December 16, 2024 • 10 mins
Over the weekend, the NBA hosted their second annual Emirates Cup Tournament down in Las Vegas, Nevada as the Milwaukee Bucks took on the Atlanta Hawks followed by the Houston Rockets taking on the Oklahoma City Thunder for the semifinals. In contention for bragging rights for the Emirates Cup along with a huge incentive bonus for the players, the league did not draw much attention this year in regards to their ratings over the weekend. With veteran names like LeBron James and Kevin Durant starting to dwindle out of the conversation now as new eras began to come about, it seems the NBA has lost it's buzz regarding the amount of pull the game is use to seeing. With ratings down at 7% and not looking to getting any better, many tend to believe that the NBA has became 'watered down' and not as entertaining to watch as it has been in the prior years. With ratings being at a constant decline also hurts the NBA's media partners as they must now figure ways to cover the losses following the drop off of viewers. Has the NBA dropped off in regards to the other National Leagues like football and baseball?
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Now back to Sean Salisbury. All right, Sean, what are
you hearing out there now? The Salisbury stakeouts?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Salsbury takeout on the Sean Salisbury Show.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
All Right, it's time for the stake out here on
the Sean Salisbury Show, Sean Brown and Tripoli astros Trey
Kyle Tucker to the Cubs, Rockets loves to Oklahoma City
in the NBA Cup Semifinals.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
The Texans beat the Dolphins.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
They win the AFC Souths for the second straight year
after the Colts loss of the Broncos yesterday. All Right,
for the steakout, Seawan, I want to talk a little
bit about the NBA. I was watching the NBA Cup Semifinals,
which were the Rockets in Oklahoma City Thunder and the
broadcast crew Mike Breen, Richard Jefferson, and Doris Burke tough.
(00:54):
Listen for me, Richard Jefferson sucks.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Although Doris Brooks better than most of their she is
She's alone.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
My issue with Doris Burke and it's not just the Rockets.
I feel like when I do listen to her as
of late, she picks one team and she rides for them,
and she criticizes the hell out of the others. She
made so many backhanded comments about the Rockets the other
night it was annoying, and Richard Jefferson is also annoying.
So my question is there's been so much to be
(01:24):
made about the ratings in the NBA and how they
are just continuing to decline. NBA ratings are down forty
eight percent since twenty twelve. They are already down twenty
eight percent this year alone on ESPN, while other sports
leagues NFL, NBA, NHL all are setting records when it
comes to their ratings. So I'm just gonna list a
(01:46):
couple things, and i want to get your take on
why you think ratings are down. You have to pay
for multiple streaming services to watch games. We've talked about
that with all kinds of different leagues, But in hometowns,
you can't even watch your hometown teams with League pass
small Mark. It's with big stars get no airtime. Anthony
Edwards for minnesot I'm just gonna use him as an example.
ESPN fired the best broadcasting crew they've ever had when
(02:08):
it comes to the NBA, which is Mike Breen, Mark Jackson,
and Jeff Van Gundy. Those three were phenomenal together the league. Also,
the NBA also picked money over the most entertaining cast
and sports hosting on TNT. Obviously, I think tn T
finally got picked up. Whatever the deal is with that, they're.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
ESPN, right, they're gonna go thatw But are they gonna
are they gonna filter them?
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Well, they don't filter. They don't filter Pat mckins, they
better not filter.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Charles not be anywhere near the same.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
No, won't and they I don't think they'll stand for it,
to be honest with you. So with all that being said.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
They're bigger than the ESPN, right, it comes to basketball
hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
With all that being being said, why do you think
NBA ratings continue to decline and.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
They're gonna continue to I? I uh, they only market
their superstars right, Like you mentioned Anthony Edwards and small markets.
You know, do you realize, well, what about Shake, Gilgess,
Alexander Those are two of the biggest stars in the league. Now,
maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm not paying close enough. I
know who they are, but dude, does everybody it's an
(03:13):
Put it this way, Here's how I judge if you
market them, right, if the average four sports fan who
watches sometimes knows who the people are. Now that has
to do with talent. I also think that when you
went through COVID and went through how they shifted that everything,
it turned people off woke society, turned people who pay
(03:35):
and watch off. See. The one thing is Michael Jordan
always pointed out, which is great liberals and conservatives spend
money on sneakers, So why did he have to take us?
You know what I'm saying point and I'm not saying
it was just politics, but they went They forced stuff
down your throat as opposed to letting a great game
with great players, and we have allowed. And I'm going
(03:59):
to tell you another thing that I think is big
about it. I think load load management has been a
big problem. Now that now have you've seen how now
they're trying.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
To fix it.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
But here's how they have to fix it by giving
you an in season tournament to pay them a million
dollars a player to win before Christmas. Prices go up.
For the fan, I'll always say it, fans don't get
a seat at the table. I think it's a lot
of things. I think it's it is the marketing of stars,
it is they don't play defense a lot of times
(04:29):
in the NBA. Look at the NBA All Start game, unwatchable.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Now, Oh, just on that point, the halftime show of
the Rockets in Oklahoma City, they were bitching about how
much of a defensive game it was.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
I think it was like forty two to forty one
at the half. I am, and they were complaining about it.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
That's and so you're not marketing. You're not marketing good basketball.
