What do you guys attribute the decline of the NBA in the USA? I think the NBA and the Ref’s constantly favoring the league darling teams has hurt the trust with the fans. Everyone knew that the NBA swallowed the whistle to allow the Warriors to win, to the point Morey hired an independent firm to examine all the calls, at it was obvious the calls were constantly in favor of the Warriors. In years past it was in favor of the Lakers, or any team LeBron was on. The travesty is that the Harden Rockets should have won a title, and the league decided that the Rockets style of play was too ugly and seemed to conspire to hold the Rockets fouls accountable different than the league darling in the playoffs.
Colin Cowturd with another awful take. You still need cable or some sort of internet cable TV subscription to watch most of the games. Most people are cutting the cord.
Comparing it to the NFL is silly. The NFL is a well oiled machine. They can do everything wrong and it would still be #1
One reason NBA ratings are down is that the league seems to favor aging stars who are nearing the end of their careers, rather than promoting younger talent. Additionally, during major games, fans want to see fair and unbiased officiating, not outcomes that appear to align with what the league might prefer.
The NBA just inked an 11 year - $76 billion media deal a few months ago, that is roughly $7b a year For comparison, the current deal - signed 10 years ago when TV ratings were 48% higher- was only $2b a year. I know it sounds crazy to Colin Catturd but - hear me out - maybe, just maybe, in the age of streaming media, traditional Neilsen ratings for broadcast & cable are not an adequate measure of reach? Or not, maybe the league is too woke for regular people, yeah that's it.
Exactly. str****a*t numbers would juice those up real quick. I've had league pass for almost a decade now but if I actually lived in Houston it would suck that I couldn't see home games. They really have to streamline viewer experience else they'll keep losing viewers to illegal streams.
Cable companies did their thing. Jacked up prices and blacked out home teams. Same thing with the NBA league pass.
the league has been favoring the “darling teams” for decades so that’s not even anything new, and u really overestimate how many people outside of Rockets fans care about that game 7 officiating…non-Rockets fans bring up 0-27 from three 10x more than they bring up the refs people are cutting the cord making it very difficult to watch your local team unless u go the illegal streaming route…blackouts on LP are the dumbest sh*t ever…Why pay all that money just to not even be able to watch your own team? the media and a lot of the fans had been screaming non-stop for years about how much the regular season doesn’t matter and all that matters is the playoffs and a ring, and the players took it to heart and followed suit…players like Harden could try to play every regular season game and put up monster numbers carrying their team, and would get clowned and ridiculed because they have no ring Lebron is 40 and Steph is 36, yet they are still relied on to carry the league…nobody from the younger generation has stepped up to carry the torch
I almost never watch the playoffs when the Rockets are eliminated or don't make it. 2 exceptions. Toronto finals and the Mavs vs Heat. Yet I haven't missed a single rockets game since 2021. Situation crazy. Streaming through alternative methods. Oh and I always watch TNT halft time and post game but never the actual game. Why would I want to watch non Houston teams play.
I always find it funny when fans complain the league "favors stars too much" nowadays. Jordan was the most protected mofo on the planet back in the 90's and it led to record ratings. People are cutting the cord and watching via non traditional means. The NBA in particular skews extremely young and internet savy, it's that simple. There's no "grand collapse" happening.
There are a lot of factors but honestly I really don’t understand how Silver was able to negotiate the tv deals he did given what appears to be a shrinking market for selling sports broadcast rights. The good news for the NBA is those deals give a lot of runway to get this figured out.
You can watch many NFL games free on national broadcasts. When the NBA gets back on NBC 2025 everyone can watch games without cable, League pass or pirate streams again. Expose your product and gain market share by making it easily accessible to watch globally. The highest ratings historically were Jordan with NBA on NBC.
First statement is right but your second statement is somewhat off. 35 million people domestically watched one of the Bulls-Jazz finals games which would equate to 43 million in current population. The league has nowhere close to overall popularity it did in the 90s. The fact that the league fanbase skews younger and that’s a demographic inclined to illegally stream games or only follow the league through TikTok, etc somewhat distorts the magnitude when comparing to popularity of other leagues domestically but as a whole the league is nowhere near as popular in the US as in many points in the past. Indiana Fever games were drawing better tv audiences than national NBA tv broadcasts are.
I personally know three people (out of the five people I know in my friend group who used to watch the NBA religiously) have stopped watching and maybe watch a playoff game here or there - because of the oversaturated LeBron love fest.
