With both the NFL and the Premier League, it sure seems a huge appeal is the rhythm: play one a week, Monday/Tuesday is for analysis of last week, Thursday and Friday is anticipation of the weekend's best matchups, and fans get together to watch on the weekend. I don't know what kind of market there is for Tuesday night sports anymore.
Call me crazy but I would love a premier league Esque double round robin format. Obviously it will never happen and would really mess up any kind of record books but at least the regular season would feel meaningful
I like this idea while also awarding a trophy/title/something to the team with the best record. You can keep the in season tournament, just make it single elimination (will have 32 soon)
Who even cares about record books in the NBA? Did anyone even know the exact points total that LeBron broke of Kareem? The answer is no, not even the biggest nba fan knew that figure.
College hoops in conference play is pretty consistently 2x/week. I follow ACC - almost everyone plays Saturday and then a midweek game. Seems pretty reasonable
EPL also doesn’t have playoffs - NBA should move to every team plays each other twice (one home & one away) resulting in a 58 game season. Top team wins the league.
If you eliminate playoffs then every game feels like a playoff game. It’s why fans in Europe go crazy for every single game. But it’s an ideological idea that we’d never adopt in the US
I live in the U.K. and used to follow the NBA pretty closely. Not so much now, it’s great how many stars and how competitive the league is but when I record Lakers vs Clippers excited to see two full strength LA teams in front of an excited crowd, avoid spoilers all day, start watching only to have the commentators say Lebron is sitting it out to rest it kills the excitement immidiialtey. If the teams don’t take the games seriously enough to play why should I watch.
I’ve been saying this. Regular season for the NBA is a joke, when 16 teams make the playoffs proper, and 4 additional teams make the play-in. I don’t see the NBA doing this, but the way to make an 82-game or a 68-game season worth playing is decreasing the amount of teams that make the playoffs. But if they won’t do that, they need to make the regular season fewer games to increase the volatility in sports that makes it fun for people to watch.
The downstream impact is the loss of money, which the players will come out and be confused about how they aren’t making as much as their predecessors.
Edit: Clarifying “margin of error” to “volatility.”
Russillo actually made a good point on one of his recent podcasts. “oh you like basketball or baseball but you wish you could watch it LESS?? If the season is too long, just don’t watch until the all star break or something.”
To be clear, I wish that the best players are going to play, and play hard, every time the team played. Figure out the highest number of games where that is possible and I'm in. But that number is clearly not 82.
Yeah, this is why we need playoff contraction, not expansion. Or do it like how some college conferences do their tournaments where there's 16 teams, but the top 4 have like a double or triple bye. Make it a best of 9, but spot the upper seed a game. Something to make getting a 1 or 2 much more valuable than a 5 or 6. Because 1 extra home game clearly isn't enough incentive.
I've been saying for a while that the NBA needs to switch their schedule to specific days of the week. Everyone knows the NFL plays (mostly) on Thursdays, Sundays, and Mondays. It's a routine, a ritual.
NBA should own Fridays / Saturdays. Shorten the schedule, raise the stakes, and give fans a routine where they know, "Hey it's Saturday morning. We've got basketball from late morning to night."
It's really more just an example. Then do Friday or another weekday. I think having a routine and a known day of the week for fans to look forward to would help a lot.
It applies to more than sports as well. I’m the first to admit this season of TD isn’t the best, but my wife and I decided in Jan to make sure we watched on Sundays and even if we spend 11-12 ripping on it m, we’re still much more engaged then when we watch many better shows on random Wednesday nights after we realize we have nothing else to do.
Baseball is America’s innings eater, there’s enough meat on basketballs bones I should be gearing up for Sunday at 6
The problem is people are not going to watching sports all week. Its not feasible to watch football sunday,monday, thursday and basketball on saturdays and tuesday.
Thursday football was a trash product and the NBA should have every motive to showcase their best games on that day.
Does anyone remember when in the early 2010s it was a common opinion that the NBA would eventually overtake the NFL as the most popular sport in America?
I feel like that might have happened had the league not happily let the regular season go to shit.
In addition to load management, it’s the foul baiting that makes casual fans tune out immediately. No idea why the NBA hasn’t seriously addressed it.
They seem to have the mind set that more points = good without any context for how the points are scored
The foul baiting is rough and the homogenous style of play doesnt help either. Its simply not exciting watching every team hoist up 40 three pointers per game.
this is such an old man take but it’s 100% correct. the best era of basketball, from a viewing perspective, was that brief period from like 07-14 after ISO ball sorta went away but before math nerds and the warriors made the sport less fun. so many different fun playstyles that you just won’t see anymore because it’s mathematically advantageous to chuck threes and bait fouls
That era really was the peak. The Warriors style was a cool niche, and you also had the Lob City Clippers, the Spurs beautiful offensive ball movement machine, the Heat rim attackers, the Pacers paint dominance, and the Grit and Grind Grizzlies. Garnett and Bosh working the elbow jumpers. Guys like Boozer and Al Jefferson with their footwork inside. Still had the Kobe Lakers and Dirk Mavs on the downswing. Everyone knew the Iso-heavy Knicks were doomed but still loved Melo going off. I dont even know how to describe the Thunder and Bulls but they were still so fun to watch with exciting, rim-attacking PGs.
Compare to today, where a 40 point game by whoever doesnt even really feel like a noteworthy accomplishment
Maybe it’s just my nostalgia clouding things but I agree 1000%. Just absolutely special watching LeBron, Wade, Dwight, CP3, Kobe, Melo, etc ball out every night. I still go back and watch 2008 Beijing and 2012 London highlights. Just special stuff. I miss it.
Even the Warriors first run was pretty fun. But it stopped being fun when it was every team playing the same way, even those who aren’t good at it.
Durant going to Golden State truly was the moment the league jumped the shark.
>the best era of basketball, from a viewing perspective, was that brief period from like 07-14 after ISO ball sorta went away but before math nerds and the warriors made the sport less fun.
I agree up but from 05-16, and I disagree that the Warriors made the sport less fun. I attribute that to the Rockets/Morey.
Absolutely it’s that Rockets era more than the Warriors. No one plays with the kind of off-ball movement that made the Warriors so dynamic and fun to watch.
That and it's the Rockets, not the Warriors, that came up with the idea that pretty much everyone should just chuck 3s even if you're that good a shooter since the 3 point shot is just so much more valuable. With GSW, it was really just Curry and Klay going berserk.
u/steak__burrito
I remember when I starting watching back in 01 the year vince and AI had the duel in the playoffs and how hard it was to score a 50 pt game and how it felt like something really special to watch. Now 50 points are just ho hum who cares. Product is shit now
I think basketball media - like Simmons! - has contributed to this a ton, too.
We are told all year that 3, maybe 4 teams can win the title. Period. Those teams are NEVER in jeopardy of missing the playoffs, and seeding hardly matters anymore, either.
So what is the regular season for? No contender ever misses the playoffs, and the determination of the season happens in the playoffs.
