Im not staying up NBA!
NBA ratings are down for the second year in a row and the NBA doesn’t seemed too concerned about its seemingly struggling ratings. They have tried their best to combat the issue by putting more games at 10:00pm instead of 10:30pm. They have tried to showcase new talent with the likes of Zion Williamson. That has worked out wonderfully as he has played a grand total of ZERO NBA MINUTES! They have even cracked down on people illegally streaming games on YouTube and Reddit. Let’s be honest here, the ratings have everything to do with one action that took place in summer of 2018 and it caused the NBA landscape to change forever.
The Los Angeles Clippers traded Austin Rivers to the Washington Wizards for aging big man Marcin Gortat. The move not only caused Doc to lose his kid in a trade, he lost……okay I’m sorry. Its Lebron James moving from playing on the East coast to playing at the god-awful time of 10:30 PM EST. As much as I may be a Lebron fan, I am not staying up to watch him play the Phoenix Suns, the Denver Nuggets and I’m damn sure not watching him play the boring ass Spurs. He not only took his talents to LA; he took the NBA rating with him.
Lebron James, the most important and I guess best basketball player to ever lace a pair of shoes since 2004, has a fan base that stretches around the world and they will not stay up to watch his games. With Lebron leaving the east, it leaves a void that casual NBA fans have nothing to fill with. Who am I supposed to HATE when I watch basketball? No one cares about Giannis, or…..whoever else plays in the East. Go ask your mother who Trae Young is, or what Joel Embiid looks like. Ask your co-worker where Toronto is, or if they knew Blake Griffin gets paid from a team who plays basketball in Michigan.
The East, for the causal NBA fan, is a barren wasteland that will only get worse when the playoffs roll around as the NBA struggles to find a way to put all Eastern Conference game on NBA TV. I’m not saying the NBA needs to figure out how to make the earth spin the other way so that the Lakers play at 7:30 EST again but it has to do a better job of figuring out what the people want and most importantly, who they want to see. There are tons of great NBA players that play in the east, they just have to do a better job of marketing these players. The sooner my mother knows who Ben Simmons and Tony Snell are…..okay I’m just playing, no one cares about Tony Snell, the faster people are able to recognize these great players, the better the rating will be. It is either that or have Jimmy Butler fight everyone. Actually, that’s a bad idea too, let’s try having Ben Simmons shoot threes! Nope that seems way to simple of a concept. You know what, I really don’t know what the NBA should do, maybe just have the Lakers play the Eastern Conference exclusively, and only on the road. I bet more people would watch and ratings would skyrocket.