5 games of this constant chugging. It simply doesn't lend itself to be entertaining. 2. Personalities/Edge - The NBA, like so much of our entertainment has become way too sanitized. There is no longer room for any actual edge, players are buddies and no real rivalries exist anymore. Games are soft as hell and refereeing is just bad too. Overall the game just feels commercialized and overly sanitized. I want grit, aggressiveness and genuine emotion back. 3. Outside the court - Yes, i'm going to take it there. The NBA treats itself as a secondary vessel for politics/social commentary, and it just doesn't land most of the time. These people are among the very most priviledged and, relative to their status, least educated people on the planet, and I don't need their lecturing. I need them to provide an entertaining product for me to care about and engage with, while I FORGET the rest of the world for a couple hours here and there. That is the implicit "contract" of the athlete and the sports viewer.
@stevemd6488 That was a really good "Tell me you're talking about Caitlin Clark, without telling me you're talking about Caitlin Clark. " Also, you're 100% correct.
Totally agree with Shump/Rachel's point. People Loved college basketball when players stayed 4 years. Now the NBA has turned into one and done in the NBA. "Oh we didn't win a championship?" Time for me to hold out and get traded to a different super team.
The NBA pushed HARD for a younger demo and the younger demo simply doesn't have the attention span to sit down and watch full games, especially if its not there own team. They rather just watch highlights on youtube or social media. I feel like this is also to do with the following or stars over teams, younger fans tend to follow star players were as older fans are loyal to their teams and will continuously watch. We've gotten to were NBA trade talk is bigger than the actual games.
NBA and soon NFL are killing themselves with the streaming services instead of just national TV and a league pass. I don’t wanna pay for 4-5 streaming platforms to watch the NBA which has absolutely 0 defense this season
Adam silver offered up a bunch of excuses for more desperate situation that is going on right now in the NBA. The NBA needs to start televising games for other cities outside of the ones that are always on television. Basketball can be exciting but that includes every single NBA team, not just the chosen few.
I think a big part of the problem is the salaries. Players making $50M per season are just getting more and more out of touch with the fans. And they are that much more of an insurance risk for the franchise which leads to the load management and lack of effort at the all star game. Gimmicks aren't going to fix this issue.
So let the league take all the profits and make corporations rich???? It's the revenue the game creates, and at least in the players' pockets, they do FAR more for their local community's then the NBA ever did when they were taking all the money.
It's politics. They hate more than half the population. As a POC, I'm a Conservative, a fan of the NBA for almost 40 years, but the politics has made me hate the NBA. I don't need some 20 year old person who's making millions telling me how I should vote or live my life.
Here is why there are so many injuries. Players do not take practice seriously. The body operates on a threshold. So basically since they aren't practicing with any intensity to simulate an in game environment their bodies aren't adapted to that stress level. Then when it comes game time and the intensity gets turned up you have injuries. Think about the stories from past players and how intense their practices were.
Forget practice, even in the games they don't have intensity. Many players are flat out not in shape. Look at Luka, Harden, Embiid, Zion those guys probably couldn't run a 3 mile race.
Flopping, stat padding, stacking teams, terrible officiating at best-most likely blatant cheating, no defense, jacking up 3s first 8 seconds of every shot clock, free throw parades every 4th quarter, etc etc I can keep going all night 😂😂😂 stopped watching since the bubble
70% of the NBA is just there to collect a paycheck. One of the things people love about Caitlin Clark is her passion for the game of basketball. Her passion outshines anyone in the NBA.
@albania329 just because you consume this terrible product doesnt mean that other intelligent people as a whole are anymore. Especially people that know basketball and grew up watching it in the 90s and 2000s.
It's a foregone conclusion that most NBA players get paid well. We don't need them to keep reminding us about "getting that bag", their worthless NFTs, and the overdone fashion tunnel walks. If they aren't competing with a killer instinct or playing in every single game, all of that extra fluff is just annoying. The late David Stern (RIP) would have cracked down on this nonsense from the jump.
NBA is all offense nowadays. It was so rare to see a score over 110 when I was a kid. Now if a team scores under 100, people ask what happened, why didn’t they show up? Games are now a competition of which team can run up the court and score more times. Defense has been outlawed.
They are paid millions of dollars to only play two or three games a night for less than three hours and some of them still don’t want to play. They are just lazy! They pay these players way too much!
Not to mention there's no fan loyalty either. There used to be a time when Celtics fans and Lakers fans could argue for hours on who's team was better. But since players aren't loyal to teams anymore, the prestige of teams are gone imo. Playing for the Celtics/Lakers these days don't hold the same value as it did back in earlier years imo.
The NBA allowed politics to be part of the sport, which in my opinion is a huge negative. The players today are babied. There's a sense of entitlement and there's a lot of arrogance. Not all the players but the majority. The culture of the player today is about me! Not about the fans, like it used to be in years past.
Yep it goes into the "loyalty" and "identity" of individual teams and players. If star players are interchangeable, whats the point of rooting for the team?
I'd have no issue with the NBA players venting their political opinions if they didn't selfishly try to silent other people involved in the NBA that vented opinions they didn't agree with. For example. When Jonathan Isaacs refused to kneel for the anthem for BLM due to his religious beliefs, he was well within his rights not to participate if he didn't want to. Yet, you have people laughing their heads off when he got hurt days later after refusing, while idiots like Dan LeBatard called it karma. To think, I used to respect that man too before that happened. Not anymore, as I'd spit on Dan if he was standing in front of me. Ngl. Or when Daryl Morey tweeted about the freedoms of Hong Kong, you had players like LeBron selfishly try to get him to shut up because it went against what his corporate overlords wanted to hear. Again, I don't mind if LeBron and others want to tweet or use their platforms to talk about issues they want to talk about. That's fine. That's their right to do so. What I do have a problem with is when they try to silence those that say opinions they don't like because either everyone gets to voice their opinions in the NBA, or nobody should. Anyone who argues otherwise is either a massive hypocrite that's selling something, or they're outright ignorant.
Players are sitting out injuries now that past generations would have played through. Larry Bird played part of a playoff game against the Pacers with a fractured cheekbone.
Fax! I take the term "injury" with a grain of salt with today's players. I saw the injuries AI played through in the 2001 season and players now would be out for the season with a fraction of his injuries.
It’s definitely the three-pointers, and the lack of physical play in the lane. Make it so you can only score a three pointer in the last two minutes of the first half, and the last two minutes of the 4th quarter . For fatigue purposes, and to reduce possible injuries, three-pointers are allowed throughout overtime.
This . When Zion came into the league he gave a spark because of his physicality and his dunking . Now every game I watch of my home team is 3,3,3. Boring !!!
For me it all boils down to free agency. It's really hard to develop a loyalty to a team when you don't know if the players you love are going to be there the next year. Add to that the number of injured players , also they don't seem to be as passionate as they used to. They could all learn a lot from Caitlin Clark.
Most games are just not compelling anymore. Honestly, a lot of NBA games have the same problem as a lot of WNBA games, the quality of play just isn't that great or fun to watch.
Here's some perspective: On December 28, 1944, 23 year old hockey player Maurice Richard spent all day moving furniture - including a piano - into his new house. That night he scored 5 goals and 3 assists to lead the Montreal Canadiens to a 9-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings, setting an NHL record. He could have asked for the night off -- a reasonable request. But he opted to go out and play instead and deliver. He did this for the fans and for his passion for being a Montreal Canadian. I miss the passion. I miss the rivalries. I miss the high competitive nature. I miss the loyalty to your team. So many players playing musical chairs trying to land on a championship team is so lame!! Lobbing 3's is so damn boring. I can't even remember the last time I even sat down to watch a full game.
Adam Silver is like the parent who wants to be their kids best friend vs their parent. He’d rather be friends with all of these guys and make sure that they like him than be their boss and risk them maybe getting mad at him.
