https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/sun...ip-1234793078/
And that's with the league's marquee team and player in the Finals. Covid to blame? Some people turned off by BLM? Combination of both?
I think it goes deeper than that. Using this forum as barometer, we've seen many of the usual NBA fans no longer post much about the sport. Mav Crew, HarlemHeat, among many others, despite them being active in the NFL forum, political forum and such. Lefty might've jokingly predicted it with
today's NBA, but I think he was on to something. The modern game centered around 3 pointers and fouls is uninteresting, with the league doing everything and anything to accelerate pace even more, with re ed rules like a 14 second shot clock after an offensive rebound. It's obvious the league's strategy is to appeal to teenagers on twitter, since the modern product is producing more "highlights" than ever before, which are easily shared on social media. Not to mention their courting of "twitter drama," which also appeals to teenagers and man-children. The NBA is the only league I know of to have articles about "what storylines to watch out for this season."
Those factors have personally turned me off the NBA, but what's also accelerated my disinterest is how star-centric the sport is (or always was). Maybe I never fully realized it or admitted it, but the amount of in-game impact a single player has in the sport is ridiculous. Lebron in the Finals 10 times with 3 different teams. NBA team building philosophy is basically, "sign a couple of stars, make playoffs. Sign Lebron, make Finals." This makes team building and player development also uninteresting, and as fans, you're either hoping to make a splash by signing a top 5 player or pray the ping-pong balls bounce in your favor. If that doesn't happen, your team has no chance to do much of anything, and usually for decades. In other sports, you're not tied to stars this way. Patrick Mahomes still needs a line and a defense. Mike Trout will get about the same number of at bats as the 9 hitter. Hockey stars only play about 30 minutes out of 60.
The Covid and Black Lives Matter situations are partly to blame I'm sure, but I think the declining ratings might point to a larger issue with the sport/league that has turned off many core fans.