"The NBA...ratings are down 48% in the last 12 years and they have fallen off a cliff this year and Adam Silver's solution is let's make the courts brighter...Go ask the Democrats. Be warned, once you detach from regular people in America, you will pay a price." - Colin Cowherd pic.twitter.com/V3wifBWu5a
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 13, 2024
There's been a lot of online discourse with regards to the NBA losing viewers and even more about how to fix the issue. I am in no way an avid NBA fan, but I find it fascinating how a league can drive away so many fans in such a short period of time. The NBA could be considered the second-most popular sport in America (hardcore baseball fans might disagree) and an institution in a way, so it's very surprising how there is such a lack of appetite to watch the games?
Without listing out all the online critiques (i.e. too many threes, flopping, etc.), personally, I would say the main issue is people these days just have way more media to entertain themselves, and the NBA isn't equipped to acquire back those fans they lost. It's far easier to throw on a YouTube video or fire up Steam than it is to watch a game these days, and if you can't indoctrinate more kids then in the long-run you're fricked as a growing league and business.
Besides just the low hanging fruit of "LOL BIPOCS" what do you guys think the main issue is/are and how can the NBA remedy this decline (if possible)? I know we're all r-slurs here, but I feel like we'd get a less overly biased take than from say the NBA Twitter and NBA reddit users that's why I ask.
Thanks for taking this long journey with me, and just know once we hit land you will be sold into slavery 
.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Once I discovered those famously relatable 9 foot tall millionaires are actually secretly Bl*ck then they suddenly seemed so detached from regular everyday Americans like me, a guy with a greek statue for a profile pic who quit his job to spend all day tweeting about Seneca and the Fall of the VVest.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
When will they give airtime to the national chudball league, where contestors compete to fedpost on twitter and train by doing nofap to level up their VRIL?
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
More women commentators. More kneeling. More checking of my privilege. Less of that uh bouncing sphere thing they do in between, whatever that's called
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
Isn't this the case for all pro sports leagues though? I'm not a big sports fan in general, but I think the decline in interest for athletics in general is not a good thing. Sports and sports leagues are important for building community and preventing people from getting
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Big problem for football is the CTE meme. They think little Johnny who isn't gonna make it off the JV squad is gonna get the same CTE as a dude getting hit by profressional athletes for a decade.
Basically millennial dad's are too cucked to standup to their wife.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Parents don't like their kids getting brain damage. That was game over for boxing, basically.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
kitties!
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
Why would anyone want to risk their kid getting concussions for a sport they won't make it anywhere in, when they can just play some other sport they'll never make it anywhere in with far less risk?
I know millennials are pathetic but they are right on this one.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Because the only other fall sport is cross country and I'd rather have a concussed son then a cute twink.
On the real though, football is fun and a concussion or two in high school isn't going to frick you up. Think the lessons you learn as an student athlete pay off in the long term.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
Just do basebaall and don't get concussions lol.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Baseball is a summer sport, kids should be working in the summer, not playing games.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
Rowing is a fall sport too, if you're not a poor
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
Played full contact football for 10 years, saw one confirmed concussion on my team and it was because we played a BIPOC School that had rocks on their shit field
Until high school kids aren't moving fast enough to really do much damage
If you don't start hittting before high school you will suck at football
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
Nah man, my buddy was an offensive lineman for my shitty private high school and took 3 concussions in a 16-month span. Now a decade later he legitimately is noticeably more r-slurred than when I met him, and it gets worse every year. He may not end up with CTE but it for sure fricked with his life.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Did your friend play for the coyotes?