Almost all the games are on strimming services and the mojority of people can not and will not pay the extra cost because they can not afford it. I believe this to be a mojor reason for the decline.
I've been following the NBA since the mid-90s and this is the first season I'm not watching despite there being two players from my home country on my favorite team. I started to lose interest when the league essentially turned into a season long three point contest.
@@SeekingNewHeights777 Baseball is fire, but I get your point. NBA right now is the most boring sports to watch. I am probably more interested in golf than I am the NBA.
What happened is the league got too money thirsty. For example, I've been a heat fan for years. But slowly been losing interest. So, opening night, i tried to tune in to the Heat game and couldn't. So I said, "You know what I'm not going to try again" So the Nba lost my viewership. The game needs to be more accessible and have more physically, or it's a dead game.
LeBron James ruining NBA with Conflict of interest Clutch sports and their narratives. Big men want to play like Guards. Rules are soft as hell. No effort in Defense. WNBA is more physical (embarrasing). Flopping. Everybody is always injured for whatever reason. Also taking nights "off" forgetting fans pay their salaries to play basketball. Players are more divas than ever before. Players changing teams like people change underwear... I could keep going, but yea. NBA is unwatcheable
Coming from someone who was a huge Jordan fan growing up outside of Chicago in the late 80's/early 90's, he made me fall in love with basketball. I was around 15 when he left the Bulls and then I gravitated toward Allen Iverson because of not only his game, but also his passion. From there I started to like Lebron, then Steph and now I find myself just entering my 40's and i have watched less and less basketball over the last 2 years. Nothing political at all for me, (i am on the liberal side of the aisle) but the thing basketball that isnt getting me interested is that there are 1. too many games/no sense of urgency 2. so many player injuries so i dont know who is playing when (I live in Phoenix and cant count how many times i have stopped myself from getting tickets bc KD or Book are injured yet again 3. WAY too many threes. Again i am a big fan of Steph, i love to watch him shoot, but i dont want to see the Pistons go 4-36 from three on a Tuesday night in November 4. the players who have run the league for the past decade are all getting older and arent who they used to be as players as well as the newer players not grabbing peoples interest enough because they dont have much of a personality in a league where its the most important to appeal to people in that way 5. Other options: from tiktok, to RUclips, to Twitter and Instagram, peoples attention span is becoming less and less and i would rather watch a movie or go online and watch content that interests me Just my thoughts, still love basketball, the game.....but just not this game.
Very strong comment. I enjoyed reading, and related to most of it. I’m also similar age. Maybe that’s why. Only argument I have with you is - the attention span. My attention span “fell” in terms of watching sports, but I can binge other shows for 3-6 hours. So maybe it’s the content itself and not the attention span?
There are too many players that switch teams. It takes the rivalry out of games. And it makes it hard to route for or against players. I am glad I have been a Celtics fan. The core has been together for a while now. But nothing like the 80's. Players played basketball every day and stayed in place for careers. Best rivalries ever in the NBA, and it made it fun to watch.
Exactly this! As a Pistons fan I HATED the Celtics, as they did us. Late 80s conference finals, Bird vs Laimbeer etc etc. But this is exactly what the league needs. I can't think of ANY two teams in the league nowadays who have anything approaching that sort of rivalry.
Adam Silver is a spineless tool that needs to step down. The man has no backbone. David Stern was not only a marketing genius, but he also didn't take any BS from players. Even Dennis Rodman, who rarely respected anyone half the time, respected David Stern. But with Silver? It seems he's too worried about what his players will think rather than the owners he works for. He needs to go immediately.
I stopped watching years ago when they started paying millions. Teams started pricing people out attending. When it cost someone a weeks pay to attend. Bunch of rich cry babies don’t wanna do their jobs.
You don’t think past eras were as injured as these guys? It’s not the injuries, it’s their unwillingness to play injured. Isaiah Thomas literally played a game on a severely sprained ankle. Michael Jordan had one of his best games ever when he had influenza. These players are weak as hell and will miss games because of a hang nail.
I think you are right, but I also think players back then were WAAAAAAY more in shape. Just look at the flabby bodies, of virtually every player today compared to the chiselled physique-s in the 80s and 90s. Players could go 38 mins and it was really no problem, most good players averaged around 38 for a season and barely missed a game. Being out of shape just makes you much more prone to injuries which is why I think so many palyers in the NBA are injured now. Luka, Zion, Embiid these guys literally got flat out fat since joining the league.
its so dam hard to watch the games. i tried getting the nba league pass to watch the games to support the nba and they had games i wanted to see live unavailable. everyone just pirates the games so im not sure if they count the views .
Here's an idea: get rid of all-star games, in all major sports. Don't know who's a hockey fan here, but an NHL all-star game has to be the cringiest thing you've ever seen. Baseball was the only game where the players and fans seemed to actually care about the result. At least it used to be that way. Now though, I'm not sure. I think the best thing to do is just give all the players a mid-season break of four or five days, then resume the season. Can't do any worse than they're doing right now.
LeBum out, go back to 90's rules. Load management gone. Don't play don't get paid. Period. Except medical injuries... legit reasons... make flopping a Stat and bad result... free throws... your athletes. Keep it that way in league. Personal views don't matter. Paid to play a game. No more platforms under contract.
It's an injury plague league with most everyone not playing fundamental basketball anymore..last game I watched had both teams shooting threes 16 of 20 initial possession. Boring as hell. Can't wait for Caitlin Clark and the Fever to get back on it, and I haven't watch wnba its first 27 season, until Clark brought me in//
I tried watching a few games over the last week…this is literally some of the worst most boring basketball I’ve ever watched in my life. It’s more entertaining to watch my kids middle school basketball games than this crap. No one tries, no one plays defense, no one plays in the paint, they routinely take 3-4 steps, they routinely carry and palm the ball, they routinely push off their defender with their off arm, there is no point guard running an actual offense, etc etc. It’s just a bunch of overhyped, overpaid entitled whiners running the ball up the court and jacking up 3s….once in a while you’ll get a cut to the basket for a dunk…and then it’s right back to 3s again. The whole thing is a joke…it’s like playing a video game with cheat codes…it’s exciting at first but quickly becomes boring and mundane because there’s no challenge.
Players are more about their platforms and celebrity status than the game itself. It used to be that the focus of the player was learning and evolving the game. Now playing the game is about getting position/status achievement to do something else. The game for them is just a stepping stone not a profession. Achievement is not playing in the NBA or championships but how much can I get outside the game via money or celebrity status.
I think you said it very well. It comes down to emotions. The fans can’t create the emotional fire on the court. That comes from the players and it permeates to the fans.
It's really 2 things that are killing people's interest. Players sitting out and how to watch the games on TV. Find ways to get these players playing more consistently. A healthy scratch should be a missed game check. No more rest days. There should be no games being "Blacked Out". Local stations should have every game, all season, televised. I'd watch more if I knew the channel, time, and everyone that could play, was playing.
The players union would never agree to that, and Adam Silver is a spineless worm who's more scared about what the players will tweet about him than he is of the owners that pay his salary.
They have no honor or competitive spirit anymore. Guys laying down in the all star game, letting the other team dunk, basically hugging and kissing each other, etc. The fact they need this gay in-season tournament to motivate players to kinda play hard says everything you need to know about today's players.
this in season tournament is laughably stupid, and I feel they only exist so mediocre scrub teams like the Lakers can be like "Hey we may not have won a championship, but we won an in season tournament, so that makes us still winners! Hooray!" Ugh, it's stupid. I'm sure if both Magic and Kareem were still playing, they'd be disgusted by it. What happened to the old days when it was championship or bust for teams? Ugh.
@@thewolfofwallstreet627 It's really just so fans have something to care about early in the season. Regular season games especially early on in the year are so uninspired, they really feel like they are preseason games.
