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  1. #1
    SeaGOAT midnightpulp's Avatar
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    The NBA game averaged a 1.5 rating among adults 18-49 and just over 4 million total viewers for ABC
    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.

  2. #2
    ಥ﹏ಥ DAF86's Avatar
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    The Heat made the finals with strict team building, tbh. The Nuggets and Celtics made their conference finals the same way.

    The ratings thing is a combination of everything, tbh. The Orlando bubble being meh (it doesn't even feel like the playoffs), the matchup not being particularly interesting and, yeah, the BLM thing probably alienated half the spectators.

    I think I watched 3 minutes total of these finals. I will still tune in to watch the Spurs next season, tbh.

  3. #3
    Believe.
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    Personally, it has become 100% star player basketball as opposed to franchise baskeball. It does not matter anymore if it is the Lakers or Milwaukee or what have you. It is Lebron and AD versus Kawhi and PG wearing a random inter changeable shirt...as a fan, I enjoy seeing club basketball with loyal stars supporting a team first approach and not the other way around. It is becoming totally meaningless as a compe ion in a true sporting sense.

  4. #4
    non-essential Chris's Avatar
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    Chinese influence has also been proven to be detrimental. You will never hear Lebron say anything bad about China, but has no problem taking a on the United States. Smart fans have tuned out and moved on.

  5. #5
    🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 ElNono's Avatar
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    Chinese influence has also been proven to be detrimental. You will never hear Lebron say anything bad about China, but has no problem taking a on the United States. Smart fans have tuned out and moved on.

  6. #6
    🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 ElNono's Avatar
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    Just been a weird year, tbh... normally you have a bunch of fans invested throughout the year, and the playoffs/finals are basically the culmination of that long road. None of that this year.

    We also have a lot of people unemployed and having to worry about more important things, tbh...

  7. #7
    Dragon style JamStone's Avatar
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    Sports across the board I believe have seen a decline in ratings, even college football and the NFL. Now they haven’t seen as much of a decline as the NBA and MLB, but as far as being reported, there is a decline. I’m not a huge football to begin with. But I haven’t watched one minute of either college or NFL football yet this season. I usually watch some.

    I watched some early bubble, early playoffs NBA, but I’ve fallen asleep for a couple of the Finals games, mostly because of my current schedule, but if it was more compelling it might be different. I haven’t really watched any MLB playoffs. And that’s the sport I’ve probably watched the most in recent years.

    I think in general it’s a sports thing across the board. Some believed sports would be a good escape during the pandemic, that it was necessary for morale or a sense of normalcy. I think for some, maybe many, getting sick, some dealing with losing family, job and financial struggles, getting stir crazy being cooped up at home, dealing with kids who’ve gotten stir crazy themselves, sports haven’t been that escape. Some people just realize sports don’t matter that much. There’s more important in life. Then you add the race element, protests, election stuff, and yeah, another group of people are turned off. Probably a big combination of things, but mostly related to covid stuff and how it’s put life in perspective.

  8. #8
    6X ST MVP
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    No need to waste time on something that is clearly already decided.

  9. #9
    Veteran KobesAchilles's Avatar
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    Ratings fell by 70%. There were literally 3 times the amount of people watching the Finals last year as compared to this year. And that’s with the biggest brand in the NBA, the biggest star in the NBA, and the games going against literally no other major sporting events.

    You can say well ratings fell for all sports (which isn’t true) but that doesn’t explain why 70% of a fan base just left the NBA. Baseball playoff ratings are up. Football is about even to slightly down. Golf is up exponentially. But none of them are even CLOSE to losing 70% of their market.

    The NBA got political and it backfired in a major way. Lebron James decided to be a SJW and it backfired. Jordan got a lot of for the “Republicans buy sneakers too” line but he was ALWAYS must see tv. Ratings went down when he left not when he was actually playing

  10. #10
    Veteran LkrFan's Avatar
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    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.
    mid!! Where you been my nigg? Que pasa??

  11. #11
    SeaGOAT midnightpulp's Avatar
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    The Heat made the finals with strict team building, tbh. The Nuggets and Celtics made their conference finals the same way.

    The ratings thing is a combination of everything, tbh. The Orlando bubble being meh (it doesn't even feel like the playoffs), the matchup not being particularly interesting and, yeah, the BLM thing probably alienated half the spectators.

    I think I watched 3 minutes total of these finals. I will still tune in to watch the Spurs next season, tbh.
    The rare Cinderella story doesn't negate the fact that the last decade of les and Finals appearances were dominated by Lebron, Curry, and Leonard, who are the top 3 players of the 10s. The matchup might not be interesting for you or me, but it's been a decade since the Lakers were in the Finals. That alone should be enough to push ratings past 4 in million. BLM and Covid might have an affect, but there's more factors chipping away at NBA ratings than just that. The game has become dull. No sport can have a perfect rule set for eternity. Rule sets and even dimensions should be constantly tweaked. We've talked about this on the forum ever since three-point attempts started regularly reaching into the 30s per game. The shot is too easy relative to how many points it's worth. It's worth 50 percent more but isn't 50 percent more difficult to make. It needs to be moved back.

