Agree with the above--it is a multi-pronged issue. For me, the overarching problem is a devaluation of the regular season. It seems that the NBA would concur given the floated schedule changes that we have heard over the last two days. However, I do not think they are addressing the proper causes.
1. There are no rivalries anymore--initially de-fanged by the post Malice-at-the-Palace rule changes, NBA rivalries were delivered the coup de grace by the player empowerment era. There are individual player beefs and stuff, but there is no national level regular season game I feel compelled to watch. There's nothing like Reggie Miller returning to the scene of the crime at the Garden, or a Heat/Knicks matchup, and certainly NOTHING on the level of early 2000s Kings/Lakers--conference matchups where the regular season games were further chapters in a long-running, and constantly simmering, feud. The national conversation now is about: will the two superstars from these two teams decide to play together next summer? That's literally the lead-in from the ESPN studio shows. Why should I care about the game about to played when the entire league seems to exist in a virtual reality of "Next Summer"?
2. It is a superstar league, and Lebron is the most ubiquitous, and yet easily the most boring, superstar in living memory. Now, I think he is as flawed as any other superstar we've had, but he's choked off any and all potential negative coverage and made the entire conversation unspeakably boring. How this guy vaulted 7-8 better players to automatically be anointed as #2 all-time behind MJ just floors me. And yet, all the national media stoically nod their heads and agree that yes, this man who waltzed to NBA Finals in the worst conference of my lifetime, and then lost a clear majority of those contests, is 100% better than the Dream, Magic, Bird, Kobe, Kareem, Timmy, etc. His HS freshman son's games are covered on the ESPN landing page--it's ridiculous. Him going to the Lakers magnified the league's and media's worst tendencies by an order of magnitude, and its off-putting for 29 other fanbases. What's the appeal in watching a national game that's simply a Lakers and Lebron infomercial? No, thank you.
2A. Harden--watching him is a beating.
3. For Slim and fellow travelers like me--legislating the big man out of the game has been a massive disappointment. It's probably, mostly, a result of #1 in that most of those feuds started as hard fought post battles. But, it feels like the game is simply trading 3-pt shooting hot streaks right now, and it's kind of boring for those that grew up on the more nuanced game of prior eras. I'll still watch the Kings, but I really don't care about whether or not the Jazz will get hot enough from beyond the arc to close out the Uber-boring Rockets on a Thursday night.
You should love yourself more.I watch NBA basketball but not as much as few years ago, certainly not as much as decade or so ago. Main reason: I've always liked college basketball better than pro basketball...
LeBron is still the same "boring" superstar he was a couple years ago, when rating were ridiculous... I think that people who already live on the west coast grossly underestimate the effect LeBron moving to the west coast had on basketball watchers on the east coast. Not even most diehard LBJ stans are trying to stay up until one in the morning on a random Tuesday, just to see him play.2. It is a superstar league, and Lebron is the most ubiquitous, and yet easily the most boring, superstar in living memory.
Some people just don't want nice thingsYou should love yourself more.
Troll.You should love yourself more.
One of us is doing ESPN wrong. I don't think it's me.I blame ESPN. Every time a new young player breaks out their rhetoric is "when will they join the Lakers or Knicks?" Every up and coming player is eventually going to join one of those 2 teams.
They say not to feed it...so I wontOne of us is doing ESPN wrong. I don't think it's me.
I'm sorry, who started what? How do you have the audacity to call me a troll, when you're the one who started **** with me? I'm over here, minding my business, and you're walking around calling me a troll, in multiple threads.They say not to feed it...so I wont
Any day now for the KnicksI blame ESPN. Every time a new young player breaks out their rhetoric is "when will they join the Lakers or Knicks?" Every up and coming player is eventually going to join one of those 2 teams.
Not all my complaints but this really nails most of it.Agree with the above--it is a multi-pronged issue. For me, the overarching problem is a devaluation of the regular season. It seems that the NBA would concur given the floated schedule changes that we have heard over the last two days. However, I do not think they are addressing the proper causes.
1. There are no rivalries anymore--initially de-fanged by the post Malice-at-the-Palace rule changes, NBA rivalries were delivered the coup de grace by the player empowerment era. There are individual player beefs and stuff, but there is no national level regular season game I feel compelled to watch. There's nothing like Reggie Miller returning to the scene of the crime at the Garden, or a Heat/Knicks matchup, and certainly NOTHING on the level of early 2000s Kings/Lakers--conference matchups where the regular season games were further chapters in a long-running, and constantly simmering, feud. The national conversation now is about: will the two superstars from these two teams decide to play together next summer? That's literally the lead-in from the ESPN studio shows. Why should I care about the game about to played when the entire league seems to exist in a virtual reality of "Next Summer"?
