Thank you so much for watching and sorry for the long wait. Wanted to get this out before the New Years but it wasn't at the standard I wanted. If you enjoyed please consider subscribing and I'll see you next time. For your bear mattress, click here: bearmattress.com/wuhoops and use CODE: WUHOOPS to get 40% off your mattress + 2 free pillows
Great video! However you missed the main culprit of why the NBA is in Shambles. That culprit is Michael Jordan. GAME 6 of the NBA FINALS was the culmination point of the NBA. MJs greatness hasn’t been eclipsed. Who knows if it will ever be ? Remember that “Maybe it’s my fault Commercial” by Jordan Brand?
In my opinion, players have no pride win or loss these days. They're just there to get paid. Joel Embidd MVP of the league saying he's not playing back to back games is just an insult to all hard working fans out there including me.
Relegation system is the answer. Its kinda weird how most US top sports leagues are just permanent and teams are incentivised (in draft) for poor performance?
Honestly I think its a cultural thing, but I don't think they have the infrastructure for it. Their sports are wayyy more commercial/businesses based than Europe.
It's hard to stay hungry and motivated when you're a multimillionaire in your early 20s. These players have too much and they don't care about the game, and it's hard to blame them tbh. They need to change the way they give money away to these players
@@MoralesCorner this is what I'm talking about! Spot on!! I really think there should be a performance based or KPI some sht system in place not just one season wonders like the current mvp
Here’s the overall answer: The games are so hard to find and watch being on many countless different streaming services with no sure way to buy access to all games. If the nba made it easier and not hundreds of dollars to watch each and every game on whatever streaming service it’s on I gaurantee viewership would rise
What people don't realize is there is no one size fits all answer. There are a bunch of reasons the game isn't where it should be in 2025. Injuries, horrible marketing, terrible media, needing a million subscriptions to watch your favorite team, physical defense being punished by the refs, rivalries are practically dead, and many more. It is a highly nuanced issue, and yet people think one problem is core issue at hand. If there were to be one or 2 that I think are the biggest culprits, the media and marketing is worse than it's ever been before. For crying out loud they put more effort into a NBA Cup game court than the NBA Finals.
I agree and disagree at the same time. Yes the problems are plentiful and multifaceted but the do have one common linking factor: ADAM SILVER. If you are getting pushed around by players for years and are forced into making players playh atleast 65 games to be eligable for All NBA honors, then you have already lost the battle. Players don't respect the comissionar, contracts nor NBA fans these days. They get pampered so heard that even their moms get jealous... That lack of care and the inability to play physical defense due to rule imbalance makes games feel even more lackluster. I agree that NBA media is cancerous and generally does way more harm than good to the product and that marketing could for sure be better BUT, if you show up as a fan to watch a game and see: - multiple stars sitting out (injury/load management) - no emotion from the player (due to refs running wild calling techs for lierally breathing or looking their way) - no defense being played (it's no no defense, but if you can't touch up the offense you can just raise your hand and pretend to defend) than you turn of the game and think to yourself "is that really worth spending time or money on?!"
@@Rayven2711 I think some issues have more of a negative impact on the game than others for sure. I just hate when people are so focused on one issue and think that will fix the problem. Also why are we using Cable TV as the measuring stick? People have been ditching cable for years now. The NFL will have the same problem the more they start requiring people to pay for more subscriptions to watch their games. They will either stop watching or pirate the games.
I used to think it was the 3 killing the game but after watching some recent highlights and watching your video… I realized the reason I don’t watch is because I would have to pay so much money to watch games I want to watch. I just got rid of cable, I used to use illegal streaming for a while but now I’m just not interested in keeping up and paying all these streaming services. Everything is too damn high and I don’t have time to care about millionaires playing a game right now
It honestly is not. Go watch a regular season game of MJ vs Reggie or any other meaningful sounding RS game of basically every era from the 90s-2010s. Watch the whole game tho and nor just the highligts. Then watch any upcoming RS game from this season and compare. Even 10 years ago players cared! The cared to win AND entertain fans while doing it. In 2024 you can be happy if said players are even on the court at all.
It still entertaining... Maybe your team is inconsistent, keep losing or just so bad this couple of seasons... So you feel so Down and disappointed in the nba. But when you look the others team's progress and story its really good.
Great! Video, Brother! As a Father of an 11yr old boy who is obsessed with Hoops, I watch a LOT just to keep up with him. The problem: Sports. Betting. It’s coming for everything. Keep making great content!
The biggest thing as you said is where to watch games, people talk about the league and what makes it but most legit dont realize how much of a pain its to watch games now compare to before, if you arent living in a place that casually doesnt have a black out for the team you want to see its almost imposible to watch games legally. The nba had always thrive in being almost casual to watch with so many games, you could get home from work or school turn the tv and just have multiple cool games to watch including your favorite team depending on the zone you lived, now blackouts are everywhere and leaguepass has suck for much of its existance, with blackouts on it too or at least the use to be wich was insane. If the NFL suddenly got imposible to watch with blackouts everywhere instead of being so easy to tune in, even with the extremely short and important regular season ratings would suffer.
Using the old nielsen ratings doesn't really reflect how popular most shows are let alone the nba. We have to factor in the fact that they mostly just measure cable viewership and there aint a lot of people who have cable anymore.
