[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/YKG1998 Knicks 1d ago

KD, LeBron and Curry are old and their teams aren’t that good. There aren’t any young American stars that transcend the sport and reach casual fans. Same thing happened with tennis in this country. Basketball is an international game now so the ratings in this country especially will be down.

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u/Electronic_Dance_640 Warriors 1d ago

This is what I've settled on too. We have good players, no one transcendent though. We had Jordan, Kobe, then Lebron. We had 40 years of players that transcended not just the NBA but the NBA, America, basketball, everything.

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u/longhorn4598 1d ago

Agreed. The NBA is about to enter another post-Jordan period, where other than the Lakers 2000-2002, there were no other big-star teams to root for. SGA recently made comments suggesting people are going to start noticing OKC because they're winning. He fails to realize he isn't a star like Durant LeBron Steph. OKC could win literally every game and no one would care because they aren't fun to watch. Same with Denver. Especially true of the Celtics, in my opinion currently the most unwatchable "good team" in the whole league. It's gonna get bad for a while after Durant LeBron Steph are gone.

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u/ecn9 1d ago

If none of those teams are fun to watch then people just don't like basketball anymore.

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u/Guy_From_HI 1d ago

You found the real answer. Fans didn’t truly love basketball, they liked the stars. Now the stars are gone or old and all that’s left is the sport itself.

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u/Rolands_ka_tet Bucks 1d ago

There are no young fans anymore. All the “kids” care about is NBA2K. They aren’t watching the games and seriously could care less. All they care about are seasonal stats that enhance their “favorite player” on 2K.

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u/TorpedoSandwich Lakers 1d ago

I still like watching basketball, but I am also worried about the direction the game is headed. As fun (in a ridiculous way) as it is to watch a 7'4" center regularly shoot 3s from the damn logo, it does make me wonder if that really is the brand of basketball I want to exclusively see in the future, and what the league can do to bring back some variety in the game.

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u/MicroUzi 1d ago

Jokic has

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u/Illustrious_Way_5732 Nets 1d ago

How are you not including Curry in that group as a warriors fan?

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u/mpbeasto123 [OKC] Lu Dort 1d ago

Because he doesn't have that same effect. My mum who hasn't watched a basketball game in her life knows exactly who LeBron is and has no idea who Steph is.

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u/Electronic_Dance_640 Warriors 1d ago

This is why. Your mom might have even known who LeBron was before he played a single game. Curry just isn’t quite there in the same way those other 3 are.

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u/mpbeasto123 [OKC] Lu Dort 1d ago

Fax. My mum decides whether the NBA is dead or not.

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u/BaronvonJobi 1d ago

I think it’s a marketing problem more than a player quality problem. We’ve had plenty of stars and cool stories come into the league, but the NBA has been relentlessly pushing LeBron’s endless retirement tour as the story instead of building up the new guys.