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
More options
Context
You're right in that there has been a decline of athletics in general which is bad but I don't have or want to look for the numbers though. The NFL is really the only league not getting pounded by loss of interest. Nielson changed how the ratings work, and now include out of home viewing numbers (bars, airports, etc.), so there has been a ratings spike for leagues the past few years, but the NBA has either stayed the same (a loss of overall viewers) or declined. Football is just so ingrained in society at this point that other media is chasing their cultural cache imo.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Which is honestly kinda lame, football is one of the more boring major sports.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
!mensfootball down Marsey
this Niqqa
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
!mensfootball, we need to seriously talk about how there's only 11 minutes of live play in a 3 hour game.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Yeah, soccer sucks
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
Deserved. I should say it's boring because for every 30 seconds of action there's 4 minutes of ad breaks.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
SUBSCRIBE TO NFL REDZONE ITS THE BEST THING EVER
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
I watch F1 instead
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
More options
Context
More options
Context
Anyone who can't respect football is stupid. You don't have to like watching it; but how are you not impressed by eleven men on both sides of a line destroying their bodies and brains to make that line move their way no matter what.
No sport in the world other than Sumo can compare.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
please excuse my biden moment when I wrote that, I was more complaining about the ratio of actual gameplay to ads. if I could watch 22 hunks duking it out without globohomo incessantly shilling their products to me I'd like the sport a lot more
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
Because that is only 11 minutes in a 3 hour slot.
Its too many ads
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
Canadian football is much more exciting.
Better fundamentals too.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
It helps that NFL games are pretty much all on Sundays with a couple exceptions versus a whole bunch of NBA games scattered throughout the week. This makes NFL games more of an event to watch with a group. The load management thing a lot of stars are doing is also not helping. No one wants to watch the 76ers get shit pumped because Embiid and George need to rest their knees every other game.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
MLB has been trying different things to maintain less hardcore fans interest, the pitch clock and a few other things to speed up the game. I watched a few games this seaon for the first time in a few years, and the game does flow a lot better now. But they have a real problem with pitchers getting injured, they're pushing them way too hard too early, willing to sacrifice career length for a few years of crazy velocity
The time has come for the Necromaster. The unleashing of the fourth joker's card. The arrival of The Great Milenko
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
The only reason I went to MLB games was because the Oakland A's were handing out free tickets and going "dude bro, I promise its half-price beer night bro please come, bro please"
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
Euro football (Premier league, only one that matters) is more popular than ever.
Dread it, Fear it, Run from it. You will learn to love the beautiful game or else.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
Reduce the number of games, 82 is 50 too many.
Change all series to best 2/3, finals can be best 3/5.
I try to get into professional pumpkin pushing so I have something to talk about to the brothas, but literally no single game matters until late into a series.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
I think these are both great ideas, but the business and advertising side won't let this happen until the there is a complete collapse of the league, and I feel like at that point the league is in dire straights. Coming closer to the NCAA model with the NCAA Tournament would be great for drama and create more variability in who wins instead of the best team almost always winning in 7.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
I'm not into nfl as much as I used to be but when I watched it a lot I always hated how NBA tried to barge in during the first half of NFL season. For all its faults the NFL is very numerically pleasing. 32 teams. 2 conferences, 4 divisions each, 4 teams per division. Nearly every game matters. A team can't bumble around unless they earn it by dominating for at least 13 or 14 weeks.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
It being 17 games now is very upsetting for my autism.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
If it helps they're for sure gonna make it 18 within a few years next time the NFL collective bargain comes up
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
Same
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
More options
Context
Less games means less flying constantly and the players will be more into it
Regular season games feel like a drag so often where the only exciting thing is some rookie going off for 10min
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
Haven't the NFL, MLB, and even the WNBA been growing in veiwership?
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Isn't the WNBA basically be carried by Caitlin Clark
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
idk, I don't watch it
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
And also like all the non burger sports
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
NBA is still annoying af to watch online
They keep doing these massive TV deals and forcing people to jump through hoops
At least it was a few yrs ago before I got IPTV sub
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
1. Let the players touch each other without calling fouls every 2 seconds.
2. Move the 3 point line waaaaaaaay back.
3. Penalize players harshly for requesting trades without a good reason.
4. Make the players sign longer contracts. It weakens the fanbases and sells less tickets when the fans don't even know who's on the team.
5. Penalize them harshly for sitting out games. Buck break that weak butt player's union and give them less revenue share if they do not comply.
