Television ratings for the NBA are down, not insignificantly, and because this is 2019, and everyone is an expert in absolutely everything, theories abound —some plausible, others less so.
There’s the injured-players theory: The league lost top stars like Steph Curry and New Orleans rookie comet Zion Williamson early, and those high-profile absences have cost it eyeballs.
Uhh .. Nahh!
The NBA lacks players with personalities that attract viewers. Too much money paid to players who jump from team to team. Teams moving to new cities. The fans & viewers don't matter in the new NBA & the games are boring. ☹️ NBATwitter basketball michaeljordan Shaq
Welcome to the Chicago Bulls story.
You’re not wrong Jason, I miss them too
A little over a month into the season and this is a thing? There were major changes in personnel from last year, several new stars are already gone for the year including Zion, the band wagoners for the Warriors have left and they need to find a new wagon to hitch to.
Ahem:
Major markets continuing to underperform most likely a cause for declining attendance and viewership! chicagobulls NBA notworthy
May be cable cord cutting. More streaming, please!
No
Nope, the rise of Super teams lead by Lebron to the Heat killed it... it got boring... period!
No, the players don’t believe the regular season is worthwhile, why should the fans!
No! Here’s the real reason for the NBA’s decline....
Paywall....
ValerianRootS The Warriors spoiled the league for 5 years while playing a beautiful brand of basketball. They played unselfishly and made winning fun to watch. Now that Steph and Klay are sidelined, the league is paying for it:))
Over paid cry babies who only try to play in the 4th quarter if the game is close. Plus the league isn’t diverse enough.
Well that and the fact the entire league is owned by the Red Chinese and we are at a trade war with them
No, thug life, hoodie wearing, disrespectful punks are....
PPL tired of watching whining millionaires disrespect the fans.
I Could care less about the NBA 😴😴😴😴😴😴😴
Personally, I stopped watching due to the same teams making the finals every year.
LeBron went west. East coast and Midwest folks are asleep when he plays.
dont watch because they dont even call the basic rule of traveling so why watch it .......players can do what they want depending how much the get paid.....the ref follows the rules the players provide....walk walk walk walk walk oh yea dribble forgot that part
The market dictates.
No, it's the game
Unpatriotism of the whole nba is one big reason.. keep on biting d hand that feeds u..
load mgmt and too many teams tanking
ItAllFallsDown It Was Bound To Happen. Very Conceited Team In Golden State! It's about time new teams have stepped up and are BallinOut!
Its a shitty product. Unwatchable.
Ratings maybe down in the US, but globally, the NBA is growing faster than any other major American sport franchise.
Umm no. It is due to the NBA selling out to China. It really doesn’t take a genius to figure that one out.
The NBA has more global viewers than ever. They're just not getting the content from television. The NBA has to devise better ways to monetize digital streaming of games and shutting down services (or access to NBA content) on non-licensed platforms.
Who did?
Nope, it’s due to traveling, euro stepping and entitles SJW “superstars”
Lotta empty seats in the stands. Often more than you see in NHL games. Maybe the public doesn't buy the hype of giants making 3.5 foot jump shots.
Go woke, go broke. It's just that simple. People are tired of politics in sports, entertainment, clothing, and even chicken sandwiches.
So true! I am not watching NBA this season. Watched every Golden State game last season. With Klay, Steph and KD not playing I have no interest. Not a Lebron fan.
Nope, it was the league’s attitude about China/HK. At least, for me. Shaq kind of saved them
We’re boycotting the NBA for not standing for American values like free speech, democracy, and not standing with the Uyghur and the Hong Kong people. They are doing business with Communist China, a country that’s committing genocide against the Uyghur & oppressing HK.
Baseball just finished, NFL in December. Just can’t get excited about the NBA. Players chase money and rings, fundamentals are horrible, and queue Lebron carrying the ball the other night. Not interested.
How’s the viewership in China?
Nope! They brought their crappy politics into it and that is why I cancelled my NBA League Pass.
They need to be able to flex the National TV games based on which teams are doing well at the time. Example of the problem: Schedulers put Pelicans on ESPN and TNT a lot, but Zion is hurt and they’re under .500
The NBA is woke. Right? Explains it
Everyone tired of watching Lebron and Lakers, and now Lebron as a Laker. They changed it up last year to get viewers and funds from Canada by gifting Toronto but that didn’t help much now I see
bringbacktheSeattleSupersonics and I'll watch more!
GoWokeGoBroke
Get woke, go broke.
They'll be as good as they used to be. Next year the whole team healthy and adding another great piece that's all they need.
SJWs that hate America and corrupt Chinese money will not save the NBA
NCAA is to blame. I’m a very casual basketball fan, but to me, the college game is much more exciting from a big picture and strategic in-game perspective. NBA is so much about 1 on 1 isolation and let’s be real — how many teams have a shot? 2-3 in a given year?
Evet bugün sizle ❤️
Naw, the lakers are just as good as golden state ever was.
Good. Shed the bandwagoners. Real fans stick it out.
don't care... not a sports fan
was there no decline before this season? media has devolved. shit is embarrassing.
Maybe because the game is boring when endless barrage of 3s...
No. It’s the decline of basketball itself.. turning a sports game into a 3 point contest with pretty much any form of defense considered a foul...
Well the NBA hasn't lost me. Because they never had me. I've never watched one complete game. I couldn't care less about these teams and the players on them.
Nothing has really changed vs last year except that the Warriors now stink. Regular season didn’t matter. Load management has always been a thing. The Dubs at their height played a beautiful brand of b-ball and created a love em / hate em vibe that was good for the game.
No, people are broke with these low paying jobs. They watch YouTube x free.
