Has this years ridiculous Free Agency made anyone else kind of sick of the NBA?

Not sure. Here's one for you: how many tune in to watch Solomon Hill who will earn WAY more in this contract than Oscar did in his entire, star-studded career.

 

There isn't more interest in the league. This cap increase was almost all due to the fact that the networks are overpaying for sporting events. In fact, regular season TV ratings have been dropping. Sure, the Finals drew more viewers, but that isn't enough to make up for 95% of the season.

 

consumer interest = consumer dollars

In other words, ESPN/TNT are willing to pay more because they are confident they can sell ad slots during NBA games at a higher rate than before.

You don't need more butts in seats or necessarily even more eyes on TVs for that.

 

It's not only that. ESPN/TNT due to their sports broadcasting get a bigger cut from the cable providers, which is huge business (billions)..

Sports it the last frontier of cable cutting, it's the main reason a lot of people I know still pay for cable.

 

Except ESPN and TNT aren't selling more advertising slots compared to before, and their revenues aren't going up. They're simply overpaying to broadcast live sporting events in hopes that viewers won't cut cable, and they're issuing debt at a higher pace in order to finance this strategy. None of this suggests that there is actually "more consumer interest."