6. The trade off for the 3 previous changes can be a shorter season where they get paid more per game. They are all multimillionaires so tell them to shut the frick up if they don't like it.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
I wonder if the push for tweeners and guards who can shoot has made it more boring cuz it's less masculine and all trickery by coaches on how to spam uncontested 3s
Even tho 3 shooting is entertaining it was more fun when it was a new idea
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
Basketball is fun to play and I'll usually watch some of the playoffs and the finals. I think the problem always has been that there is so much scoring going on you really only need to watch the last 5 minutes of each game IF the score is close. First 45 mins of the game is filler.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Soccer has too little scoring. Basketball too much. College football games where neither team has a defense are also boring.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
I find bucket for bucket let's see who's up at the end games boring to both play and watch
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
It's score foul score foul ad foul foul score woman talking on court ad
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
It could how expensive it is to watch the games legally rather than
. I know other leagues like baseball and hockey is expensive to watch the games since they are on some many different services.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Honestly that's the first reason why it got less ratings. You've got multiple services streaming it in turns and it get so expensive and pointless that people just pirate it.
Second reason is that we're witnessing the slow death of old media, and NBA i think is watched mainly by millennials and zoomers and they either stream it on league pass or zoomers watch the highlights reels or condensed games on YouTube on their phone.
I mean, they just got a huge rights deal, one of the biggests in sports, so everyone that says the NBA is failing is either a wingcuck grifter or a nostalgic old head
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
I don't even know if Zoomers watch NBA honestly. I see more Zoomers doing NFL-related stuff because its more physical and it activates their almonds because its more physical.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
More options
Context
The fan base of the NBA is probably the hardest to monitize of all major sports. Theyre relatively young demographic vastly prefer just the watch highlights.
Gameplay wise, the 3 is ruining the game. Nobody minds watching elite shooters like curry take crazy shots, but having every offense in the game be predicated on every player shooting every open 3 is just boring. Idk how they fix it, maybe start with getting rid of the corner
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Basketball Americans are some of the most hyper-consoomerist people in the country, though. How can you not sell shit to them?
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Cause they don't buy stuff they steal it
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
when I say Basketball Americans, I mean pretty much every young male who has closets full of Nike athletic wear, buys the latest NBA 2K every year, and knows Drake's whole discography front to back.
They are absolutely passively obsessed with the aesthetic of a certain subset of mainstream brands. It should be extremely fricking easy to market to these people.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
More options
Context
They should keep the 3 but make dunks 3 points as well so people can start driving to the rim and if you get trucked, then its a skill issue and not a foul.
I kinda miss when the NBA had dunks and bulldozed motherlovers in the way.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
Regular season games just feel like they don't matter at all I think.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
Baseball is way bigger in local markets that have both sports
The nba went so star driver that it sucks to follow your team knowing the best player will demand and get a trade at any moment
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
Look at this shit neighbor
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
I like playing basketball, but it is the worst sport to watch, even worse than soccer.
Also even "close" playoff series are just an alternating pattern of blowouts. I think of the 10 playoff games I watched last year maybe 1 or 2 ended within 5 points of eachother. Most were one team winning by 15+
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Golf?
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
I don't consider anything a sport unless you can directly effect what the other team/player is doing
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
But you can
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
Lol poor.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
I loved watching basketball until like 2006. Game has been going rapidly downhill due to a combination of changes to officiating and the realization that 3s are way too high value.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
I was slightly interested in checking out an NBA game, saw it cost over a hundred dollars and decided to spend the money on something else. NBA is super expensive, and boring, what's the point?
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
I don't watch sports so I'm not qualified at all to discuss this, but is it because the NBA is lacking star power? Big names like LeBron or Curry must've been a draw and I just don't hear people talking about current top players in the same way. Just to contrast, interest in the WNBA skyrocketed due to a single player.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
This is really good twitter bait
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
Huh funny I was an NBA fan got bored half way last year and haven't watched a game at all this yr
I tried to figure wtf all the in season tournaments were about but gave up.
The one obvious thing they could do is fire all the refs and hire new ones that let people have fun. Even minor celebrations get fouls in a game with a billion fouls
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
It's a really woke league, they mandated vaccinations for all players so its the type of place where the whole idea of black people = perpetual victims = this is a place for them to be kings has really seeped into the NBA. That's why the WNBA chicks are not happy about Caitlin Clark, that's why the NBA dudes hate guys like Nikola Jokic.
