NBA.com: A few ideas on how the NBA can hold onto the casual fan

[Spursfanfromafar]

To be fair he wrote back at least and thanked me for writing - I would rather a columnist respond unlike some of BSPN's you cannot even reach except for their bogus chats.

I thought you wrote a really cool letter. I would have been surprised if he didn't show the courtesy to reply back.

[BoricuaCJA]

@Rummpd, just one error in your email, its 8 of the last 11 championship. Boston, Detroit and Miami won a championship in that span.

[DJ Mbenga]

allow 3 fouls per player. if he gets more than 3 he gets ejected. sure to improve offense.

[Stringer_Bell]

what can be expected from a Knicks/Lebron fan who has written these gems last season:
"Aging and beat up, this Boston dynasty looks one and done"
"In Cleveland, everything setting up (gulp!) just perfectly "
"Duncan's near-departure from Spurs worth reviewing "
"Magic's Van Gundy the perfect model of hoops coach "

Those read like song les from an NBA comedy album.

[Yorae]

How the did the nba allow such article to be published? I mean seriously? There's a lot of butthurt right there it's so ing unprofessional.

[ALVAREZ6]

No one said the Spurs aren't efficient or great; they are. They're just boring, according to the ratings.

Just because their ratings are lower than say the Boston/LA finals, does not mean they are boring, jack ass. It simply means their ratings are lower than Boston/LA (compared to SA vs. Detroit, for example).

No the Lakers/Celtics finals series gets huge ratings...larger ratings simply means more people watched. More people watching does not equate to more entertaining. The Spurs actually have decent ratings compared to the San Antonio population. Boston and especially LA are bigger cities, that's why more people watched. Sure, they pull more casual fans as well, but at the end of the day, simply more people watched Lakers/Celtics compared to Spurs/anyone. That is all. Does not mean the Spurs are boring...they actually probably have pretty good ratings compared to the match-ups...SA and Detroit, and SA vs. Cleveland in a 4-0 sweep....yeah no no casual fan wants to watch a sweep, and obviously way less people are watching to begin with because it's SA, not LA, the city that dwarfs SA.

[Obstructed_View]

The Spurs have extremely good ratings outside the US, even in countries other than Argentina and France, so if viewership is what determines boring, then the Spurs ain't it.

[alchemist]

The funny thing about ratings is that outside of the usual LA/Boston/Heat trio nationally the Spurs usually have better ratings than every club out there.

http://www.sportsmediawatch.net/search/label/NBA
http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/tag/nba-ratings

[Obstructed_View]

Colin Cowherd mentioned today that the Spurs were boring and offered the fact that they're 16th in visitor attendance as proof. I don't think that's accurate. If you aren't a fan of the Spurs, and you want to see your team play, you don't want to watch the Spurs beat your team. It's funny how the Packers and the Steelers have growing fanbases due to their team success but the Spurs don't seem to.

[SA210]

If the Spurs make a deep playoff run, that means members of the media might have to spend time in San Antonio again, and they all hate San Antonio.

There are three typical media types. The first is the West Coast guy based in LA. If the Spurs go deep in the playoffs, that probably means the Lakers got knocked off at some point, so he's bitter.

The second type is the East Coast guy. This is the same type who absolutely looooooves spending time in Austin but hates San Antonio. Austin is very 'hipster' and very white, while San Antonio is not 'hipster' at all and is very Mexican. To the East Coast media guy, the only time he wants to see a Mexican is when his house needs cleaning. When those people call San Antonio 'fat' and 'dirty,' they are using code words to alert other East Coast whites, "caution, lots of illegal alien greasy s here." East Coast guy is bitter that both David Robinson and Tim Duncan were drafted into and then chose to stay in a city that not only is in flyover country, but to them isn't even really in America, thus exporting potential American championships to Mexico.

The third type is into hip-hop culture. The only NBA city arguably less hip-hop than San Antonio is Salt Lake City, and whaddya know, it is about equally loathed in media circles. Not only that, but the Spurs' team culture runs diametrically opposed to hip-hop values of individual expression, demonstrative self-aggrandizement, and creative flair. Basically he is bitter that the Spurs' success invalidates his worldview and self-image.

My advice: they all can themselves.