NBA Decline

The NBA's TV ratings have been rising for years.

Simply, you're wrong. Besides that, you just admitted you've watched one NBA game in five years, which of course makes you utterly unqualified to judge the quality of the action in the league in general, and ESPECIALLY to judge the change in this quality over time. I mean, seriously, get out of here.

Why did you watch an NBA game? Was there a particular reason? I see no reason to, and haven't in 15 years, and I love basketball. 

TV ratings are meaningless, just look at the other crap people watch. 

I feel the same about the nba as all other pro sports. If the teams I like aren't particularly good, then I don't see much of a reason to watch. I just dont have much emotional connection with the pro teams. The passion just isn't there in professional athletics. The skill level is definitely there, it just isn't as much fun to watch as college stuff. The skill level is almost a detriment, for me at least, because there isn't much parity. I'll watch the hell out of Michigan football even if they suck, but there's just something lacking in the pros.

I hate when people say this. maybe during the regular season because its such a grind. most college players wear down but the NBA guys go 82 games and some the playoffs.

People always think they aren't that skilled. Why is it that a lot of your best college players will never get a sniff in the NBA?

There is ball movement. You can't play a true zone and pretty much have to play man. You take the best offensive guys in the world and you're supposed to stop them? Look at the Heat, you have Lebron. You spread the floor and he has room to do whatever he wants because you can't double off ray or Battier because they will hit a 3, even bosh. if it gets reversed to wade you have a rotating defense to one of the best drivers in the game. its not easy playing against NBA shooters and athletes

I agree with most of your post except the complaining to the refs. Players have been doing that for decades. Bill Laimbeer would complain to the refs after he would be called for damn near decapitating someone.

Either the offenses are just that good or the defenses don't give a shit because the offenses score every time down the court.

"post-jordan slide" what does that even mean. The extent to which jordan is idolized is crazy. 

Also the fans seem way better in college than professional sports. The noise is a lot more in college football stadiums and college basketball arenas. Being a national champion means more when it is out of hundreds of teams than just 30. Teams like the Miami Heat just buy their championships.

and teams can purposefully tank to get the # 1 pick in both the NFL/NBA. You have to stay good in college or your recruiting will take a big hit.

I am drunk and like NCAA more than NBA. TE ll me what do do

Do tell me again how this generation is useless and there's no hope for the human race.

the NBA talent is amazing. as it always has been.

You're just old.  Start a thread on how kids don't show respect any more, and how technology is ruining real interaction or how you used to lug 50 pounds of ice up 5 or 6 flights of stairs every day.

Did you just step out of a time machine from the year 2000? Because that's the only way your post even remotely makes sense.

Can it be reveresed or will it continue on the post-Jordan silde?

Well golly-gee, I'm just sittin' here flim-flam flabbergasted as to how in tarnation the Minneapolis Lakers will do without that young Mikan whippersnapper. Why I remember when he was just a pup, battling it out in the National Basketball League with the Chicago American Gears before movin' on to the Lakers after the great PBLA collapse of '48. Why did the BBA and the National Basketball League have to go on and merge, making that there NBA? It just ain't right, this whole merging skiddly-doo business. I fear change.

My opinion? Fewer games would go a long, long way. Yet make less money.

As I'm sure some have already said this, but the NBA is actually near the highest it's ever been in popularity if not the highest. I'm with you tho, I hate how the NBA has become. It's almost unbearable to watch. NBA is the only sport I could care less about the Finals. I don't even watch hockey but I'll watch the playoffs if I see a game on. Not the NBA tho.

Of all the professional sports, NBA is the most predictable in terms of who will win.  Lebron is obviously an amazing athlete and a once a generation talent, but the NBA is unwatchable for me because of the lack of suspense.

No skilled big men? Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki, Dwight Howard, Pau Gasol, Anthony Davis, and more. What are you talking about?

"So tonight I watched my first NBA game on TV in about 5 years. "

Say that out loud five times.  

Now think.

I find the NBA boring to watch, but this is a terrible post.

The NBA is done. people who barely watch the product and have false memories of games 20 years ago always drive me crazy.

Each year I try to watch the NBA playoffs as it would give me something else in sports to watch after the NCAA tournament.  I just can't get into the NBA's style of play.  With rare exception, tt lacks the raw emotion that is present in good quality college basketball, even with better athletes.

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I can't stand watching NBA basketball

You ever go back and watch some of the shows from your youth and think "man, this is REALLY awful!?"



Maybe it's not so much the product that has changed but maybe it's your own personal tastes have evolved? It happens.

Watermelon or coconut. The taste of each is unappealing to me. I also tried white water kayaking and did not enjoy it at all. It essentially involved flipping over in cold water, escaping the Kayak, and slamming into rocks. You would then get back into the Kayak and repeat this process several times until you mercifully reached a point where you could exit the river, I also don't really care for the walking dead at this point. The slow moving plot focused on unending misery has led me to abandon the show.

I agree

The NBA regular season is too long & it STINKS.... The playoffs are pretty much the right size & time-frame, & so if you have a local team in it (the Pistons), it's pretty fun to watch.... The NBA players are more offensively skilled then EVER (as a group). I'll watch a random game once per week, & I each time I see several amazing offensive plays.... BUT the players attitudes & body language is the worst it's ever been.... It's called "I've been worshipped on the court since I was 13, so I've learned that I can live my life without showing respect to anyone ever. Unless it directly benefits me in a specific situation". I hate it. I aint old.

