“LeBron Destroyed The NBA” - Why The NFL Crushed The NBA in Viewership 

“They have legislated defense out of the game.” -Steve Kerr

Roster turnover is a major problem. Rivalries are non existent because star players leave their team every other year.

#1 issue is its nothing but a 3 point contest. No grit and less physical play. It's just boring for a fan.

People enjoy rivalries. Rivalries don’t have the same excitement when players are constantly changing teams

As an avid sports fan the NBA needs to bring back hand checking and defense during the regular season. I will not watch a regular season game anymore because if a players coughs to hard it’s a foul. I’m 29 years old and I go RU-vid and watch old school basketball games rather than watching the hot garbage of today.

Biggest problem as a huge basketball fan is the nba has been reduced to a defensless three point shooting contest. Long time basketball followers aren't impressed with the higher scoring averages due to everplayer being green lit to shoot 32' shots at volume. The teams that still are most fun to watch/successful in post season are the teams that still have a rounded game with some defensive production ie Milwaukee, Denver, Miami, Boston, and the up and coming OKC team

There was a reason that Mark Cuban initially bought the NBA Dallas Mavericks, capitalizing on the height of NBA popularity and profitability,…and there was a reason that Cuban sold that same NBA team earlier this year.

You guys missed an obvious point on why the NBA is failing. The product on the court stinks. Nobody wants to watch homogeneous teams hover around the 3PT line jacking up literally 80 3’s a game. Nobody wants to watch guys routinely drive to the basket for an uncontested layup. Nobody wants to watch players get away with taking 3, 4 and sometimes 5 steps with no travel called. Nobody wants to watch every single marginally hard foul get reviewed. The product on the court stinks. It’s lazy, it’s uncreative but most importantly, it’s boring.

0 rivalries plus 0 variance in games is killing the NBA. Every game is just each team launches 50 three point shots

Phil Jackson nailed it when he said blm ruined the nba

Super teams killed the NBA, out of 30 teams there are only 8-9 good teams and people are not paying to go see a team they know don’t have a chance of winning. David Stern understood this

the math is interesting at 3:26 because you could argue that if the NBA season was 17 games it would get a similar viewership as the NFL because each game matters more.. (352.6M NBA season viewers / 17 games = 20.7M viewers per game) Its easy to not watch 1, or even 10 NBA games because even if your team lost 10 games they still could be #1 in the league. For NFL teams.. if you lose 7, 8, 9 games your season is on the fence. Each NFL game matters more than each NBA game, therefore there is an incentive for fans to tune it. Limited Supply.. Higher Demand. I'm not saying the NBA DOESN'T have a viewership problem.. but this particular argument is weak, their viewership numbers, when considering an entire season, are very similar.

Ledumb James is a puppet!

I’ve been a diehard Lakers fan for 37 years. Annual NBA league pass subscriber.. if the Lakers were playing, I was watching. Over the last 4 years, I can count on one hand. How many games I’ve watched. It started with players assembling super teams…. Then Lebrons political takes completely killed the NBA in this house. A friend told me about a tournament the Lakers won this year, and I had absolutely NO CLUE wtf he was talking about.

I used to be one of the biggest NBA fans. Kobe is the only celebrity I cried for. I could not get enough of his interviews. Mamba mentality is second to none! So Kobe's death and I can't stand LaChina James add that to the 2020 political bull crap bubble. And I just could not watch the NBA after that. The NBA is dead to me.

The problem with basketball nowadays is load management. Imagine you save 600 dollars to watch your favorite player, but the couch decides to sit their star just to avoid back to back games. Back in the day, players were allowed to skip games only if they were out for anjury.

They asked Mike why he isn't political, answer "Republicans buy shoes too" lmao

NBA has a long list of problems. From the game, to the officiating, to the culture.