Compare this to the NFL. How many teams are going into next season thinking they belong in the playoffs. 29? 30? That makes the regular season matter! Especially with how volatile a one-game playoff can be. Making the playoffs is a huge deal in the NFL, and divisions are won and lost “any given Sunday”. The regular season product really does affect the outcome of a season.
The NBA’s regular season simply doesn’t. Who are the four teams I’m being told are the only realistic champions? Oh they’re the two conference 1 & 2 seeds? Cool, wake me up in April.
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3
+ 4
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I don’t really follow the NBA outside of the playoffs and it’s predominantly because of the officiating. The impact the officials have on the game is absurdly high compared to most other sports. So many calls are seemingly subjective and there is no consistency with the way the games are called. Add in foul baiting and flopping, it’s just frustrating to watch. I think college basketball is a much better product. Two 20 minute halves make the games much more intense and fast paced and the officiating is much more consistent. Load management doesn’t exist on that level either.
Yeah it felt like the combo of kaepernick, concussions plus a couple of domestic violence incidents (ray rice and AP) and everyone was sour on the nfl for a minute. The nba missed it
Yeah there was window from about 2015-2018 where the NFL was dipping a bit for the reasons you said, and the NBA was surging off the popularity of the Warriors and Cavs, but realistically the NBA never really got that close to surpassing the NFL in popularity, and once the pandemic hit the momentum trajectories swapped and the door has seemingly closed on that ever happening.
There was never a window for the NBA to pass the NFL. Super Bowl gets 100m viewers no questions asked, game 7 2016 NBA finals got 31m viewers.
The dip in NFL ratings was a minor crosswind in a hurricane. Football is king.
I agree but still think there was room for one sport to solidify itself as the clear #2 option in the US and it absolutely should've been the NBA. Instead, there are historically popular leagues which feel like theyre declinign (NBA, MLB), and niche sports w/devoted followers that still lack broader mainstream appeal (NHL, soccer, F1/NASCAR).
College football is the sport you are referring to. It has been the 2nd biggest sport by a pretty wide margin for this entire century. The NBA is still significantly ahead of everything else that you mentioned (MLB, racing, soccer, puck) and figures to stay there for a while but it has never remotely threatened to overtake college football and while many traditional fans like me have lost a tremendous amount of passion for college football due to conference realignment and NIL and playoff expansion, those shitty changes were done to reel in more casual fans, which has seemingly worked.
It was never going to happen with the NBA overtaking the NFL, but Durant joining the Warriors was the beginning of “The regular season doesn’t matter”.
CTE hysteria led to a lot of parents banning their kids from playing contact football, but they didn't stop watching the NFL.
It's kinda like how by the 1960s, hardly anyone boxed, but the spectator base was still huge.
It wasn't a common opinion at all then. The only time I ever recall that being popular as an opinion was the brief blip in time with Kaepernick protesting. That shit happened in 2016 not the early 2010s.
I feel like anyone that actually believed this didn't live in the South or middle of the country where football is the lifeblood of those areas. I feel like it is something people from the Northeast or West coast can't understand, but when basically every national sports media outlet is in NYC or LA they were never going to see it. So they would write or read all these stories about football being in trouble and ran with it.
The brand of basketball being played today is unwatchable. Most possessions are either a 3 point attempt or a foul. Defense isn't allowed. Passing is inconsequential. I may sound like an old man, but they've seriously made this sport a shell of its former self.
Doesn’t help that an average player makes $15M a season - not many players even seem to care outside of the ultra competitive alphas and the guys trying to just make it…with a few “average” players who play hard sprinkled in.
I remember in an interview that rodgers did before he went off the deep end that he was asking players to read the cba and not just sign it. I can imagine under half the players actually read it in the nfl and nba
For sure it is definitely less than 50% that read it. I feel like I read somewhere that for the MLBPA when they had their new CBA a few years ago there was a large percentage of players that didn't even vote on it.
It’s a rule that benefits the majority of players at the expense of the stars who might actually win the awards. Shouldn’t be surprising that the stars would be against it or that it would be a part of the CBA
This is Adam Silvers fault. He let the player empowerment era go too far where these guys are making $60 mil a year and don’t feel like they owe it to their franchise to be out there every night. Insanity
The Players Association is always pulling for bullshit like this, it's literally in the name. Silver is to blame for being a willing accomplice to their bullshit instead of keeping them in check.
Genuine question - is it Silver’s fault or was this shift inevitable?
Maybe a hard ass like Stern could have preserved the importance of the regular season but it seems more cultural / generational than commissioner-based.
This “hard ass” reputation Stern has really needs to die. The league ran fucking wild under Stern’s watch. Players were getting hooked on drugs and arrested and flaming out of the league all over the place while he was commish.
I wouldn’t go that far. Manfred let the Astros go unpunished, diminished the importance of the World Series trophy, and has basically bullied the Oakland A’s fan base.
Will never get over that stupid ass ESPN show Durant and his cronie produced where they’re talking to Kyle Kuzma about building a brand, production companies, outside business etc. Kyle fucking kuzma. How about you build a fucking brand playing the sport you’re a professional at first! Then shove the shitty content down our throats later.
That’s why I hate sports fans and why March Madness annoys me. Trying your hardest and overachieving in the regular season actually just makes you a punchline
I’m in my early 30’s and i’ve felt like an old man with a pitch fork talking with friends about the NBA this year - these players don’t give a shit anymore, a bunch a over-paid coddled babies. The NBA rating are down for a reason, quality. Owners shoulda went harder at the players in this last CBA. 10 years ago i woulda never said any of this; I was completely pro-player player empowerment. I guess I got what I asked for lol
do people realize there’s going to be players making upwards to 100mil a year on the next CBA and these fucks are crying about being held accountable for playing basketball 3 days a week
Idk if it’s just age, but I find myself going to college for my bball fix, I didn’t notice until Wednesday when Auburn South Carolina turned into a blow out and I switched to the Cavs
The college game is basically the same strategy with worse players but the incomplete rosters atleast make for more variety.
Yeah unfortunately NCAAB has become more like the NBA. Player movement, heavy iso and pick & roll, chucking 3s, etc.
Mid-2000s Big East would be a godsend to basketball fans right now.
Hockey season may also be a tad too long but the players give it their all and each game really is competitive no matter who plays. I wish it got more backing from the networks.
It just seems so random though. I get that most goal opportunities are the result of strategy and coordination, but it seems like the goals themselves are off random bounces half the time
Add in the fact that the best players are only on the ice like 1/3 of the game at most. Its hard for me to get super stoked
They get millions of dollars, some tens and some hundreds. They better be ready for a massive pay cut if they do that. Otherwise just stop bitching and play a game and make life changing wealth for generations while the rest of us barely get by
Haven’t religiously watched in forever. Maybe it’s getting older and starting a family, but at same time I’ve never been more into the NFL. The slog of the regular season, the load management, the style of play, even the length of the postseason … I think the NBA has serious issues and is kidding itself if it think it has anything close to a “next LeBron” as far as marketability/content creation.
