Here is the link: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4328056 I say, lets boycott paying for anything NBA related until officiating is substantially improved. The NBA product just isn't worth paying for.
The league is lucky they got the TV deal done. They should be fine for the course of the TV deal. I agree about fixing the officiating though, especially after I heard that they were trying out multiple females in Vegas to 'look for the next Violet Palmer'. Come on guys, no one cares if the official is male or female, just have them screw up less.
The officiating definitely makes me lose interest in following the NBA more and more each year. I'm sure they have a graph somewhere that shows there is no correlation between officiating and revenue, otherwise it would have been fixed by now.
I will add that while they don't seem to be too concerned about officiating, they sure are concerned about this NBA Cares garbage, and things like that. It probably helps bring in new fans, which are apparently more important than making older fans happy.
Charity work, even if done with ulterior motives or just "going through the motions", is still charity work and should not be dismissed as garbage.
Yeah, even Mark Cuban, probably the most notable critic of the NBA's business policies, loves it. Ask him about NBA Cares and he'll talk about the great work they do for two solid hours. NBA cares is more than your standard "charity for show." They do a lot of great work in the community and are certainly more than "garbage."
NBA Cares seems so insincere and forced, more of a photo shoot than actual charity. If they want to increase sales, I would rather the focus be more on making officiating legitimate, than to see (insert NBA star who isn't known for humanitarian work here) in a hard hat smiling next to a wooden frame to a house.
The current NBA is a classic example of too much of a good thing -- way too many fouls/ time outs slowing the game down and the current playoff system drags on forever. When you have long time fans like myself getting bored with games and changing the channel - then you have a big problem.
You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to KingCheetah again. i'd start with shortening the season. no need for 82 games if you're going to allow more teams in the playoffs than you're going to exclude. create more of a premium on playoff spots by shortening the season or cutting the number of teams that make it in. that will make regular season games more meaningful and exciting.
The playoff drag is definitely not cool, there was a second round series this year that just went on a 4 day break for no reason at all. The break from the conference finals to the finals is also terrible.
I'm for this, except for the fact that I already hate when the Rockets have 3+ days off until their next one. Imagine regularly waiting 5 days to watch another game. The other way to do it is increasing the length of the offseason, which I'm also against...
Let's keep it realistic and hope they fix the officiating / do something about the drag of the playoffs. These owners will never agree to cut down the number of games.
I too would love few games which would make each and every game worth that much more, like football. However, this would mean a loss of profit for the NBA so it wont happen.
you mean loss of profit for a league where more than half of its teams don't make a profit?? less revenue doesn't necessarily mean less profit...depends on expenses. and i'm assuming more sellouts as tickets are at more of a premium, too.
Considering that the majority of old fans will keep on watching regardless, I'm sure they are more focused on winning new fans.
NBA teams face each other at least twice. Then Division rivals see each other 4 times I think. Then there are the common opponents in the same conference that see each other 3 times. I think that's actually a fair set of games for teams to sort each other out and to let the real cream of the crop to stand out. IMO the real problem is that we have too many teams as it is. Actually too many crappy teams to be specific. Crappy teams that are content to just make a profit and not be successful in the W/L column. To many mediocre teams that will be hovering .500 and call it a successful season. Too much talent being thinned out, coaches and players getting jobs that really don't deserve it but someone needs to fill out the last roster spot or fill the vacant coaching job during rebuilding mode. There are probably 4 or 6 teams that can be axed and no one will blink an eye if they are gone. After that happens, then we can talk about shortening the season.
