Opinion: The Death of the NBA
PITTSBURGH – The National Basketball Association is dead.
Well, not yet. But a sport that once prided itself on rivalry, personality and culture is on the brink of losing all three of the major facets that made it special.
According to Yahoo Sports, the NBA’s ratings on ESPN were down 28% as of Nov. 21. According to the New York Times, the ratings from the start of this season through the NBA Cup semifinals, which were played this week, were down 19% overall compared to the same time period last season.
A falloff as drastic as this doesn’t just happen overnight. It is not just because of one small reason, either. To lose millions of fans takes time and ineptitude. There are a multitude of reasons why the NBA is in decline.
Oversaturated Marketing of Large-Market Teams
Unfortunately, if you are a fan of any of the 29 teams that are not the Los Angeles Lakers, the 14-12 10th-seeded golden child of the NBA plays a disproportionate amount of games on national television.
The Lakers, who in the current standings are not slated to make the playoffs this year, will play 39 games on national TV. The No. 1 overall seed in the Western Conference is the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Thunder were the No. 1 seed in the West and made the Western Conference Semifinals last season. Of note, the Thunder also have Shai Gilgeous-Alexander who was second in MVP voting last season.
The Thunder play 25 nationally televised games this season. 14 less than a team nine seeds below them.
Compared to other leagues, such as the NFL, that also have small-market teams, the NBA fails to build up its entities.
The Green Bay Packers, who play in the smallest television market of any major professional sports team in North America, is built up by the NFL media and earns equal recognition among its competitors.
The Buffalo Bills, who play in the opposite of a “destination city,” earn “America’s Game of the Week” status in big matchups which allows them to be shown nationally on cable TV and be available in almost every household in America.
On Dec. 1, the Thunder played the Houston Rockets, who at the time were the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference, marking the matchup between the top two seeds in the West. The game was not on TV outside of Oklahoma City and Houston, which meant fans could not watch the marquee matchup.
Games Buried Behind a Paywall
By inking a new 11-year 76 billion dollar TV deal last summer, the NBA effectively priced out the average fan from watching their local team play. This deal kept large-market games on ABC and ESPN, which are Disney-owned entities. The corporation fails to give equal screen time to small-market teams.
Bally Sports, the previous provided for local games, failed NBA fans.
The service, which filed for bankruptcy, now goes by the name “FanDuel Sports Network.” In doing so, many fans could not watch their local teams play for a short period, causing them to lose interest. The rebranded title did not fix the platform's frequent blackouts and poor user interface. Despite FanDuel Sports Network’s hurdles, it is now a serviceable vehicle to watch your local team play.
To watch a non-local team play, fans must purchase NBA League Pass for $16.99 per month. This is a common concept that the NFL also employs. However, where the NFL still features games on national TV every weekend, the NBA hides its games during the week on local vehicles such as FanDuel.
It is important to acknowledge the uptick of illegal streaming services has contributed to the decline of the official view count on games. However, the services were created and are used because fans struggle to find an outlet to watch their teams play. Yes, illegal streaming is wrong, but the NBA does not give many fans another option besides paying a hefty price.
Non-American Stars
Many Americans have lost interest in the NBA simply because the game is now dominated by foreigners. A majority of NBA players are American, however, the best players in the league are not.
The top five players in the league right now, when healthy, are Luka Doncic, Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Joel Embiid. The order is subjective, but those are the top five.
Doncic is Slovenian, Gilgeous-Alexander is Canadian, Jokic is Serbian, Antetokounmpo is Greek and Embiid is French and Cameroonian.
The last American to win MVP honors was James Harden in 2018. An American has not been the best player in the NBA for the last six seasons.
This trend is not going away any time soon. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NBA draft was Victor Wembenyama, a French phenom who is the current favorite to win Defensive Player of the Year. The No. 1 and No. 2 overall picks in the 2024 draft were Zaccharie Risacher and Alexandre Sarr, who are both also French. An influx of European stars caused local American NBA fans to lose rooting interest.
Lack of Rivalry
The current NBA season does not have a storyline that keeps fans invested. In fact, at the moment, the best rivalry in basketball isn’t even in the NBA, it's in the WNBA.
Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese fostered the best rivalry in basketball, igniting the racial undertones that propelled the Magic Johnson and Larry Bird rivalry that saved the NBA in the 1980s.
The NBA does not have that. It could be because Clark and Reese are both American players that fans got to watch at the college level for multiple years before playing professionally. Or, In the NBA, it could be chalked up to a lack of loyalty to the team and the history of the program.
Other leagues market teams and divisions, which creates a consistent rivalry. The AFC North will always be a rivalry, regardless of record and players. The Browns, Steelers, Bengals and Ravens will hate each other no matter what. The NBA refuses to market teams because that means they would have to amplify small-market cities. Instead, they choose to market players, rather than teams.
As exhibited with Lebron during his NBA Finals run with the Cavs, people talked about the Lebron vs. Curry rivalry, not the Warriors vs. the Cavs. When superstars play, people tune in to watch Embiid vs. Jokic, not the Nuggets vs. the 76ers. This is because this is the concept that the NBA pushes. In its social media posts and through its on-air personalities, the NBA pushes players rather than teams, which hurts interest in the overall league.
Disagreeable Takes
Some fans claim that the glorification of the 3-point shot has led to the decline in viewership.
However, this helps the league's case. The 3-point shot adds offense, points and drama. For example, two records in the NBA were set this week alone.
Within two days of each other, the record for most 3-pointers made in a game and most 3-pointers missed in a game were broken in two different games. There is an undeniable uptick in 3-point shooting.
Sports are also bound to develop and evolve. In the NFL, the prototypical pocket-passing quarterback is no longer common. Instead, quarterbacks are now asked to run for the offense to have success. The NBA’s evolution into a beyond-the-arc-emphasized league is attributable to players improving over time.
Can The NBA Return to Its Prime?
The NBA can save itself from death in the coming years. It must simply:
1.) Increase marketing of small-market teams that have young talent.
2.) Schedule more nationally televised games on ABC and ESPN that feature teams with winning records, not aging players playing for once-relevant franchises.
3.) Foster an environment of competition and breed rivalry among teams, not individual players.
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