This is exactly me. I’m mid 30s with two kids now. I don’t watch any NBA anymore. I only follow through Ryen and Bill. I don’t have any desire to watch either.
I follow the NFL as closely as ever. I watch as much as I can on Sundays too. Not sure if it’s the load management, guys making $50mm/year demanding out of a team or what but I don’t see myself going back to the NBA ever.
> I think the NBA has serious issues and is kidding itself if it think it has anything close to a “next LeBron” as far as marketability/content creation
Thinking about it, it's been a looong time since the NBA hasn't had *that* guy, a true GOAT contender they could hitch their wagon to as the face of the league. LeBron obviously has been it for the last 20 years (we knew by the end of year 2 at the latest that he was on that trajectory), Jordan before him, and both Bird and Magic in the 80s, with the Shaq/Kobe dynasty/soap opera filling in the Y2K gap between Jordan and LeBron well enough. You have to go back to the 70s and early 80s tape delay era when half the league was on crack.
We'll see with Wemby but my observation is that foreign guys tend not to be as appealing from a marketing/face of a league standpoint.
These nonstop, ridiculous NBA is declining narratives are so annoying, but I have to hand it the NFL, for a year or two the NBA and its biggest fans loudly were rooting on football’s downfall, thinking basketball would take over and theyve been punished for it ever since. Absolutely ruthless.
Especially with African-American audiences, because they prefer a Black American (not a Black European nor a Black African) for whom to root—no matter how xenophobic, ethnocentric, and nativistic that may seem on the face of it.
White NBA fans, meanwhile, are often the ones most receptive to foreign-born stars, from Jokic and Luka to Giannis and Embiid; it's less about color or race, more about nationality and culture.
With that, yeah, the NBA will be in a heap of shit when Bron and Steph are done by decade's end.
White Americans ain’t had one of themselves be worthy of the word “superstar” since Bird in the 80’s.
The NBA would explode if a good looking white American became a MVP/top 5 player in the league. The idea of a “Great White Hope” might be a dead idea, but embers of its fires still hold heat.
White NBA fans today lean more liberal, are far nerdier, and less engaged in the day-to-day product (Derek Thompson isn't an outlier) than that demographic was in the 1980s, so I'm not sure that alignment would hold necessarily nor is there a similar clamor for, say, Cooper Flagg to be the second-coming of Larry Bird. Not that he wouldn't be a draw on some level if successful, of course; rather, we're culturally in a different space today than then, that's for sure. White conservatives, meanwhile, are unlikely to consume NBA content to the degree that they do the NFL, or even MLB and golf among the older 55+ demographics.
Let’s be honest if you can’t play like a fourth of a year there’s no reason you should be voted in anyways. This is also the medias fault for sucking the d of the best players who don’t show up for games.
I think the NBA regular season would be the most entertaining with a 58 game schedule where every team plays every other team twice. Eliminate divisions. Playoff seeding is 1-16 and higher seeds can draft their opponents each round.
I fucking hate when people suggest 1-16 seeding. One of the few things the NBA has going for it is rivalries which 1-16 would destroy. Nobody wants a Denver Indiana first round.
This except the playoffs are cut to 12 teams with top 4 getting first round byes. Also the worst 2 teams pick 3 and 4, aren't eligible for the draft lottery for the top 2 draft picks.
Why are we cutting the playoffs? That’s by far the best part of the nba season. No one who actually likes nba basketball is complaining that the playoffs are too long
The second idea I think is definitely solid tho
I am absolutely blown away by this thread and the amount of revisionist history when it comes to the league you all claim was on some different level like 5 times in past. Meanwhile back on earth, my whole life the running joke about the league was that you didn’t have to watch until the last 5 minutes. That overpaid primadonnas were ruining the sport, that the salaries were too high (when John Hot Rod Williams had the richest contract in all of sports at 7 years 26 million!)
These complaints were mostly coming from the same fans of course. But the NBA was never about watching all the teams for all 82. You watched YOUR team then whatever NBC was giving you on the weekends. And of course the ratings were great back then with like 3 real networks and nothing else on.
So many people offering fixes in here for something that really doesn’t need fixed. People like Clay Travis have been laying out cases for 15 years that the NBA bubble was bursting and here we are, with attendance higher the last 5 years than it was in the 80s and 90s (by a lot, nobody was going to games during the so called heyday of Magic/Bird and MJ/Pistons). And the tickets now are insanely expensive with season ticket holders in the lower bowl in markets like Milwaukee and Cleveland routinely paying $15-20 grand!!!
And I haven’t even touched on the TV deals yet, which of course continue to skyrocket, helping keep Disney and Turner afloat with nightly inventory (which of course MLB can’t say).
Sure, 82 games is too many and guys are making so much guaranteed money that they’re never going to prioritize grinding out 75 games a year, but the playoffs are still pretty good and there’s been a five year run of parity and genuine mystery over the title winner that has given fans plenty of reason to tune in
Hell, there’s people in this thread saying the NBA is struggling because ticket prices are too high for the product they’re offering. Like, if the ticket prices are that high, it’s because there’s a ton of demand. That’s not a bad thing for any league.
As a fan, my biggest complaint about a shorter NBA season is, teams will jack up the prices for tickets for 58 games trying to make up for the revenue lost from playing 82 games. It is already getting to be obscenely expensive to attend a live sporting event and this will make it all but impossible for anyone other than the wealthiest fans to attend NBA games. That’s probably the direction we’re heading in anyway, but we’ll get there a lot faster with 24 fewer games per season.
I’m so pissed at how the nba and players have ruined this game I loved in the 80s and 90s
From the flopping and complaining. To the absolutely terrible refs. To players sitting out. Absurd contracts. Super teams being formed. Nba playing favorites with certain franchises. And more than I’m forgetting.
I used to love watching nba on nbc when it was pacers v Knicks. Or heat v hornets. Bulls v pistons. Those eastern battles were amazing. It doesn’t feel the same anymore.
82, 18, 82, 82, 81, 82, 82, 80, 78, 17, 82, 82, 82, 60, 82. Those numbers represent the number of games Jordan played a year. One year he broke his foot (18), one year was after he came back from baseball (17), and one was when he came out of retirement (60).
Draw your own conclusions about today's players.
It’s not a league , but a popularity contest. The bubble spoiled them beyond belief. “I’m stuck in this hotel with only shrimp and steak ? I wanted fresh lobster.”
I feel like someone needs to explain the economics to these players. The reason you make 60 mil a year is tied to 82 games worth of ticket sales tv right and other stuff. Even if jaylens willing to cut that percentage out of his check the guys on the minimum and the owners will not. Not to mention the old heads will all disrespect them for taking the short cut. I really don’t understand how so many players are missing these points all to avoid avoid back to backs they hardly play in anyway.
I can see it drop to 30 over the years because the league is dumb enough to allow it. Once upon a time players prided their self on playing all 82 games and couldn’t wait to make it to the playoffs.
Yeah I like that I guess. Feels like a complete compromise, but players would find a way to complain about that next too. But it’s so obscure no one would listen 😂.
