[Rankin] ... Kevin Durant continuing to address #NBA viewership being down. "I take this serious. I'm locked in as to why people don't want to watch us play."

https://x.com/DuaneRankin/status/1872176949801504956?t=sOlhzun3lYo5ImePn8Xpwg&s=19

6.5k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

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u/TheStoogeass Rockets 1d ago

Maybe the next JJ Reddick should get involved in production instead of podcasting and coaching. Someone needs to teach the directors, editors, and producers what is happening in a game and how to tell that story to a television audience.

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u/AuraTheExplorah 1d ago

Revolutionizing commentary won’t fix the subscription based viewership that most people aren’t willing to pay for.

YouTube TV just raised their prices to $83 per month. They started at 35. Add this to Netflix, Max, Hulu/Disney+, Amazon, Peacock, Paramount+ all loooking at price increases?

“Why yes I’d like to pay an extra 20 per month to watch my mid ass team disappoint me.”

GTFO.

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u/Latarjet3 Lakers 1d ago

Yeah, hearing Doris Burke state the obvious every play with no technical knowledge is awful to listen to

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u/NoPause9609 1d ago

She was so annoying yesterday I turned it off.

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u/odnamAE Lakers 1d ago

The story and all that will help but I just wish people liked basketball on its own. A lot of the people watching or following the sport don’t even like it. They can’t appreciate stars that don’t fit their narrative, playstyles that don’t fit their metrics, ideas that don’t match their knowledge. A lot of people can’t recognize how talented or how high the level of play is. I get some frustrations on reffing, priortizing efficient 3’s etc., but to say the basketball itself is bad to me is crazy

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u/uwill1der Rockets 1d ago edited 1d ago

Are you talking about WWE type stories between players and teams, or visual story telling of the game.

I've done sports production before and the only real difference with the sports is dynamic camera angles. Football has lots of options to get in the action with sky cams, sideline cams, body cams and pylon/down marker cams.

Nba has the upper deck tripod cam and maybe 1 sideline handheld cam for timeouts and deadball plays. The other cameras are only used for replays, which hurts the dynamic visuals of the game.

Even baseball uses more angles to put you in the game.

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u/TheStoogeass Rockets 1d ago

No. Visual story telling of the game. Fewer angles. Just the story of the game as it plays out. Inbounds to score no random cutaway closeups. Fresh angles would work. Some overhead shots of the entire play would be a nice change-up.

I watch NASCAR and as FOX started showing more single car shots that would randomly cut from angle to angle with no progression, you lost all sense that you were watching a sporting event. NBC would take over mid-season and you could instantly tell what was happening in the course of the race.

I feel like NBA has a similar problem. Starting the play at mid-court. No idea how the offense and defense are setting up. When a player scores, they instantly go to closeups of fan, coaches and scoring player. When a tech is called we often have no idea what for. We're watching the shot while the announcers continue discussing Dante's trouble fitting in for the third time tonight.

Watching on television I should get everything that the crowd gets with the benefit of announcers helping it make even more sense. We get less instead.

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u/uwill1der Rockets 1d ago

Sounds like you want the control room feed rather than the televised feed. And what you want would be terribly boring and slow for a fast paced game.

You wanna see the foul that was called, well then we need a 30 second timeout to rerack the footage and cut in the right cameras. So now the game is longer, or you miss a play while we rerack.

Nascar works because every car has its own camera. You aren't getting 10 cameras on players on the court to build a progression of drama.

The sidelines are too tight to allow a cameraman to run up and down all game. You also won't find many people capable of keeping pace with a camera rig attached to them

The nba also tried drones for all angles with poor reception from fans.

There are ways to Amp up the game, but not the way you want.

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u/TheStoogeass Rockets 1d ago

You brought up WWE earlier. If you watch a televised segment from the '90s you will see better editing and story telling during a live event just by cuts and showing the right things. If you watch modern AEW, that is all lost and it sucks to watch.

I don't want the game amped up, I want the choices made to enhance the point of the exercise (showing the game) - not take away from it. Just better direction regardless of the tools or gimmicks they use.

The Rockets have been experimenting with some kind of overhead moving camera system and it works for limited use.

NASCAR would be better if they used their in-car and on-car cameras less. That is what I'm complaining about. Losing sight of the race by focusing on the cars.

I had a better experiencing watching the NBA on a standard definition CRT in the '90s than I get now with a massive HDTV.

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u/uwill1der Rockets 1d ago

Well from 20 years experience in this, what you want only works in theory and not in practice.