With six different champions in as many years, new emerging stars every season and new teams preparing for a big playoff run, the NBA is as competitive as ever. Also, with stricter salary cap rules than the MLB and fewer dynasty franchises than the modern NFL, the NBA is, in theory, the ideal American sports league. However, this is not the case. The NBA is borderline unwatchable, and the ratings tell this story. This is an entirely avoidable issue that Adam Silver and the league need to solve.
All-Star Weekend
Osceola Magic’s Mac McClung dunks during the slam dunk competition at the NBA basketball All-Star weekend, Saturday, Feb. 17 2024, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)
The NBA is in a difficult position right now regarding All-Star weekend. While the stars usually do not try in the game itself, the same cannot be said about the NBA’s dunk contest. The NBA used to feature the game’s biggest and most well-known dunkers, like Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and even Dwight Howard. However, some All-Stars, such as Anthony Edwards and Ja Morant, who are among the current best dunkers in the league are not in this contest. Instead, the dunk contest is featuring players such as Mac McClung, mainly a G-Leaguer who has logged limited minutes in the NBA.
No disrespect to McClung, but he isn’t the most well-known, outside of this annual competition, especially compared to Edwards and Morant. To remedy this, the league should radically change how this contest runs, whether that means getting stars to participate or having amateur non-NBA players participate. This weekend is a significant opportunity for the league to expand its fanbase, yet they are not maximizing it.
Games are inaccessible
Perhaps the most significant reason the league has a viewership problem is that it is nearly impossible to see the games you want to watch for an affordable price. The issue is that, even if you shell out the $19.99 monthly fee for an NBA League pass, you will face blackout restrictions on the local teams you want to watch. To watch these games, you have to either change the TV provider or buy directly from the team if they have a channel, which can be expensive. If you want to follow all the Knicks games, you need MSG TV. To get this directly, you must shell out an additional $29.99 monthly, separate from your TV bill.
This economic factor and major inconvenience alone are enough to turn people away from watching the games. This option also prices out many lower to middle-class families who would otherwise want to watch. With TV deals being conducted with companies like Disney and Amazon, soon it will be impossible for fans to have one place to watch all the games, which is what people care about. Instead, you must pay for multiple subscriptions that the average family cannot justify.
Thanks to the expanded playoff format and load management, what is the point of the regular season?
In 2021, the NBA finalized the new playoff format, with the top six teams in each conference advancing to the playoffs and the next four competing in the play-in tournament, which was a major mistake. Under this rule, sub-.500 teams have a chance to compete for a playoff berth if they win their play-in tournament. With this tournament, subpar teams have a chance to make it into the postseason and there is significantly less pressure on a team in around the fifth or sixth seed to perform. While the play-in tournament incentivizes some of these teams to perform better, it is not the same effort booster that elimination would bring. Considering that over half the league plays a form of postseason basketball, this is an issue that the NBA needs to reverse to make the on-court product better to watch.
If you are not convinced about how meaningless the regular season is, then why do the stars of the game constantly sit out? It is laughable when the Association expects people to spend their hard-earned money and watch this on-court product when the stars of the game are sitting out without an injury designation. While load management was created with good intentions to promote player health, some stars abuse this. The NBA released a report with star players missing an average of 23.9 games per season in the 2020s, compared to 17.5 in the 2010s, 13.9 in the 2000s, 10.6 in the 1990s and 10.4 in the 1980s. As you can see, this is a clear positive relationship with stars sitting out without injury, so it should be no surprise that people will not watch the games. While the league has enacted specific rules to deter this activity, it still exists. This makes it hard for viewers to believe that the regular season means something, when the player’s actions indicate otherwise.