And here is the key problem for me. Before, we all knew where to catch games every night. It was one of 4 or 5 channels. Now? The other night, when there were 13 games in a single night, there were 11 different channels I needed to go to to watch every game assuming I even I had access to those channels.
Well league pass is easy to track for the NBA and I'm sure ratings also includes the games shown there, right? Would be kind of antiquated not to account for that.
@@cheetah219 yeah i get you on that man i use to work for a satellite company and a big reason for the fragmentation is the aggressive deal thats local channels are making for broadcasting rights of sports like nba and nfl that often results to blackouts
@@Rayven2711 they rarely track streaming views man even with the big streamers like netflix or prime we only really know how many people watch certain shows if they chose to release the numbers themselves. That's why it's kinna crazy how a lot of talkingheads keep shouting about causes for the declining ratings (less dunks lmao) but rarely do they account factors that we've discussing in here like fragmentation or declining cable ownership in US households
WU HOOPS!!! I’ll be honest, not really that big of a basketball fan (hockey is my sport) but your videos are so damn good I just enjoy watching them when they drop. Keep doing your thing bro!
Such an amazing video! I really loved the editing and the sound effects that added so much intensity to each topic. I enjoyed every minute of it-great work, keep it up!
The MLB is growing rn not regressing. Enough that a team can afford to play Juan Soto 760 million dollars for 16 years when he finished only 3rd in mvp voting for the American League.
Just because teams get their three pointers in different ways, does not mean the game doesn't appear stale and boring, especially for average fans. The average fan will not perceive the difference between multiple screens, hand offs rolls and cuts, vs a drive and kick three. To them it's mostly the same. You said the NBA is as entertaining as its ever been, but the community does not agree. The games are boring no matter how many times the lead changes, because it's a bunch of guys doing the same shit every possession, unless you sit there studying what pin down screens they use. And when the game devolves into endless three pointers, it's no longer a competition, it's a shooting contest. The fans miss seeing players work for position in the paint, and the finesse shooting of Kobe and Dirk, vs the absolute power of other players, with some players shooting the lights out. That variety no longer exists, so we do not care to watch the game. This is compounded by offense leaning, defense hating rules. The entire concept of a blocking foul (unless the offensive player is in the air) is fucking stupid and should be removed. The idea that offensive players "own the court" and cannot be impeded by defensive players, is the most emasculated rule in all of pro sports. Euro-Football makes the NBA look like Hello Kitty Island Adventure. And because of the constant fouls, we have constant stoppages and huge free throw numbers. I recently became an MLB fan because (lmao) the MLB is now much smoother and faster paced than the NBA, and has far less stoppages. So you have a three point shooting contest with about 30 minutes of foul stoppages per game, then add in commercial saturation which is just absurd at this point. Oh and the super teams that win seasons before they start, like the Celtics who I called on day one last year, and predictably cleaned house. The damn sport doesn't even have playoff drama lmao. The super team issue needs to be addressed ASAP
Tellin a 35 yr old Carmelo Anthony he had to come off the bench is what killed the game. Paul George is the same age Melo was when they first blackballed him and nobody sayin PG should come off the bench and that’s only because he is playing the game their way . Stand and shoot threes whereas Melo wasn’t changing his game for nobody ….
Great video! Also the way you wrapped the video up was absolutely incredible - it is wild to think we have 4 gens this season. A lot to think about for sure I also think its crazy annoying how all the games are split between so many different networks
a reason that doesn't get talked about enough: the rise of international players. americans cant fathom not being the absolute best at shit, so the fact that the top 5 players is dominated by other nationalities really irks a lot of people. if giannis, doncic, jokic, shai, wemby etc were american we would not be having the "there's no face of the league" or "theres no story to tell" talks. it does. just not the one the american media and fans want. that's why the nba has been having record breaking numbers all over the world and tanking in the US
@tomhless yes!!!! the ant x jordan comparisons during the playoffs was SO FORCED it was as insane as the embiid mvp campaign from the american media so that jokic would not be the first to have 3 mvps in a row they would absolutely not allow that
Where it died for me is the active promotion of sports betting in games and during media coverage. It feels like at that time, you're beginning to see more blatant bad calls by referees. Questionable calls that influence games with referees ejecting players for next to nothing. If the games were fixed before, they did a better job at hiding it. If I'm going to watch scripted entertainment, I'll be tuning into Netflix for WWE instead
the media is alway pushing these “championship or bust” narratives and wonder why regular season games aren’t being watched as much. The media constantly echoing that the 82 game season doesn’t mean a thing without the ring is stupid
According to my wife, who used to watch the NBA, she mentioned since LeBron moved to Miami, players aren’t loyal to their teams anymore. It’s hard to keep track of where players are. She also mentioned, how can we be loyal fans if the players aren’t loyal to their teams.
The NBA is a dogshit television product right now. Traveling is legal, carrying is legal, defense is illegal, points are cheap, everyone runs the same offense. I dont care how difficult it is to do, every team shooting 45 threes a game and running like their shorts are on fire is BORING 6:05 wrong wrong wrong wrong. It does not matter the way they get them or how hard it is to do it, if the end is 80 combined three pointers between the two teams, that is a horrendous entertainment product
For me, it's been the refs. If there is a foul, obviously call it, but some of these fouls they call are outlandish. Imagine getting kicked in the nuts trying to defend someone's shot, and you get called for the foul. You don't have to because that's what they always call. It's one of the worst calls in all of sports, and it's not the only bad call they consistently do. Another one is the bias of refs when it comes to the restricted zone. They just go with whatever they feel that day with those calls. And if you're playing for the pistons or any other team the league doesn't care about, you better pray you get even a common foul when your arms have scratches.