Black people in the USA are having a 15+ year long pity party (since Obama was elected? probably) and one of the main sources is the NBA. Tune in if you want to watch people getting paid a whole lot of money crying about racism while being racist as frick for payback or whatever. Since its a oppressed works project the production is full of women
doing commentary and it's awful.
And finally no matter what tv package you sign up for it's going to be hard to watch. You can't watch on youtube tv, you can't watch on league pass, shit is constantly blacked out.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Tbh I've seen like 10 times more black players praising Jokic than criticizing him. Maybe they hate him in private, but I kind of doubt it.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
I just find basketball so fricking boring. I mean the main part of the game is fine but near the end it's just constant foul foul foul foul foul foul foul unironically the whole endgame is just a series of fouls and free throws. Mind-numbingly boring, I can't imagine how anybody actually finds enjoyment in watching that.
They need to change the rules imo to fix that, but I know they won't.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
Lets have mandatory maximum sizes of uniform garments like in beach volleyball, and convince the players it's empowering
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
The NBA/NHL/MLB always had a problem with terminally long and boring regular seasons, but now, yeah, with so much other entertainment on demand, who the frick wants to watch game #21 out of 82? And the NBA made their regular season even more trivial by allowing 2/3rds of the league into the playoffs. The bottom playoff seeds in the east are probably gonna be 20 games under .500, it's hilarious in how pathetic it is.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
Honsetly, let them play harder and let the tempers flare for a bit. They got too weird about their image and now it feels like a league for kitties.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
Look this is a chud nuke:
1) Both the NBA and NFL were the most watched sports in America
2) The NBA white players got better in quality in the past decade too the point that one of the best new NBA stars is a white guy
3) NBA ratings collapse in the past decade
Conclusion:
Black people playing is a core component of these two sports and people lose interest the moment the black people disappear from the game. The whites enjoy watching the blackies working the field and the blacks enjoy watching their own get too play as some sort of stars.
The white man doesn't want too watch a white man play basketball. It isn't part of the sports mythology. It's like a black mermaid but reversed, and it clearly matters even more based on the results.
Jewish lives matter too Aevann.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
I do think there's a race component but you missed it entirely.
Most of the biggest NFL stars as far as marketing are white QBs.
All the good white NBA players are foreigners, making them more difficult to market and even less relatable than blacks to the average white man.
My conclusion: having marketable stars of different races can help make the game more popular with that race, and for this exercise foreigners (besides Canadians) only appeal to their home country.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Americans are too xenophobic too have successful sports.
Jewish lives matter too Aevann.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
More options
Context
Gay s*x scandals.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
Sports have become so min maxed skill and genetic wise.
There's nothing new to see, it's all been done before so who fricking cares.
If sports want to increase viewership they need to start adding actual new elements to the game so that you need new genetic freaks to rotate in.
Make the ball twice as big or you can kick it into the basket for extra points. Shit like that opens up new opportunities for innovation.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
Bring back hand-checking and fighting on the court. Step-back should be punished by the offender being anally r*ped in the middle of the court.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
Unironically subsidize beer and weed and import more Mexicans. They'll pirate the stream anyway but it's a good time and gets the zeitgeist going
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
The cap to achieve parity killed superstar teams, which was the main draw of the NBA.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
Santa's seen your rdrama comment history
Snapshots:
https://x.com/awfulannouncing/status/1867683672281035164:
ghostarchive.org
archive.org
archive.ph (click to archive)
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
LOL BIPOCS
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
Hi
@AverageBen10Enjoyer, We're sorry to say that your comment has been automatically removed because you forgot to include the phrase
I love sucking cock. Here at our church, we strongly believe thatI love sucking cockand we want to make sure that all of our members feel loved and accepted. If you'd like to resubmit your post, we would be more than happy to take a look at it. In the meantime, if you need any help or have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to us. We're always here to help. Have a blessed day!Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context