NBA sucks now! No one wants to watch LeBum and Embiid flop all the time. A bunch of bad officiating and Lakers disrespecting the game takes the spirit of the game away.
They need to build into player contracts things like, the player has to play a minimum number of games. The only way they can sit out is a doctor saying they must sit. If they sit without a doctors excuse, you have to have a proportionate income EXAMPLE: If your per game revenue average is 1 million per game and you sit out 3 games you have 3 million deducted from your pay.
Not to be rude but that's kind of pathetic. It's sad these are supposed to be grown adults n they making crazy crazy crazy money and you would really have to put these stipulations in a contract for their entitled self. Caitlin Clark wanting to do everything possible to grow the WNBA is making all those men in the NBA look extremely bad.
I heard a very interesting perspective on the uptick in injuries as being directly correlated to the downtick in traditional weight training. Everyone is persuing some newfangled program and equipment to seem to be on the "cutting edge" of sports health when really they are just being duped by marketing. I think it was Legler who brought this up.
I heard it was a lack of 2 a days. The soft preseason training means that the players are more likely to pull a hamstring and have many minor injuries.
Both teams show up, and whoever happens to get hotter from three wins. Not much soul in that. Statistically it's efficient as hell. Competitively and esthetically it's trash. You used to have the best players going at it. Now it's just a bunch of three point shooting robots trying to stay healthy for the next game. Smart on their part. Boring on ours.
@@MrDwightsimon I think "load management" and jump shooting has taking conditioning out of the league. Star players barely practice sit out when they have a boo boo, when they actually have to turn it up and play they get hurt because they are not in actual game shape.
Random but I’m thankful you don’t cuss. I got into the WNBA due to CC and am also learning about the NBA and it’s just so frustrating how much people cuss on videos of this type and it really rubs off. So you are one out of two sources I can watch that don’t drop cuss bombs or use the name Jesus as an expletive… that isn’t AI. So thank you!
I have a couple of theories for each point. Bare with me... 1. Work ethic- This point is simple. It's a reflection of our culture. A culture that doesn't value hard work or dedication. Instead, it values comfort and instant gratification. And it's reflected with the people that value the old NBA. Guarantee most of those fans were born in the 90's and below. Sure 90's babies aren't known to be the most hardworking, but the hard work culture wasn't totally dead. We see today's athletes as these 'bigger than life ' figures. But these kids grew amongst all of the same kids we find annoying. The phone generation. And this goes all the way through all of sports. Including the NFL and MLB. The difference is that the NBA has the benefit of not having such a large gene pool compared to those other sports. Not too many people are competing with 6'6 + athletes. Thus, all they have to do is be better than the relatively few players. If you ever go play at the park, you'll see ballers with great talent but because they don't have the natural physic. They wouldn't make it in the NBA. As a consequence, athletes aren't incentivized to maximize their talent. As opposed to previous generations who had to work to build the league or worked to get out poverty. Many of these players are coming from privileged backgrounds. In other sports, you'll have stories of players that had jobs prior to their pro careers. So those athletes have to care a little more. Say what you want about Lebron. But one thing he has alongside Curry is his work ethic. Hence why they remain the faces of the league. Something that players like Embiid, Zion, Simmons, Luka lack. People love a story of overcoming. Which leads to my second point. 2. Ratings- The NBA targets the wrong demographics. The Youth. Sports is inherently about hard work and overcoming. Something that kids these days are adverse too. Baseball as a sport is the 1 sport that hasn't changed that much since the 60's. and football though it has changed. It's still football. Getting hit still hurts. NBA however, is about flash. And nothing shouts flash more like the 3 pointers. All kids play like that and don't play like we use to. Getting physical. But also, kids these days don't participate in sport as much as they use to. Thus, they don't watch sports like previous generations do. NHL, MLB, NFL cater to the average sports fan. (Beer gutted, prior athlete, past their prime adult.) In baseball, every pitch feels like a battle. In football, a hit still hurts. In basketball, we have to see who can out 3 point each other. The hell with strategy. Its why so many of previous generations stopped watching. The actual majority of the demographics that keeps pro sports running. 3. Injuries- I'm speaking from experience as a vet. When i first joined the military. I was not in the best shape despite being a high school athlete. But my body pushed through it since i was used to it. I never had or has had any major injury. Now these younger cats are coming in straight from high school. Most of them have never done anything physically straining before. And for a lot of them. It isnt just niches and bruises. It's flat-out broken bones and ripped ligaments. Im only 31, and no way should i be in better shape and not injury-less than a 18-21 year old just coming in. All this to say, to prevent injuries. You have to train your body to endure strains and pains. Injuries have risen amongst athletes all across the board since preseason hasn't been taken as serious as it once was. So ironically, you have a higher chance of not getting an injury by playing more basketball.
I was an avid NBA fan from the 1960s through the mid-90s or so. I often lobbied my local TV stations in the1970s to televise NBA games, instead of Sunday afternoon movies. I started losing interest when they kept the 3-point shot in the NBA/ABA merger. My interest dwindled further when the emphasis shifted to the 3. 3,3,3,3, dunk, 3, dunk, 3. Boring. One of the most irritating things is when someone drives all the way to the hoop, then throws it out for a 3. (It's like hitting a 110 mph serve into the net.) Traveling is an issue. Flopping is terrible. Taking days off (not playing back-to-back) is inexcusable, especially with modern nutrition and training and the ability to dedicate themselves to basketball year-round, rather than working an off-season job. No one seems to care about the fans any more. Which also is demonstrated by the number of subscriptions you have to have to actually watch a meaningful number of games. And that's not factoring in the spreadsheet you need to create to track which games are on which networks/services and when. That's all for now. Peace.
I think that same thing is also why the wnba is getting more and more interest, they have that fire and competitive mindset, and then there's CC, both seeing her celebrate and hype up the crowd or seeing her get frustrated at herself makes it so entertaining and relatable to watch, the ultimate competitor and show master
Yep. It's actual basketball! They may not have the athleticsm and be able to pull off sweet dunks but they play hard and the game is officiated more properly.
Good morning, Rachel! Happy Saturday! I just subscribed to your channel. From what I can tell, the league's ratings are tanking mainly because of the players and the culture that surrounds them. This is a generational thing. I'm almost 43 years old, and I began watching the NBA back in the mid 90's when Michael Jordan ruled the basketball world. Needless to say, A LOT has changed over the last 30 years. The league has become very globalized, and there has been an ENORMOUS influx of cash. All that cash means that players are getting paid WAY MORE than used to be the case, Thirty years ago, a young player looking to become an established star had to prove himself a lot more. These days, we see 19-22 year olds earning as much or sometimes more than recognized stars from 20-30 years ago. I think many players on a subconscious level feel that they are getting paid so well so there is really no need to push themselves. Many soon become jaded by their lives of privilege and luxury, and that can serve to disconnect them from reality. I'm also a big fan of European football(soccer), and a lot of the same issues apply. It's impossible to compare different eras. There are still a handful of players these days for whom maximizing their potential is everything and money and fame are secondary. You made a great point when you stated that the fact that players are lot less loyal to their teams/employers in turn means that fans are less likely to be loyal to teams -- it's a vicious cycle. I hate to sound pessimistic, but I think the continued outsized financial rewards will ensure that the culture of greed, self-importance, low effort, entitlement will hang around for the foreseeable future and continue to drag ratings.
I haven't been watching because I don't really like the athletes anymore. They seem like preppy entitled boy-men with no grasp of the real world. Maybe they've always been like this, and social media has simply shined the light on how they really act, but either way, I have a hard time rooting for the majority of these people. I'm a young man that should be considered part of this era, but I prefer to watch the game of old because they just carry themselves better, and seemed more mature.
I don’t even watch the men’s march madness anymore. One and done is the problem. I think it is adding to injuries also. No collegiate strength training as these guys body mature just straight into the pro game.
