Cousins isn't his All Star self anymore. It takes more than a season to recover from a ruptured Achilles. Who was the last big man to bounce back from this injury and return to his All Star self? Looks like he's just signing up for a ring. As for is the league broken, well, the NBA is getting a fuck of a lot of publicity right now and everyone is talking about it. There's no such thing as bad publicity in the entertainment world. I personally will watch the NBA just as much though I may not watch Warriors/Lakers in playoffs if it happens because I don't like either team. I can't root for Durant and I can't root for Lakers. But there's lots of other basketball to watch and the Rockets, who I don't like much either but I can root for them, were up 3-2 over Warriors before CP3 got hurt. I think they have a shot. I don't think Lakers will be more than a 4 seed.
Warriors: Curry and Durant are transcendent high selling jersey players then you have East: Embiid, Simmons, Antetokounmpo, Kyrie, Tatum (on the rise), Porzingis (though hurt) all in that category as well.
Such a joke. No one should be able to take that little below market value. If a player does this, the League should mandate the said players next contract be at only 10% increase over previous year unless it's his original team. Then if he signs another like that, it only goes up to 11% increase. Sure, go ahead, sign that kind of deal WAYYYY below market value, but pay the price going forward.
Yes they do. As for casual fans (the other part of your statement), they watch when the NBA is interesting and there are big stars in involved. They'll be watching this season. NBA had HUGE ratings when Jordan was beating on the league every year.
Fo every fan tuning out like you, they will gain 5 new fans enticed by the star power and marketing the league will do. The NBA hasn't been making bad business decisions, maybe decisions that fans like you don't agree with, but not decisions that hurt the bottom line. The NBA is in am amazing place popularity wise. Moves like this increase overseas viewing by millions.
BonesJones- as he said, the big market fans are EVERYWHERE. Milwaukee fans are in Milwaukee for the most part. Blazers fans are in Portland for the most part. Lakers fans are EVERYWHERE.
I will say that some of the big market World Series have been poorly watched in comparison to smaller market matchups. I didn't watch the Finals when LA and Boston were involved last matchup between those two.
Maybe. But just maybe there are way more Casual Fans that big market fans, and all of those are going to be turned off, and not watch the NBA. Another problem is other big market fans. If I'm a bulls fan, I throw up my hands and instead keep closer track of the White Sox, Cubs, Blackhawks, Bears, Hockey,.... As a Chicago fan I have so many choices, I don't need no stinkin NBA. And that turns into the lost revenue for the NBA. So, for me it's closer to Winners: California Economy Losers: Everyone Else
Talking about how broken the league is doesn't bring them money. You're an NBA fanboy, so you literally ignore the point against them based off semantics that aren't relevant to the point I'm trying to make... That's why I don't have conversations with you regarding stuff like this.
That's entirely false. LeBron to LA and Cousins to GS isn't going to bring in millions of fans that weren't already watching. It will alienate fans though. Many people are coming to the conclusion that the league is fucked and will no longer care to watch this year. That's not easily replaceable.
That Game 7 (Lakers Celtics 2010) was the highest rated NBA game since Jordan in 1998. You guys are looking at ratings from a Portland perspective. Portland fans may not care about the NBA now but more people overall will.
I'm not the only one who thinks this. LeBron in LA is better for NBA than LeBron in Cleveland. That's just the way it is.
You're using past years to measure a league in uncharted territory, which I pointed out, but you're still doing it. "casual fans (the other part of your statement), they watch when the NBA is interesting" - That's the problem, the NBA is no longer interesting to most people, even casual fans. I know a lot of casual fans that are stating they won't watch the NBA this year because of how boring the league is getting.
I don’t think the NBAchanges any of this chaos because of pissed off fans. But maybe if 25/30 NBA owners want a change that might do it. Of course I don’t know if that many care as long as their teams value continues to rise.
There are millions of fair-weather Laker fans that weren't watching when Jordan Clarkson was their best player. All those fair-weather fans and then some will be Lakers fans again. Especially since a lot of casual fans hate the Warriors and want to see if Laker LeBron can beat them.
Or maybe it was highly rated because it was competitive, after a competitive playoffs, and both teams hadn't been there for 4 straight years...