Multiple issues affecting the NBA, 1. woke politics creeping in 2. lack of defense intensity 3. too many top talents act as if the world owes them something

It's the fact that football dominates on non cable channels. Fox and CBS every Sunday. You need cable or to live in a corresponding city to watch basketball. It's harder to watch the games

I can speak on what's happening outside USA. In Mexico, we were a great consumer of NBA in the 90's with MJ, still in the 2000's but when Kobe left, no other NBA player has become a super star outside the USA. The same happen with "La Liga" (Spain football league) when Cristiano left (Real Madrid), and Messi left Barca, La Liga lost a lot of eyeballs... Plus Basketball may be a rising sport, but here in Mexico in the 90's if someone played basketball you can see them wearing a jersey from the chicago bulls, or any other team. Now days, kids who play basketball, don't see the NBA, they only play for fun, they don't even know an NBA Player. In contrary, few play football but, you can see a ton of people wearing NFL jerseys...

NBA is boring now and has become soft and smart person can see lebron is on steroids still playing at this age and still elite let’s be honest lol 😂 players play when they want to, I remember being a kid and was so excited to see the bulls play . I liked Jordan way more than any NFL player . Basketball was life back then

I was a die hard NBA fan and have loved the game of basketball for most of my life. The game has fallen off so hard. LBJ antics and the medias push on the narrative around him as well as player empowerment and the elimination of actual defense from the game and then to top it off getting political has literally destroyed the league. There are ways to fix it but they are delusional. They are blaming it on “customers cutting the cord”. “Finding alternate ways to watch” etc etc. yet other sports have ratings so it shows their excuses are just that.

This is my favorite podcast for sure. But you guys are starting to do what the other side does far too often. Im not saying your facts and figures aren't true. It's your analysis of these things and what you're implying they mean. I know everybody wants him to shut up and dribble like Jordan and Giannis and Kobe and whoever else you mentioned. But until you're ready to imply or flat out say that James Woods should shut up and act or Kid Rock should shut up and sing, i think you're holding the same double standards as the left.

Players flopping and creating illusions for points versus hard core punishing defense has hurt the NBA. When MJ played he had to earn his points. Now, guys keep shooting 3s until they win or lose!

While I agree with this analysis I think one more point that hasn't been talked about is the rule changes in the NBA and how the NBA has become soft and unwatchable because of it. Back in Jordan's day we used to watch to see these guys go head to head and thrash around. Malone was putting other players in the hospital. Barkley would wipe out the entire key with his ass. Shaq was a monster and would destroy anyone that got near him. Now they have shifted towards the protection of the shooters. No contact in the arch. The NBA has become WEAK!

One of the things that killed the nba viewership is the technical fouls given for taunting or supposedly taunting/celebration by players after scoring/dunking on another player. That’s where some of your passion and excitement is derived from.

The NFL advantage is. 1: That you can find it on Majority of games Network Tv. FOX,CBS,ABC,NBC. 2: Football has Sunday where you can catch most of what’s going on in the NFL. 3: NFL time slots are better. For start times 7am-5:30pm eastern time. (Nba games can start at 10:30pm on the East Coast) 4: Fantasy Football (Has the March Madness feeling to it. It makes you keep tab on the nfl as whole. Easy to do for 17 games. Then after that you got the playoffs root for your remaining fantasy players for next yr. 5: MNF and TNF to prime time matchups for toughest days of the work week. 6: less player movement. Really get to watch your team grow into something. 7. Football still has more strategy to it. It has more complexity in the game. Offensive,Defensive,Special Teams. 8 : The talent level seems a little bit balanced less super teams

I stopped watching the NBA when the Lebron and the league became political. I didn’t appreciate all the stars wanting to team up on one team. But the league becoming political was the deal breaker. You also pay to see the stars play and the stars often sit out.

The biggest issue the NBA has is the mobility of stars to leave in free agency. They’ve always had the right to do this, but until LeBron went to MIA it was really rare. Allen and KG went to Boston a few years before, but these 1+1 deals with player options are why fans don’t feel tied to their teams at this point. There’s no allegiances to teams, there’s no rivalries. Politically the NBA has also done a terrible job and people have been turned off by the players as well.