Shump is on point! Players playing with no heart, no defence, no competitive edge! Lebron is not disappointed with a loss, he needs to go! So does Draymond, KD and let these young cats have the opportunity to carry the league! Refs are inconsistent and horrible no calls, travels and carries, and fouls are not being called! Hold Lebron accountable! MJ said to Magic in 92, ‘maybe you should retire now’, has anyone said that to LBJ ‘retire already’, has anyone said to him ‘play one on one’? Curry still has heaps to give and could win another chip, but others have to go!
The main downside to stars moving teams so frequently is that the league is so damn friendly now. Think of the classic 80s/90s rivalries..... Lakers/Celtics, Celtics/Pistons, Pistons/Bulls, Bulls/Knicks..... they HATED each other, as players were tribal to their teams, and that's how it should be. Nowadays everyone is best mates because they've pretty much all been teammates at some point or other. Also the league outlawing taunting and basically showing any form of emotion on the court..... the fans WANT to see passion and showmanship and heated rivalries!
Too much complaining by the players on the court and too many divas in the NBA that want all the privileges of being an NBA Star but don't want to make any sacrifices for the betterment of the game.
Nba ratings are possibly low due to 1. Ref dont call right calls 2. No defense mindset 3. Lebron being LeGM and crybaby and being the face of the nba. Players given too much power regarding their team management and power over who they want to play. 4. Players not wanting to play truly want to play. 5. All star events sucks. 6. Too many dirty plays without any real penalty. Just in game penalty no fine especially those moves that intentionally hurt other player. 7. Load management 8. Those reporters or casters of certain show or podcast dont tell the truth their info or details during the show are all made up not a fact just to exagge things negatively. 9. The perception of the nba games as being rigged is also a factor. 10. Super super teams are allowed 11. The tanking pattern for teams just to get a slim chance for the no. 1 draft. Either teams declaring injuries or teams playing crappy plays or the superstar themselves play crap. It has to have some change.
You have to make the Regular Season more important: Eliminate the ridiculous Play-In and reduce the number of teams eligible for the Playoffs. Games are way too long: Eliminate the Coaches Challenges and reduce the number of Team Timeouts. Let's start there and see if the Players start caring about the Regular Season thus improving the product.
As I watch the video, I was asking myself, "Why am I even watching this? Except for Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever, I Hate Basketball! "And then I was like, " Oh yeah, it's Rachel Annamarie DeMita. What else do you need to know? Speaking of Caitlin Clark. If the NBA wants to pick up the ratings, just bring Caitlin off the bench in an NBA game. Not only will she bring in more viewers, people will enjoy watching Logo 3's again. It's called the Caitlin Clark effect. Maybe you've heard of it.
I've been saying it for years now the game of basketball lost its flair because of the 3 point line 1 guy drives to the basket while everyone else stands at the 3 point line
I don’t watch the NBA, I watch the WNBA, my question is if I want to watch the NBA what are all the necessary channels going to cost per month? I have league pass for 40.00, some games I can watch live, others are tape delay. I also gave up tv for the most part, so my opinion may not mean much.
Addition on why nba dips 1. Players just want the bag. 2. Players dont care about winning. 3. They just want the fame that comes of being a nba player without having to prove it on court. Fixing the all star event is not the whole solution its jst a part of it. I would say may neccessary adjust and focus on the main season of the nba the regular games.. cause all star is just a fews day then its done unlike the season itself the regular playoff finals game it has more impact
I loved the game growing up. Today’s game is unwatchable. No defense, too many 3’s and load management. The players don’t care, why should I?
Bad coaching too. This 3 ball analytics has dumb down coaching. Also Adam "the substitute teacher" Silvers lack of a backbone.
NBA players in the 80s and 90s played with passion and energy. These games today look like pick up games at your local gym.
There is a guy who is paid 500 mil, and has never won anything, never been to a final and doesn't play....Nba cannot be saved.
Embiid! Yes Embiid! Terrible player...Despise Lebron, but at least he's earned his money.
@@ES1982-l1vfacts
For one second I thought it was Paul George and then I remembered there is an even bigger fraud on the Sixers
Before the tax or after?
Went to a game recently and BOTH teams played pretty badly….tons of airballs, missed layups under the rim, one player passed a ball into the crowd. And YET, the final score for both teams was over 100 points. No defence meant it was just taking shot after shot after shot and law of averages said some would go in. Felt like watching warmups.
Wow! Well said all the way through!
Before 30 years people had only TV and they watched basketball on TV. Today people have TV and internet and they can watch basketball on TV or something other on the internet. Let's talk about defence :
2021-22: 110.6 Points per Team ( 12.4 3PM per Team)/ 1988-89 The Bad Boys Pistons Era: 109.2 Points per Team (with only 2.1 3PM per Team).
What you say about that ? And
late 1990s and early 2000s basketball was slow with small number of shots.
Small number of shots- small number of points.
More shots- more points.
More 3s - more points.
@ Yes, I understand the concept of why the scores are higher now. This video is about why the ratings continue to tank, not about why the style of play has changed. One of the answers is clearly because watching players jog up and down the court taking stabs at 3’s (the bulk of which end up as airballs) while nobody even tries to block them is boring. All teams are doing it now and it’s a part of what is leading to viewers checking out of the game, at least for me personally. Sure, there are other reasons (streaming, internet, stars sitting out of games etc….) but the fact that the actual game for a lot of people is more dull to watch (even with inflated totals) is one of them. Watching two mediocre teams play and score over 200 points between them should have seemed fun, but it wasn’t.
@@lindsayhoffman2688
"...two mediocre teams play and score over 200 points ..."
Did you ever said that about The Bad Boys Pistons Era ?
That happened 1988-89 and 1980s
I watched on YT : Hakeem 48 points (1997.).
That was terrible.
Hakeem playing isolation and 8 to 9 players standing and watching 1 on 1.
Hakeem against opponent.
That were NBA games 1990s - isolation (1 on 1) era.
@ I used to find basketball fun to watch, I don’t anymore for the reasons stated above and I no longer watch it, representing one of the people who has contributed to the tanking ratings this video IS ABOUT. Hence why I felt comfortable sharing MY perspective on why people are tuning out, as I am one of them. I appreciate your thought out stats argument, but it doesn’t really apply to my personal opinion on how the game has changed for me.
Allen Iverson - I don't want to go to practice
Today's NBA players - I only want to go to practice
🔥
i doubt they even wanna practice
@@stevenwoods5787 Practice is just jogging around and fucking around with teammates anyway. No one even practices hard.
As someone from a non-US country who only enjoys the NBA very sporadically and has for some years, these are my main reasons for simply not engaging with the game anymore:
1. Style of play - Personally I comepletely agree with Shaq. It is not very viewer-friendly to see 3 after 3 getting chugged up. I understand that it is "efficient" but my god is it boring. I would personally watch 100 games of prime Russ over 5 games of this constant chugging. It simply doesn't lend itself to be entertaining.
2. Personalities/Edge - The NBA, like so much of our entertainment has become way too sanitized. There is no longer room for any actual edge, players are buddies and no real rivalries exist anymore. Games are soft as hell and refereeing is just bad too. Overall the game just feels commercialized and overly sanitized. I want grit, aggressiveness and genuine emotion back.
3. Outside the court - Yes, i'm going to take it there. The NBA treats itself as a secondary vessel for politics/social commentary, and it just doesn't land most of the time. These people are among the very most priviledged and, relative to their status, least educated people on the planet, and I don't need their lecturing. I need them to provide an entertaining product for me to care about and engage with, while I FORGET the rest of the world for a couple hours here and there. That is the implicit "contract" of the athlete and the sports viewer.
