r/nba • u/Kimber80 • 1d ago

[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
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u/jonnybravo76 Lakers 1d ago edited 1d ago

Here is the one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De1QrEwUYS0

The section on Tik Tok is the relevant one.

Here's another direct comment about the TV deal AFTER this upcoming one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7vLsmDhp_4

He expounds more on the full episode of All The Smoke.

I think league wide TV deals have hit their absolute peak with this incoming TV deal. It's all downhill imo. The audience just isn't the same anymore.

Anecdotally I can speak for myself and the people around me. I grew up in So Cal with the Lakers. Our family watched EVERY game religiously (we were poor and Lakers Showtime was the best free entertainment on TV). In college I would manage my studying around game time. Fast forward to the last few years? I can count on one hand the number of games I watch a year. I just don't care. I can stream for free but I barely even do. None of my friends or family have kept up with the NBA either. Not a single one.

I think the difficulty of watching games altogether is only a part of the equation. There are many fans like me that are starting to age out and they're simply not being replaced. The product sucks is a part of it and to compound things, there's a many other things to capture a youth's attention span than a game on TV. Back when I grew up, when you came inside from playing and did you homework...you either watched some corny sitcom on a major network or had sports on TV.

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u/HeyLookMyUsername24 1d ago

Damn, you could take this and replace all the NBA references with NASCAR references, and it'd be exactly the same.

NBA should take heed from the follies of NASCAR, otherwise they may slide into irrelevance.

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u/velociraptorfarmer Timberwolves 1d ago

All of these leagues need to be studying what the hell happened to NASCAR, because it will just as easily happen to every single one of them.

MLB is probably first up to deal with this issue.

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u/undecided_mask 1d ago

MLB I think has done some damage to their issue. Making the game more exciting with steals and getting rid of random stoppages were fantastic ideas. Now they just need a way to fix the issue of pitchers being too good and turning the game into Walks, Strikeouts and HRs.

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u/velociraptorfarmer Timberwolves 1d ago

Also need to fix their access and blackout issue.

It's still physically impossible to watch certain teams in certain locations legally.

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u/Skunk_Gunk [CLE] LeBron James 1d ago

I could see lowering the mound being in the cards. You’ll never get pitchers to stop chasing velocity but you can manufacture slower pitches.

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u/undecided_mask 1d ago

I’m sure they could also mess with the ball weight if needed, though that may be a very drastic measure reserved for serious issues with the game.

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u/supermoore1025 Mavericks 1d ago

Now that I think about it. I literally never know when Nascar is on and even when I see a random commercial. I still have no interest even though one day I do want to see a race in person.

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u/HeyLookMyUsername24 1d ago

Going to a race in person is an AWESOME experience, and what keeps me a fan. Highly, highly, highly recommend going to one. Charlotte, Bristol, Kansas, Las Vegas or Homestead would be great tracks to visit.

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u/maxdeerfield2 1d ago

Has NASCAR seen big declines in audience and revenue? It seems F1 is surging.

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u/Skunk_Gunk [CLE] LeBron James 1d ago

F1 has gotten so big in the US because every race is on ESPN and there are no commercials. The no commercials is such a breath of fresh air. I think soccer is also benefiting from it. Going from watching a premier league match to a college football I lose my mind with all the commercials.

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u/BlackMathNerd 76ers 1d ago

Drive to Survive also contributed greatly to the F1 surge

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u/zeussays Lakers 1d ago

No one likes to hear this but the current CBA bringing about more parity means no more dynasties which grow the sport. We need dominating teams to create fans who are casuals but get to know the players who win repeatedly and therefore become fans. The 80s Lakers/Celtics, 90s Bulls, 00s Lakers, Warriors of the 10s all brought in a ton of new fans who became casual fans who became diehards.

The Nuggets got priced out of repeating and had to offload a lot of their talent. Maybe Boston can thread the needle but they are unliked as a franchise nationally so even if they do it may not help as much as in the past. The fractured media landscape makes it harder to gain eyeballs and without a strong winning team narrative its hard for a sport to grab attention nationally these days.

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u/epheisey Pistons 1d ago

Really? I think it's completely the opposite. I stopped watching when "superteams" started becoming a thing with KG/PP/Ray Allen, and then the Heat, and so on. I don't care to watch when I can predict 75% of the final 4 teams in the playoffs a whole season ahead of time. It's not enjoyable to me when it's the same teams on repeat for years on end with little to no competition, and my team keeps relying on the lottery to change their fortune. I enjoyed seeing the Warriors built, but after the 3rd finals in a row, it's boring af.

It's not exciting when my team does draft a stud, because I'm fearful they're gonna demand out to a big market if things don't turn around fast enough. And my team isn't a destination unless they're winning so it's just the same on repeat.

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u/zeussays Lakers 1d ago

Overall the league growth accelerates when people have known entities to glob onto. The heat grew the league immensely.

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u/epheisey Pistons 1d ago

In the short term maybe. In the long term, this current situation is the result. You really think all those bandwagon Heat fans stuck around? While also running off the small market fans that know their team will never be relevant under the current CBA.

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u/zeussays Lakers 1d ago

I think they did and the current issue is the lack of bringing in new fans as old fans age away or die. When people become sports fans they tend to stick around, even when their teams arent good. They may not come as much but they follow the sport and come back when their teams do well.

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u/epheisey Pistons 1d ago

When people become sports fans they tend to stick around, even when their teams arent good

You just made this up.