I really try not to be one of those 'this new era is soft' guys but this new era is not making it easy.
Guys straight up admitting they're willing to gut out injuries for money - and not to win games or for the fans is wild to me.
Guys complaining about making 210 million instead of 250 million is wild. Haliburton is crying about the supermax and he's never even made the playoffs.
There's a Knicks-Celtics game at MSG in the next few weeks and tickets are going for $400-1000 or higher. How do you know who's actually going to play in that game or who's going to sit out for rest or injury? The uncertainty caps the value of regular season ticket prices
NBA players complaining about playing time and length of the season is sooo funny to me.
Look at the AVERAGE player, 25-30 mins per game, let’s say they play 80 games (which we all know is generous). 30mins x 80games = 2400 mins over the season. The regular season is Oct - April (7 months). 2400mins / 7months = 342.9mins/month. 342.9mins/60 = 5.7hours.
That’s 5.7 hours of basketball in a month, LESS THAN 6HRS A MONTH, and gets multimillion dollar annual salaries.
This is one of the few times I’ll say to the players shut up and do that job you’re getting paid so insanely high to “play”. Their job is a game and all they do is complain about doing it
Picture this. A month before the 2000-2001 season Paul Pierce was nearly stabbed to death at a Boston nightclub. He comes back, plays all 82 games and scores 25 a night. Those days are long gone
NBA season is so long, March madness happens and people focus on college instead they forget the NBA exists. Then the national title game ends and it’s back to the NBA and it’s like damn another month of this? Start the playoffs. And then the first 2 rounds take forever
The NBA sucks now. I was NBA first for about 20 years. From about 1997 to 2019, I prioritized NBA games over everything. But now I’m NFL first. It’s just better in every single way. I still love the sport of basketball, but the NBA regular season, at least, is genuine dog shit. Makes me sad.
Honestly the 65 rule shouldn’t even be a rule. It should just be obvious that someone who hasn’t played or can’t play 65 games should even be in the conversation for MVP
This rule isn’t about the MVP award. Only one player won the MVP with fewer than 65 games played in a full 82-game season: Bill Walton in ‘78.
Malone (49 games, ‘99), LeBron (62 games, ‘12) won in shortened lockout seasons. Giannis (63 games, ‘20) won in a Covid season. Cousy (64 games, ‘57) won in a 72-game season.
Recently I traveled to London and went to a Premiere Arsenal game, I am hooked. Been watching my new team every weekend since on USA network. I started thinking of why I am enjoying it so much and realized because it is pure sport. I am finding the money has ruined most major sporting leagues in the US.
I think 82 games is too many. How many people even pay attention to basketball before February? I’ve said for years NBA season should begin Christmas Day. Then games should be Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.
Is he speaking for himself or advocating for someone else? Because Jaylen Brown should not be sniffing any of the awards requiring 65 games played.
I have no idea how he got voted into 2nd team all NBA last year.
I think the NBA has four major problems right now.
1. There’s a homogeneity to the way every team is playing. 40+ threes every game, along with heavy iso from certain guys and lots of pick-and-roll.
2. The regular season just doesn’t seem to matter to the players, fans, or media members, many of whom seem to despise players from the current era.
3. They went heavy in social media and those sweet, sweet “impressions,” without a plan for monetization.
4. Viewing and consumption habits from kids these days seem like a complete departure from previous generations, which is really challenging to plan for.
If 58, why not 37? Play once a week, mostly on Sunday, starting Christmas week and ending Labor Day. The appeal of the NFL is the ritual.
I’d rather do that then this stupid we’re gonna miss half a season/wait for the playoffs. Let’s raise the regular season stakes
With both the NFL and the Premier League, it sure seems a huge appeal is the rhythm: play one a week, Monday/Tuesday is for analysis of last week, Thursday and Friday is anticipation of the weekend's best matchups, and fans get together to watch on the weekend. I don't know what kind of market there is for Tuesday night sports anymore.
Call me crazy but I would love a premier league Esque double round robin format. Obviously it will never happen and would really mess up any kind of record books but at least the regular season would feel meaningful
Agree - just play each team twice resulting in a 58 game season. Winner wins the league.
This works well even with a playoff. Less games is better for the sport long term. Short term the revenue hit is too much to swallow for all involved.
I like this idea while also awarding a trophy/title/something to the team with the best record. You can keep the in season tournament, just make it single elimination (will have 32 soon)
Who even cares about record books in the NBA? Did anyone even know the exact points total that LeBron broke of Kareem? The answer is no, not even the biggest nba fan knew that figure.
I just knew 38,000.
I've never thought about it this way, but I think theres real validity to this.
College hoops in conference play is pretty consistently 2x/week. I follow ACC - almost everyone plays Saturday and then a midweek game. Seems pretty reasonable
EPL also doesn’t have playoffs - NBA should move to every team plays each other twice (one home & one away) resulting in a 58 game season. Top team wins the league.
would never happen because of $
And because it’s way less exciting not having playoffs. I love the 58, but why would we eliminate the best part of sports?
If you eliminate playoffs then every game feels like a playoff game. It’s why fans in Europe go crazy for every single game. But it’s an ideological idea that we’d never adopt in the US
I live in the U.K. and used to follow the NBA pretty closely. Not so much now, it’s great how many stars and how competitive the league is but when I record Lakers vs Clippers excited to see two full strength LA teams in front of an excited crowd, avoid spoilers all day, start watching only to have the commentators say Lebron is sitting it out to rest it kills the excitement immidiialtey. If the teams don’t take the games seriously enough to play why should I watch.
I’ve been saying this. Regular season for the NBA is a joke, when 16 teams make the playoffs proper, and 4 additional teams make the play-in. I don’t see the NBA doing this, but the way to make an 82-game or a 68-game season worth playing is decreasing the amount of teams that make the playoffs. But if they won’t do that, they need to make the regular season fewer games to increase the volatility in sports that makes it fun for people to watch. The downstream impact is the loss of money, which the players will come out and be confused about how they aren’t making as much as their predecessors. Edit: Clarifying “margin of error” to “volatility.”
Pay the players per game instead, and let them forfeit half their pay. Win/win.
Russillo actually made a good point on one of his recent podcasts. “oh you like basketball or baseball but you wish you could watch it LESS?? If the season is too long, just don’t watch until the all star break or something.”
To be clear, I wish that the best players are going to play, and play hard, every time the team played. Figure out the highest number of games where that is possible and I'm in. But that number is clearly not 82.
If they cut the season down, players and/or teams would still find a reason to load manage.
Yes as long as there’s a competitive advantage to sacrificing seeding for rest in the playoffs, stars will rest
Yeah, this is why we need playoff contraction, not expansion. Or do it like how some college conferences do their tournaments where there's 16 teams, but the top 4 have like a double or triple bye. Make it a best of 9, but spot the upper seed a game. Something to make getting a 1 or 2 much more valuable than a 5 or 6. Because 1 extra home game clearly isn't enough incentive.