They get paid too much money, the hunger to play is gone
That's definitely part of it too
A skinny white girl appeared to show the entire basketball world how to play, and the world was watching
@stevemd6488
That was a really good "Tell me you're talking about Caitlin Clark, without telling me you're talking about Caitlin Clark. " Also, you're 100% correct.
Totally agree with Shump/Rachel's point. People Loved college basketball when players stayed 4 years. Now the NBA has turned into one and done in the NBA. "Oh we didn't win a championship?" Time for me to hold out and get traded to a different super team.
Michael Jordan made “player empowerment” - LeBron made “player entitlement” and “fan disempowerment and disregard”.
The NBA pushed HARD for a younger demo and the younger demo simply doesn't have the attention span to sit down and watch full games, especially if its not there own team. They rather just watch highlights on youtube or social media. I feel like this is also to do with the following or stars over teams, younger fans tend to follow star players were as older fans are loyal to their teams and will continuously watch. We've gotten to were NBA trade talk is bigger than the actual games.
yeah, these younger players don't have the attention span to want to practice enough to actually be good
@@roycehs8482tf? are you suggesting nba players aren’t good? in comparison to who?
NBA and soon NFL are killing themselves with the streaming services instead of just national TV and a league pass. I don’t wanna pay for 4-5 streaming platforms to watch the NBA which has absolutely 0 defense this season
Agreed… I mean charging the folks people to watch NFL on Peacock…is so Anti-American
Adam silver offered up a bunch of excuses for more desperate situation that is going on right now in the NBA.
The NBA needs to start televising games for other cities outside of the ones that are always on television. Basketball can be exciting but that includes every single NBA team, not just the chosen few.
I think a big part of the problem is the salaries. Players making $50M per season are just getting more and more out of touch with the fans. And they are that much more of an insurance risk for the franchise which leads to the load management and lack of effort at the all star game. Gimmicks aren't going to fix this issue.
So let the league take all the profits and make corporations rich???? It's the revenue the game creates, and at least in the players' pockets, they do FAR more for their local community's then the NBA ever did when they were taking all the money.
I agree alot of the players don't communicate with the fans.
It's politics. They hate more than half the population. As a POC, I'm a Conservative, a fan of the NBA for almost 40 years, but the politics has made me hate the NBA. I don't need some 20 year old person who's making millions telling me how I should vote or live my life.
Since they started to show games on Christmas Day I’m more than happy that see the NBA’s ratings tank!!!!😎
Here is why there are so many injuries. Players do not take practice seriously. The body operates on a threshold. So basically since they aren't practicing with any intensity to simulate an in game environment their bodies aren't adapted to that stress level. Then when it comes game time and the intensity gets turned up you have injuries. Think about the stories from past players and how intense their practices were.
Forget practice, even in the games they don't have intensity. Many players are flat out not in shape. Look at Luka, Harden, Embiid, Zion those guys probably couldn't run a 3 mile race.
Flopping, stat padding, stacking teams, terrible officiating at best-most likely blatant cheating, no defense, jacking up 3s first 8 seconds of every shot clock, free throw parades every 4th quarter, etc etc I can keep going all night 😂😂😂 stopped watching since the bubble
And the post up game is dissappearing
70% of the NBA is just there to collect a paycheck. One of the things people love about Caitlin Clark is her passion for the game of basketball. Her passion outshines anyone in the NBA.
Bruv... word. Next let's talk boring... and start with THE 3 POINT PLAY.
I would agree with your statement...real fans can see through the smoke screen defenses....guys are literally out there pretending to play defense.
Your a clown if you believe that 😂 and nba rating aren’t dipping 😂
@@albania329yh it’s just that illegal sites taking all the views rn
@albania329 just because you consume this terrible product doesnt mean that other intelligent people as a whole are anymore. Especially people that know basketball and grew up watching it in the 90s and 2000s.
It's a foregone conclusion that most NBA players get paid well. We don't need them to keep reminding us about "getting that bag", their worthless NFTs, and the overdone fashion tunnel walks. If they aren't competing with a killer instinct or playing in every single game, all of that extra fluff is just annoying. The late David Stern (RIP) would have cracked down on this nonsense from the jump.
NBA is all offense nowadays. It was so rare to see a score over 110 when I was a kid. Now if a team scores under 100, people ask what happened, why didn’t they show up? Games are now a competition of which team can run up the court and score more times. Defense has been outlawed.
They are paid millions of dollars to only play two or three games a night for less than three hours and some of them still don’t want to play. They are just lazy!
They pay these players way too much!
@taybee4653 honestly, i wouldn't play two or three game's a night either, if I was them...
2-3 games a night is too much on the body....
Load management is such an insult to the paying fans, then the product and defensive effort. Add getting political and it's no surprise
Not to mention there's no fan loyalty either. There used to be a time when Celtics fans and Lakers fans could argue for hours on who's team was better. But since players aren't loyal to teams anymore, the prestige of teams are gone imo. Playing for the Celtics/Lakers these days don't hold the same value as it did back in earlier years imo.
The NBA allowed politics to be part of the sport, which in my opinion is a huge negative.
The players today are babied. There's a sense of entitlement and there's a lot of arrogance. Not all the players but the majority.
The culture of the player today is about me! Not about the fans, like it used to be in years past.
Yep it goes into the "loyalty" and "identity" of individual teams and players. If star players are interchangeable, whats the point of rooting for the team?
I'd have no issue with the NBA players venting their political opinions if they didn't selfishly try to silent other people involved in the NBA that vented opinions they didn't agree with. For example. When Jonathan Isaacs refused to kneel for the anthem for BLM due to his religious beliefs, he was well within his rights not to participate if he didn't want to. Yet, you have people laughing their heads off when he got hurt days later after refusing, while idiots like Dan LeBatard called it karma. To think, I used to respect that man too before that happened. Not anymore, as I'd spit on Dan if he was standing in front of me. Ngl.
Or when Daryl Morey tweeted about the freedoms of Hong Kong, you had players like LeBron selfishly try to get him to shut up because it went against what his corporate overlords wanted to hear. Again, I don't mind if LeBron and others want to tweet or use their platforms to talk about issues they want to talk about. That's fine. That's their right to do so. What I do have a problem with is when they try to silence those that say opinions they don't like because either everyone gets to voice their opinions in the NBA, or nobody should. Anyone who argues otherwise is either a massive hypocrite that's selling something, or they're outright ignorant.
How do you feel about UFC
pushing politics?
😂 hilarious how it’s only an issue when people of color bring politics into the game
@@obredaanps3ufc allow everyone to have their own views, unlike the nba, u get cancelled if u don’t agree with the left
Players are sitting out injuries now that past generations would have played through. Larry Bird played part of a playoff game against the Pacers with a fractured cheekbone.
Fax! I take the term "injury" with a grain of salt with today's players. I saw the injuries AI played through in the 2001 season and players now would be out for the season with a fraction of his injuries.
It’s definitely the three-pointers, and the lack of physical play in the lane. Make it so you can only score a three pointer in the last two minutes of the first half, and the last two minutes of the 4th quarter . For fatigue purposes, and to reduce possible injuries, three-pointers are allowed throughout overtime.
This . When Zion came into the league he gave a spark because of his physicality and his dunking . Now every game I watch of my home team is 3,3,3. Boring !!!
It just became a straight up money grab! Unless they pull back on that money, (which won’t happen) the league is gonna be doomed.
The Olympic basketball games were more fun to watch than these games.
Implement a 5 second violation instead of 3 seconds and a 3 second offensive violation outside of the 3 point line
For me it all boils down to free agency. It's really hard to develop a loyalty to a team when you don't know if the players you love are going to be there the next year. Add to that the number of injured players , also they don't seem to be as passionate as they used to. They could all learn a lot from Caitlin Clark.
Most games are just not compelling anymore. Honestly, a lot of NBA games have the same problem as a lot of WNBA games, the quality of play just isn't that great or fun to watch.