  12. #12
    SeaGOAT midnightpulp's Avatar
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    Ratings fell by 70%. There were literally 3 times the amount of people watching the Finals last year as compared to this year. And that’s with the biggest brand in the NBA, the biggest star in the NBA, and the games going against literally no other major sporting events.

    You can say well ratings fell for all sports (which isn’t true) but that doesn’t explain why 70% of a fan base just left the NBA. Baseball playoff ratings are up. Football is about even to slightly down. Golf is up exponentially. But none of them are even CLOSE to losing 70% of their market.

    The NBA got political and it backfired in a major way. Lebron James decided to be a SJW and it backfired. Jordan got a lot of for the “Republicans buy sneakers too” line but he was ALWAYS must see tv. Ratings went down when he left not when he was actually playing
    The NBA audience skews heavily liberal, so I wonder how much the league getting political is really hurting them. I do think Covid might be the bigger factor for the massive drop off, but I think core fans have become less interested in the NBA over the past 5 or so years.

  13. #13
    SeaGOAT midnightpulp's Avatar
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    mid!! Where you been my nigg? Que pasa??
    Sup bro. Hope all is well.

  14. #14
    TheDrewShow is salty lefty's Avatar
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    Ratings fell by 70%. There were literally 3 times the amount of people watching the Finals last year as compared to this year. And that’s with the biggest brand in the NBA, the biggest star in the NBA, and the games going against literally no other major sporting events.

    You can say well ratings fell for all sports (which isn’t true) but that doesn’t explain why 70% of a fan base just left the NBA. Baseball playoff ratings are up. Football is about even to slightly down. Golf is up exponentially. But none of them are even CLOSE to losing 70% of their market.

    The NBA got political and it backfired in a major way. Lebron James decided to be a SJW and it backfired. Jordan got a lot of for the “Republicans buy sneakers too” line but he was ALWAYS must see tv. Ratings went down when he left not when he was actually playing
    Jordan is by far the most marketed player in the history of the game
    Still is, to sell the shoes

    There is also a generation difference. People were not “woke” in the 90s, and there was no social media
    If DK said that today you bet the ratings would drop significantly

  15. #15
    Veteran KobesAchilles's Avatar
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    The NBA audience skews heavily liberal, so I wonder how much the league getting political is really hurting them. I do think Covid might be the bigger factor for the massive drop off, but I think core fans have become less interested in the NBA over the past 5 or so years.
    I think those are two separate issues though. Even if the NBA was losing fans over the past 5 years (which isn’t true it’s really been over the last 2 years) there is nothing that explains them losing 70% of their fans in a one year time frame other than them being woke. Their fan base is perceived liberal but it isn’t really. The people on twitter might be mostly SJW but your average fan isn’t mostly liberal at all.

    Btw, you can’t blame Covid bc no other major sports league has lost this amount of viewers. None. People are still watching baseball, they’re still watching football, they watch golf, but all of a sudden it’s Covids fault for the NBA not having viewers? Doesn’t add up.

    The NBA literally quit on the fans. The Bucks quit a game. That lost a lot of fans. The holier than thou arguments of Lebron James while he stays silent on the Chinese regime that sponsors him lost fans. The BLM movement and the players telling everyone that we are racist and cops are evil, that lost a lot of fans. But I think that the Jacob Blake incident really was the last straw that broke the camels back. Quitting your job and lecturing us on how evil the police are before facts came out was beyond stupid by Silver and the players. Btw I’m not arguing that every cop is great so don’t take it there, but Silver allowing the entire league to honor a rapist is/was stupid. The NBA has self imploded way worse than any other league and it isn’t Covid/ or the games aren’t aesthetically pleasing enough related

  16. #16
    Veteran KobesAchilles's Avatar
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    Jordan is by far the most marketed player in the history of the game
    Still is, to sell the shoes

    There is also a generation difference. People were not “woke” in the 90s, and there was no social media
    If DK said that today you bet the ratings would drop significantly
    Hmm maybe, but I disagree with the premise. I actually think that Jordan would help the ratings today more than anything. Jordan got blasted for NOT giving his endorsement for a politician. Jordan got blasted for NOT going after Republicans. Even in recent days Jordan has been blasted for not being political. When he gave a million dollars to each the police and neighborhood reforms he was blasted for that too and for not choosing sides. That helps ratings. Not alienating a huge part of your fanbase helps ratings. Not lecturing them on their politics helps ratings. Jordan understood what Lebron and Silver and any other vocal player doesn't understand. Adults are way more passionate about politics than they are Basketball.