For the kicked in the nuts thing it genuinely depends on the kind of shot that was taken. On turn around jumpers and especially fadeaways where the player drifts in the sane direction as their dominant hand ( i.e. right handed player fading to the right). The leg on the same side naturally raises to help them stabilize in the air. So if a defender gets hit in the nuts on that type of shot, they jumped towards the shooter, made contact in the air and havent given them space to land. Only way its not a defensive foul (on those type of shots) is if the defender jumped straight up and down. But yeah basically everything else is an offensive foul
Don't forget that people are more inclined to use streaming services, social media to get clips from the game. Other huge reasons, price to be able to watch a team consistently, Las Vegas and gambling, and the refs.
As a PNW viewer I can tell you that there are so many sports fans in Seattle alone that don't even bother with the NBA because of what happend with the sonics. Literally millions of sports fans who clearly flock the fresh things like The Kraken.
The NBA isn’t dead. Go watch the Knicks vs OKC from tonight (1/3/25). One of the most exciting games I’ve ever seen, and it wasn’t 90% 3’s. It was solid fundamental basketball, fast breaks, great defense, trading buckets back and forth etc. Intense!!
That is one example out of 2.5 months of Basketball and there are plenty more, don't get me wrong. But there is also a lot of examples of bad games. No effort games, huge blowouts, games ruined by refs and so much more. No the NBA ain't dead, yet. But to argue that the product has not have major flaws since Adam Silver became commissionar is just blindeyed loyalty.
@@Rayven2711 sure, there have always been good games and bad games in every era of the NBA. However, the great games are what I’m watching for. I’m not loyal to the NBA. I love basketball.
"sus looking Nosferatu commissioner" - oooh an edgy keyboard warrior. 🤡 In all honety tho, Adam Silver has lost control over the league if he has to enforce a minimum of 65 gp for any NBA All-Team honors. If you are already there and have to make a power move like that, than you already failed and most likely lost the battle in the long run.
I'm 26 - I remember as a kid growing up, eagerly tuning into a Thursday night regular season game with the Lakers vs the Magic.. why? because it was an important game during the regular season.. I wanted to watch 2 of the best players in the league play against each other.. Now.. I could care less.. the players don't care about playoff seeding, there's no strategy when playing, everyone is just jacking up 3's, the games back in the day were way better
Brother if you keep up this quality and analysis you’re going to be on top of NBA RUclips soon man! I agree with the statement that we don’t want to watch cable anymore. The presentation of the nba is rough for someone with a tight schedule. The games never start on time the amount of ads in the games, honestly sometimes makes me forget I’m watching a game and just watch something else. And since we’re on the topic of presentation we are in 2025 now, and they can only stream games in 720p?? How is that still acceptable
TV ratings are down because (1) no one pays for cable and (2) the games have been sold off to too many service and people like me just give up trying to find out what service I need to watch a game I’m interested in.
That doesn't fix the poor quality of the game nowadays tho. Many people choose not to watch the NBA, because you can do many things much more interesting than watch the NBA product in 2024.
The worst thing is that this shady narrative of the NBA failing, supported by nostalgia and false characterisation of the league in the past, might become a self-fulfilling prophecy by discouraging new fans from developing the understanding and aesthetic to really appreciate the game of modern basketball. The game is ever-evolving and become more sophisticated than ever. But the old-heads in the media and social media keep trying to devalue it with fake myths and favouring brute force over skill, schemes, and intelligence. While many of the modern players do lack the desire and will to win, I would argue almost every other aspect of the game is better than ever. Ask any new fan of the game who might not know all the stories and names of the past to watch a game in the 80s/90s/2000s, and a modern game, I think majority of them will prefer to watch a modern game. Do any of the old-head really think the era of illegal defense is really more enjoyable than a game today? The difference is in the narrative that mainly did not base on the actual content of the games. The media is a major part in shaping the new narrative, but they choose to criticise the game with false narratives of the past just to gain noise instead of promoting the game. I am with JJ on this issue.
IMO, the crew at the Inside The NBA (besides EJ) and the ESPN analysts turn me off from what they have to say because they constantly criticize the players or teams whether they do well or not.
I use to pirate stuff in college but then I stopped for 10 years because how accessible everything was for relatively cheap but It wasn’t until two years ago I had enough of all different forms of streaming services and canceled everything.
2014 rule changes. Relaxed rules on traveling palm pressing. Extreme increase in strict rules on defense. No defense era killed the spirit of basketball
I really think that the problem is the availability of games, most people do not even have TV packages anymore and most streaming services don't offer NBA in their default packages. So people don't have access to the teams they want to watch and everyone would rather use youtube highlights plus piracy websites since the availability sucks
Bottom line: it is a combination of everything you said. Not one single “suspect” is responsible (becoming a 3 point shooting contest is not nearly enough of a reason for people to tune out) but a little bit of all the reasons you mentioned. It’s just the perfect storm of reasons and they are all happening at the same time. You also forgot to mention politics. When the NFL saw a ratings dip after the kneeling Goddell nipped that in the bud. Even the NHL dumped all the pro gay stuff due to the refusal of many of the openly Russian Orthodox Christians in the league who refused to participate. The NBA gave those voices a megaphone and it turned of even your boomer conservative from watching. Also, the NBA is a star driven league. The NFL is team. You could change the entire Steelers roster today and the entire city would still watch the game.
