NBA Ratings continue to slide

[DocHolliday]

Re: NBA Ratings continue to slide

So tired.

Great, you and the other three people watching can have a blast. The NBA is only slightly more entertaining than the WNBA. And the one semi-intriguing matchup, Suns-Spurs, was decided by David Stern.

Hey, my Mavs aren't exactly exciting to watch anymore. Avery is teaching Popovich's quicksand thug ball here now, too.

Couldnt agree more. But im gonna keep my mouth shut, per the man

I really not trying to say "I told you so"

[NEW_ORLEANS]

Re: NBA Ratings continue to slide

They should make the players wear them 80's era shorts

[RobUofM]

Re: NBA Ratings continue to slide

First off I agree the NBA is not like it used to be.. But basketball is and always will be my favorite sport. I had League Pass this year and watched every team. Maybe the hype and the superstars arent there but I like the parity.

In the 90's everybody and their brother were Bulls fans, and the Bulls were always in the finals with Jordan so the ratings were high. Then you had the Kobe and Shaq bandwagon. And I know there are alot of true fans out there, but everywhere I went a few years back I saw all Kobe/Shaq jerseys.

It's just now the teams are more spread out and theirs not that dominant Jordan type, so you have teams that dont have a major superstar winning. I agree they have too many teams and should subtract before they add. At any rate the quality is not like it used to be and they dont allow any contact anymore.

Kind of a catch-22 with the refs. Alot of people want the refs not to be bias and call a fair game. Yet if your not bias with a star and that team with the star doesn't advance, you have 2 teams that people dont want to watch.

[4BiddenKnight]

Re: NBA Ratings continue to slide

I don't know how many people fall asleep in those playoff games, but I sure do for series like Cavs vs Wiz, Nuggets vs Spurs and Rockets vs Jazz.

I even remembered last year, I was so jacked up and estatic about the finals not involving the Spurs and the Pistons. What made this even better was the fact that Wade and Shaq and Dirk were in the finals.

Turned out during my viewing of game 2, while I finished munching down on my popcorn, I almost fell asleep during that game. And then I missed game 6 entirely because I didn't even know it came on til a friend of mines told me about the Heat winning the ring.

I guess that's one of the reasons why last year's finals garnered such a low rating.

[J.R. Locke]

Re: NBA Ratings continue to slide

When I was growing up all I heard people talk about was how the NBA lacked defense and fundamentals. Now that teams are playing great defense and are more fundamentally sound it is called thug ball????

The problem with the NBA is that it is a game dominated by blacks and international stars. Rich Middle Class American's don't relate to the game that is being played at this level. For whatever reason, even though I am sure we all know what this reason is, this has always been the "problem" with the NBA.

The NBA does need to get away from having so many damn foul calls. It disrupts the flow of the game and that is the greatest asset basketball has as a spectator sport.

[The Chef]

Re: NBA Ratings continue to slide

I cant quite put my finger on why the NBA's ratings have dropped like a brick. I think it is multiple things, there really isnt anyone, besides Lebron, that has a personality that can be marketed to the public like Jordan did. Due to the touchy foul calls there are no more physical games, let alone series', and I think that hurts it as well. The huge gaps between games in the playoffs dont help either, and now that there are so many other things on television the casual NBA fan has far more options in what to watch. I also somewhat think that it has something to do with the times some of these games start, but there isnt much you can do about that, start a game on the west coast to late and the east coast doesnt stay up to watch it, start it too early and suddenly the fans who supported that team all season are missing part of the game due to work, I just think there are multiple reasons.

On a side note, I dont think it has anything to do with the fact that the league is preceived as a thug league, the NFL has a ton of problems with players also but it doesnt effect their ratings at all, the difference is, and its sad but true I think, the NFL is more physical and draws more people in, the NBA isnt thanks to the newer rules and therefor turns some people off.

[EWRMETS]

Re: NBA Ratings continue to slide

So tired.

Great, you and the other three people watching can have a blast. The NBA is only slightly more entertaining than the WNBA. And the one semi-intriguing matchup, Suns-Spurs, was decided by David Stern.

Hey, my Mavs aren't exactly exciting to watch anymore. Avery is teaching Popovich's quicksand thug ball here now, too.

I'm sure you would be on your same weak tirade if the Mavs didn't collapse in the first round and still were in the playoffs.

[imaged]

Re: NBA Ratings continue to slide

There's presentation:

+horrible commentators (nearly the entire ABC/ESPN announcing crew falls under this one: Dan Patrick? Jon Barry? Bill Walton? Mike Tirico? Tom Tolbert? Marc Jackson? COME ON, this is the NBA PLAYOFFS! Make it sound like it!)

+horrible music: that elevator orchestra music is killing me. Did you know that the guy who wrote the NBA on NBC theme song offered it to ABC/ESPN but they turned it down?

+horrible, ugly ESPN graphics (Even the older 2003-2006 ABC ones were way better, wacky camera angles that switch every other play.

Then there's advertising...You could Tivo the entire week of ABC programming and I'd bet the NBA Conf. Finals promos wouldn't total 5 minutes. Hell, it was documented by media group that in 2004, Indy 500 promos outnumbered the NBA FINALS Promos on ABC 14 to 9 from 9PM-11PM. And that was with a "highly marketable", star-studded Laker team in the Finals.

I don't know...the whole thing is pathetic. A lot of it boils down to ESPN. ESPN is a "packaged" network. The games feel packaged on ABC/ESPN. Anybody see the difference when they switch over to a game on TNT.

[Altimus]

Re: NBA Ratings continue to slide

The problem with the NBA is that it is a game dominated by blacks and international stars. Rich Middle Class American's don't relate to the game that is being played at this level. For whatever reason, even though I am sure we all know what this reason is, this has always been the "problem" with the NBA.

This is definitely not the problem.

[snepp]

Re: NBA Ratings continue to slide

Now that teams are playing great defense and are more fundamentally sound it is called thug ball????

You really think the ball being played now is more fundamentally sound?

[Brandon13]

Re: NBA Ratings continue to slide

When you watch the Eastern Conference playoffs it doesn't even sound like the crowd is paying attention to the game. If the people at the game are bored how do they expect the people watching the game on tv not to be?

[jmood88]

Re: NBA Ratings continue to slide

When I was growing up all I heard people talk about was how the NBA lacked defense and fundamentals. Now that teams are playing great defense and are more fundamentally sound it is called thug ball????

The problem with the NBA is that it is a game dominated by blacks and international stars. Rich Middle Class American's don't relate to the game that is being played at this level. For whatever reason, even though I am sure we all know what this reason is, this has always been the "problem" with the NBA.

Yeah because the NFL is certainly lacking fans and the NBA has been dominated by white guys before this era started. Where are you getting your information from?

[fishepa]

Re: NBA Ratings continue to slide

Rich Middle Class American's don't relate to the game that is being played at this level.

Uhh, first of all, middle class Americans are not rich, that would be "upper class". Second of all, watching the NBA is just boring.

[xythander]

Re: NBA Ratings continue to slide

Just heard on Dan Patrick that the 3 hour rain delay of the Indy 500 got the same rating as the Spurs/Utah game. Ouch.

[snepp]

Re: NBA Ratings continue to slide

Just heard on Dan Patrick that the 3 hour rain delay of the Indy 500 got the same rating as the Spurs/Utah game. Ouch.

That is painful.