07-11-2023, 01:30 PM
(07-10-2023, 09:54 PM)Nepa Wrote: Jordan's basic statement on the issue was "Republicans purchase sneakers, too."
Jordan stuck to sports and the NBA grew astronomically in popularity during his time. Since the NBA became so political, such as moving the All Star game out of Charlotte because of legislation (which was less restrictive than the state they went to, btw) and wearing political slogans on players backs in 2020, its rating has declined tremendously.
Even Phil Jackson said he doesn't watch the NBA anymore because of its politics.
The NBA drew 36 million in 1998 for one game; it drew 13 million this year for the most watched game. Four of the five lowest ratings for final series came in the last 4 years for the NBA, including 7.45 million on average, 9.91 million on average, 12.4 million on average. Compare this to the NFL. The NFL Super Bowl had 115 million viewers.
If players want to speak politically, it is their right. Certainly. But don't think it won't have an impact on the business for which the players are working.
Just think about threads on this board. Do people want politics injected? I don't think so.
Let’s address this post logically
There are a few correlations in this post that just aren’t valid to a claim that the NBA is being hurt by politics. The NBA did not grow in the late 90s because Mj And other players didn’t discuss politics. It grew because the product was amazing and the Bulls had a dynasty everyone wanted to see fall.
You make it seem like players taking about politics is common. Basically only LeBron does it, and he usually only does it when asked a question about politics. It’s not like LeBron brings up politics during halftime/post game interviews. Literally all they did was allow slogans on jerseys and put stuff like “end racism” on the court. If that makes ppl so mad they don’t watch then I’d guess the NBA doesn’t care about losing that demographic.
The reason 4/5 of the last finals have been so low rated is because the COVID, and the series just haven’t been that good. Since those insane Warriors VS Cavs finals these have been the matchups….
Warriors vs Raptors
Lakers vs Heat (Bubble)
Suns vs Bucks
Warriors vs Celtics
Nuggets vs Heat
Not one finals series went to game 7 since Cavs vs Warriors in 2016. In all the series of the past 4 years the team favored has won. That’s simply not exciting. So the finals ratings are down because of streaming, AND lack of competitive series.
Another reason is star power. The newest batch of NBA Superstars are goofy as f*** and it makes you feel embarrassed to be an NBA fan when you’ve got guys like Zion paying hoes 100k a month, and Ja Morant just being an idiot. Fans, black or white can’t back that. Nothing to do with politics.
I think the NBA being on a decline is a conservative talking point that people push because they WANT to NBA be be punished by LeBron not being afraid to speak on political issues. It’s a weird hate of LeBron that pushes this narrative and the claim has no validity. Even with finals beignets rated near the low end, the NBA’s revenue was at an all time high for the 22-23 season.
Joker is a beast and everyone who’s a REAL fan of basketball finds every minute he plays exciting, but let’s be honest. The average casual basketball fan thinks Joker is boring and he just won finals MVP so that’s another reason why this latest finals probably didn’t get insane viewership. But the quality of basketball being played right now is extremely high. The Nuggets and Heat were both very technically sound teams….which does not equal excitement. The criticism i heard a lot was this last finals was simply boring because the Nuggets ran through the league so handily. So once again NOTHING to do with politics.
Another reason is an issue both the NBA and NFL have….refereeing. The officiating for both leagues is shitty and the worse part is they seem to take no accountability for the crappy officiating. That probably has hurt viewership more than anything else.
Phil Jackson doesn’t watch the NBA anymore because he’s a narcissist who believes he’s the best thing to happen to basketball since the invention of the dunk.
-Housh
