The NBA is broken, we need a new league

[Mugen]

I honestly think it's been that way since the Jordan era. We see it in LA. No one literally gives a about the Lakers (in general) if they're bad/don't have a star. I think Spurs fans in Texas were probably blind to it, though, but the league has trended toward attracting the casual for decades now. I guess it's the only viable marketing strategy in a sport built around stars. NBA fans just don't seem to have as deep of a emotional connection to their hometown teams as they do in other sports, where ironically, the hardcore fan is where the money is at, as no casual will watch 100 plus MLB games or follow a 2-14 NFL team into (Browns will still draw a million fans over the season, for instance).

The difference with Jordan is that he was universally beloved by the casual fan, everybody wanted him to win....

With today's superteams you get casual fans tuning in to slurp them but also to see if they fail so it's a wider spectrum....

[HarlemHeat37]

The difference with Jordan is that he was universally beloved by the casual fan, everybody wanted him to win....

With today's superteams you get casual fans tuning in to slurp them but also to see if they fail so it's a wider spectrum....

The latter is important..the NBA is a social media league, watching and mocking failures and turning them into memes on twitter is an essential part of the league it's the route they have chosen to appeal to the casuals..

[LakerHater]

i watched a load of non spurs games. but not anymore if league allows Boogie to stay on Oakland!

...Y n play?

[timtonymanu]

Wtf are you talking about? This is literally the golden age of the casual fan.

The harsh truth is that reptilian, people skin wearing Adam Silver doesn't give a if diehard fans like you or me continue watching the NBA. There's no money in us, it's all about the casual fan and these superteams are the best thing that could have happened to attract 'em

Pretty much. I guess we should just be glad Spurs were able to ring in this decade cause it’s gonna be dark times ahead.

[midnightpulp]

The latter is important..the NBA is a social media league, watching and mocking failures and turning them into memes on twitter is an essential part of the league it's the route they have chosen to appeal to the casuals..

Yep. If it's definitely marketed toward younger people. Always has been. I remember in my day, they marketed toward kids/teens with things like mascot slam dunk contests, NBA Inside Stuff with the "cool and hip" Ahmad Rashad, Space Jam, videogames (Chaos in the Windy City, Shaq Fu ), and this was the decade where we first started to see hip-hop culture blend into NBA culture. One problem is that you'll alienate older people from the fanbase. I (along with many here, I'm sure) have grown out of being marketed toward like that. I don't care about twitter beefs, soap opera level storylines, which rapper is name dropping which player, which player is on a stream playing Fornite, etc, etc. I would've loved that when I was 12, but it's at the point where it's overshadowing the game itself. I understand the strategy, though. "Get em while they're young and you get them for life!" They forget the young grow up.

[james evans]

Not me. I’ve watched less and less every season. I didn’t watch any non Spurs games in the RS. For real.
Gave up the NBA package years ago.

I just watch spurs games. I don’t give a damn about anything else.

[TVI]

[Mugen]

Pretty much. I guess we should just be glad Spurs were able to ring in this decade cause it’s gonna be dark times ahead.

Spurs had a historic run bruh, we'll never see anything like it again tbh. Not much you can do about Kawhi being one of the biggest es in sports history

[midnightpulp]

Spurs had a historic run bruh, we'll never see anything like it again tbh. Not much you can do about Kawhi being one of the biggest es in sports history

And my dislike of today's NBA doesn't have to do with the Spurs decline. I'm sure lurkers are thinking we're just a collective group of sour grapes, but the league has become more social media than sport, in combination with a boring on court product (chuck 3, repeat) and disproportionate superstar power (if a team doesn't have a top 5 player on the roster, zero chance at contending, and now all these top 5 players want to be on the same teams).

[HarlemHeat37]

Definitely never going to see anything like it again..

In 20 years, kids will be looking through basketball-refefence or any NBA history pages and wondering how a team from San Antonio won so many les and contended every year, tbh

Anybody can win championships in LA, there's nothing impressive about that..

[Chillen]

This Cousins signing has my enthusiasm for this upcoming NBA season now very low. Warriors will have a starting lineup of 5 all-stars, it's just a complete joke at this point. LeBron to Lakers looked promising for 1 day but even if they added Kawhi it's not enough to beat that Warriors team.

So in order to compete with Warriors you need a team with 5 NBA all-stars as your starting lineup.

Warriors have ruined the fun of the NBA completely.

1 team has 5 NBA all-stars on it's roster.

It's just a joke at this point tbh.

[Ron Swanson]

[midnightpulp]

Definitely never going to see anything like it again..