Here's some perspective:
On December 28, 1944, 23 year old hockey player Maurice Richard spent all day moving furniture - including a piano - into his new house. That night he scored 5 goals and 3 assists to lead the Montreal Canadiens to a 9-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings, setting an NHL record. He could have asked for the night off -- a reasonable request. But he opted to go out and play instead and deliver. He did this for the fans and for his passion for being a Montreal Canadian. I miss the passion. I miss the rivalries. I miss the high competitive nature. I miss the loyalty to your team. So many players playing musical chairs trying to land on a championship team is so lame!! Lobbing 3's is so damn boring. I can't even remember the last time I even sat down to watch a full game.
This year is the first year that I haven't watched a single minute of any game... and I don't miss it at all.
The NBA doesn't need to be 'saved.' That's laughable.
Adam Silver is like the parent who wants to be their kids best friend vs their parent. He’d rather be friends with all of these guys and make sure that they like him than be their boss and risk them maybe getting mad at him.
You nailed it Rachel, if they are not excited to play, why should we? that's the core of the problem, not the 3s
The NBA is now like the WWE when Hulk Hogan called the shots.
The difference being the WWE is exciting to watch 😂
Almost all the games are on strimming services and the mojority of people can not and will not pay the extra cost because they can not afford it. I believe this to be a mojor reason for the decline.
couple that with pirate streams being easily accessible, why would anyone pay to watch?
I've been following the NBA since the mid-90s and this is the first season I'm not watching despite there being two players from my home country on my favorite team. I started to lose interest when the league essentially turned into a season long three point contest.
It’s the most boring sport to watch rn I’d rather watch a 4 hour baseball game and I hate baseball
@@SeekingNewHeights777 Baseball is fire, but I get your point. NBA right now is the most boring sports to watch. I am probably more interested in golf than I am the NBA.
Way too many threes and no crazy dunks
What happened is the league got too money thirsty. For example, I've been a heat fan for years. But slowly been losing interest. So, opening night, i tried to tune in to the Heat game and couldn't. So I said, "You know what I'm not going to try again" So the Nba lost my viewership. The game needs to be more accessible and have more physically, or it's a dead game.
That's what does it for me they make so much money and then they don't even want to earn that money by playing I mean look at Ben Simmons.
LeBron James ruining NBA with Conflict of interest Clutch sports and their narratives. Big men want to play like Guards. Rules are soft as hell. No effort in Defense. WNBA is more physical (embarrasing). Flopping. Everybody is always injured for whatever reason. Also taking nights "off" forgetting fans pay their salaries to play basketball. Players are more divas than ever before. Players changing teams like people change underwear... I could keep going, but yea. NBA is unwatcheable
Everyone knows Lebum james ruined the dunk contest and all star weekend
Coming from someone who was a huge Jordan fan growing up outside of Chicago in the late 80's/early 90's, he made me fall in love with basketball. I was around 15 when he left the Bulls and then I gravitated toward Allen Iverson because of not only his game, but also his passion. From there I started to like Lebron, then Steph and now I find myself just entering my 40's and i have watched less and less basketball over the last 2 years. Nothing political at all for me, (i am on the liberal side of the aisle) but the thing basketball that isnt getting me interested is that there are
1. too many games/no sense of urgency
2. so many player injuries so i dont know who is playing when (I live in Phoenix and cant count how many times i have stopped myself from getting tickets bc KD or Book are injured yet again
3. WAY too many threes. Again i am a big fan of Steph, i love to watch him shoot, but i dont want to see the Pistons go 4-36 from three on a Tuesday night in November
4. the players who have run the league for the past decade are all getting older and arent who they used to be as players as well as the newer players not grabbing peoples interest enough because they dont have much of a personality in a league where its the most important to appeal to people in that way
5. Other options: from tiktok, to RUclips, to Twitter and Instagram, peoples attention span is becoming less and less and i would rather watch a movie or go online and watch content that interests me
Just my thoughts, still love basketball, the game.....but just not this game.
Very strong comment. I enjoyed reading, and related to most of it. I’m also similar age. Maybe that’s why.
Only argument I have with you is - the attention span.
My attention span “fell” in terms of watching sports, but I can binge other shows for 3-6 hours.
So maybe it’s the content itself and not the attention span?
Thats about it, game isn't even competitive anymore until the playoffs where it gets good again.
There are too many players that switch teams. It takes the rivalry out of games. And it makes it hard to route for or against players. I am glad I have been a Celtics fan. The core has been together for a while now. But nothing like the 80's. Players played basketball every day and stayed in place for careers. Best rivalries ever in the NBA, and it made it fun to watch.
Exactly this! As a Pistons fan I HATED the Celtics, as they did us. Late 80s conference finals, Bird vs Laimbeer etc etc. But this is exactly what the league needs. I can't think of ANY two teams in the league nowadays who have anything approaching that sort of rivalry.
Stopped watching NBA the moment Kerr and Popovic started talking about politics.
Adam Silver is part of the reason. The game is low on strategy, and player positions almost meaningless. COVID hurt as well.
Adam Silver is a spineless tool that needs to step down. The man has no backbone. David Stern was not only a marketing genius, but he also didn't take any BS from players. Even Dennis Rodman, who rarely respected anyone half the time, respected David Stern. But with Silver? It seems he's too worried about what his players will think rather than the owners he works for. He needs to go immediately.
I stopped watching years ago when they started paying millions. Teams started pricing people out attending. When it cost someone a weeks pay to attend. Bunch of rich cry babies don’t wanna do their jobs.
The game is less physical than ever and yet there are more injuries? Something must be off when it comes to practice…
You don’t think past eras were as injured as these guys? It’s not the injuries, it’s their unwillingness to play injured. Isaiah Thomas literally played a game on a severely sprained ankle. Michael Jordan had one of his best games ever when he had influenza. These players are weak as hell and will miss games because of a hang nail.
I think you are right, but I also think players back then were WAAAAAAY more in shape. Just look at the flabby bodies, of virtually every player today compared to the chiselled physique-s in the 80s and 90s. Players could go 38 mins and it was really no problem, most good players averaged around 38 for a season and barely missed a game. Being out of shape just makes you much more prone to injuries which is why I think so many palyers in the NBA are injured now. Luka, Zion, Embiid these guys literally got flat out fat since joining the league.
I’m not gonna lie the other day I was just watching the NBA. I literally said to myself. Damn, I missed the WNBA. lol
its so dam hard to watch the games. i tried getting the nba league pass to watch the games to support the nba and they had games i wanted to see live unavailable. everyone just pirates the games so im not sure if they count the views .
Here's an idea: get rid of all-star games, in all major sports. Don't know who's a hockey fan here, but an NHL all-star game has to be the cringiest thing you've ever seen. Baseball was the only game where the players and fans seemed to actually care about the result. At least it used to be that way. Now though, I'm not sure. I think the best thing to do is just give all the players a mid-season break of four or five days, then resume the season. Can't do any worse than they're doing right now.
Hockey is getting rid of the All Star game this year, instead hosting an International Tournament
Random players getting paid hundreds of millions
LeBum out, go back to 90's rules. Load management gone. Don't play don't get paid. Period. Except medical injuries... legit reasons... make flopping a Stat and bad result... free throws... your athletes. Keep it that way in league. Personal views don't matter. Paid to play a game. No more platforms under contract.
It's an injury plague league with most everyone not playing fundamental basketball anymore..last game I watched had both teams shooting threes 16 of 20 initial possession. Boring as hell. Can't wait for Caitlin Clark and the Fever to get back on it, and I haven't watch wnba its first 27 season, until Clark brought me in//
load management on a non contact sport is just ridiculous to me
Once I saw Lebron flopping. 10 years ago. I stop watching basket ball.