Texas Rangers won the 2023 World Series with barely any national coverage from media other than MLB network. As a fan, I felt their accomplishment was truly for us. I took my family to several games...it was fun to enjoy the 1st Championship in franchise history after 63 years. The Rangers was the only MLB franchise not to comply with the Pride Night thing. Instead, ownership said they welcome everyone all the time. Games are to be enjoyed with family and friends instead of political agendas.

I quit watching the nba over a decade ago because I was sick of LeBrain ruining everything! I will not watch 1 minute of nba until LeBrain retired and leaves us alone!

I've been saying this for years about the NBA's product. I'm glad it's finally getting proper media coverage. 🏀🗑Garbage

I believe that the societal messaging has effected the viewership numbers, but more importantly, players taking days off, poor defensive play, looseness with basketball fundamentals such as travel and carry rules, and players choosing their own teams negatively effected the viewership significantly more. The quality of the product has suffered significantly.

The game is so boring with how many timeouts and stoppages they have. I don’t even know why they have substitutes. The game pauses every 30 seconds. The best part about basketball are when teams go on runs. You never get to see a run because there are 1,000 timeouts. You can’t even see the most exciting part about the sport. In 5 minutes of overtime there are 6 timeouts. Get rid of timeouts and it will be more exciting. And don’t be woke. Neither will happen

As a lifelong NBA fan I think the problem is how much the league has leaned into digital marketing initiatives and prioritised IG reels and Twitter beef over the actual product. NBA is essentially sports entertainment nowadays

100% spot on. Lebun has ruined the Lakers for years to come and the NBA allowed him to ruin the game. The NFL better learn from this mistake by them protecting Mahomie and the Chiefs

NBA juiced the rules to favor offense. It's a predictable track meet of threes and dunks. Traveling and carrying are allowed. Then outrageous fouls, technicals and ejections. Over all, it's now a rather boring product. Take me to the 90s.

Im sure there are many regular americans like myself that lost interest in the NBA due to an array of issues related to Lebron. Ive only watched one game in the last 5+ years, and that was a Lakers game I took my son too. My son loves basketball, we have season tickets to our local ncaa mens basketball team, and I even grew up a Lakers fan. You folks hit many things on the head, not to mention he changed the leagues landscape with his power moves as "acting GM".

The NBA is the most woke, has the most narcissistic players, and Lebron is by far the most toxic athlete in sports; none of this bodes well for the NBA.

Basketball is boring

The NBA gets softer each decade. It's a fact.

Remember Pat, you can’t call NBA owners anymore! LeBron can’t handle that!!

NFL is more popular, but LeBron is 10x more popular than everyone in the NFL by ANY metric you can judge by. Followers on social media, money, global reach/impact etc… cut it out. This WOKE right stuff has to stop.

Bird, MJ, Kobe these people were everything you should aspire to be. "Never a victim" mentality, classy , articulate, witty. They were athletes, but spoke like intellectuals about the game and everything that surrounded it. ....and now we are in the age of divas. Self proclaimed "Kings" that pull the race card on every opportunity, but can't really string a sentence together to explain what bothers them so much. Disrespect the country that gave them the opportunity and the army that protects their wealth and their lifestyle of abundance. Shame is dead, morals are dead.... welcome into the age of a Super Wealthy Victims

Why do you think Michael Jordan and Mark Cuban are selling their shares? The writing is in the wall 🧱

Doesn't take in account that most football is on network TV while basketball is mostly on regional premium channels only on cable. Also each game in season means more

Agreed, but I believe the "no hand checking" and the whole 3 point Steph thing also killed a lot of the excitement of the game, we want to see dunks and aggression. And now you have 10 out of 15 teams making it to the play offs, so there's not really any tension in the regular season, making it dull to watch. Finally, with most of the big names being so friendly with each other there are no rivalries like before, we are still talking about the Bulls Pistons feud till now!