I dont think the argument to dismiss the 3 point aspect was solid. Entertainment is subjective and while yes the point about games never being out of reach is true. Thats probably the only positive that comes from the high volume of 3s. The fact is most people dont care or cant understand what sets go into getting the 3. We just see 6 straight 3s and its boring. To me Ant as a player personifies this issue. Hes shooting the 3 better than ever but he doesnt have the same magic as when hes driving and operating in the mid range. Also for the player empowerment point i think it more so has created a culture or mindset where fans of local teams dont feel secure their star will stay so theres less attachment to stars even if the player movement has declined the perception is well this guy is gonna ask for a trade if were not contending.
It’s the players, they treat the NBA like a part time job. No loyalty, bouncing from team to team rather than improving themselves and teammates. LeBron started all of it
For me, it's the absence of the passing of the torch. We have yet to crown who is the face of the league. Plus older players trash on today's NBA saying their era was better.
You dismissed the curry/3pt revolution argument pretty quickly without any real evidence, just your opinion that the games are still good because big comebacks are frequent? You gotta do more work bro, be thorough Edit: I didn't realize how fresh your channel was man, I didn't mean to be harsh. I liked the video and my only intention is constructive criticism. Keep up the great work!
just because teams use different plays to shoot a long, uncontested jump shot, doesnt make it interesting. also, do you know why huge comebacks are interesting in sports???? because they are rare....having a bunch of them in the same week makes the most exciting thing about sports predictable and almost frustrating to watch.
could you imagine if the nhl had a 2 point shot from around the blue line and the whole game devolved into passing the puck around and running plays to get people open for long slap shots???? no matter how you try to make it seem interesting, its just not to most people.
To me I think the NBA needs to learn how to make watching all the games more accessible. I personally love the parody, and I'm glad small market teams are finally doing well like Memphis, OKC, and Minnesota. But watching NBA games live on a legitimate platform is difficult/expensive.
I blame streaming. This goes for all sports. The rights to different games belong to different hands and often times games will not be available depending on your region. Another thing is that watching all NBA games would require 3-4 different subscription services which is unreasonable. Also the only NBA broadcast anyone cares about is NBA on TNT. Every other NBA broadcast feels like white noise.
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
Thank you so much for watching and sorry for the long wait. Wanted to get this out before the New Years but it wasn't at the standard I wanted. If you enjoyed please consider subscribing and I'll see you next time. For your bear mattress, click here:
bearmattress.com/wuhoops and use CODE: WUHOOPS to get 40% off your mattress + 2 free pillows
Can’t believe you get that mic to sound that good? Any tips?
Great video! However you missed the main culprit of why the NBA is in Shambles. That culprit is Michael Jordan. GAME 6 of the NBA FINALS was the culmination point of the NBA. MJs greatness hasn’t been eclipsed. Who knows if it will ever be ? Remember that “Maybe it’s my fault Commercial” by Jordan Brand?
I love that you called Shaq out. He was always missed a ton of games but nobody calls him out on it.
In my opinion, players have no pride win or loss these days. They're just there to get paid. Joel Embidd MVP of the league saying he's not playing back to back games is just an insult to all hard working fans out there including me.
Relegation system is the answer. Its kinda weird how most US top sports leagues are just permanent and teams are incentivised (in draft) for poor performance?
Honestly I think its a cultural thing, but I don't think they have the infrastructure for it. Their sports are wayyy more commercial/businesses based than Europe.
You don’t think Joel Embiid wants to win a championship? That dude has played through horrible injuries every year of his post season career.
It's hard to stay hungry and motivated when you're a multimillionaire in your early 20s. These players have too much and they don't care about the game, and it's hard to blame them tbh. They need to change the way they give money away to these players
@@MoralesCorner this is what I'm talking about! Spot on!! I really think there should be a performance based or KPI some sht system in place not just one season wonders like the current mvp
I love when classical music is paired for dramatic effect. The vibe of your videos is so compelling, keep up the good work brotha
I don't how tv ratings works but most people I know who watch nba watch them in pirated streams.
Even Lebron was caught watching it once 😂
But that's still not even close to the whole decline
@@kylethomas2993 how do you know? We don't have any reliable numbers on it
You need literally 3-5 subscriptions around $30-$55 each to watch games and most times that's not even enough to catch most games..
some of us have watched it on pirated streams for 15 years now they are nothing new
Unreal analysis. There were two or three times during this where I was downright surprised and impressed. Keep it up
Here’s the overall answer: The games are so hard to find and watch being on many countless different streaming services with no sure way to buy access to all games. If the nba made it easier and not hundreds of dollars to watch each and every game on whatever streaming service it’s on I gaurantee viewership would rise
isn't the NBA pass 100$ bucks for the whole year or something?
What people don't realize is there is no one size fits all answer. There are a bunch of reasons the game isn't where it should be in 2025. Injuries, horrible marketing, terrible media, needing a million subscriptions to watch your favorite team, physical defense being punished by the refs, rivalries are practically dead, and many more. It is a highly nuanced issue, and yet people think one problem is core issue at hand. If there were to be one or 2 that I think are the biggest culprits, the media and marketing is worse than it's ever been before. For crying out loud they put more effort into a NBA Cup game court than the NBA Finals.