I'm not a fan, per se, of the NBA (I'm not emotionally invested in any particular way), but I follow it closely in a passive manner. What would be interesting to me is if you had a John Beilein coaching the Thunder. Anyone who watches the Thunder will recognize their offensive sets are rudimentary, to put it  kindly. Where the NBA is lacking, in my opinion, is the level of elite coaches. I mean, Scott Brooks's play seems to be follows:

1) Iso Kevin

2) Iso Russ

Now, not all NBA coaches are like this (Pop, Doc Rivers, etc) but if all the teams with elite talent had elite coaches, I think you'd see a product even the NBA haters can enjoy.

I enjoyed watching the Bad Boys, Jordan, Kings-Lakers, and the 2003-2008 Pistons. Something changed for me at the end of that run, though. The 2006 finals was the tipping point, and Dwyane Wade is the embodiment of what's gone wrong with the NBA to me. So desperate for "stars," the NBA decided Wade would score 25 points per game regardless of his inability to shoot and recklessness driving the ball. Stars always got preferred treatment from the zebras, but that series took it to a whole nother level of ridiculousness that ruined the game for me.

this is definitely OT. Now on to your terrible argument. Watching one game in five years hardly qualifies you to criticize the quality of the play. That being said, I'm not sure how much you even watched last night seeing as you complained about ball movement and the Heat offense thrives off of making the extra pass. You probably didn't enjoy the skill level of the Pacers last night because they pride themselves on defense.  As far as the skilled big men go, there are plenty. Kevin Love, Dwight Howard, Blake Griffin, Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki, Marc Gasol, Pau Gasol, LaMarcus Aldridge, Chris Bosh, etc. All of those guys are very versatile, talented players. Also, the NBA is doing just fine; revenue is rising and the Clippers are about to sell for roughly $1 billion dollars. 

Actually said after the 1st Round that I was willing to bet everyone would forget about how great the Playoffs have been this year if Miami continues to advance. Well, happened sooner than I thought. Anybody who trashes these Playoffs hasn't been watching them.

^OP's vision of great basketball^

Those were the days, I tell ya!

Don't mind the nba. The biggest problem is flow. It seems like every possession has a foul. Anytime a player dribbles into the lane and jumps it is a foul, regardless of who initiated contact. And then you get the pleasure of watching whoever the foul is called on start acting like they have been falsely accused of rape, even if they essentially punched the guy in the face.



Effort, skill, shooting, etc all seems fine to me.

Most people around here probably agree college basketball is much, much more fun to watch. There's nothing in sports as exciting as the NCAA tournament, IMO.



However, if you think back to the NBA playoffs last season, you certainly can't legitimately think the Heat-Spurs series lacked excitement in the least bit.

Watch the Spurs for the best team basketball this year. When the Spurs are clicking it's a thing of beauty.

First off let me say that anytime people bitch about the 'modern NBA' my racism sensors go off...

Second, if i I could change anything in the NBA I woudl only do two things:

1.) allow teams to fanchise players so that you don't get a Lebron 2.0

2.) allow teams to play any type of defense that they want.

extra credit: I would make any foul in the final 2 minutes a flagrant.

love,

jdon

I do think skill level is not what it once was-even something as fundamental as passing in/out of the post struggles. I have no quantitative evidence-just the eyeball test. I do think, however, that overall athleticism is way up. Teams seem to draft athleticism over skill.

Anyone who says the nba is in decline has clearly not watched a game in years...wait...

The biggest problem with the NBA isn't the NBA; Its at the High School level and this AAU crap. They don't teach these kids fundamental's anymore. Its not all on the coaches at that level, but with the way the AAU works and kids constatnly on the move they just aren't picking things up.

Lol whenever people talk about the fall of the NBA I have no idea wtf they're talking about. My guess is you know very little about basketball. Probably saw a couple "easy" layups and immediately assumed players were being "lazy". Just the typical old white person narrative. 

The game evolves. Who cares if there's not as many good big men? There aren't many Walter Payton 'carry the ball 30 times a game' RBs in the NFL these days, but people don't talk about how bad the product is. Simple minded thinking is a *you* problem, not a league problem. When you watch a game 5 years from now, think about why you see an easy layup. Maybe it's because there are 4 (sometimes 5) legit threats to make a shot from 20 feet out? Maybe the defense has to respect that, opening up the lane. Maybe you don't see that in college because nobody can f*cking shoot? THINK.

Perception, entitlement, and special treatment are what I believe has driven people away from some sports.  When i watch sports, it's hard for me to look at these players in some sports (NBA and MLB) and feel enjoyment.  My opinion on why the NFL as a professional sport is still watched is the heart and soul you have to maintain just to play.  When we see Lebron James being caried off the court because of a cramp then see guys leaving the football field with blood on their uniforms, it makes me feel like there's heart there in the NFL and the NBA is a bunch of premadonnas.  

On top of that, entertainment as a whole has changed dramatically over time.  It's not the time when people had to get up and go to a game and enjoyed the time it took.  Now Baseball games are 3 hours plus long.  Kids are engrained with video games and their attention span won't absorb that kind of investment with that much of a break in the action.  I'm not saying these things are bad, but I am seeing that this is part of the reason that sports like Baseball are declining.  

The players play an impact on this as well.  When Lebron has his orgasmic announcement I think it turned a ton of people off.  The strikes in Baseball, basketball and to some extent hockey have greatly turned peoples opinions.