Yet the NHL viewership is up 4%.
The Knicks have been a basket case for twenty + years. The worst run franchise in sports in your biggest market can’t be helping things. Given how the NBA has bent the knee to the Communist dictatorship of China I hope they go belly up.
Season got off to a rough start with the public with the NBA bending the knee to their Communist Chinese overlords. I suspect people will watch the playoffs, but clearly many have decided that the regular season is worthless and boring. FreeHongKong
Boring games, outrageous game ticket prices, endless player shuffling, no more interesting rivalries and stupid conference playoff format are to blame
It's way too theatrical everybody sees the transparency...... look at the All-Star games now team Lebron team Curry I mean come on😄
I'd blame China and James Harden
Maybe cuz they act like a bunch of teenage girls
People are waking up from the trance. Bread and circuses don't work anymore.
Nope, probably wrong conclusion. Might be the arrogance and political statements being made by Woke players and coaches.
The nba sucks! That’s why.
Politics is the reason I don’t tune in
Who. Cares.
boring
Yeah but mostly their smug political activism. Love college despise NBA.
China's interfere
Or, maybe its when teams move from one state to another. People realise you're taking the piss.
Eliminating defence has turned the game into a shooting contest.
inciluca
TV is shedding viewers. Never heard off the internet?
You all suck!
I could just go fishing and see the same shit🤷🏼♂️
Maybe because 75% of the teams suck.
Understandable.
Local NBA teams are hard to follow in some markets because of blackouts + cord-cutting... The NBA is fighting a declining trend clinging to cable & fans tuning out
It's early.
All great teams go through this and we will get through it for the best!
Could have something to do with the fact that, apparently, it's ok to travel and double dribble now. Not much of a game if you don't enforce the rules. 😐
Hey member a couple months ago when the NBA sided with China over human rights violations and how China was putting Uyghurs in concentration camps in Xinjing near where the NBA was doing training camps? I member.
Check out the Dallas Mavericks 😉
Harden is single-handedly ruining the NBA.
It’s because ESPN (ESPNBA) saturates it’s T.V coverage with the NBA. On a college football Saturday Night Sports Center leads wirh NBA scores. Pathetic
NFL season is really good this year. People are not paying attention yet. Wait til last 40 games. I'm a league-pass purchaser and if i didn't gamble i wouldn't be invested in the season at all.
Nope.....I hope they continue to lose viewer in very large numbers!!! Maybe then they will be forced to bring back the actual game of basketball and not this crap they currently try and pass off as basketball....thank god for college BBall!!!
Get woke, go broke
No. I stopped watching three years ago because the game sucks. Three point shot killed the game. No defense and fouls and no. Fouls a joke. Player deciding where and with whom plus the coach they want. Keep it. I watch NCAA now only
MVP
No no no
I gave up on the NBA several years ago when I recognized how terrible the refs are, how certain teams are favored, and the length of time it takes to play the final 5 minutes. They are great athletes and work hard, but it’s no longer good entertainment value for the time spent.
The NBA & their “woke” players showed who they were when they rolled over for the Chinese government.
Who follows basketball anymore... sports are just one long political diatribe interupted by commercials and player celebrations...
Its the challenge rule and refs ignoring the replay
Yes. Because, in reality, most NBA fans don't like the fact that the league continues to prop whiney LeBron James to star status. The league desperately needs Steph and Klay - two likeable individuals who win.
Not at all. It’s the hypocrisy of the Association’s elites such as LeBron James, coaches Kerr & Popovich, and the head of the NBA, Nike, regarding human rights in Hong Kong.
dish and FOXSPORTSAZ have taken away Suns games in AZ - Found out I can live without dish and Suns
Maybe people are starting to realize there are more important things than spending time you will never get back seeing who is better at throwing a ball in a hoop. That and bowing to China.
That the sport has deteriorated into a 3 pt. shooting contest might have something to do with it.
When one of the best, if not THE best, players in the NBA isn’t playing, your ratings are going to drop. Add in the decline of Golden State as a team, and it adds up to lost viewers.
But the rise of the LA teams, especially the Lakers makes this a push. So, no, it's not the Warriors. Nice try.
Go Carmelo! Enjoying your resurrection.
I stopped watching years ago for various reasons: main was boring basketball, predictable, robotic. Then, it cemented when James became an expert on politics. Hahaha. Really? James?
The current incarnation of the NBA is awful. There is very little d and you have teams scoring 140pts in regulation games. The same people who say home runs are good for baseball are the ones who like the NBA product right now.
Too political
Awesome. Now do the Patriots
It's the referees that have ruined the game...
More so has to do with national networks and what games they chose to broadcast. None of them would have chose Warriors and Pelicans, maybe not even some Nets or Clippers games had they “known” about injuries or the load management issue this year.
Love the NBA as a fan, hate the fragmentation of games. My Lakers on Sportsnet, wait it's on ABC, wait no it's on TNT, wait it's on ESPN, wait no you need an NBA League Pass package...fix the business model
Also... LeBron is incredibly divisive. I find him arrogant and petulant. Putting all your eggs in that basket when there are tons of incredible stars in the league is bad business.
You just dismissing the political angle is arrogant. The same concept killed NFL ratings. Whether you agree or not, there is a major correlation that can’t be ignored. I watch the NBA, but a lot of people I know don’t for that very reason.
There are lot of crappy teams in the NBA that leave no secret they are tanking. There are also teams that can go from a nobody to a somebody depending on free agent moves. Unless you're a fan of an LA team, not a lot of reason to watch.
Uhhh remember what Daryl Morey tweeted?
They’ll be back next year RELOADED
Tune into the Raptors!
I can assure you, it’s not bc of the Warriors
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