2. It is a superstar league, and Lebron is the most ubiquitous, and yet easily the most boring, superstar in living memory. Now, I think he is as flawed as any other superstar we've had, but he's choked off any and all potential negative coverage and made the entire conversation unspeakably boring. How this guy vaulted 7-8 better players to automatically be anointed as #2 all-time behind MJ just floors me. And yet, all the national media stoically nod their heads and agree that yes, this man who waltzed to NBA Finals in the worst conference of my lifetime, and then lost a clear majority of those contests, is 100% better than the Dream, Magic, Bird, Kobe, Kareem, Timmy, etc. His HS freshman son's games are covered on the ESPN landing page--it's ridiculous. Him going to the Lakers magnified the league's and media's worst tendencies by an order of magnitude, and its off-putting for 29 other fanbases. What's the appeal in watching a national game that's simply a Lakers and Lebron infomercial? No, thank you.
2A. Harden--watching him is a beating.
3. For Slim and fellow travelers like me--legislating the big man out of the game has been a massive disappointment. It's probably, mostly, a result of #1 in that most of those feuds started as hard fought post battles. But, it feels like the game is simply trading 3-pt shooting hot streaks right now, and it's kind of boring for those that grew up on the more nuanced game of prior eras. I'll still watch the Kings, but I really don't care about whether or not the Jazz will get hot enough from beyond the arc to close out the Uber-boring Rockets on a Thursday night.
I'll try to make peace with not being your kind of fan.... And with the amount of team jumping he has orchestrated, anyone who roots for him is frankly not my kind of fan.
While I am not always able to relate to you on this level, I appreciate that you are a pure fan of the game. I am talking about front-runners and band-wagoners more than the guy who actually gets league pass to watch all 30 teams because he just can't get enough.I'll try to make peace with not being your kind of fan.![]()
I'd say even this is a little simplistic. It's not merely that it's become "old hat," it's that it's become too ubiquitous. Like, it was cool, when it was only one or two teams doing it. Now, it's closer to twenty-five, and the NBA is trying to legislate the teams that dare to play differently out of the league. Combine that with lazy coaches, and general managers who lack imagination, and we get a stale league.Sure, it was thrilling a few years ago to watch players pulling up from three early in the shot clock, on the fast break, from thirty feet out, etc. But now it's old hat. The novelty has worn off. Hell, we don't even call big men who can shoot from deep "stretch 4's" and "stretch 5's" anymore. It's just expected that most players, no matter their size, either enter the NBA with a consistent outside shot or develop one early in their careers. Those who don't often fail to register an impact.
Timeouts have to go how many do we need seriously, watch Fiba games the last 2 minutes are exciting. Nba there’s a timeout after every possession in the last minute of a game where’s the excitement in that
I don't think we need less time outs, but getting rid of the 20 seconds was dumb. Sometimes you just take a time out to save a possession.
You know what? I think I might just be enough of a junkie to watch some aquatic basketball.there shouldn’t be a timeout after every possession in the last minute, there professionals they got it the fina game is so much better because of this.
I don't think we need less time outs, but getting rid of the 20 seconds was dumb. Sometimes you just take a time out to save a possession.
I... can't get behind that. Why rush the most meaningful possessions of the game? (and from a cynical/profit driven stand point this is the only time people must sit through ad breaks due to FOMO)It might be interesting if under 2 minutes in the game, all timeouts that a team holds convert to true "substitution" timeouts. You can advance the ball as normal, and you can substitute, but you can't draw up plays and the team can't approach the bench (delay-of-game penalty, regardless of whether delay-of-game warning has been issued, for in-game players approaching the bench or coach leaving the coaching box). Obviously you'd allow a coach to yell out the out-of-bounds play or the defense he wants, or to check in a player with that info, but all coaching would have to be "pre-packaged", something teams know from practice and not fresh plays. Could be interesting. Then the only thing that would stop the game for more than a substitution would be a replay review.
I... can't get behind that. Why rush the most meaningful possessions of the game? (and from a cynical/profit driven stand point this is the only time people must sit through ad breaks due to FOMO)
Now if the inverse were true - no drawn plays prior to the final two minutes - that would be golden. Do the single free throw thing here too and you can probably compress 20 minutes out of game time and get a game done in 2 hours.