Pro Sports Talk

The NBA is dying and Adam Silver seems to not care and is not doing anything to fix it. His one big solution to the ratings being down two years ago was to add an in-season tournament that no one cares about. 

His next big change was to add the second apron which has only frustrated and confused NBA fans. To add the cherry on top he thought he would just slap a sponsor on the in-season tournament and rename it the ‘Emirates NBA Cup’. 

Newsflash Adam all of this makes your product worse and is taken less seriously in the eyes of an average american.

To be clear I am an NBA fan and love basketball but anyone who doesn’t live under a rock can see this sport is dying. The ratings themselves are down 28% this year, yet bald headed Adam sits and smiles in Las Vegas like his league isn’t falling apart. There are three major problems with the league that need to be addressed and since Adam won’t, I will.

The first problem of the NBA is three point shooting. Everyone loves to see the three go in for their favorite team. What we don’t love is watching our team shoot 37 threes in one game. That is currently the average number of three’s shot in the league per game. This is simply too many.

This association was built off super athletes jumping at the rim to give us high flying dunks and amazing teamwork. The goal of this league was not to watch a three point contest in any given game. You can see it affecting the young superstars of this league in how they play as well.

Two prime examples I have of this is the most hyped draft prospect since LeBron James which is Victor Wembanyama. This man is 7’5 and instead of attacking guys at the rim and dominating the game he is averaging 9.5 three point attempts per game. 

Shooting three’s at that size is unbelievable especially at a decent percentage but watching players limit themselves from maximizing their athletic ability is disappointing. I understand that it limits injuries and protects their futures but it also isn’t basketball that we all know and love. 

Anthony Edwards has a 41 inch vertical and has some of the best dunks in the entire league but instead chucks up 10 three’s a game. This might make more sense with him since he is only 6’4 and is shooting at a rate of 41.8% but this takes away from the viewer experience.

I don’t blame these guys for preserving their bodies and limiting injury but I do blame Daryl Morrey and the Golden State Warriors for starting this epidemic on three’s. I may be overreacting but the average amount of threes taken in a game has only been steadily increasing and unless Adam makes a change I don’t see that slowing down.

The next and biggest problem is how the game is officiated. I have never seen the defense in basketball be at such a disadvantage in every way possible. From guys jumping into you to draw the foul, hooking arms while going up in a shooting motion causing a “shooting foul” or offensive players just flopping to get a whistle. 

This can be seen as the biggest reason the league is dying in a lot of people’s eyes. Now the two biggest components for this problem are not any of the players. It is Adam Silver and the officials. 

Adam Silver could fix this in one second if he readjusted the rule book and hired new officials. I mean for god sake who has the same officials for the last 30 years, especially bad officials. Anyone that watches the NBA can attest just how bad these officials are.

Not only do they make the wrong calls at least 50% of the time, they constantly dictate outcomes of serious games. To the point one of their colleagues got caught rigging games in one the biggest scandals ever. Did the NBA think of firing all the officials involved or suspected in involvement. No they did not. In fact they fired Tim Donaughy and let everyone else keep their jobs.

These officials make fans skin crawl with how bad they are at their jobs. You are telling me there isn’t some referee school they can pick up some new officials at. It’s a literal joke at this point. 

I truly feel bad for these defenders and it’s just another problem no one is even flinching at to fix. Don’t think about telling me how they make new rule adjustments every year either. All they do is call those new “rules” for a month and never call them again.

The final reason is how difficult it is to watch your favorite team play. The NBA just announced new rights with NBC and ABC this past offseason. You might think that will allow you to watch your favorite team but not everyone has cable. Let alone not everyone’s favorite team is good enough to be on national television.

Your first thought would be to go buy an NBA league pass to watch your team. Only problem is if you live near or around your favorite team’s area then all the games are blacked out. What the hell are we supposed to do then Adam?

If you can’t get access to watching your favorite team through cable, the NBA app or NBC your next logical choice is illegally streaming. Which may be why some viewership is down. Not that many people make up 28% of viewership being down though.

I can truly say if changes don’t happen soon within the next five years of the NBA that we could be looking at this association being cooked permanently in 20 years. Also maybe stop marketing your oldest players in the league and focus on the young stars. No one cares about LeBron and Steph battling for the 9th and 10th seed.