The NBA isn’t fun to watch now.
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yeah we agree that’s why my argument is you have to force shot selections off of trash shots like bad 3 point shooters jacking endless 3s. makes are fun to see, misses not so much. Also, within this structure you have to try to allow for playing style varability by team and player so still allowing a fair amount of 3s (so players or teams good at that can stick out) and allowing more aggressive defense (so the players or teams good at that can stick out) would make the product more entertaining because every team doesn’t look like dudes jogging down jacking a three and if someone gets touched it is a foul.
I’d also bump up the minimum games played to 70 from 65 and in game minutes from 20 to 24 to be eligible for all NBA. You want your stars playing in as many games as possible. Silver needs to take back control and act like he cares about the fans for once.
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I definitely don’t enjoy the NBA like I did in the late 80s through late 90s. Most of that has to do with the product the Rockets have put out. Those 80s and 90s Rockets teams were a blast to follow, since then they have rarely connected with me.
If Houston had a really fun team to follow, I would pay much more attention.
The Worldwide growth of the NBA has been insane. They are banking and until that changes I doubt they do much to upset the golden goose.
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you can simultaneously be making more money and having an increasingly poor product. They suckered some TV execs in their last negotiation- this has been detailed many times by now that what they get paid per minute viewed is WAY MORE than other professional sports leagues. They have also gone all in on showing/selling brands everywhere and bowing down to the China market model. Good for them - they are making tons of $ but for me and millions of others the actual product is unwatchable. It is easily the most unwatchable Big 4 sport for me.
WWE is in the same boat now. Product is extremely unappealing to a large segment of fans but they are making $ hand over fist.
Idk… I guess I just love basketball.
Ball is LIFE!
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There are alternative explanations for this, including the one that other leagues sold low.
I guess there’s something wrong with me too, because I love the NBA.
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Kerr and quite a few of your comments points to the three points line.
The NBA was on life support in 1980 or so. It started to gain support with the Magic Bird rivalry and it took off from there. IMO everything went downhill from a spectator stand pointvwhen the three points line was pushed out.
Watching bricks after bricks is not entertainment. Watching players excel at their position is to me outstanding. Now we have players where it is almost a waste of time to figure what their…position is.
Structure? DEBATABLE to say the least.
I wouldn’t call a league average of 37% from 3 “shooting brick after brick”…
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That would require most arenas, including The Fertitta Center, to be modified a whole lot to fit it in. That would prove too costly.
Let me guess… everybody on this thread that doesn’t like the current style of play in the NBA was born before 1970…
Nope not even close for me age wise. I just call it like it is- almost all NBA team styles are the same now - that is to jack a metric ton of 3s (and miss over 60% of them but analytics thoooo!), drive to the bucket, and you aren’t allowed to play tough defense. Hopefully the star players decide to grace the fans with their presence that night due to a more pervasive lack of desire to play every game like in years past even though salaries of top players have skyrocketed in recent years. Cool that some like that but that as an entertainment product isn’t even close to being something I will spend my time much less $ on.
For me, March madness like Sweet 16 and on is where it’s at from an entertainment standpoint.
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You can’t expect regular season games, or even early playoff games, to match sweet 16 level of intensity from players, or fans…
It’s literally 8 “game 7s” in the S16…
Many people are trying to figure out how to capture that intensity in regular season tourneys but I just don’t see how they do it…
I was watching the San Antonio game for a while…then I watched something else. I just could not keep watching it. Just terrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrible.
Watching the Lakers vs the Celtics was the essence of basketball and sports to me.
The Rockets vs the Knicks was tremendous too. Seeing bob costas face was priceless. You could tell him and the entire media wanted the Knicks to win.
The Detroit teams were outstanding too but with a different approach.
It is just me but I do think, feel that basketball was at its peak, together/complete with the three point line where it was prior to its last repositioning.
I kept leaving the SA game last night to watch old episodes of The Office which was more interesting to me. I’m afraid my interest in all pro sports has waned greatly. I’m not sure if I have watched an entire Dallas Cowboy game in this century and only a handful of Houston Texans games to boot. I often drive 700 miles roundtrip to see my Coogs play but not sure if I would walk across the street to watch the Rockets.
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I’m all for loosening up the defensive restrictions. And get rid of those stupid fouls that get called because somebody stuck their leg out on a jumper or a drive. And clamp down on traveling and the “gather step.”
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brink back the defense…and the enforcers…Rick Mahorn, Charles Oakley, Otis Thorpe. no layups!
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All of those were with the three point line back. It was indeed a different sport.
Can you imagine Wemby against Kareem, Hakeem? Ralph Sampson was the closest to Wemby but Wemby seems much better on the physical and technical side.
I love what Wemby said about Hakeem and how Hakeem improved his game. I would love to see Arafan spend as much time as possible with Hakeem…that might be the plan.