Basketball is meant to be a quick game from start to finish -- the current NBA goal of squeezing as many commercials in as possible has ruined the flow of the game. A basketball game should be around 2 hours - not the 3 hour snooze fest they have going now. The games are too long, the season is too long, and the playoffs are too long -- until they fix this (and get rid of Stern) the NBA will continue to lose popularity.
I don't understand why all of you are supporting the owners. The owners are the ones that are locking out the players. The owners are the ones hardlining negotiations and making it impossible to reach a concession. The owners are the ones that are claiming that they are not turning a profit even though the the league is more popular than ever and just had the highest rating in a finals in decades. The players have done their job bringing eyeballs to TV sets and asses to arenas. Now they're being asked to take less money and they said yes, they agreed to the original conscessions. Now the owners are asking for more. The owners are the ones seeking a guarranteed return on their investment. If you're arguing that pay should be based on performance why should owners make more money for mismanaging their teams?
He did a great job, but now he's running it into the ground -- it's time for new ideas and new management at the top.
The season is definitely too long. The year they had the strike and it didn't start until February was perfect. Right after football ended. I don't really watch that much anymore unless it's an intriguing matchup (few and far between) or the playoffs. Seems like every offense looks the same, every defense looks the same and every arena looks and sounds the same. You have 6'10 guards posting up, 6'10 centers jacking up 3's, and refs rewarding the team that flops the most. Damn near unwatchable. And that's sad to me because I was literally born and raised a Rocket/NBA fan.
The truth is that both MLB and the NBA are going to continue declining in popularity. Everyone has listed the reasons for most fans ignoring the lockout: football, world series, holidays, but what hasn't been mentioned, and should be, is that this is the time of year when blockbuster video games are targeted for release, and an entire generation of young people could give two craps about pro sports, not when Modern Warfare 3 is right around the corner, not when Gears of War 3 is just a few months away. Give these kids a choice between meeting LeChoke or Cliffy B, and who would they prefer to spend an hour with? Yeah, that's a huge problem for pro sports.
You know what Harvey Dent said? You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villain. Stern is that on so many levels, brought the NBA up, now the villain who is about to bring the NBA down. We need our Dark Knight.
Of course, but the NBA could be a solid second if they would make some minor changes (speed up the games and season) and that includes the players taking a bit off the massive contract guarantees. And how about increased revenue sharing as the NFL has implemented so successfully? /yes i'm beating a dead horse.
Yeah, I really blame all this on the NBA owners. It is clear that their "losses" are just accounting losses, not real losses. Otherwise, recent sales of bad teams like the Bobcats, Sixers and Nets would never have happened. Whenever a billionaire tells you they are losing money on an investment but keep on holding on to it for years they are telling you lies. Only the Hornets were losing money and that's because their city has a population of less than 200k and all of them would rather watch football.
Both sides are too greedy for that: they would lose billions. They will come up with some make shift schedule to cash out something. Frankly, I don't care what they do. The whole thing is a huge turnoff. America is in a deep recession, people are hurting. Who is in the mood for rich people fighting over more money?