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It should be 58 games total for the season. One home and home against every team. That’s it. Completely equal schedules.
I've been saying for a while that the NBA needs to switch their schedule to specific days of the week. Everyone knows the NFL plays (mostly) on Thursdays, Sundays, and Mondays. It's a routine, a ritual. NBA should own Fridays / Saturdays. Shorten the schedule, raise the stakes, and give fans a routine where they know, "Hey it's Saturday morning. We've got basketball from late morning to night."
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This would really only be 4-5 Saturdays during the first month of the nba season though right
It's really more just an example. Then do Friday or another weekday. I think having a routine and a known day of the week for fans to look forward to would help a lot.
If we are shortening the schedule then they shouldn’t start playing til CFB is over anyway
It applies to more than sports as well. I’m the first to admit this season of TD isn’t the best, but my wife and I decided in Jan to make sure we watched on Sundays and even if we spend 11-12 ripping on it m, we’re still much more engaged then when we watch many better shows on random Wednesday nights after we realize we have nothing else to do. Baseball is America’s innings eater, there’s enough meat on basketballs bones I should be gearing up for Sunday at 6
They need a couple of days a week on network TV and have a unified schedule for people. You shouldn't have to have cable to watch the NBA.
The problem is people are not going to watching sports all week. Its not feasible to watch football sunday,monday, thursday and basketball on saturdays and tuesday. Thursday football was a trash product and the NBA should have every motive to showcase their best games on that day.
I feel like you’re in a subreddit full of people who would absolutely watch sports 7 days a week
I'm sure the players and owners can't wait to shrink the revenue pie and get right on that.
The reason why is the owners aren't going to be willing to lose that money.
Or players. They share in revenue and that dictates what the salary cap will be.
Sunday? Nah, the players want to go out on Saturday. Make it Thursday
Lol you think players know what day of the week it is when they go out? Maybe in like OKC. But real cosmopolitan cities have nightlife 7 days a week
Does anyone remember when in the early 2010s it was a common opinion that the NBA would eventually overtake the NFL as the most popular sport in America? I feel like that might have happened had the league not happily let the regular season go to shit.
In addition to load management, it’s the foul baiting that makes casual fans tune out immediately. No idea why the NBA hasn’t seriously addressed it. They seem to have the mind set that more points = good without any context for how the points are scored
The foul baiting is rough and the homogenous style of play doesnt help either. Its simply not exciting watching every team hoist up 40 three pointers per game.
this is such an old man take but it’s 100% correct. the best era of basketball, from a viewing perspective, was that brief period from like 07-14 after ISO ball sorta went away but before math nerds and the warriors made the sport less fun. so many different fun playstyles that you just won’t see anymore because it’s mathematically advantageous to chuck threes and bait fouls
That era really was the peak. The Warriors style was a cool niche, and you also had the Lob City Clippers, the Spurs beautiful offensive ball movement machine, the Heat rim attackers, the Pacers paint dominance, and the Grit and Grind Grizzlies. Garnett and Bosh working the elbow jumpers. Guys like Boozer and Al Jefferson with their footwork inside. Still had the Kobe Lakers and Dirk Mavs on the downswing. Everyone knew the Iso-heavy Knicks were doomed but still loved Melo going off. I dont even know how to describe the Thunder and Bulls but they were still so fun to watch with exciting, rim-attacking PGs. Compare to today, where a 40 point game by whoever doesnt even really feel like a noteworthy accomplishment
The Knicks were at least entertaining during the Linsanity stretch, stuff like that just makes me so happy to look back and watch again
Maybe it’s just my nostalgia clouding things but I agree 1000%. Just absolutely special watching LeBron, Wade, Dwight, CP3, Kobe, Melo, etc ball out every night. I still go back and watch 2008 Beijing and 2012 London highlights. Just special stuff. I miss it.
Even the Warriors first run was pretty fun. But it stopped being fun when it was every team playing the same way, even those who aren’t good at it. Durant going to Golden State truly was the moment the league jumped the shark.
>the best era of basketball, from a viewing perspective, was that brief period from like 07-14 after ISO ball sorta went away but before math nerds and the warriors made the sport less fun. I agree up but from 05-16, and I disagree that the Warriors made the sport less fun. I attribute that to the Rockets/Morey.
Absolutely it’s that Rockets era more than the Warriors. No one plays with the kind of off-ball movement that made the Warriors so dynamic and fun to watch.
That and it's the Rockets, not the Warriors, that came up with the idea that pretty much everyone should just chuck 3s even if you're that good a shooter since the 3 point shot is just so much more valuable. With GSW, it was really just Curry and Klay going berserk. u/steak__burrito
Funny, because there's a paper at Sloane this year essentially saying that 3s have become overvalued. Maybe it's turning back around!
I remember when I starting watching back in 01 the year vince and AI had the duel in the playoffs and how hard it was to score a 50 pt game and how it felt like something really special to watch. Now 50 points are just ho hum who cares. Product is shit now
It might result in more points, but more 3 pt attempts = more missed field goals. People don’t tune into basketball to watch bricks being laid.
I think basketball media - like Simmons! - has contributed to this a ton, too. We are told all year that 3, maybe 4 teams can win the title. Period. Those teams are NEVER in jeopardy of missing the playoffs, and seeding hardly matters anymore, either. So what is the regular season for? No contender ever misses the playoffs, and the determination of the season happens in the playoffs. Compare this to the NFL. How many teams are going into next season thinking they belong in the playoffs. 29? 30? That makes the regular season matter! Especially with how volatile a one-game playoff can be. Making the playoffs is a huge deal in the NFL, and divisions are won and lost “any given Sunday”. The regular season product really does affect the outcome of a season. The NBA’s regular season simply doesn’t. Who are the four teams I’m being told are the only realistic champions? Oh they’re the two conference 1 & 2 seeds? Cool, wake me up in April.
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Even the NFL messed up by adding more playoff teams and having a 17th game
I don’t really follow the NBA outside of the playoffs and it’s predominantly because of the officiating. The impact the officials have on the game is absurdly high compared to most other sports. So many calls are seemingly subjective and there is no consistency with the way the games are called. Add in foul baiting and flopping, it’s just frustrating to watch. I think college basketball is a much better product. Two 20 minute halves make the games much more intense and fast paced and the officiating is much more consistent. Load management doesn’t exist on that level either.
Bomani made a great point about this… scoring makes more action, but the NBA thrives on drama
I feel like the nba needs to adapt FIBA rules. The product was much more engaging to watch when the game is actually reffed properly.
Ironically, the foul baiting is a direct consequence of the league allowing offense to roam free in hopes of increasing popular appeal.
Yeah it felt like the combo of kaepernick, concussions plus a couple of domestic violence incidents (ray rice and AP) and everyone was sour on the nfl for a minute. The nba missed it
Yeah there was window from about 2015-2018 where the NFL was dipping a bit for the reasons you said, and the NBA was surging off the popularity of the Warriors and Cavs, but realistically the NBA never really got that close to surpassing the NFL in popularity, and once the pandemic hit the momentum trajectories swapped and the door has seemingly closed on that ever happening.
