These are really just the reasons I have largely stopped watching the product.
5. Outrageous NIL money and its effects. College basketball is now professional. Not only do good teams lose players that are one and done, but they also get players to leave so they can buy proven transfers so you can have a team of freshman and bought transfers that are all there for a year. That is becoming more common. This affects viewers that like to follow players from their favorite colleges in the NBA. They have no connection with them anymore.
4. Style of play. Lack of defense.. So many rules have changed the ability to defend. Traveling is left uncalled too often. Games turn into 3 point shooting contests.
3. Lack of effort and players. So many of the players now are regularly unavailable and the season never gets interesting until near the playoffs. Games are seemingly half speed way too often.
2. Politics - I really don't care what the players and commentators politics are but I don't want to hear it every time I go to watch a game on TV whether it is liberal or conservative. Let me watch the game.
1. Bronny- sports is supposed to be a meritocracy. Drafting this mediocre College player and then getting him on the court with the Lakers makes a joke of everything professional sport is supposed to be about. Instead it was about appeasing his daddy.
People aren’t stopping to watch the NBA because the Lakers picked Bronny, in round 2. 😂
They aren’t watching because the product is not that great. First there are no compelling players and teams. There’s no 80s Lakers/Celtics. There’s no Michael Jordan. Second, the style of the game is hurt by the advent of the three-point shot. Teams do play defense. But it’s hard to guard the court from 35-40 feet out and in. And third, the NFL is the dominant sport right now. Football dominates the airways generally.
Finally, there is an oversaturation of games and no one has time to watch an 82 game season anymore. People are far more distracted by other things than in the past now that the internet is here annd they can go back annd watch what they missed, and the 23rd game of the year in an 82 game. Season is just not very important, even if it’s on ESPN or TNT.