The main problem is there's not enough diversity too many African Americans player
I agree and disagree at the same time. Yes the problems are plentiful and multifaceted but the do have one common linking factor: ADAM SILVER.
If you are getting pushed around by players for years and are forced into making players playh atleast 65 games to be eligable for All NBA honors, then you have already lost the battle. Players don't respect the comissionar, contracts nor NBA fans these days. They get pampered so heard that even their moms get jealous...
That lack of care and the inability to play physical defense due to rule imbalance makes games feel even more lackluster.
I agree that NBA media is cancerous and generally does way more harm than good to the product and that marketing could for sure be better BUT, if you show up as a fan to watch a game and see:
- multiple stars sitting out (injury/load management)
- no emotion from the player (due to refs running wild calling techs for lierally breathing or looking their way)
- no defense being played (it's no no defense, but if you can't touch up the offense you can just raise your hand and pretend to defend)
than you turn of the game and think to yourself "is that really worth spending time or money on?!"
@@Rayven2711 I think some issues have more of a negative impact on the game than others for sure. I just hate when people are so focused on one issue and think that will fix the problem. Also why are we using Cable TV as the measuring stick? People have been ditching cable for years now. The NFL will have the same problem the more they start requiring people to pay for more subscriptions to watch their games. They will either stop watching or pirate the games.
I mean there probably is a one-size answer if we are talking solely about TV-ratings and that’s how Americans watch things now…
I think the solution would be more nba players doing podcast. We don’t seem to have enough of those.
I used to think it was the 3 killing the game but after watching some recent highlights and watching your video… I realized the reason I don’t watch is because I would have to pay so much money to watch games I want to watch. I just got rid of cable, I used to use illegal streaming for a while but now I’m just not interested in keeping up and paying all these streaming services. Everything is too damn high and I don’t have time to care about millionaires playing a game right now
Really well done video! Definitely brought up angles I hadn’t considered
We can say the NBA is as entertaining as ever, but it just doesn’t feel like it. Everybody is to blame.
It honestly is not. Go watch a regular season game of MJ vs Reggie or any other meaningful sounding RS game of basically every era from the 90s-2010s. Watch the whole game tho and nor just the highligts.
Then watch any upcoming RS game from this season and compare. Even 10 years ago players cared! The cared to win AND entertain fans while doing it. In 2024 you can be happy if said players are even on the court at all.
LOL NBA is entertaining as ever THATS STR8 LIE
The players are fantastic but thats about it, everything else is done poorly
It still entertaining...
Maybe your team is inconsistent, keep losing or just so bad this couple of seasons... So you feel so Down and disappointed in the nba.
But when you look the others team's progress and story its really good.
Great! Video, Brother! As a Father of an 11yr old boy who is obsessed with Hoops, I watch a LOT just to keep up with him. The problem:
Sports. Betting.
It’s coming for everything.
Keep making great content!
The editing is incredible bro
In Australia, watching nba is super easy with league pass. All games accessed at any time. Prices even dropped two years ago
Now if it would just be worth watching again.
It really be like that. Its easier to watch Premier league games in the US than in England, and its harder to watch NBA games in the US🤣
Great video as usual!
Goated Analysis bro, you just gained another subscriber, Can't wait for your next analysis
The biggest thing as you said is where to watch games, people talk about the league and what makes it but most legit dont realize how much of a pain its to watch games now compare to before, if you arent living in a place that casually doesnt have a black out for the team you want to see its almost imposible to watch games legally.
The nba had always thrive in being almost casual to watch with so many games, you could get home from work or school turn the tv and just have multiple cool games to watch including your favorite team depending on the zone you lived, now blackouts are everywhere and leaguepass has suck for much of its existance, with blackouts on it too or at least the use to be wich was insane.
If the NFL suddenly got imposible to watch with blackouts everywhere instead of being so easy to tune in, even with the extremely short and important regular season ratings would suffer.
Man Wu this was a tremendous video. This is my second comment and I sub'd.
Your content is so good man, I look forward to each upload! Your way of storytelling is excellent and I know your channel is gonna blow soon
Using the old nielsen ratings doesn't really reflect how popular most shows are let alone the nba. We have to factor in the fact that they mostly just measure cable viewership and there aint a lot of people who have cable anymore.
And here is the key problem for me. Before, we all knew where to catch games every night. It was one of 4 or 5 channels. Now? The other night, when there were 13 games in a single night, there were 11 different channels I needed to go to to watch every game assuming I even I had access to those channels.
Well league pass is easy to track for the NBA and I'm sure ratings also includes the games shown there, right? Would be kind of antiquated not to account for that.
@@cheetah219 yeah i get you on that man i use to work for a satellite company and a big reason for the fragmentation is the aggressive deal thats local channels are making for broadcasting rights of sports like nba and nfl that often results to blackouts
@@Rayven2711 they rarely track streaming views man even with the big streamers like netflix or prime we only really know how many people watch certain shows if they chose to release the numbers themselves. That's why it's kinna crazy how a lot of talkingheads keep shouting about causes for the declining ratings (less dunks lmao) but rarely do they account factors that we've discussing in here like fragmentation or declining cable ownership in US households
WU HOOPS!!! I’ll be honest, not really that big of a basketball fan (hockey is my sport) but your videos are so damn good I just enjoy watching them when they drop. Keep doing your thing bro!