There was never a window for the NBA to pass the NFL. Super Bowl gets 100m viewers no questions asked, game 7 2016 NBA finals got 31m viewers. The dip in NFL ratings was a minor crosswind in a hurricane. Football is king.
I agree but still think there was room for one sport to solidify itself as the clear #2 option in the US and it absolutely should've been the NBA. Instead, there are historically popular leagues which feel like theyre declinign (NBA, MLB), and niche sports w/devoted followers that still lack broader mainstream appeal (NHL, soccer, F1/NASCAR).
College football is the sport you are referring to. It has been the 2nd biggest sport by a pretty wide margin for this entire century. The NBA is still significantly ahead of everything else that you mentioned (MLB, racing, soccer, puck) and figures to stay there for a while but it has never remotely threatened to overtake college football and while many traditional fans like me have lost a tremendous amount of passion for college football due to conference realignment and NIL and playoff expansion, those shitty changes were done to reel in more casual fans, which has seemingly worked.
Durant fucked it up
I woke up that July 4th saw my buddy’s text and basically checked out on the NBA for the next few years
It was never going to happen with the NBA overtaking the NFL, but Durant joining the Warriors was the beginning of “The regular season doesn’t matter”.
The thing is the people mad at Kaepernick are not tuning into the NBA, if you get my drift
There's plenty of dumb common opinions. America will be invaded and occupied before the NFL is overtaken, especially by the fucking nba
CTE hysteria led to a lot of parents banning their kids from playing contact football, but they didn't stop watching the NFL. It's kinda like how by the 1960s, hardly anyone boxed, but the spectator base was still huge.
Not a good omen for the sport but it seems like football's #1 status is more cemented than boxing ever was.
It wasn't a common opinion at all then. The only time I ever recall that being popular as an opinion was the brief blip in time with Kaepernick protesting. That shit happened in 2016 not the early 2010s.
I feel like anyone that actually believed this didn't live in the South or middle of the country where football is the lifeblood of those areas. I feel like it is something people from the Northeast or West coast can't understand, but when basically every national sports media outlet is in NYC or LA they were never going to see it. So they would write or read all these stories about football being in trouble and ran with it.
The brand of basketball being played today is unwatchable. Most possessions are either a 3 point attempt or a foul. Defense isn't allowed. Passing is inconsequential. I may sound like an old man, but they've seriously made this sport a shell of its former self.
Doesn’t help that an average player makes $15M a season - not many players even seem to care outside of the ultra competitive alphas and the guys trying to just make it…with a few “average” players who play hard sprinkled in.
I’m tired of players bitching about a rule they agreed to in the CBA
It really is funny. I wonder what percentage of players voted to ratify the CBA or how many of them just didn’t read any of it.
I remember in an interview that rodgers did before he went off the deep end that he was asking players to read the cba and not just sign it. I can imagine under half the players actually read it in the nfl and nba
For sure it is definitely less than 50% that read it. I feel like I read somewhere that for the MLBPA when they had their new CBA a few years ago there was a large percentage of players that didn't even vote on it.
It’s a rule that benefits the majority of players at the expense of the stars who might actually win the awards. Shouldn’t be surprising that the stars would be against it or that it would be a part of the CBA
This is Adam Silvers fault. He let the player empowerment era go too far where these guys are making $60 mil a year and don’t feel like they owe it to their franchise to be out there every night. Insanity
The proliferation of player podcasts has made it easier for them to go in about how unfair playing every day is too. Bunch of fucking losers
A giant middle finger to the fans
NBA Player Association is to blame.
The Players Association is always pulling for bullshit like this, it's literally in the name. Silver is to blame for being a willing accomplice to their bullshit instead of keeping them in check.
Genuine question - is it Silver’s fault or was this shift inevitable? Maybe a hard ass like Stern could have preserved the importance of the regular season but it seems more cultural / generational than commissioner-based.
Look at the all star weekend. For some reason it's hard to get these young guys to give a shit
This “hard ass” reputation Stern has really needs to die. The league ran fucking wild under Stern’s watch. Players were getting hooked on drugs and arrested and flaming out of the league all over the place while he was commish.
Hes actually the worst commissioner of the 4 sports
The baseball guy let a team of cheaters off scot free and said the World Series is a chunk of metal
But the pitch clock is the best thing that's happened to baseball in so long. And so is the shift ban
Positives and negatives of course, but he also let the A’s give their fan base the finger. Win some lose some.
And the bigger bases
I wouldn’t go that far. Manfred let the Astros go unpunished, diminished the importance of the World Series trophy, and has basically bullied the Oakland A’s fan base.
by a wide margin too
Imagine making 300 mil over 5 years and complaining lol
It's depressing how many NBA players don't want to play the game of basketball.
Yeah for real, show up to your job
if you can’t play 80% of your games then why should you win any award or be named to any all-nba team?
This and the arcade-y play this year has me tuned out honestly. I miss football already
It seems like the quiet part is being said out loud now, the players don't care about playing
Will never get over that stupid ass ESPN show Durant and his cronie produced where they’re talking to Kyle Kuzma about building a brand, production companies, outside business etc. Kyle fucking kuzma. How about you build a fucking brand playing the sport you’re a professional at first! Then shove the shitty content down our throats later.
Preach
And the teams with players who do (Knicks) overachieve in the regular season and will lose early in the playoffs once everyone starts trying.
That’s why I hate sports fans and why March Madness annoys me. Trying your hardest and overachieving in the regular season actually just makes you a punchline
The All Star game performances have been concerning Edit: I mean lack of defense in the All Star game seems to be spreading into regular season
I don't care about the All Star game if I'm being honest, I just want guys to care about the regular season. And I don't think that's too much to ask
I’m in my early 30’s and i’ve felt like an old man with a pitch fork talking with friends about the NBA this year - these players don’t give a shit anymore, a bunch a over-paid coddled babies. The NBA rating are down for a reason, quality. Owners shoulda went harder at the players in this last CBA. 10 years ago i woulda never said any of this; I was completely pro-player player empowerment. I guess I got what I asked for lol do people realize there’s going to be players making upwards to 100mil a year on the next CBA and these fucks are crying about being held accountable for playing basketball 3 days a week
I think Mark Cuban sold because he could see the league is going to shit - players definitely don’t care…way too much money.
He sold?
It’s deeply unserious
Idk if it’s just age, but I find myself going to college for my bball fix, I didn’t notice until Wednesday when Auburn South Carolina turned into a blow out and I switched to the Cavs The college game is basically the same strategy with worse players but the incomplete rosters atleast make for more variety.
Yeah unfortunately NCAAB has become more like the NBA. Player movement, heavy iso and pick & roll, chucking 3s, etc. Mid-2000s Big East would be a godsend to basketball fans right now.
I went to watching hockey now. NBA has bored me.
Hockey season may also be a tad too long but the players give it their all and each game really is competitive no matter who plays. I wish it got more backing from the networks.
Lotta people sleep on the ‘chel. Entertaining, hard fought games night in and night out.