Rising Star is a copycat of the WNBA All Star v Olympic. It was so fun seeing Caitlin and Company beat the Olympic Team
NBA went down hill when you stopped doing nba 2k tv
I tried watching a few games over the last week…this is literally some of the worst most boring basketball I’ve ever watched in my life. It’s more entertaining to watch my kids middle school basketball games than this crap. No one tries, no one plays defense, no one plays in the paint, they routinely take 3-4 steps, they routinely carry and palm the ball, they routinely push off their defender with their off arm, there is no point guard running an actual offense, etc etc. It’s just a bunch of overhyped, overpaid entitled whiners running the ball up the court and jacking up 3s….once in a while you’ll get a cut to the basket for a dunk…and then it’s right back to 3s again. The whole thing is a joke…it’s like playing a video game with cheat codes…it’s exciting at first but quickly becomes boring and mundane because there’s no challenge.
Players are more about their platforms and celebrity status than the game itself. It used to be that the focus of the player was learning and evolving the game. Now playing the game is about getting position/status achievement to do something else. The game for them is just a stepping stone not a profession. Achievement is not playing in the NBA or championships but how much can I get outside the game via money or celebrity status.
The players must work hard, and justify their pay amount. Play for the fans. Be 90s style again on the rules.
I think you said it very well. It comes down to emotions. The fans can’t create the emotional fire on the court. That comes from the players and it permeates to the fans.
It's really 2 things that are killing people's interest. Players sitting out and how to watch the games on TV. Find ways to get these players playing more consistently. A healthy scratch should be a missed game check. No more rest days. There should be no games being "Blacked Out". Local stations should have every game, all season, televised. I'd watch more if I knew the channel, time, and everyone that could play, was playing.
My solution: ending no-cut contracts.
The players union would never agree to that, and Adam Silver is a spineless worm who's more scared about what the players will tweet about him than he is of the owners that pay his salary.
The players union has all the leverage pretty much in everything, which is why the players are treated like royalty and the fans like shit.
@gamble777888 the players only have leverage because Adam silver is spineless. This never would've happened with David stern.
They have no honor or competitive spirit anymore. Guys laying down in the all star game, letting the other team dunk, basically hugging and kissing each other, etc. The fact they need this gay in-season tournament to motivate players to kinda play hard says everything you need to know about today's players.
this in season tournament is laughably stupid, and I feel they only exist so mediocre scrub teams like the Lakers can be like "Hey we may not have won a championship, but we won an in season tournament, so that makes us still winners! Hooray!" Ugh, it's stupid. I'm sure if both Magic and Kareem were still playing, they'd be disgusted by it. What happened to the old days when it was championship or bust for teams? Ugh.
@@thewolfofwallstreet627 It's really just so fans have something to care about early in the season. Regular season games especially early on in the year are so uninspired, they really feel like they are preseason games.
NBA sucks now! No one wants to watch LeBum and Embiid flop all the time. A bunch of bad officiating and Lakers disrespecting the game takes the spirit of the game away.
Caitlin❤
They need to build into player contracts things like, the player has to play a minimum number of games. The only way they can sit out is a doctor saying they must sit. If they sit without a doctors excuse, you have to have a proportionate income EXAMPLE: If your per game revenue average is 1 million per game and you sit out 3 games you have 3 million deducted from your pay.
Not to be rude but that's kind of pathetic. It's sad these are supposed to be grown adults n they making crazy crazy crazy money and you would really have to put these stipulations in a contract for their entitled self. Caitlin Clark wanting to do everything possible to grow the WNBA is making all those men in the NBA look extremely bad.
Splash bros. vs. sisters would be awesome.
No, I don't like that. I'm over boys vs girls garbage. Plus, we all know who would win that. It should be boy/girl vs boy/girl.
I heard a very interesting perspective on the uptick in injuries as being directly correlated to the downtick in traditional weight training. Everyone is persuing some newfangled program and equipment to seem to be on the "cutting edge" of sports health when really they are just being duped by marketing. I think it was Legler who brought this up.
I heard it was a lack of 2 a days. The soft preseason training means that the players are more likely to pull a hamstring and have many minor injuries.
2:19 Yo... How did the Master from Buffy get the NBA commish gig?
I love the 3 point shots. I don’t like the above the net stuff near as much. Lebron certainly is a big reason I don’t like the NBA these days.
They don't know what a woman is ...
The men wouldn’t take losing to women very well to that I say may the best women win 🥇. That would boost the W significantly. Good luck ladies!
Both teams show up, and whoever happens to get hotter from three wins. Not much soul in that. Statistically it's efficient as hell. Competitively and esthetically it's trash. You used to have the best players going at it. Now it's just a bunch of three point shooting robots trying to stay healthy for the next game. Smart on their part. Boring on ours.
If theyre trying to stay healthy, theyre not doing a very good job
@MrDwightsimon That's another hilarious part
@@MrDwightsimon I think "load management" and jump shooting has taking conditioning out of the league. Star players barely practice sit out when they have a boo boo, when they actually have to turn it up and play they get hurt because they are not in actual game shape.
@@gamble777888 100%
The hottest take is Shumpert blaming LeBron. He's right and good on you Rachel for shining a spot light on it.
How much of the decline is a result of LeBron's unlikabilaty? At least some
Random but I’m thankful you don’t cuss. I got into the WNBA due to CC and am also learning about the NBA and it’s just so frustrating how much people cuss on videos of this type and it really rubs off. So you are one out of two sources I can watch that don’t drop cuss bombs or use the name Jesus as an expletive… that isn’t AI. So thank you!
Imagine being an adult and still thinking there are such things as "bad" words.
@ imagine being and adult and thinking cuss words are the best way to make a point.
@@TheBeanHome Imagine not realizing that studies show the higher a person's intelligence the more they use "bad" words.
@@mj23goat3 I’m ok being considered dumb by those standards.
Cut salaries by 75%. Put incentives in. Being paid extreme base salaries makes most people lazy.
Players union would never sign off on that, and Adam Silver is too much of a wimp coward to force the issue.
I have a couple of theories for each point. Bare with me...
1. Work ethic- This point is simple. It's a reflection of our culture. A culture that doesn't value hard work or dedication. Instead, it values comfort and instant gratification. And it's reflected with the people that value the old NBA. Guarantee most of those fans were born in the 90's and below. Sure 90's babies aren't known to be the most hardworking, but the hard work culture wasn't totally dead. We see today's athletes as these 'bigger than life ' figures. But these kids grew amongst all of the same kids we find annoying. The phone generation. And this goes all the way through all of sports. Including the NFL and MLB. The difference is that the NBA has the benefit of not having such a large gene pool compared to those other sports. Not too many people are competing with 6'6 + athletes. Thus, all they have to do is be better than the relatively few players. If you ever go play at the park, you'll see ballers with great talent but because they don't have the natural physic. They wouldn't make it in the NBA. As a consequence, athletes aren't incentivized to maximize their talent. As opposed to previous generations who had to work to build the league or worked to get out poverty. Many of these players are coming from privileged backgrounds. In other sports, you'll have stories of players that had jobs prior to their pro careers. So those athletes have to care a little more. Say what you want about Lebron. But one thing he has alongside Curry is his work ethic. Hence why they remain the faces of the league. Something that players like Embiid, Zion, Simmons, Luka lack. People love a story of overcoming. Which leads to my second point.
2. Ratings- The NBA targets the wrong demographics. The Youth. Sports is inherently about hard work and overcoming. Something that kids these days are adverse too. Baseball as a sport is the 1 sport that hasn't changed that much since the 60's. and football though it has changed. It's still football. Getting hit still hurts. NBA however, is about flash. And nothing shouts flash more like the 3 pointers. All kids play like that and don't play like we use to. Getting physical. But also, kids these days don't participate in sport as much as they use to. Thus, they don't watch sports like previous generations do. NHL, MLB, NFL cater to the average sports fan. (Beer gutted, prior athlete, past their prime adult.) In baseball, every pitch feels like a battle. In football, a hit still hurts. In basketball, we have to see who can out 3 point each other. The hell with strategy. Its why so many of previous generations stopped watching. The actual majority of the demographics that keeps pro sports running.