    SJW's would be blasting Jordan left and right, why doesn't he support Hilary? Why is he visiting the White House (you bet your ass Jordan would) after winning the championship? Why doesn't he denounce Trump left and right? Why is he pro-Republican? But SJW's don't pay the bills and the sooner the NBA figures this out the better off they will be. From a business standpoint (my personal politics are both sides suck and I'm so disenfranchised with the whole federal gov't) it isn't smart to attack a good chunk of your fan base. It isn't how the league stays popular and it sure as doesn't help it grow. Lebron went a suicidal route and it's showing. DK was all about staying in the middle and making sure them shoes get shined and sold.

    " Chinese people buy shoes too"

  17. #17
    Veteran LkrFan's Avatar
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    Sup bro. Hope all is well.
    Not much. Tryna stay COVID-19 free. SMH

    Hope all is well with you and your family.

    Good seeing you posting again man!

  18. #18
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    No one wants to watch the end of the season at the time when they're used to getting amped up about the begining of the new season.

    No one cares about the Lakers/Heat because it's a David/Goliath matchup where David doesn't stand a chance in . Most Heat fans are ing shocked they even made it past the second round.

    No one cares about the NBA because it's been just a rotten mess. Should have just done a stipped down PO format adn finished this before August ended so they could have drafted and had a plan to get this seasons started somewhat on time.

    Went out of their way to award LeBron the most worthless, meaningless, always-to-be-laughed-at championship in sports history.

    LOLakers with the GOAT of the era are the LEAST WATCHED CHAMPS EVER. LMAO.

  19. #19
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    More people watching professional wrestling than the NBA Finals

  20. #20
    Ina world of hype, we win IronMexican's Avatar
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    NBA just isn't as exciting as it was a decade ago. The flopping for calls and unguarable offense sucks.

  21. #21
    Veteran
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    Ratings fell by 70%. There were literally 3 times the amount of people watching the Finals last year as compared to this year. And that’s with the biggest brand in the NBA, the biggest star in the NBA, and the games going against literally no other major sporting events.

    You can say well ratings fell for all sports (which isn’t true) but that doesn’t explain why 70% of a fan base just left the NBA. Baseball playoff ratings are up. Football is about even to slightly down. Golf is up exponentially. But none of them are even CLOSE to losing 70% of their market.

    The NBA got political and it backfired in a major way. Lebron James decided to be a SJW and it backfired. Jordan got a lot of for the “Republicans buy sneakers too” line but he was ALWAYS must see tv. Ratings went down when he left not when he was actually playing
    The last time ratings were really bad was the '07 Finals. The ratings from '08-'19 were pretty good and were in the range from 14-20 million. Last year's finals averaged 15.14 million viewers. I'm not buying the reason for the ratings dropping this low as political. Sure there are some people who will stop watching because they hate the NBA's virtue signaling but if that's the case why were the ratings super high from '16-'19. During that time period is when players started speaking out and supporting BLM. By your logic the ratings during this period should be down because of the virtue signaling but they were actually high.

    The common denominator from '16-'19 was the Warriors. With them being out and the Lakers-Heat not having an interesting story line is what has killed the ratings. Everybody knows the Lakers are going to win this series easily and that's why the tune out. Lebron is also a polarizing figure that is not liked. I know you will bring up politics but outside of that a lot of opposing fans have never really liked him. So what's the point of watching if you know a guy you hate is going to win.

    Here are the ratings from previous years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBA_Fi...vision_ratings

  22. #22
    TheDrewShow is salty lefty's Avatar
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    NBA just isn't as exciting as it was a decade ago. The flopping for calls and unguarable offense sucks.
    lol flopping as already a thing in the 80s-90s - : Jordan (defensive flops), Mahorn, Rodman, Vlade, Reggie, Magic etc
    And then you have Kobe with his verbal flopping and D Fish

  23. #23
    Ina world of hype, we win IronMexican's Avatar
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    It just feels like it's hitting unparalleled levels rn. I can't stand seeing Harden, LeBron and the rest constantly crying for calls and getting them.


    is played out. If the Lakers weren't in it, I wouldn't be watching. The only finals I didn't watch was 2018 cause it was such a mismatch

  24. #24
    TheDrewShow is salty lefty's Avatar
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    It just feels like it's hitting unparalleled levels rn. I can't stand seeing Harden, LeBron and the rest constantly crying for calls and getting them.


    is played out. If the Lakers weren't in it, I wouldn't be watching. The only finals I didn't watch was 2018 cause it was such a mismatch
    I agree about Harden tbh
    It's ok to try to sell a foul once in a while, but Harden does it on almost every possession (which pisses me off because he is very skilled and he doesn't need to do that )

  25. #25
    BLACK LIVES MATTER Play Boban's Avatar
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    Three letters imo: blm

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