Great video man keep it up
Been here since day 1
Such an amazing video! I really loved the editing and the sound effects that added so much intensity to each topic. I enjoyed every minute of it-great work, keep it up!
Easy sub right here, first time you were in my recommendations, hopefully the algorithm is going to bless you.
Great video man thank you .
Thank you for making this video you broke down all the myths and opinions beautifully with facts
Love your vids, bro! Keep it up
The MLB is growing rn not regressing. Enough that a team can afford to play Juan Soto 760 million dollars for 16 years when he finished only 3rd in mvp voting for the American League.
Just because teams get their three pointers in different ways, does not mean the game doesn't appear stale and boring, especially for average fans. The average fan will not perceive the difference between multiple screens, hand offs rolls and cuts, vs a drive and kick three. To them it's mostly the same. You said the NBA is as entertaining as its ever been, but the community does not agree. The games are boring no matter how many times the lead changes, because it's a bunch of guys doing the same shit every possession, unless you sit there studying what pin down screens they use.
And when the game devolves into endless three pointers, it's no longer a competition, it's a shooting contest. The fans miss seeing players work for position in the paint, and the finesse shooting of Kobe and Dirk, vs the absolute power of other players, with some players shooting the lights out. That variety no longer exists, so we do not care to watch the game.
This is compounded by offense leaning, defense hating rules. The entire concept of a blocking foul (unless the offensive player is in the air) is fucking stupid and should be removed. The idea that offensive players "own the court" and cannot be impeded by defensive players, is the most emasculated rule in all of pro sports. Euro-Football makes the NBA look like Hello Kitty Island Adventure.
And because of the constant fouls, we have constant stoppages and huge free throw numbers. I recently became an MLB fan because (lmao) the MLB is now much smoother and faster paced than the NBA, and has far less stoppages.
So you have a three point shooting contest with about 30 minutes of foul stoppages per game, then add in commercial saturation which is just absurd at this point. Oh and the super teams that win seasons before they start, like the Celtics who I called on day one last year, and predictably cleaned house. The damn sport doesn't even have playoff drama lmao.
The super team issue needs to be addressed ASAP
Tellin a 35 yr old Carmelo Anthony he had to come off the bench is what killed the game. Paul George is the same age Melo was when they first blackballed him and nobody sayin PG should come off the bench and that’s only because he is playing the game their way . Stand and shoot threes whereas Melo wasn’t changing his game for nobody ….
Great video! Also the way you wrapped the video up was absolutely incredible - it is wild to think we have 4 gens this season. A lot to think about for sure
I also think its crazy annoying how all the games are split between so many different networks
Bro you earned my Sub! Top notch quality! Hope to see more of you
You slick using Detective Conan music for this video
Yessssss 🙏 was looking forward mate
a reason that doesn't get talked about enough: the rise of international players. americans cant fathom not being the absolute best at shit, so the fact that the top 5 players is dominated by other nationalities really irks a lot of people. if giannis, doncic, jokic, shai, wemby etc were american we would not be having the "there's no face of the league" or "theres no story to tell" talks. it does. just not the one the american media and fans want. that's why the nba has been having record breaking numbers all over the world and tanking in the US
Absolutely agree, that's why "fans" are trying to push the narrative that ant should be the face of the league
@tomhless yes!!!! the ant x jordan comparisons during the playoffs was SO FORCED it was as insane as the embiid mvp campaign from the american media so that jokic would not be the first to have 3 mvps in a row they would absolutely not allow that
NBA ratings going down means more people find out how to watch NBA for free.
chucking 3s, taking games off, spoiled brat players, Lebron being a tool bag
This was a great video brother
5:11 OKAY but the soundtrack to BARRY LYNDON in the background???? FIRE 🔥
you did your thing, this a very good watch!
at 17:20, that was really good! 😂😂 Make sure you sent this qualitative data to your sponsor. I liked that. And that is because of your idea.
There are many reasons: no defense, excessive called fouls, no travelling violation, no grit, three-point sickness, so on...
Where it died for me is the active promotion of sports betting in games and during media coverage.
It feels like at that time, you're beginning to see more blatant bad calls by referees. Questionable calls that influence games with referees ejecting players for next to nothing.
If the games were fixed before, they did a better job at hiding it. If I'm going to watch scripted entertainment, I'll be tuning into Netflix for WWE instead
the media is alway pushing these “championship or bust” narratives and wonder why regular season games aren’t being watched as much. The media constantly echoing that the 82 game season doesn’t mean a thing without the ring is stupid
Great video bro
Next big basketball channel right here go wu!
According to my wife, who used to watch the NBA, she mentioned since LeBron moved to Miami, players aren’t loyal to their teams anymore. It’s hard to keep track of where players are. She also mentioned, how can we be loyal fans if the players aren’t loyal to their teams.
The NBA is a dogshit television product right now. Traveling is legal, carrying is legal, defense is illegal, points are cheap, everyone runs the same offense. I dont care how difficult it is to do, every team shooting 45 threes a game and running like their shorts are on fire is BORING
6:05 wrong wrong wrong wrong. It does not matter the way they get them or how hard it is to do it, if the end is 80 combined three pointers between the two teams, that is a horrendous entertainment product
So you don’t like basketball. got it
@@poindextertunes No I actually love basketball
The NBA is not basketball, its a gambling platform disguised as basketball
The still promoting Bron, is the biggest reason
He was never fun to watch. No finesse, just traveling and uncalled offensive fouls.