3. Injuries- I'm speaking from experience as a vet. When i first joined the military. I was not in the best shape despite being a high school athlete. But my body pushed through it since i was used to it. I never had or has had any major injury. Now these younger cats are coming in straight from high school. Most of them have never done anything physically straining before. And for a lot of them. It isnt just niches and bruises. It's flat-out broken bones and ripped ligaments. Im only 31, and no way should i be in better shape and not injury-less than a 18-21 year old just coming in. All this to say, to prevent injuries. You have to train your body to endure strains and pains. Injuries have risen amongst athletes all across the board since preseason hasn't been taken as serious as it once was. So ironically, you have a higher chance of not getting an injury by playing more basketball.
I was an avid NBA fan from the 1960s through the mid-90s or so. I often lobbied my local TV stations in the1970s to televise NBA games, instead of Sunday afternoon movies. I started losing interest when they kept the 3-point shot in the NBA/ABA merger. My interest dwindled further when the emphasis shifted to the 3. 3,3,3,3, dunk, 3, dunk, 3. Boring. One of the most irritating things is when someone drives all the way to the hoop, then throws it out for a 3. (It's like hitting a 110 mph serve into the net.) Traveling is an issue. Flopping is terrible. Taking days off (not playing back-to-back) is inexcusable, especially with modern nutrition and training and the ability to dedicate themselves to basketball year-round, rather than working an off-season job. No one seems to care about the fans any more. Which also is demonstrated by the number of subscriptions you have to have to actually watch a meaningful number of games. And that's not factoring in the spreadsheet you need to create to track which games are on which networks/services and when. That's all for now. Peace.
I think that same thing is also why the wnba is getting more and more interest, they have that fire and competitive mindset, and then there's CC, both seeing her celebrate and hype up the crowd or seeing her get frustrated at herself makes it so entertaining and relatable to watch, the ultimate competitor and show master
Yep. It's actual basketball! They may not have the athleticsm and be able to pull off sweet dunks but they play hard and the game is officiated more properly.
All true, it’s surprising how much I don’t like Lebron even though he keeps on breaking records
The blackout restrictions on nba tv is why I dropped mine and now I watch significantly less
The 2020 bubble was the most unesthetic crappiest thing I have ever seen.
Good morning, Rachel! Happy Saturday! I just subscribed to your channel. From what I can tell, the league's ratings are tanking mainly because of the players and the culture that surrounds them. This is a generational thing. I'm almost 43 years old, and I began watching the NBA back in the mid 90's when Michael Jordan ruled the basketball world. Needless to say, A LOT has changed over the last 30 years. The league has become very globalized, and there has been an ENORMOUS influx of cash. All that cash means that players are getting paid WAY MORE than used to be the case, Thirty years ago, a young player looking to become an established star had to prove himself a lot more. These days, we see 19-22 year olds earning as much or sometimes more than recognized stars from 20-30 years ago. I think many players on a subconscious level feel that they are getting paid so well so there is really no need to push themselves. Many soon become jaded by their lives of privilege and luxury, and that can serve to disconnect them from reality. I'm also a big fan of European football(soccer), and a lot of the same issues apply. It's impossible to compare different eras. There are still a handful of players these days for whom maximizing their potential is everything and money and fame are secondary. You made a great point when you stated that the fact that players are lot less loyal to their teams/employers in turn means that fans are less likely to be loyal to teams -- it's a vicious cycle. I hate to sound pessimistic, but I think the continued outsized financial rewards will ensure that the culture of greed, self-importance, low effort, entitlement will hang around for the foreseeable future and continue to drag ratings.
Caitlin Clark vs NBA would be interesting
I haven't been watching because I don't really like the athletes anymore. They seem like preppy entitled boy-men with no grasp of the real world. Maybe they've always been like this, and social media has simply shined the light on how they really act, but either way, I have a hard time rooting for the majority of these people. I'm a young man that should be considered part of this era, but I prefer to watch the game of old because they just carry themselves better, and seemed more mature.
I don’t even watch the men’s march madness anymore. One and done is the problem. I think it is adding to injuries also. No collegiate strength training as these guys body mature just straight into the pro game.
Shump is on point! Players playing with no heart, no defence, no competitive edge! Lebron is not disappointed with a loss, he needs to go! So does Draymond, KD and let these young cats have the opportunity to carry the league! Refs are inconsistent and horrible no calls, travels and carries, and fouls are not being called! Hold Lebron accountable! MJ said to Magic in 92, ‘maybe you should retire now’, has anyone said that to LBJ ‘retire already’, has anyone said to him ‘play one on one’? Curry still has heaps to give and could win another chip, but others have to go!
The main downside to stars moving teams so frequently is that the league is so damn friendly now. Think of the classic 80s/90s rivalries..... Lakers/Celtics, Celtics/Pistons, Pistons/Bulls, Bulls/Knicks..... they HATED each other, as players were tribal to their teams, and that's how it should be. Nowadays everyone is best mates because they've pretty much all been teammates at some point or other. Also the league outlawing taunting and basically showing any form of emotion on the court..... the fans WANT to see passion and showmanship and heated rivalries!
Too much complaining by the players on the court and too many divas in the NBA that want all the privileges of being an NBA Star but don't want to make any sacrifices for the betterment of the game.
Nba ratings are possibly low due to
1. Ref dont call right calls
2. No defense mindset
3. Lebron being LeGM and crybaby and being the face of the nba. Players given too much power regarding their team management and power over who they want to play.
4. Players not wanting to play truly want to play.
5. All star events sucks.
6. Too many dirty plays without any real penalty. Just in game penalty no fine especially those moves that intentionally hurt other player.
7. Load management
8. Those reporters or casters of certain show or podcast dont tell the truth their info or details during the show are all made up not a fact just to exagge things negatively.
9. The perception of the nba games as being rigged is also a factor.
10. Super super teams are allowed
11. The tanking pattern for teams just to get a slim chance for the no. 1 draft. Either teams declaring injuries or teams playing crappy plays or the superstar themselves play crap. It has to have some change.
You have to make the Regular Season more important:
Eliminate the ridiculous Play-In and reduce the number of teams eligible for the Playoffs.
Games are way too long:
Eliminate the Coaches Challenges and reduce the number of Team Timeouts.
Let's start there and see if the Players start caring about the Regular Season thus improving the product.
I like hockey much more than basketball.
As I watch the video, I was asking myself, "Why am I even watching this? Except for Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever, I Hate Basketball! "And then I was like, " Oh yeah, it's Rachel Annamarie DeMita. What else do you need to know? Speaking of Caitlin Clark. If the NBA wants to pick up the ratings, just bring Caitlin off the bench in an NBA game. Not only will she bring in more viewers, people will enjoy watching Logo 3's again. It's called the Caitlin Clark effect. Maybe you've heard of it.
I've been saying it for years now the game of basketball lost its flair because of the 3 point line 1 guy drives to the basket while everyone else stands at the 3 point line
I don’t watch the NBA, I watch the WNBA, my question is if I want to watch the NBA what are all the necessary channels going to cost per month? I have league pass for 40.00, some games I can watch live, others are tape delay. I also gave up tv for the most part, so my opinion may not mean much.
Addition on why nba dips
1. Players just want the bag.
2. Players dont care about winning.
3. They just want the fame that comes of being a nba player without having to prove it on court.
Fixing the all star event is not the whole solution its jst a part of it.
I would say may neccessary adjust and focus on the main season of the nba the regular games.. cause all star is just a fews day then its done unlike the season itself the regular playoff finals game it has more impact
When LeBron James retires the league will rebound with better ratings