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

[Surreal]

Well yeah he's right

It's why Jordan said if you don't wanna play that, don't play that way

 

[Kunty McPhuck]

Draymond does all the stuff people online say is missing from the league and everyone hates him because of it

 

[Loose]

Yes teaming up and superteams have ruined rivalries

 

[IsThatBrothaMouzone?]

The NBA needs to really get hands-on in how their game is presented and do more to promote the games. A great starting point would be a "Game of the Week" that showcases 2 top teams playing each other in prime time. Then, promote tf out of it every week as the must-see game.

Facts.

Ratings aren't the issue but presentation is. NFL carefully curates EVERYTHING you see and hear on game day.

NBA should market stars but they can't rely on the old MJ/Bron/Magic & Bird model. There are no young stars that transcend the game to THAT degree.....but with the right marketing and narrative....you might get fans to buy in more.

Social media doesn't help as it takes a lot of the mystique away. The greats don't feel like untouchable giants. Just tall azz nikkas, Euro nikkas and African nikkas that can ball.

 

[Loose]

Draymond does all the stuff people online say is missing from the league and everyone hates him because of it

? nikka was on phone crying in the car begging one of his rivals to join him tf lol

 

[TAYLONDO SAMSWORTHY]

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.

They 100% hated each other on the court tf you talmbout it was war tryna get them rings

 

[br82186]

One of the reason is ESPN becoming a glorified NFL Network 2.0 and putting every other sport that's not College Football or formally mentioned NFL on the backburner and Stephen A and the Klutch Sport folks saying dumbshyt to cause a fraction.

 

[mastermind]

They 100% hated each other on the court tf you talmbout it was war tryna get them rings

Players hate each other on the court now. You don’t think that because of narratives purported by people like SAS.

 

[FlyRy]

Don't you get tired of discussing the same shyt every day?

 

[FAH1223]

I don't know if those narratives can exist anymore.

We know far too much behind closed doors, where there's no mystique around players/teams (in real time) where we can build any sense of anticipation. A lot of that too is down to the fact fact we're adults now and stories are for children, especially if posters are older than the players today.

How can you get them to buy into a story when they don't look up to these players anymore, both figuratively and literally (adult-to-adult)?

I've seen a lot of posters talk about how players are too friendly now and that they don't hate each other, when that couldn't be further from reality.

Cats like Gobert and Dray hate each other arguably more than 99.9999999% of any player rivalry back in the day. In fact, ever since the pandemic, it's been Gobert vs. The NBA (which has spawned many a player to target him). The Knicks/Pacers rivalry was renewed, even having Haliburton and Brunson square off in the WWE (which would've been a huge storyline back in the 90s during the Attitude era). We had Bron vs. Brooks. We had KAT vs Jimmy. We had Dray vs Poole. We had Giannis vs Jaylen. We had Luka vs. Booker.

Yet folks don't seem to pay these any mind, which tells you that they don't want to buy into these rivalries in the first place. It doesn't interest them.

What pushes this further into the background is, there's endless channels of entertainment now, and NBA storylines just can't compete. It was different back in the day when sports was essentially the only entertainment. Now the NBA has to compete with social media, video games, influencers and now in recent years - political discourse. The oversaturation of entertainment has desensitized us where we can no longer be captivated (much less care) by something as trivial as basketball storylines.

The moment a game ends, our focus shifts to the infinite amount of stories going on around the world, that we have all at a press of a button and scroll of a thumb.

Back in the day, you turn the TV off and the game is still ingrained in your thoughts. There was nothing to pull you away other than your imagination.

And then you have the other fold to this -

Ring culture.

Nobody gives a fukk about team rivalries, or players hating one another or anything else that is considered a subplot. It's all about the end game and not the journey. Let's just put this hypothetical out there - say the Lakers and Kings had a rivalry amongst themselves, where they had back-and-forth battles over recent years and the players hated one another, with a passion, and the NBA even marketed it as that.

Do we think Lakers fans would care about that? Or would they only care about trying to win another championship? Focusing on their own fictives like when is Bron going to leave, when is JJ Reddikk going to prove himself as a coach, when is AD going to turn the franchise around, when is Dlo going to be traded etc. All things that allow them to fast-forward to when they're winning again. Focusing on a team rivalry doesn't do that.

You can't get folks to buy storylines, personalities or playing styles, if they're already made it known they have no incentive or desire to anymore.

All of what you said is true but here’s the thing,

ESPN and TNT aren’t even trying!!! If you watch a game up until the lockout season of 2011-12, the networks still invested in video essay monologues before a game and shid.

I understand the media landscape isn’t the same as when CBS/NBC broadcasted. But there’s literally no trying happening.

I think Amazon might end up doing the best job of it next year.

 

[Ku$h Parker]

Jordan didn’t hate anyone he went against

Oak Dogg and Pat were his off court Bodyguards if anything

 

[Joe Sixpack]

Stephen A is awful

God, he just sucks

ESPN keeps signing this doofus to new contracts

 

[2legit]

Draymond does all the stuff people online say is missing from the league and everyone hates him because of it

We had a Draymond during the Golden age of the NBA.......Bill Laimbeer. Everybody still hates that Man to this day. NBA fans never liked Dirty shyt. Just fight hard and compete. We liked Rick Mahorn and Dennis Rodman, but never liked Laimbeer for being a Dirty bytch.

 

[Ukbrotha]

We need more of the Draymonds of this world. There just isnt enough drama or storylines. I don't know if that's why viewing numbers are down but its definitely not interesting enough to keep people interested. This much is a fact.

 

[malbaker86]

Teams also had playing styles in the past.

Whether it was fast breaking, or plodding, or whatever.

Now all the styles seem to be the same. Spamming 3s

Yep. Teams had “personalities” that you identified them with