Greg Popovich was the one who started sitting all starters on TNT games.

Even college football is much more entertaining than boring as basketball 😂😂

Adam Silver had to create the laughable "In-Season" tournament to make the regular season interesting. He has to resign.

Imagine being one of the richest, most famous, influential people ever and claiming you're a victim to the system that made you exactly that...

The NFL & NHL are exciting, because the stakes are higher. Goes to show: high energy, aggression, impact, speed, quickness, ideal low-scoring systems cherished as an honor to put points on the board, happening only 6-10 times per game, is just far more enjoyable for fans. When it comes to TV, this is why Basketball & Baseball just aren't watched outside the playoffs besides by older males. For baseball, the stakes seem low just because of the speed and length of the game. In person, baseball and basketball are some of the greatest experiences any night of the week. Defense and Goalies are protecting that score at all costs, while after the Jordan era: defense was practically deleted. Fouls are rampant, egos turned to whiny babies, while the benefit mostly goes towards offense and scoring itself. When scoring is so easy, fans don't care as much when it happens. No average fan cares to tout NBA defensive stats. The diehards, sure, but they're still watching the team with the ball, not the guy stopping it like a Goalie, LB or corner. NHL & NFL fans love to discuss sacks, picks, Goals against average, stopped pucks, defensive scoring, power plays, penalty problems, and more. The NBA will never succeed on television, and is only going to get worse with the politics and soccer-esque baby selfish personalities.

I'll be completely honest here, I'm the average 90s basketball enjoyer everytime I'm watching a basketball game today I feel like I'm watching another sport. THERE ARE LITERALLY ZERO DEFENSIVE PLAYS. It feels like players have zero obstacles to go for a dunk or even a three shot.

Lebron has more followers on social media ALONE than NFL x 4 😂😂😂😂😂

If I had a nickel for every time Adam has no point or "pushback"

Meanwhile basketball is growing more than ever before around the world…..more international players in the nba than there are in the nfl….

To be fair it is easier to keep up with the NFL as well since you can watch most games on free antenna channels and even for free through the nfl sometimes. Hence making it easier to follow the team week in and out vs having to watch a game every day or two. This is not to say the NBA is better in terms of viewership, but a week to week schedule would definitely have more views per game.

Ever since Kobe Bryant retired and passed.. NBA on Christmas Day never hit the same. It was amazing when Kobe v. T. Duncan and the Spurs was on for Christmas. Or even Kobe v. Shaq and Wade w/ the Heat on Christmas day. OR even Kobe v. P. Pierce, KG, R. Allen on Christmas days. Now matchups like those dont exist. For some reason the NBA doesn't notice that thier league thrives when they have a selfish killer as the Icon of the league i.e Jordan and Kobe rather than the Lebron type of his naturally nice and selfless.

I think MLS revenue of $1.5 Billion will overtake NHL revenue of $4.9 billion in next 4-5 years. MLS definitely has momentum !!

Basketball is boring to watch even live. Going to an NFL stadium is a crazy fun experience because most games matter in the season and there's almost always action. I stopped going to NBA games even if someone gives me tickets because the majority of them aren't fun to watch.

The NBA is soft compared to the 90's NBA and the biggest thing killing the NBA is how they stack the teams with with big 3's and big 4's. So it's really only about 5 good teams to watch. Every other team is like a D-league squad

Adam Silver comes from the same petri dish as Klaus Schwab.

Agreed 100 percent with this. Grew up loving the game of basketball, used to play almost everyday. Between all the rules changes that dumb the game down to Lebron and his antics alongside a really disgusting media that has in my opinion done great damage to Lebron's image by constantly tearing down the legacies of former players to prop him up, it has destroyed my interest in at least the NBA. I still love he game tho.

