Five years ago, even the most modest criticism of the NBA meant immediate removal from thecool kids' club in sports media. OutKick took plenty of flak for pointing out truths about the league, including its nearly 50 percent audience decline since 2012, the effects of league-wide political messaging, and how load management and tanking would erode the integrity of the game. Five years later, even the coolest kids in sports media finally agree.
The dam started to break last year when FS1 host Colin Cowherd compared the league to the Democrat Party.
"The NBA ratings are down 48 percent in the last 12 years. They have fallen off a cliff this year," Cowherd began. "Adam Silver's solution is let's make the courts brighter. It is a really bad look for a family of four to go to a game and the [stars] don't play. Go ask the Democrats. Be warned, once you detach from regular people in America, you will pay a price."
Note: The NBA claims its ratings are up this season, but as we explained regarding the Super Bowl, Nielsen changed its methodology in September, increasing rating estimates by around 8 percent.
This week, sports radio legend Dan Patrick said he is turning off the NBA for the first time in, wait for it, six decades after LeBron James and other Lakers sat out what was billed as a marquee matchup against the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday.
"If [the stars] are not playing, I’m not watching. And you’ve got to win me back," Patrick said. "And I’m an NBA fan for 60 years, but after a while, you’re like, ‘Who’s playing?’ Imagine you go to the Spurs game. Now, you got treated to Victor Wembanyama. But it’s like no LeBron, no Luka. That might be the one time that you’re gonna go, and you’re gonna take the family to see them."
That was our argument years ago: If the players do not care enough to participate, why should fans care enough to watch or pay to attend?
LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers points to the sky following the national anthem before the start of a game against the Sacramento Kings at The Field House at ESPN Wide World Of Sports Complex on August 13, 2020 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
Yet the most telling criticism of the week came from chief NBA fanboy Bill Simmons. Readers will recall that Simmons, the Regina George of sports media, called out Clay Travis and me multiple times in June for our coverage of the NBA's decline. Nothing matters more to Simmons than NBA owners and players pretending to like him. Even he sounds fed up with the product.
"All this shit, everything they’re doing, they’re not serving the larger picture of what do fans want?" Simmons asked about the league's most pressing issues. "How do we keep our players healthy? How do we have a competitive season from start to finish? How do we avoid over one-fourth of our league not giving a shit for the last two months?"
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