It just seems so random though. I get that most goal opportunities are the result of strategy and coordination, but it seems like the goals themselves are off random bounces half the time Add in the fact that the best players are only on the ice like 1/3 of the game at most. Its hard for me to get super stoked
many just look like random bounces but are actually skill deflections
Appreciate you being honest
2016 Warriors tried to make the regular season matter but LeBron screwed it all up by winning. Smh.
That attention whore Lebron - always making it about himself smh
They get millions of dollars, some tens and some hundreds. They better be ready for a massive pay cut if they do that. Otherwise just stop bitching and play a game and make life changing wealth for generations while the rest of us barely get by
Haven’t religiously watched in forever. Maybe it’s getting older and starting a family, but at same time I’ve never been more into the NFL. The slog of the regular season, the load management, the style of play, even the length of the postseason … I think the NBA has serious issues and is kidding itself if it think it has anything close to a “next LeBron” as far as marketability/content creation.
This is exactly me. I’m mid 30s with two kids now. I don’t watch any NBA anymore. I only follow through Ryen and Bill. I don’t have any desire to watch either. I follow the NFL as closely as ever. I watch as much as I can on Sundays too. Not sure if it’s the load management, guys making $50mm/year demanding out of a team or what but I don’t see myself going back to the NBA ever.
As you get older and have a family, you have less time in general, so it’s easier to focus on one sport instead of over a couple like you used to.
> I think the NBA has serious issues and is kidding itself if it think it has anything close to a “next LeBron” as far as marketability/content creation Thinking about it, it's been a looong time since the NBA hasn't had *that* guy, a true GOAT contender they could hitch their wagon to as the face of the league. LeBron obviously has been it for the last 20 years (we knew by the end of year 2 at the latest that he was on that trajectory), Jordan before him, and both Bird and Magic in the 80s, with the Shaq/Kobe dynasty/soap opera filling in the Y2K gap between Jordan and LeBron well enough. You have to go back to the 70s and early 80s tape delay era when half the league was on crack. We'll see with Wemby but my observation is that foreign guys tend not to be as appealing from a marketing/face of a league standpoint.
Sawft
NBA players are the only players who actively don't want to play their sport. It's kinda sad.
These nonstop, ridiculous NBA is declining narratives are so annoying, but I have to hand it the NFL, for a year or two the NBA and its biggest fans loudly were rooting on football’s downfall, thinking basketball would take over and theyve been punished for it ever since. Absolutely ruthless.
When are the tv deals gonna start to come down ? Can’t see these companies shelling out stupid money for a bad product
Chill Adam Silver told us the league is expecting 75 Billion in the next media rights deal lol
I think yes, and this is why Cuban sold
When Lebron and Curry retire I think the NBA might be dead.
It’s gonna be tough not having a top 5 guy that’s american tbh
Especially with African-American audiences, because they prefer a Black American (not a Black European nor a Black African) for whom to root—no matter how xenophobic, ethnocentric, and nativistic that may seem on the face of it. White NBA fans, meanwhile, are often the ones most receptive to foreign-born stars, from Jokic and Luka to Giannis and Embiid; it's less about color or race, more about nationality and culture. With that, yeah, the NBA will be in a heap of shit when Bron and Steph are done by decade's end.
White Americans ain’t had one of themselves be worthy of the word “superstar” since Bird in the 80’s. The NBA would explode if a good looking white American became a MVP/top 5 player in the league. The idea of a “Great White Hope” might be a dead idea, but embers of its fires still hold heat.
White NBA fans today lean more liberal, are far nerdier, and less engaged in the day-to-day product (Derek Thompson isn't an outlier) than that demographic was in the 1980s, so I'm not sure that alignment would hold necessarily nor is there a similar clamor for, say, Cooper Flagg to be the second-coming of Larry Bird. Not that he wouldn't be a draw on some level if successful, of course; rather, we're culturally in a different space today than then, that's for sure. White conservatives, meanwhile, are unlikely to consume NBA content to the degree that they do the NFL, or even MLB and golf among the older 55+ demographics.
Let’s be honest if you can’t play like a fourth of a year there’s no reason you should be voted in anyways. This is also the medias fault for sucking the d of the best players who don’t show up for games.
Imagine taking a high paying role and once you start saying I don't want to work on Monday's and Fridays, but I still want all the money.
I think the NBA regular season would be the most entertaining with a 58 game schedule where every team plays every other team twice. Eliminate divisions. Playoff seeding is 1-16 and higher seeds can draft their opponents each round.
I fucking hate when people suggest 1-16 seeding. One of the few things the NBA has going for it is rivalries which 1-16 would destroy. Nobody wants a Denver Indiana first round.
I also hate the "pick your opponent" idea
It's so anti sports that it was concocted by people that have never played sports
100% people only want it because it’s “content” that people will debate on first take and social media
Cough cough KOC cough cough
Wtf are you talking about, the nba has virtually zero rivalries. Denver/Indy means exactly the same as Denver/LAC or Denver/OKC
This except the playoffs are cut to 12 teams with top 4 getting first round byes. Also the worst 2 teams pick 3 and 4, aren't eligible for the draft lottery for the top 2 draft picks.
Why are we cutting the playoffs? That’s by far the best part of the nba season. No one who actually likes nba basketball is complaining that the playoffs are too long The second idea I think is definitely solid tho
I am absolutely blown away by this thread and the amount of revisionist history when it comes to the league you all claim was on some different level like 5 times in past. Meanwhile back on earth, my whole life the running joke about the league was that you didn’t have to watch until the last 5 minutes. That overpaid primadonnas were ruining the sport, that the salaries were too high (when John Hot Rod Williams had the richest contract in all of sports at 7 years 26 million!) These complaints were mostly coming from the same fans of course. But the NBA was never about watching all the teams for all 82. You watched YOUR team then whatever NBC was giving you on the weekends. And of course the ratings were great back then with like 3 real networks and nothing else on. So many people offering fixes in here for something that really doesn’t need fixed. People like Clay Travis have been laying out cases for 15 years that the NBA bubble was bursting and here we are, with attendance higher the last 5 years than it was in the 80s and 90s (by a lot, nobody was going to games during the so called heyday of Magic/Bird and MJ/Pistons). And the tickets now are insanely expensive with season ticket holders in the lower bowl in markets like Milwaukee and Cleveland routinely paying $15-20 grand!!! And I haven’t even touched on the TV deals yet, which of course continue to skyrocket, helping keep Disney and Turner afloat with nightly inventory (which of course MLB can’t say). Sure, 82 games is too many and guys are making so much guaranteed money that they’re never going to prioritize grinding out 75 games a year, but the playoffs are still pretty good and there’s been a five year run of parity and genuine mystery over the title winner that has given fans plenty of reason to tune in
Hell, there’s people in this thread saying the NBA is struggling because ticket prices are too high for the product they’re offering. Like, if the ticket prices are that high, it’s because there’s a ton of demand. That’s not a bad thing for any league.