NBA boring

Pro Football is the only thing we still collectively watch as a nation/ culture

Please revisit this. I’m from LA. Die hard laker fan and I know so many laker fans who stopped watching once Lebron came to LA, myself included. It would be interesting to see the amount viewership across the league once he retires. Looking forward to it.

As a raptors fan watching what the refs did on January 9th was disgusting. 23 free throws in the 4th to our 2 for them to win by 1 🤦‍♂️. Legitimately disgusting quite frankly makes it extremely hard to watch knowing how inconsistent they are with fouls across the league

Steph Curry is a billion times better face for the NBA than Lebron. Evidence is what he did for the Golden State warriors value. ABSOLUTELY INSANE!

Go Woke... Go Broke!

Additionally what has happen in the NBA is its superstars not takin the regular season seriously, excluding LeBron who averages close to 70 games throughout his career. what i would like to see is a combined viewership comparison including the NBA &NFL playoffs.

The games aren’t televised on normal TV. It’s on TNT or you have to have a subscription to something to watch. Unless you get a local team televised.

Im as conservative as it gets. And i hate Lebron James as a human being. But im a basketball fan to the depths of my core. I LOVE the way Bron plays basketball and gebis my favorite PLAYER. You guys are so wrong and way off base. The reasin why NFL does better is because its an event based sport. Every sunday is an event. The superbowl is an event. The Finals are over 7 games series so every game doesnt feep as special. The revenue across each season is very similar between the 2. Plus basketball is a way bigger sport worldwide

Guy was so dumb. Posting a picture with no context and saying "You're next" isn't going to get you arrested. Your next only meant he was going to be prosecuted and fired to most people. I'm sure there were some guys like this that get butthurt over not standing for a silly song that will reach and say it was about violence.

I was hardcore NBA basketball watcher in the 90's and 2000's. Starting about 2012 I slowly watched less and less until now the last several years I hardly watch any games per year. I haven't been to a game since probably 2014 where I used to go to at least 10 games per year. Adam Silver and LeBron James have significantly damaged the NBA product and it's brand.

NBA giving to much power to the players has helped ruin it. The social justice messaging in 2020 and the league pressuring everyone to bend the knee and kneel during national anthems, also turned a lot of long time fans off. We wanna watch a damm game with family or friends, not have propaganda and political agendas preached to us during a professional sporting event!!

Fantasy football is the main reason why football has become so popular. Ive been playing for almost 30 years and watch games I never would have, if I didnt have players on my fantasy teams, in those games. The Redzone network and Sunday Ticket are HUGE game changers for the NFL.

The NBA sucks so bad, I think it will be a parody of itself in 30-50 years. Celebrities, influencers, some real players.

I usually tune into the NBA about halfway through the playoffs. It’s definitely fallen off.

Stop watching ALL sports ball. The country is falling. Dont watch men playing with their balls as your country falls.

In the 90s and early 2000s I would watch every single game of my home team plus a bunch of other league games. I knew the players on almost every team. Last season I watched maybe 2,3 regular season games and 2 finals games. This year I haven’t watched a single basketball game.

Tom is 100% on Target1 Also NFL is going International. NFL is creating a MONSTER

I think the fact that most NBA games are on cable while most NFL games are on broadcast TV makes a big difference with overall growth and viewership. I'm an almost 38 year old millennial that hasn't had cable in over 10. All three Christmas NFL games were on broadcast while only 2 of the 5 NBA games were on broadcast.

To be fair, on Xmas the NFL is nearing end of season and has divisional rivals playing -> more viewership due to interest in playoff implications

MJ was just a unique guy, who caught the imagination of everyone, he was bigger than basketball and sports itself. I wouldnt blame Lebron for the ratings compared to the NFL. Football has just become far and away America's sport. We are way more passionate about football today than any other sport.

