Caitlyn Clark's game had more TV viewers than any NBA game this season on ESPN

[Saysumthinfunnymike]

The last time the NBA had all eyes glued on the product was LeBron and the Cavs vs. 73-9 Warriors. If the Nuggets actually make the finals this year I can see the finals doing mid 2000s Spurs numbers. Casuals ain't checkin for Joker and Denver.

 

[Nero Christ]

I go to this watering hole where the bar owner REFUSES to play any NBA games if anything else sports related is on. Dude will show poker over the NBA. It's disgusting.

A lot of white folks take pride in not watching the NBA especially after the bubble

It's part of their identity like their race, gender, & political affiliation

 

[skylove4]

If that's the case, then why isn't it translating into ratings and more viewership eventhough the WNBA has more money and resources to market their product than the college game does. The moment Caitlyn Clark jumps to the WNBA, she's going to be out of sight and out of mind compared to if she was still in college.

We just saw the exact thing not too long ago with Sabrina Ionescu who was hyped up just like Clark is. She is putting up numbers in the WNBA, yet it's not translating into viewership.

You’re either autistic or a cac to say some silly shyt like this. To racist cacs college basketball is played the “right way”

 

[SchoolboyC]

The last time the NBA had all eyes glued on the product was LeBron and the Cavs vs. 73-9 Warriors. If the Nuggets actually make the finals this year I can see the finals doing mid 2000s Spurs numbers. Casuals ain't checkin for Joker and Denver.

Casual NBA fans only care about polarizing superstars and superteams and right now the NBA has neither.

A lot of white folks take pride in not watching the NBA especially after the bubble

It's part of their identity like their race, gender, & political affiliation

Those Republican cacs hate the NBA with a passion because of players & the league being so vocally anti-Trump/pro-BLM in 2020

 

[PortCityProphet]

The thing that the coli ALWAYS fails to realize is that a lot of people have strong connections and feelings to college. Built in fanbases cause of alumni, built in pride and representation cause of the school representing an entire state.
Now it doesn't really work for women's pro ball because they've never really been able to break in like that but for the men's game it works.
Keeping it real when the NBA went to one and done plus all the player movement every year, it kills your star power. I say CBB had to die for the NBA to be more popular but it actually hurts the nba. Cause whether yall want to admit it or not stars get built in college. One and done killed men college stars but it also put a damper on NBA guys being true tune in stars. America falls in love with guys during the tournament when they get a chance to learn who they are.
Like think of all the talented dudes Duke has had recently...none of them are more known than J Will was except for zion and he got HS hype.
1 and done don't promote that aint no bond and both sides know that. It hurts men's ball on all levels.

 

[CarltonJunior]

WNBA players are criminally underpaid.....them billion contracts should be enough to pay the top players at least a million a year.....the coach for the Las Vegas Aces makes that

League doesn't make money so no they aren't underpaid.

They need a TV or streaming deal like a lot of these smaller leagues are getting so they can start operating in the green, from there the money will shake out however it does.

 

[CarltonJunior]

wnba has been around for decades and still has no real traction ... people in this country have shown again and again that they do not care about women playing sports other than tennis. The other times they do care are when women are playing for already established brands like NCAA universities or representing nations at the World Cup or Olympics.


The billionaires here also don't care to just give away money like that to athletes if the athletes aren't generating profits in return. I'm certain we'll see another Brittney Griner type situation soon or some foreign billionaire will seduce them into espionage like what happened to Pras from the Fugees.

Women's soccer is starting to get some traction but I agree mostly.

Really the meal ticket that women's sports needs is track and field, but they are being held back by the USATF. If a more organized, less corrupt group with some financial backing committed to making track and field something to pay attention to year round instead of just the olympics, women athletes would be eating

 

[Thavoiceofthevoiceless]

League doesn't make money so no they aren't underpaid.

They need a TV or streaming deal like a lot of these smaller leagues are getting so they can start operating in the green, from there the money will shake out however it does.

They already have/have had those deals and they're still operating in the red or not making enough to truly increase salaries like that. It's the exact reason they've been taking up "donations" since before the Griner situation and resorting to letting NBA players have an investment in the league as they need all the revenue they can get.

