The NBA has a billion dollar problem with no obvious solution.
3-pointers are at an all-time high, but TV ratings are plummeting despite The Association’s best efforts to make their once bulletproof product more appealing.
Viewership for the entire NBA is down around 48 per cent since 2012 while NBA games on ESPN are down 28 per cent from last season.
Fans, as well as NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal, have branded the supposed best basketball league in the world ‘unwatchable’.
The prevalence of the 3-point shot, overall lack of defense, slew of meaningless regular season games, and a tendency for superstars to ‘load manage’ have all created a sense of apathy that isn’t easily resolved.
Some has suggested moving the 3-point line back.
Inside the NBA favorite Charles Barkley recently proposed his own radical idea to re-energize the league – postponing the start of the NBA regular season by a couple of months.
Appearing on The Dan Patrick Show, ‘The Round Mound of Rebound’ made the point that the early part of the NBA season — October to February — goes head to head with the NFL and college football seasons.
The 1993 MVP ultimately thinks that’s a battle the NBA can’t win, hence his suggestion to delay Opening Night by a couple of months once the interest around football starts to dwindle.
“I think we need to seriously consider starting on Christmas because listen you’re wasting your time going up against the NFL and College Football, they own the weekends now… We’d have the entire calendar to ourselves,” Barkley said.
Sir Charles, who is famously not a fan of the over-reliance on 3-pointers and ‘jump shooting teams’, acknowledged that something major needs to be done to arrest the NBA’s slide.
“I think we have to figure out something because the most important part of the game is the fans. If they’re not watching, you can’t keep your head in the sand — you’ve got to say, ‘What are we doing wrong?'” Barkley said.
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“It’s frustrating for me because all the games are now a three-point shooting contest and a free-throw contest, and I don’t like it. They can get mad, but I don’t want to see a three-point shooting contest every night. That ain’t no fun,” he added.
NBA fans caught wind of Barkley’s comments and shared their thoughts online, generally agreeing with him.
“Charles is correct. The NBA can’t compete with the NFL and CFB and CBB. Start later because it definitely can compete with MLB for ratings,” one fan said.
“What Charles Barkley is saying makes perfect logical sense,” added another.
“Best season I ever watched was the lock out and the started in Christmas. It was awesome,” a third posted.
To be fair to the NBA, it’s not as if they haven’t tried to inject more excitement into the league.
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The NBA In-Season Tournament, also known as the NBA Cup, was introduced for the first time last year in a bid to revitalize the regular season amid fan fatigue over the 82-game slog.
Cash incentives and colorful, NBA2K-esque were interesting novelties, but ones that ultimately failed to resonate with fans whose attention is being increasingly stolen by other sports leagues, from the UFC, to the Premier League, and even, WNBA.
As a result, ticket prices for this year’s NBA Cup Final, won by the Milwaukee Bucks over the Oklahoma City Thunder in a game between two small market teams, were going for less than a burger and beer in most NBA arenas.
The All-Star Game has also undergone a serious revamp ahead of the 2025 addition in an effort to attract more eyeballs.
Moving away from the traditional ‘East vs West’ format, the league has changed traditional matchups with a mini-tournament featuring four teams and three games.
However, the shakeup was controversial to say the least, with 14-time All-Star Kevin Durant saying he “absolutely hates” the change.
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The NBA’s decline is a worrying trend, not just for Commissioner Adam Silver and the league, but for the likes of NBC, Disney, and Amazon, who have collectively forked out $76 billion as part of a landmark TV deal which will see them air all of the NBA’s nationally televised games over the next 11 years.
Amazon Prime Video should be particularly concerned about the waning interest in the NBA Cup, as the streaming giant is poised to exclusively stream the event from 2025-2031.
Jeff Bezos’ brainchild has already accepted that something needs to be done to the mid-season event after just two versions of the tourney.
The league is reportedly in ‘active discussions’ with Amazon to reschedule the NBA Cup to align the tournament’s dates with the conclusion of the NFL season, when fans aren’t otherwise distracted by the drama of playoff football.
The issues facing the NBA are pretty clear. The path to resolving them is not.
However, what’s becoming increasingly evident is that the piecemeal changes we’ve seen so far are neither brave nor bold enough to make much of a dent on the waning interest.
The NBA needs radical changes, not gimmicks, and it needs them fast.