The NBA has seen a dip in ratings in recent years, with many pointing to the league prioritizing money over the actual fans. While the league is still very popular, the regular season has been devalued heavily.
This is just one reason why ratings have dropped and the league has nobody to blame but itself. Well, according to former NBA coach George Karl that is.
Karl took to social media to express his thoughts on the game that he loves. He seemed to call out the NBA for not listening to the concerns of the everyday fan.
“Feelings on Trump aside, the Election last week was a statement on change,” he posted. “The League I love and helped build, the NBA, needs to acknowledge the same. Fans tell me daily the games are unwatchable. The entertainment has surpassed the sport. The NBA should listen and respond.”
In another post, Karl called out the competition in the league today. According to the former coach, the grit that made the game so entertaining in the past is gone.
“The NBA is too much about $ right now and not enough about tough, old school grit,” he said in another tweet. “Fans want competition, soul and physicality. Not love fest, money-hungry BS.”
This comes on the heels of former star center Shaquille O’Neal giving his thoughts on the ratings drop as well. O’Neal went as far as to blame the Golden State Warriors and star guard Stephen Curry for the dip.
“It’s down because we’re looking at the same thing,” O’Neal said. “Everybody is running the same plays…Steph Curry and those guys messed it up. I don’t mind Golden State back in the day shooting threes, but every team isn’t a 3-point shooter. So why everybody has the same strategy? I think it makes the game boring.”
Over the past decade, the league has shifted more to a 3-point shooting fest, with the Warriors leading the charge. While players having the ability to shoot from a distance is entertaining, O’Neal believes that it has hurt the game.
“The game has already been perfect ever since Naismith created it,” he claimed. “This new era of humans f–ked it up… Golden State came in and changed it and you made a great point, it’s a copycat league. Everybody wants to be Steph Curry, but everybody’s not Steph Curry and that’s why viewership is down. But these dudes, they need to wake up because if viewership is down, the money is gonna come down.”
It remains to be seen if the league will change the way the game is played in the modern era but for now, it seems like it will be here to stay.
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