 

[SchoolboyC]

The thing that the coli ALWAYS fails to realize is that a lot of people have strong connections and feelings to college. Built in fanbases cause of alumni, built in pride and representation cause of the school representing an entire state.
Now it doesn't really work for women's pro ball because they've never really been able to break in like that but for the men's game it works.
Keeping it real when the NBA went to one and done plus all the player movement every year, it kills your star power. I say CBB had to die for the NBA to be more popular but it actually hurts the nba. Cause whether yall want to admit it or not stars get built in college. One and done killed men college stars but it also put a damper on NBA guys being true tune in stars. America falls in love with guys during the tournament when they get a chance to learn who they are.
Like think of all the talented dudes Duke has had recently...none of them are more known than J Will was except for zion and he got HS hype.
1 and done don't promote that aint no bond and both sides know that. It hurts men's ball on all levels.

Melo, Wall, KD, Oden, Beasley, D Rose, Kyrie, AD, Wiggins, were all household names coming into the league and they were all one and done.

CBB doesn’t build stars like that anymore either. People care about the tournament but not the players. CBB’s regular season is about as irrelevant as it’s ever been, can’t remember the last time there was a marquee matchup that dominated the sports headlines.

 

[Professor Emeritus]

Keeping it real when the NBA went to one and done plus all the player movement every year, it kills your star power. I say CBB had to die for the NBA to be more popular but it actually hurts the nba. Cause whether yall want to admit it or not stars get built in college. One and done killed men college stars but it also put a damper on NBA guys being true tune in stars. America falls in love with guys during the tournament when they get a chance to learn who they are.
Like think of all the talented dudes Duke has had recently...none of them are more known than J Will was except for zion and he got HS hype.
1 and done don't promote that aint no bond and both sides know that. It hurts men's ball on all levels.

It also hurts NBA cause too many undeveloped players getting time over vets. Teams play the young guys because they have potential and need the playing time to develop it, but it degrades the quality of play. As opposed to back in the day when they got that development in college so rookies could come in and be all-stars from Day 1.

Rookie all-stars by decade:

1950s: 11
1960s: 11
1970s: 6
1980s: 10
early 1990s: 4
late 1990s: 1
2000s: 1
2010s: 1


I split up "early 1990s" and "late 1990s" because the rule allowing high school drafts came in 1995.

Before then, being an all-star as a rookie wasn't common but it wasn't unusual either. Hakeem and Jordan in '85, Ewing in '86, Robinson in '90, Mutombo in '92, Shaq in '93, Grant Hill in '95.


Afterwards? It was almost unheard of, and it has ONLY been the older players who made it. The only three rookies to make the all-star team since 1995 were Tim Duncan (22yo), Yao Ming (23yo), and Blake Griffin (22yo). Three rookie all-stars in 28 years after having had 14 rookie All-Stars in the previous 15 years.

 

[Godless Socialist CEO]

Casual NBA fans only care about polarizing superstars and superteams and right now the NBA has neither.



Those Republican cacs hate the NBA with a passion because of players & the league being so vocally anti-Trump/pro-BLM in 2020

the “woke” stuff is just a dog whistle for white supremacists so of course that racist clay Travis is posting this garbage in relation to the nba on Twitter

 

[Professor Emeritus]

League doesn't make money so no they aren't underpaid.

That's not enough of an argument by itself. There is no other industry where you can claim that just because the business isn't turning a profit yet, the workers can't be underpaid. Tesla took forever to turn a profit but it didn't mean they could get away with paying their engineers $40k a year.

 

[CarltonJunior]

That's not enough of an argument by itself. There is no other industry where you can claim that just because the business isn't turning a profit yet, the workers can't be underpaid. Tesla took forever to turn a profit but it didn't mean they could get away with paying their engineers $40k a year.

Fair argument.

However the sports business structure is usually a distribution of the league's profits which is nonexistent here.

The alternative would be like someone else said, getting rich owners there who can afford to blow the money, but that could be disasterous and lead to folding if unchecked. Gotta be realistic.

 

[SchoolboyC]

the “woke” stuff is just a dog whistle for white supremacists so of course that racist clay Travis is posting this garbage in relation to the nba on Twitter

Of course, but he’s a representative of that group. There’s many on and off Twitter that share that same viewpoint

 

[Godless Socialist CEO]

Of course, but he’s a representative of that group. There’s many on and off Twitter that share that same viewpoint

Yes and the nba shouldn’t be attempting to appeal to white racists