100k subs soon bro
For me, it's been the refs. If there is a foul, obviously call it, but some of these fouls they call are outlandish. Imagine getting kicked in the nuts trying to defend someone's shot, and you get called for the foul. You don't have to because that's what they always call. It's one of the worst calls in all of sports, and it's not the only bad call they consistently do. Another one is the bias of refs when it comes to the restricted zone. They just go with whatever they feel that day with those calls. And if you're playing for the pistons or any other team the league doesn't care about, you better pray you get even a common foul when your arms have scratches.
For the kicked in the nuts thing it genuinely depends on the kind of shot that was taken. On turn around jumpers and especially fadeaways where the player drifts in the sane direction as their dominant hand ( i.e. right handed player fading to the right). The leg on the same side naturally raises to help them stabilize in the air.
So if a defender gets hit in the nuts on that type of shot, they jumped towards the shooter, made contact in the air and havent given them space to land. Only way its not a defensive foul (on those type of shots) is if the defender jumped straight up and down.
But yeah basically everything else is an offensive foul
It's the ads. There are more ads than game-time and it makes the games unwatchable. How is this a question?
Underrated channel 💯
"The rumors of the NBA’s demise are greatly exaggerated" - Mark Twain
high quality as usual
thank you so much brother, means the world from you!
I like your calm and thoughtful presentation style. Good job.
UNDERRATED AF
Don't forget that people are more inclined to use streaming services, social media to get clips from the game. Other huge reasons, price to be able to watch a team consistently, Las Vegas and gambling, and the refs.
As a PNW viewer I can tell you that there are so many sports fans in Seattle alone that don't even bother with the NBA because of what happend with the sonics. Literally millions of sports fans who clearly flock the fresh things like The Kraken.
This was my favorite video on the topic. It went from who killed the NBA to the NBA isn’t dead. Wow
it was a collective effort of players not loving basketball
The NBA isn’t dead. Go watch the Knicks vs OKC from tonight (1/3/25). One of the most exciting games I’ve ever seen, and it wasn’t 90% 3’s. It was solid fundamental basketball, fast breaks, great defense, trading buckets back and forth etc. Intense!!
Fr fr. Im convinced people who say the nba is dead dont really like basketball
That is one example out of 2.5 months of Basketball and there are plenty more, don't get me wrong. But there is also a lot of examples of bad games. No effort games, huge blowouts, games ruined by refs and so much more.
No the NBA ain't dead, yet. But to argue that the product has not have major flaws since Adam Silver became commissionar is just blindeyed loyalty.
@@Rayven2711 sure, there have always been good games and bad games in every era of the NBA. However, the great games are what I’m watching for. I’m not loyal to the NBA. I love basketball.
I blame that sus looking Nosferatu commissioner the most. Accountability starts at the top.
"sus looking Nosferatu commissioner" - oooh an edgy keyboard warrior. 🤡
In all honety tho, Adam Silver has lost control over the league if he has to enforce a minimum of 65 gp for any NBA All-Team honors. If you are already there and have to make a power move like that, than you already failed and most likely lost the battle in the long run.
Classic Wu. Quality
I stay off social media and just enjoy the games. I see the stories happen. When you do that, the NBA is no longer dead to you.
I'm 26 - I remember as a kid growing up, eagerly tuning into a Thursday night regular season game with the Lakers vs the Magic.. why? because it was an important game during the regular season.. I wanted to watch 2 of the best players in the league play against each other..
Now.. I could care less.. the players don't care about playoff seeding, there's no strategy when playing, everyone is just jacking up 3's, the games back in the day were way better
nice thumbnail bro
MLB World Series isn't a fair comparison. Baseball is hyper regional, a better indicator of fan interest is overall viewership.
Helluva video!
Rivalries are what is missing. With rivalries, people would like to watch those games. Have the nationalized games. Less team hopping, more dinasties.
Brother if you keep up this quality and analysis you’re going to be on top of NBA RUclips soon man!
I agree with the statement that we don’t want to watch cable anymore. The presentation of the nba is rough for someone with a tight schedule. The games never start on time the amount of ads in the games, honestly sometimes makes me forget I’m watching a game and just watch something else. And since we’re on the topic of presentation we are in 2025 now, and they can only stream games in 720p?? How is that still acceptable
TV ratings are down because (1) no one pays for cable and (2) the games have been sold off to too many service and people like me just give up trying to find out what service I need to watch a game I’m interested in.
That doesn't fix the poor quality of the game nowadays tho. Many people choose not to watch the NBA, because you can do many things much more interesting than watch the NBA product in 2024.
The Play In Tournament destroyed the NBA!
It’s not a mystery at all: Adam Silver
The worst thing is that this shady narrative of the NBA failing, supported by nostalgia and false characterisation of the league in the past, might become a self-fulfilling prophecy by discouraging new fans from developing the understanding and aesthetic to really appreciate the game of modern basketball.
The game is ever-evolving and become more sophisticated than ever. But the old-heads in the media and social media keep trying to devalue it with fake myths and favouring brute force over skill, schemes, and intelligence.
While many of the modern players do lack the desire and will to win, I would argue almost every other aspect of the game is better than ever.
