Here’s all you need to know about the state of the NBA. When asked about the league’s declining ratings, Joe Mazzulla, coach of the Boston Celtics, said this: “I add to that. I don’t watch NBA games. I’m just as much of a problem as everyone else. I don’t like watching the games.”
Apparently, many others feel the same as the head coach of the defending NBA champions. Ratings for NBA games on ABC, ESPN, TNT and NBATV are down 25%, according to Sports Media Watch. The public is weary of watching a dull, predictable, tired game. It’s like watching a fall rerun. We’ve seen this before.
In today’s NBA, all five players camp out around the 3-point arc and cast up 25-foot bricks. During one game in December, the Bulls and Hornets missed 75 3-pointers — that’s a whiff every 38.4 seconds. The Celtics average 51 3-point shots per game. The NBA has devolved into a 3-point contest. There’s nothing interesting going on. There’s little working the ball inside for a good shot. There are few mid-range shots. There are no more battles for position in the lane. There is no creativity. There is no defense (by rule and by effort).
Do you know what NBA officials are doing about all of this? Well, you’ll be happy to know that they’ve added colorful floors. They have added something called the NBA Emirates Cup, a pointless in-season tournament. They have created a silly format for the All-Star Game. They have announced plans to play preseason games in China next year, five years after the league was banned there (this is called selling your soul to the devil). Oh, and they have added a dozen different uniform combinations for each team, like mix-and-match Barbie (the Suns, for example, have their “Association edition” (white), the “Icon Edition” (purple), the “Statement Edition” (all black), and the “El Valle,” and the “City Edition, which celebrates Chicano culture.”
The NBA has come up with nothing but gimmicks and window dressing while ignoring real problems. It’s like the house is on fire and they’re buying new furniture and painting the walls.
“It’s not just the All-Star Game, it’s our game in general,” said LeBron James, when asked about changes to the All-Star format. " … there’s a lot of threes being shot. So it’s a bigger conversation than just the All-Star Game.”
He should know; he’s part of the problem.
Major League Baseball decided to do something when faced with its own ratings decline. The league added the pitch clock and eliminated the defensive shift. Ratings went up. MLB is now considering the addition of the “golden at-bat” rule, in which each team would be allowed, once per game, to send any batter to the plate regardless of where they are in the batting order.
The NBA has added mix-and-match outfits.
BJ Armstrong, a member of the great Bulls teams of the ‘90s, articulated the problem perfectly on a Hoop Genius podcast:
“… NBA executives, personnel, coaches, analytic people, presidents of teams, general managers of teams … look at me with a straight face and they say the following: ‘A 2-point shot is a bad shot’ … we only want 3 shots; we want the corner 3s, we want layups, or we want to get to the free-throw line’ … there’s no more creativity, there’s no more imagination … we have basically robots running up and down the court. (I) run to the 3-point line … (or) try to get a layup. If I can’t get a layup, I try to get fouled.
“If … someone drives, and you don’t call a foul, these players go berserk now as if they have the right of passage to go to the basket and look for a foul. What do they call? A swim-through move? You’re not even going to the basket! They’re not even going to the basket to score, they’re going to the basket to get fouled.
“… I’m not going to be mad at the players. This is what’s being taught. We’ve stripped the players of any kind of imagination, we’ve stripped the players of any type of read the defense or take what the defense is giving you.
“… All 30 teams play the same exact way. How? They all got to one big room and (concluded) this is the way to play? Everyone runs a five-out offense, everyone shoots 50 threes a night, and whoever makes the most threes, more times than not, wins the game.
“… it’s more fun for me to watch a pickup game than to watch the NBA right now … no one plays the exact same way in the pickup game. This guy drives to the basket, this guy has a little shake in his game, this guy loves to post up. It’s fun to watch the creativity or at least the imagination of the game.”
What can/should the NBA do? Glad you asked.
- Eliminate the corner 3-point shot. It’s 23 feet, 9 inches from the top of the arc, but only 22 feet in the corner. You could find 500 civilians in the stands of any game who could hit 40% of his shots from that distance. Also, move the 3-point arc back to an even 25 feet. That will force teams to rethink threes and look for mid-range shots again.
- Call traveling. It’s in the rulebook. You can look it up. Someone show the rule to NBA commissioner Adam Silver and his officials. Maybe they forgot. Show them Rule No. 10, Section II, Dribble, Item A., where it says, “A player shall not run with the ball without dribbling it.” Get on YouTube and look how often players run with the ball without dribbling. See LeBron James, the travelin’ man. No wonder he scores so many points. While you’re at it, call “double dribble.” It’s in the rulebook, too (Item e).
- Dump the G League and increase the entry age for players (currently 19). They’re hurting the college game, the NBA’s free farm system. They’re killing player development (and it shows in the lack of fundamentals). The NBA has turned its back on college basketball. This is known as biting the hand that feeds you. College provides players more time to develop and reduces the chance of draft busts. It will also boost NBA ratings since players who had a chance to develop in college tend to build a fan base, which will follow them to the pro game. All of the above has worked wonders for the NFL, which has fully embraced the college game. Football players aren’t eligible for the NFL draft for three years after high school graduation.
- Allow players to play defense again. It cheapens the scoring when teams don’t play defense, but the rules make it impossible. Reverse some of the ridiculous changes in what constitutes a foul. For instance, it is considered a foul if the defender jumps up to block a shot and not only enters the shooter’s “air space” but also the space where he is going to land. Defenders don’t even bother attempting to block a shot, or, when they do, they jump to the side of the shooter to avoid getting near his legs. Now even more shooters are leaping into their defenders to initiate a foul.
- Shorten the regular season to 58 games. Play each team twice and call it good. Most games are meaningless, which opened the door to the awful concept of “load management” in which perfectly healthy players sit out a game to rest. A 58-game schedule would make the regular season more meaningful and give fans a reason to tune in. Is there anyone besides NBA accountants who thinks 82 games is necessary or good for the league? Start the shortened season in March, after the NFL season is finished.
- Cut the playoffs to 16 teams (as it used to be), although 14 or even 12 would be better. They play 82 games to eliminate just 10 of the 30 teams (one-third) from the playoffs!! That renders the regular season even more meaningless.
- Get rid of the complex trade rules that require teams to match the salaries of incoming and outgoing players, making trades much more difficult. Whereas the NFL, as a result of non-guaranteed contracts and fewer rigid trade rules, allows teams to rebuild more quickly and create competitive balance. One of the NBA’s biggest problems is the lack of competitive balance. The NFL makes it possible for teams to go from worst to first in a year. While they’re at it, they should get rid of guaranteed contracts. They’re poison.