Stephen A Smith suggest that NBA rating are down because players don't hate each other. Is there any truth to that?

[DetroitEWarren]

I think mini series during the season between the top teams that can count towards playoff position would help. Similar to how the IST is on the side of the regular season, they could probably implement this with no problem.

I do not want shorter seasons in any way shape or form. I love watching basketball and id never ask for less opportunities to watch the shyt.

 

[mastermind]

Dr. J put hands on Bird

I put hands on my brother. I don’t hate my brother. Are you five? What kind of warped logic is this.

Also that fight happened after they did the Dr. J vs Bird video game together. Those two did not hate each other, they just got into an altercation.

Zeke punched Mahorn

Zeke got 40 switches from Karl Malone

Mike squared up with Xavier McDaniels, Reggie miller, and Danny Ainge

The Knicks vs Bulls series

Kareem didn’t fw Wilt

Ewing and Jordan did not hate each other. They’ve never hated each other. They’ve known each other since Five Star camp in 1980. And the #1 goon on the Knicks is Jordan’s personal body guard.

Zeke and Rick Mahoen were teammates for years. Also look at how much hatred Mahorn showed at that punch:


People getting into fights isn’t hatred. It’s just people fighting. You got a child’s mindset by equating fighting during competition as hatred.

 

[DaMos Supreme]

Before we even get into the conjecture around the on the court issues - whether perceived or not - is in the eyes of the beholder. The NBA is not going to connect with Casuals/Middle America/Middle-Aged White males like the NFL. There are factors that just work in the NFL’s favor (In the U.S.):

- Race element/Bigotry
- Team aspect over the Individual
- Convenience/Accessibility/Games-Scheduling
- Promoting/Marketing-Urgency
- Pagentry/Social Gatherings
- Patriotism (whether it’s contrived/fake)
- Gambling
- League Perception of/via the Commissioner through eyes of the viewers (Roger Goddell is viewed as more cutthroat and not as player friendly in comparison to Silver. Which ties back into the racial element/bigotry).

I have mentioned on here on several occasions that the NFL’s late game 4:00 pm EST/1:00 PST window have actually been brutal to viewers this season, as well as some of the Thursday games. Although I watch more of the NFL than the NBA, the NFL is not an uber drastically better product when it comes to on field play versus the NBA’s on court play recently, IMO.

 

[mastermind]

Tell that to Magic and remind him.

https://www.basketballnetwork.net/old-school/magic-recalls-the-time-larry-birds-mom-invited-him-for-lunch-and-told-him-he-was-her-favorite-basketball-player

rhey didn’t hate each other. They didn’t know each other. You are conflating on court rivalries with actual hatred.

Does the NBA lack rivalries right now? Yes, however that happens out of years of competition. If you want to criticize the league for three fly by night teams, then cool. Saying that, the Bucks vs Celtics is a huge rivalry that a lot of people don’t talk about on here for some reason. The Heat vs Celtics is also another big current rivalry.

 

[mastermind]

wants the players kayfabing

It’s that simple and it seems that a lot of fans on here are into that too.

 

[Somebody]

These old fools do know NBA players didn’t hate each other in the old days either?

Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain didn’t hate each other while they played. Magic and Bird didn’t hate each other either—they didn’t know each other. Jordan didn’t hate anyone he went against

This whole, “players today aren’t competitive like the old days when they tried to kill each other” is fake.

shyt, Magic and Isiah were giving each other kisses before finals games.

There are lot of reasons for NBA ratings not being that high, but this ain’t it.

Also which players in the nfl hate each other?

 

[Killer Instinct]

rhey didn’t hate each other. They didn’t know each other. You are conflating on court rivalries with actual hatred.

Magic Johnson '24: "I hated the Celtics and Larry Bird."

mastermind on thecoli.com: "You didn't know Larry Bird."

Even trying to cover every base with "conflating rivalries" with "genuine hatred" as if in sports they aren't synonymous in the context in which Magic used it and sports. Clearly Magic didn't want Larry to die, but I'm going to take him at his word when he states he held professional disdain for his opponent while you continue to tell me the two greatest talents of their respective generation couldn't have disliked one another because they couldn't tell you the other guys favorite beverage.

 

[Somebody]

wants the players kayfabing

Good joke, but it’s actually not a bad idea. Maybe if the refs wasn’t a bunch of racist southern democrats who dare a nikka to sass them so they can give out techs, we would have more PJ Tucker/KD moments. That was good kayfabe tv. Now imagine PJ didn’t have to tell the reporters at the post game presser that he actually loves KD and all that gangsta shyt was just for the court and cameras.