Ask any new fan of the game who might not know all the stories and names of the past to watch a game in the 80s/90s/2000s, and a modern game, I think majority of them will prefer to watch a modern game. Do any of the old-head really think the era of illegal defense is really more enjoyable than a game today?
The difference is in the narrative that mainly did not base on the actual content of the games. The media is a major part in shaping the new narrative, but they choose to criticise the game with false narratives of the past just to gain noise instead of promoting the game. I am with JJ on this issue.
Ads, woke politics, Adam Silver, huge and bad contracts are just the tip of the iceberg about what is wrong with the NBA.
Shitty streaming deals preventing normal fans from having easy access to games
One critique, Lebron and Steph's rivalry was pretty tamed from an aggression stand point so it doesn't really prove the whole buddy buddy thing wrong
IMO, the crew at the Inside The NBA (besides EJ) and the ESPN analysts turn me off from what they have to say because they constantly criticize the players or teams whether they do well or not.
Celtics : 9 of 46 from 3-Point Range today. Keep chucking it boys. I know, I know...they will.
Wu Hoop Troop stand up!!! 😤🫡💯
I use to pirate stuff in college but then I stopped for 10 years because how accessible everything was for relatively cheap but It wasn’t until two years ago I had enough of all different forms of streaming services and canceled everything.
2014 rule changes. Relaxed rules on traveling palm pressing. Extreme increase in strict rules on defense.
No defense era killed the spirit of basketball
I don't root for selfishness. Player trade requests and load management without notice are betrayal to paying fans.
That 1 seed in the west was not worth if the NBA is unwatchable
I really think that the problem is the availability of games, most people do not even have TV packages anymore and most streaming services don't offer NBA in their default packages. So people don't have access to the teams they want to watch and everyone would rather use youtube highlights plus piracy websites since the availability sucks
Bottom line: it is a combination of everything you said. Not one single “suspect” is responsible (becoming a 3 point shooting contest is not nearly enough of a reason for people to tune out) but a little bit of all the reasons you mentioned. It’s just the perfect storm of reasons and they are all happening at the same time. You also forgot to mention politics. When the NFL saw a ratings dip after the kneeling Goddell nipped that in the bud. Even the NHL dumped all the pro gay stuff due to the refusal of many of the openly Russian Orthodox Christians in the league who refused to participate. The NBA gave those voices a megaphone and it turned of even your boomer conservative from watching. Also, the NBA is a star driven league. The NFL is team. You could change the entire Steelers roster today and the entire city would still watch the game.
I dont think the argument to dismiss the 3 point aspect was solid. Entertainment is subjective and while yes the point about games never being out of reach is true. Thats probably the only positive that comes from the high volume of 3s.
The fact is most people dont care or cant understand what sets go into getting the 3. We just see 6 straight 3s and its boring.
To me Ant as a player personifies this issue. Hes shooting the 3 better than ever but he doesnt have the same magic as when hes driving and operating in the mid range.
Also for the player empowerment point i think it more so has created a culture or mindset where fans of local teams dont feel secure their star will stay so theres less attachment to stars even if the player movement has declined the perception is well this guy is gonna ask for a trade if were not contending.
It’s the players, they treat the NBA like a part time job. No loyalty, bouncing from team to team rather than improving themselves and teammates. LeBron started all of it
Teams now don’t have enough time to develop their identify.
Lebron definitely wasnt the first. You mustve started watching the nba in 2010.
@@MuttonErase you can always count on some bot to defend the steroid queen
Silver killed the NBA by giving players like LeBron all the power.. and LeBron just shot an injured NBA in the head with his antics. Its dead.
That + the imbalance of what is legal/illegal on offense/defense. But yeah you pretty much nailed it 💯
Big issue is players don't care all that much and it's obvious. So why should we care..?
AWESOME VIDEO
Refs have too much power today
For me, it's the absence of the passing of the torch. We have yet to crown who is the face of the league. Plus older players trash on today's NBA saying their era was better.
You dismissed the curry/3pt revolution argument pretty quickly without any real evidence, just your opinion that the games are still good because big comebacks are frequent? You gotta do more work bro, be thorough
Edit: I didn't realize how fresh your channel was man, I didn't mean to be harsh. I liked the video and my only intention is constructive criticism. Keep up the great work!
just because teams use different plays to shoot a long, uncontested jump shot, doesnt make it interesting. also, do you know why huge comebacks are interesting in sports???? because they are rare....having a bunch of them in the same week makes the most exciting thing about sports predictable and almost frustrating to watch.
could you imagine if the nhl had a 2 point shot from around the blue line and the whole game devolved into passing the puck around and running plays to get people open for long slap shots???? no matter how you try to make it seem interesting, its just not to most people.
I’m here for the content but my guys lowkey a filmmaker. Check his other work y’ll.
🤣 thank you! If you’re interested in some of my non basketball work, check out my film: American: An Odyssey to 1947
I’ll check it out.
this video was oddly creepy, then I got a lovely mattress add
To me I think the NBA needs to learn how to make watching all the games more accessible. I personally love the parody, and I'm glad small market teams are finally doing well like Memphis, OKC, and Minnesota. But watching NBA games live on a legitimate platform is difficult/expensive.
I blame streaming. This goes for all sports. The rights to different games belong to different hands and often times games will not be available depending on your region. Another thing is that watching all NBA games would require 3-4 different subscription services which is unreasonable. Also the only NBA broadcast anyone cares about is NBA on TNT. Every other NBA broadcast feels like white noise.