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u/zeussays Lakers 1d ago

When people find communities they tend not to leave them. Thats just psychology. There have been studies that show sports fans tend to be lifelong fans when they become fans but Im not gonna waste time finding them for you, so think what you will. As far as Im concerned you made up what you’ve said out of nothing. Your belief that fans abandon bad teams isn’t sourced either.

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u/epheisey Pistons 1d ago

I guess it's anecdotal, but none of my friends that were die hard sports fans in high school give nearly as much time, energy, or money to any of those teams outside of their NFL team when they're good, now that we're in our 30s.

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u/zeussays Lakers 1d ago

Sure but there are young people taking your place as fans even if you did leave in the NFL. Its why its still growing. The newer generation isnt coming to the NBA because the product is inaccessible and bland, and the faces are not familiar to casual people so no one is filling the role of those like you who left. You get a new steph or young lebron or young kobe winning a handful of championships and you’ll see the sport grow again. Wemby could be the person who next grows the league if parity doesnt destroy his ability to keep teammates around him for more than a year or two before the key role players are priced out.

Im not saying all sports fans stick around, but I bet if your NFL team wins a championship you and all your old friends will be back quickly because of how much joy you remember it bringing you. You also just described getting older and not having as much free time.

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u/mylanguage Knicks 1d ago

As a Knick fan - i promise you people who become fans young 100% stick around even when we aren't good. I grew up on the Knicks in the late 90s and became diehard then even after 20 years of meh

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u/BlackMathNerd 76ers 1d ago

You might've stopped watching, but generally the population likes dominant, successful teams.

The Bulls, Patriots, Lakers, etc. Parity is overrated outside of the NFL.

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u/epheisey Pistons 1d ago

In the short term maybe. It drives people away long term. Or maybe you have another explanation for why Finals viewership decreased every time the Warriors made it in their recent run?

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u/King_of_the_Nerds 1d ago

Like seriously, what are you talking about. Parity in the NBA is new. Ratings are down. I’m not saying anything about causation, but what really made the NBA popular was the Lakers-Celtics rivalry in the 80s, 4 teams won titles in the 80s. That carried on through Jordan dominating the NBA for 6 out of 8 years. The Lakers followed up again and the NBA was huge. Teams bubbled up and fan bases grew. Everybody hated Shaq and Kobe except Lakers fans. The Kings and Blazers were national news. The Warriors vs Lebron was enormous. People outside of those markets hate watched those series, first to hate on LeBron, then to hate on the Warriors when they got KD. Now it’s just a bunch of mid teams shooting 3s and making 35% of them. No boogie man to get behind or root against.

You’re a pistons fan! This should be firmly engrained in your blood. You unseated the Lakers and ended a dynasty. There was Bill Laimbeer’s Combat Basketball on NES! He was like the 4th best player in that team. Nobody is making Kristaps Porziņģis 3-point Shooting Expo for PS5. Your Pistons also ended the Kobe/Shaq Lakers. It was nuts, Ben Wallace was everywhere. ‘Sheed was talked about nightly because of his antics. Remember RIP Hamilton and the mask. Remember the run Billups got as the greatest leader in sports.

Sports not named the NFL need people to root for and against. Right now, nobody cares and it shows. The real issue is people like me used to watch every game and our kids would sit in and root with us. My son isn’t super interested in basketball, even though I’m a giant fan. It’s mostly because I have to stream games on my laptop to watch because I sure as shit ain’t paying $20 a month for the privilege of watching an hour and 45 minutes worth of ads during a 48 minute game. Fuck that nonsense. Yo ho yo ho a pirates life for me.

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u/epheisey Pistons 1d ago edited 1d ago

Parity in the NBA is new.

There is no parity in the NBA

My Pistons did all that, and yet there's been no reason for anybody to follow the Pistons since 2006. 20 years of basement dwelling kills a fanbase. The majority of NBA teams shuffle through the same experience.

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u/BlackMathNerd 76ers 1d ago

we haven't had a repeat champion since the Warriors 7 years ago, that's by design.

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u/epheisey Pistons 1d ago

By design? You can predict 3 out of 4 teams that will be in the conference finals next season right now. 7 years is no time at all. What team in the past 7 years has went from the bottom to the top? It's entirely left to the few teams with superstars, or teams in desirable destinations. Boston. Miami. Golden State. And wherever LeBron happens to be. In the last 10 years, the entire rest of the NBA has made the finals 5 times.

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u/King_of_the_Nerds 1d ago

2024 - Mavs, twolves, pacers, Celtics

2023 - lakers, nuggets, heat, Celtics

2022 - mavs, warriors, Celtics, heat

2021 - clippers, suns, bucks, hawks

2020 - same as 2023

2019 - warriors, blazers, bucks, raptors

2018 - rockets, warriors, cavs, Celtics

16 different cities made it to the conference finals. In 7 years. That’s a lot of parity there. There are only 28 slots. Yeah the Celtics have been good and LeBron has been good but other than that turnover is high. Over that time 7 different cities have won a title.

4 cities won in the 80s

4 in the 90s

5 in the 00s

7 in the 10s

5 so far in the 20s

Between 1980 and 2019 10 teams won titles. In the last 7 years 7 different teams have won titles.

Yes parity

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u/ALLPR0 Bucks 23h ago

Lmao how can you say parity is overrated outside of the most successful league? The NFL has the blueprint, every other league has just sucked at re-creating it with their own twists.

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u/ExpiredDeodorant 1d ago

Agree

I would not have been a fan if i wasn't able to watch Lakers on ch9 or Clippers on ch5 on a 16 inch TV