I'm 63 and grew up watching Bird, Magic and then Jordan. That was the pinnacle of the NBA. Then came the tattoos, guns, hip-hop, teams stopped playing defense and everyone is taking 3-pointers. Even Centers?!? Players became more important than the game and forced trades because they were; "unhappy", or "disrespected." None of the legends would want to play with any of these contemporary players. And so few of them will be remembered in NBA history.

Now that I think about it, I started to watch less basketball after Lebron “took over” the league. Not purposely but it’s just not the same league I used to love to watch.

This is what happens when people who don’t know much about sports and the nuances involved in the numbers, you can’t properly dissect what those numbers mean. The NFL HAS ALWAYS BEEN KING IN REGARDS TO RATINGS AND REVENUE IN THIS COUNTRY.

not only is Lebron divisive in his opinions, it's hard to believe he's sincere or has put much thought into his public positions. it's whatever the current mob mentality is supporting.

NFL won’t be having good viewership much longer. The fact that they are cheating to meet fantasy football spreads is going to kill it.

I was the biggest Lakers fan, then Lebron came around, first two years i was still cheering Lakers but it was already wierd because i never was a Lebron fan. Then the bubble bs happened and i realized he's just a tool of the woke agenda, he's part of that club. He just sell his soul, doesn't have a personality, He's a great player but doesn't come close to Kobe as a human being. Kobe was intellectually superior of everyone. I realized i was a Lakers fan because of Kobe. Now i root for the Mavs because of Kyrie. I like real man who doesn't care about the pubblic opinion, they only care about the truth and being authentic.

Jordan had a strong father in his life growing up. Lebron did not. That could play a big role in why Lebron has handled his power/position so poorly. He definitely seems to be an excellent father and husband, so I have to state that. But when it comes to being able to stand up against being swayed by victimhood culture, or taking so many games off, there is something missing there that Jordan and Kobe seemed to have

No one is Watching the Chinese NBA. Lewoke James, Stephanie Curry, and Alice Silver have Destroyed the League. I haven’t watched it in Many Years.

One thing i haven't seen many people talk about is how the actual game is just boring as hell nowadays especially for older fans who watched it in the 90's on back. The game today is way to focused on offense and everyone shooting threes all game. The physical part of the game is gone. Things that would help is Bring back hand checking Get rid of the 3 second lane violation Start calling traveling again Start calling moving screens violations again Quit calling fouls on guys who are barely touched. This last one has been a problem for a long time.

The NBA chose to alienate a very large portion of their fan base by limiting defense and promoting offense. This meant that at least two decades of fans (70's & 80's) and even some early 90's one's don't really like the brand of basketball being played during the regular season. Kids and younger adults enjoy it, but that fan group consumes content in a very different way. Therefore the numbers are and will continue to be down even though the sport is still flourishing financially.

The NFL Games on Christmas day had a lot more importance because how late it is in the season. Huge Playoff implications. The NBA means more after the all star break.

Americans really need to give the NHL a try, its way more enjoyable and exciting to watch and attend compared to the nba especially playoff hockey. The electricity and atmosphere is unbelievable!

1. Christmas day games in the NBA dont mean anything when theres 82 games in a season and there's still 3 months in the season to go. It's more a novelty on xmas than importance. 2. NFL this late in the season, games have playoff implications which raises the stakes, so numbers would reflect closer to playoff game viewership, which should be compared to NBA late march or NBA playoff game viewership. 3. NFL betting is tenfold what NBA and other US sports are due to the volatility of NBA/MLB/NHL games as any team can win on any given night sometimes, whereas NFL the poorer team rarely wins with a 17 game season. 4. NFL has always beaten NBA in viewership, this is nothing new as the NFL TV rights deal is the biggest in the world You're comparing apples to oranges.

The nba ain't been the same since kobe bryant.

Vinnie is right. La Bron killed it for me. I just don't care anymore for NBA. I missed a season of NFL because of Kapernick but slowly returned to watching NFL games.