In 20 years, kids will be looking through basketball-refefence or any NBA history pages and wondering how a team from San Antonio won so many les and contended every year, tbh

Anybody can win championships in LA, there's nothing impressive about that..

Yeah, from now on small markets will basically act as the farm teams for big market/marquee franchises (Bay Area isn't necessarily a huge market, but I wonder if the Warriors have truly turned into a marquee franchise or if their relevance and desirability as a destination only lasts as long as Curry, Durant, etc play there). Sadly, the Spurs were never a marquee franchise, despite being the most successful club in sports

The dilemma is, though, players should be able to play where they want, so I'm against any kind of crackdown on limiting player freedom. Maybe, as we've talked about before, basketball needs to evolve as a sport and become less star centric (never happen, obviously). The fate of a club shouldn't hinge on a single talent, ideally.

[Arcadian]

Might as well just cancel the 18-19 season. This could be one of the most trivial seasons in NBA history. Waste of everyone's time.

As for the idea of superteams being entertaining, that's what the all-star game is for. What's more entertaining is an epic playoff battle where every game in the series is close.

[midnightpulp]

Might as well just cancel the 18-19 season.

As for the idea of superteams being entertaining, that's what the all-star game is for. What's more entertaining is an epic playoff battle where every game in the series is close.

The casuals don't seem to care. The NBA Finals ratings were still very strong despite an uncompe ive sweep. Today's NBA fan basically tunes in for Curry, Durant, Lebron highlights and to find exploitable meme material to share on twitter (Lebron wincing at JR Smith).

[toki9]

Not me. I’ve watched less and less every season. I didn’t watch any non Spurs games in the RS. For real.
Gave up the NBA package years ago.

Same here. This was the first season where I didn't watch a single game (including Spurs games) in its entirety. In fact, I'm pretty sure I didn't watch any single quarter in its entirety. Still interested enough to watch highlights and read stories about the team, but that was it. I've been a Spurs fan since mid-80's, but just haven't had much interest in the NBA for the past few years. Not sure what it is exactly, but the players seem to have become more and more detached from the sport in search of becoming entertainment stars--which, I realize, is an odd thing to say rather so inarticulately. Or perhaps it's just simply that I've grown too old to really understand these modern players.

[Stabula]

Casuals want what you tell them to want. Business men know this otherwise there would be no such thing as advertising.

[cutewizard]

I doubt at this point this will be an unpopular opinion in the age of the Warriors and the small handful of pretender superteams that will try to emulate their gotry. This isn't even watchable anymore even for casual fans. There needs to be a new league with old school defensive rules, no three point line, and a revolutionary way of dealing with salaries and how teams acquire players IMO.

Agree.....

[cutewizard]

Same here. This was the first season where I didn't watch a single game (including Spurs games) in its entirety. In fact, I'm pretty sure I didn't watch any single quarter in its entirety. Still interested enough to watch highlights and read stories about the team, but that was it. I've been a Spurs fan since mid-80's, but just haven't had much interest in the NBA for the past few years. Not sure what it is exactly, but the players seem to have become more and more detached from the sport in search of becoming entertainment stars--which, I realize, is an odd thing to say rather so inarticulately. Or perhaps it's just simply that I've grown too old to really understand these modern players.

[cutewizard]

This Cousins signing has my enthusiasm for this upcoming NBA season now very low. Warriors will have a starting lineup of 5 all-stars, it's just a complete joke at this point. LeBron to Lakers looked promising for 1 day but even if they added Kawhi it's not enough to beat that Warriors team.

So in order to compete with Warriors you need a team with 5 NBA all-stars as your starting lineup.

Warriors have ruined the fun of the NBA completely.

1 team has 5 NBA all-stars on it's roster.

It's just a joke at this point tbh.

Agree.

[kobyz]

A brilliant frenchies, you can't do nothing about, just appreciate it!

[Lostwingman]

Time to restart the ABA.

[NickiRasgo]

Does this result to another lockout? I mean I don't think any teams will still sign any other players anymore to a lucrative contract just to compete except to retain their players to a longer contract.

[jermaine]

I think Ice Cube's Big 3 league is better than the NBA after this past season. Now that Boogie was joined GS, it's for surebetter than the NBA. The Big 3 league maybe older players, but at least it's compe ive..... This will be the worst I've see in my life span. These young pussy starts just wanna all team up an ease their way to a ring. Whatever happened to wanting to beat the best to be the best!?!

[jermaine]

Lil Nate Robertson has shown more heart than Labron or anyone in a GS uniform this yr in the Big 3 league.