KD understands this already. He doesn’t feel the need to tell ppl he prolly had dinner with PJ after that game. KD acts like he hates Drake when he goes to Toronto talmbout “don’t nobody give a damn bout no Drake night”

Arguably Drake’s only industry friend before and after the beef.

 

[NotAHotep]

Grown men need millionaires to fake hate one another to watch a game. Nasty.

 

[mastermind]

Clearly Magic didn't want Larry to die, but I'm going to take him at his word when he states he held professional disdain for his opponent while you continue to tell me the two greatest talents of their respective generation couldn't have disliked one another because they couldn't tell you the other guys favorite beverage.

oh for sure, they had professional disdain. Players today do as well. That’s what happens when you meet at the summit and someone is in your way. I am going by what Stephen A Smith’s words were. He said hate.

That all exists today, the problem of is people like Stephen A Smith not covering it because he thinks he is the NBA’s superstar.

 

[FTBS]

Weren't ratings down during this period? Weren't the Finals getting record lows each year? Shaq and Kobe have done multiple interviews, including one together, indicating they never actually hated each other.

 

[FTBS]

You can easily just modify all that to ‘fans don’t perceive players to hate each other’ and he’s right ….But you’re still wrong tho.

Dr. J put hands on Bird

Zeke punched Mahorn

Zeke got 40 switches from Karl Malone

Mike squared up with Xavier McDaniels, Reggie miller, and Danny Ainge

The Knicks vs Bulls series

Kareem didn’t fw Wilt

Zeke on Bird ‘if he was black he’d be just another guy’

So yea all of it wasnt imagined

In addition to @mastermind's point...How many people in here have actual memories of any of that stuff happening? You got stuff from 40, 50 years ago on there. Funny thing with NBA fans...nikkas be 29 puffing they chest out about stuff that happened 10 years before they were born. nikkas "back in my daying" about shyt that occurred when they pops was still tryin get they mama back to the crib

Most of it happened before the league cracked down on fighting. League got record ratings after that btw. And again MJ was and still is super close with the main goon on the Knicks. It's Draymond and Bron except Draymond and Bron had and actual issue before they become friends.

 

[FTBS]

I think mini series during the season between the top teams that can count towards playoff position would help. Similar to how the IST is on the side of the regular season, they could probably implement this with no problem.

I do not want shorter seasons in any way shape or form. I love watching basketball and id never ask for less opportunities to watch the shyt.

That's the thing, the people complaining don't. And honestly they never did. Because when you actually fukk with something you did need all the extra shyt and you don't manufacture things to complain about. And it's ok for folks to not rock with the game but it's not ok to be intellectually dishonest and straight up fictional.

 

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

Magic Johnson '24: "I hated the Celtics and Larry Bird."

mastermind on thecoli.com: "You didn't know Larry Bird."

Even trying to cover every base with "conflating rivalries" with "genuine hatred" as if in sports they aren't synonymous in the context in which Magic used it and sports. Clearly Magic didn't want Larry to die, but I'm going to take him at his word when he states he held professional disdain for his opponent while you continue to tell me the two greatest talents of their respective generation couldn't have disliked one another because they couldn't tell you the other guys favorite beverage.

And you think this “professional disdain” doesn’t exist anymore? Somehow that psyche has just been removed from today’s players as if they had their amygdalas altered in a lab and sent into the league without being to feel any sort of anger?

Never mind "professional disdain", what about the actual unadulterated hatred Dray and Gobert have for one another - Dray teasing Gobert for crying over his All-Star snub (unironically, Gobert was showing emotion because he wasn't recognized for being an All-Star), verbally jabbing one another over the years about their respective mental hangups, shytting on one another's defense, all culminating in Dray using it as an excuse to put his hands on him.

And then you have all the other branches off that: Gobert squaring off with his own teammate [Kyle Anderson] on the bench, Draymond getting into it with KD on the bench, Draymond punching Poole in practice etc.

If that drama transpired back in the day, it would be used as a scale to say today's players/games are soft, players don't hate one another and they don't care about the game. The events themselves would even be dramatized, turning into stories of how Draymond had Gobert in a headlock for that long, he fell unconcious and they had to get the paramedics out on the floor to attend to him.

 

[Da King]

Well almost, more like teams don’t hate each other. There’s no team rivalries to speak of and since it’s so individual star driven there’s more concern with brand image than there is showing up your competition.

We don’t live in an age currently where NBA rivalries can exist.

The last great rivalry was Duncan punking the Lakers over and over