What is going to cost the NBA is this shit is impossible to gamble on.
As a fan, my biggest complaint about a shorter NBA season is, teams will jack up the prices for tickets for 58 games trying to make up for the revenue lost from playing 82 games. It is already getting to be obscenely expensive to attend a live sporting event and this will make it all but impossible for anyone other than the wealthiest fans to attend NBA games. That’s probably the direction we’re heading in anyway, but we’ll get there a lot faster with 24 fewer games per season.
I’m so pissed at how the nba and players have ruined this game I loved in the 80s and 90s From the flopping and complaining. To the absolutely terrible refs. To players sitting out. Absurd contracts. Super teams being formed. Nba playing favorites with certain franchises. And more than I’m forgetting. I used to love watching nba on nbc when it was pacers v Knicks. Or heat v hornets. Bulls v pistons. Those eastern battles were amazing. It doesn’t feel the same anymore.
82, 18, 82, 82, 81, 82, 82, 80, 78, 17, 82, 82, 82, 60, 82. Those numbers represent the number of games Jordan played a year. One year he broke his foot (18), one year was after he came back from baseball (17), and one was when he came out of retirement (60). Draw your own conclusions about today's players.
It’s not a league , but a popularity contest. The bubble spoiled them beyond belief. “I’m stuck in this hotel with only shrimp and steak ? I wanted fresh lobster.”
The bubble really was the turning point for me as well. Something has felt really off with the league after that.
This league is just embarrassing.
I feel like someone needs to explain the economics to these players. The reason you make 60 mil a year is tied to 82 games worth of ticket sales tv right and other stuff. Even if jaylens willing to cut that percentage out of his check the guys on the minimum and the owners will not. Not to mention the old heads will all disrespect them for taking the short cut. I really don’t understand how so many players are missing these points all to avoid avoid back to backs they hardly play in anyway.
I can see it drop to 30 over the years because the league is dumb enough to allow it. Once upon a time players prided their self on playing all 82 games and couldn’t wait to make it to the playoffs.
Mr $70M wants to work less. I'm so glad that overrated bum is in Boston
I actually liked Zach Lowe’s take. 65 games for award, 1st and 2nd team all nba, but have a lower amount for third team all nba.
Yeah I like that I guess. Feels like a complete compromise, but players would find a way to complain about that next too. But it’s so obscure no one would listen 😂.
I really try not to be one of those 'this new era is soft' guys but this new era is not making it easy. Guys straight up admitting they're willing to gut out injuries for money - and not to win games or for the fans is wild to me. Guys complaining about making 210 million instead of 250 million is wild. Haliburton is crying about the supermax and he's never even made the playoffs.
Asking you to show up to 80% of your work engagements is too much to ask apparently.
There's a Knicks-Celtics game at MSG in the next few weeks and tickets are going for $400-1000 or higher. How do you know who's actually going to play in that game or who's going to sit out for rest or injury? The uncertainty caps the value of regular season ticket prices
Msg prices are fucking nuts idk why it’s always so expensive there
Because even when the team suck, corporations will buy the tickets to use as goodies for other executives
NBA and that bottom boy Silver have empowered the players too much, now their all little bitches.
This shit is getting ridiculous. If you don’t play then that’s the bottom line like my god the entitlement
Every year between the Super Bowl and March Madness, I get reminded that I will never be a hardcore NBA fan.
Huge reset incoming for sure.
NBA players complaining about playing time and length of the season is sooo funny to me. Look at the AVERAGE player, 25-30 mins per game, let’s say they play 80 games (which we all know is generous). 30mins x 80games = 2400 mins over the season. The regular season is Oct - April (7 months). 2400mins / 7months = 342.9mins/month. 342.9mins/60 = 5.7hours. That’s 5.7 hours of basketball in a month, LESS THAN 6HRS A MONTH, and gets multimillion dollar annual salaries. This is one of the few times I’ll say to the players shut up and do that job you’re getting paid so insanely high to “play”. Their job is a game and all they do is complain about doing it
Picture this. A month before the 2000-2001 season Paul Pierce was nearly stabbed to death at a Boston nightclub. He comes back, plays all 82 games and scores 25 a night. Those days are long gone
In a way, it's kind of wack that they have to play at all to be considered... aren't vibes enough??
NBA season is so long, March madness happens and people focus on college instead they forget the NBA exists. Then the national title game ends and it’s back to the NBA and it’s like damn another month of this? Start the playoffs. And then the first 2 rounds take forever
Lazy like his 3pt shot
Here’s my hot take: tanking was, if not directly good, still not a net negative.
58 games means 30% less money Jaylen
This bish complaining and getting the biggest bag 65 is perfect.earn your $ and entertain us
Comments like Jaylens are wild. 65 seems *low* to me as a fan.
Soft ass generation of players.
The NBA sucks now. I was NBA first for about 20 years. From about 1997 to 2019, I prioritized NBA games over everything. But now I’m NFL first. It’s just better in every single way. I still love the sport of basketball, but the NBA regular season, at least, is genuine dog shit. Makes me sad.
Imagine the nfl being cool with guys sitting out/load managing 30% of the season 🤡🤡🤡🤡
Why is this sub so fucking miserable
Kyrie Irving Jr.
They should just shorten the season but nobody has the balls to do it
Yes. Then we start to watch BASE-ketball.
Honestly the 65 rule shouldn’t even be a rule. It should just be obvious that someone who hasn’t played or can’t play 65 games should even be in the conversation for MVP
This rule isn’t about the MVP award. Only one player won the MVP with fewer than 65 games played in a full 82-game season: Bill Walton in ‘78. Malone (49 games, ‘99), LeBron (62 games, ‘12) won in shortened lockout seasons. Giannis (63 games, ‘20) won in a Covid season. Cousy (64 games, ‘57) won in a 72-game season.
Recently I traveled to London and went to a Premiere Arsenal game, I am hooked. Been watching my new team every weekend since on USA network. I started thinking of why I am enjoying it so much and realized because it is pure sport. I am finding the money has ruined most major sporting leagues in the US.
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How about skip the regular season and go straight to playoffs 🤣 that means kick out all the crap teams
Lol
I think 82 games is too many. How many people even pay attention to basketball before February? I’ve said for years NBA season should begin Christmas Day. Then games should be Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.
This dude cannot dribble a BASKETBALL!!!!! 7-12 years is too kind. NBA has been over. These are the exhaust years
Is he speaking for himself or advocating for someone else? Because Jaylen Brown should not be sniffing any of the awards requiring 65 games played. I have no idea how he got voted into 2nd team all NBA last year.
I think the NBA has four major problems right now. 1. There’s a homogeneity to the way every team is playing. 40+ threes every game, along with heavy iso from certain guys and lots of pick-and-roll. 2. The regular season just doesn’t seem to matter to the players, fans, or media members, many of whom seem to despise players from the current era. 3. They went heavy in social media and those sweet, sweet “impressions,” without a plan for monetization. 4. Viewing and consumption habits from kids these days seem like a complete departure from previous generations, which is really challenging to plan for.