You're marketing offensive basketball. And I get it, but you
may not like it. Covid mass the price woke telling
people they had to wear I'm just saying all of it,
all of it combined, instead of just letting you be
a basketball fan and shoving stuff down your throat. And
same with the players and the and the then fans
(05:05):
in corporate America, I think there's a there's a lot
of different things. Whether you like WOLK, I'm just saying,
you're asking me. Whether you agree with it or not,
I don't care. That's up to you. But I'm just
telling you go and read comments about somebody when matter
of fact, if you want to see a fan like fans,
and I think the NBA bat the athletic the athletes
played for play, best athletes in the world playing basketball
(05:26):
doing the things that you can't high rise and do
what they do and play like they put that's not normal, right,
But go go go put an NBA thread up about
what you just asked me and watch the comments. I'm
not saying that that that's what dictates social media. But
social media helped an election, has happ helped it the past.
Social Media gets people hired, social media gets people that
you know triggered all those things. Go and watch the well,
(05:48):
I don't watch it anymore. Oh I love that player.
I don't watch it anymore because of this or because
of that. Look at the comments and they are They're
all over them oup. So whether you like it or not,
it's affected a lot of people. Go ahead and.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Start reading them.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Okay, so I one of the reasons why so I
bookmarked over the weekend. Colin Coward on his show a
couple of days ago on FS one The Herd, he
had a segment on this and he said, quote, the
NBA ratings are down forty eight percent in the last
twelve years, and they have fallen off a cliff this year.
And Adam silver solution is, hey, let's make the courts brighter.
Just go out the courts suck, he said, Just go
(06:24):
ask the Democrats. Be warned, once you detach from regular
people in America, you will pay a price.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
End quote in the comments?
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Is it any way? Isn't out what I go and
detached for the regular people in America? That what happened? Yes,
isn't that what I'm saying? Here?
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Here is one guy I stopped watching when they would
not stop bringing politics like the BLM movement and putting
it all over the floor. I don't try to get
into politics too much.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Can I go to national anthems?
Speaker 3 (06:50):
But I go to sports to an escape, to find
an escape, and they try to shove it down the throat.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Here's another guy.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
NBA ratings are down because each game looks like a
no defense All Star. Another guy said, I didn't read this.
I didn't read went woke. I'm just reading the comments
from just normal like I told you to. And I
didn't see comic Coward's post. I promise you. So My
point is go read them, and you're gonna get a
lot of these same comments.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
And it's right. The part about it is as a
normal fan, you shouldn't be able to get. You market
your NBA the way you want to. But if you're
marketing only to the players and not taking the fans
of the consideration, would you expect, Like I said, if
you believe in a certain movement, great, If you believe
that you don't want to stand for the national anthem,
(07:34):
that's on you. That's not how I believe, but that's
on you. All those things that come into play. Well,
what's the first thing we think about NBA players? Spoiled rotten?
That's and that's not fair to all of them, But
that's what fans think that I've been around.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Dude, I wouldn't.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
I'm looking. I promise you as I'm sitting here now,
I'd miss NFL games growing up. I missed NFL games
when I was in college. Do you know the number
one thing I had to watch it was NBA. Yeah,
when Bird and Magic and Jordan and co. It was
all the time. But you know what they did. They
allowed you to choose. All Star games were competitive. They
and I'm just using all Star game. They didn't tell
(08:08):
you what you had to look at it uniforms and
shoes and who and this and somebody walking up the
court and the load management, telling Michael Jordan to take
a day off, he to punch you in the face.
All these little things start to add up to a
big thing. And when you do that, you can't cater
to just the players. You've got to players want to
get paid. You got to cater to the fan, the
(08:28):
average fan who shows up a couple of times, or
corporate America. You cannot tell them how they're supposed to think.
And when you do, you lose half of them. The
NBA ratings will the NBA rans aren't gonna get better. No,
they're gonna get worse. It's proven your year. It just
is so stuff that we used to watch like clockwork.
I can't miss it now it's well. And then I'm
(08:50):
telling you when a broadcasters weave in that kind of
stuff where it's a it's like a nut. Like you
don't like your guy, m Mark Joe. You don't like
him because he weaves it in for certain game he's
a d writer, be objective and called the damn game.
I don't want to hear you.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
We've got finished yourself calling Deon Sader's freaking game.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
We've gotten to the point, or like when the broadcast
team said you can't do that. This is rooting college football.
As much as I like Gus Johnson and Joel clat.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
As broadcast couldn't stop talking about.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
It, and and they're both great, but the problem is
when you weave yourself into over. Your job is to
report it, not create it. And when you start creating
at the average, you got to think about the end.
That doesn't mean you got to kiss the fans ass,
but when you start telling them how they're supposed to
think instead of report the action. Got a prop Now
on studio shows, that's an opinion show. You you you
(09:43):
right it, You do what you want. You're an entertainer.
You're not a journalist. Stephen A. Smith when he's on
the when he's on the NBA Show, or when he's
on WHOA I mean, woke Up? Wake Up?
Speaker 1 (09:51):
What's it called? Get it?
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Get up? Get up? When you're when you're on that show,
you it's your opinion, you're going at it. You're not
a journalist unless you bring a journalist on to give you, Hey,
let's go out to what's our guy on college game
day that they always go out to to do the reports.
When he's standing there, you know the uh.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
It's not that's not Stanford Steve he's talking about, not
Marty Smith.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
He's he's the actual Pete. Now that Pete reporting is
a jealous that's not opinion. That's with the facts that
he's getting. When Herb Street talks, he's watching tape. When
Nick said, they're entertainers, Yeah, talking sports. So when you're
doing the games, you got you gotta you gotta get
yourself out of that.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Yeah, you just do.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
But that's why the NBA and until they change it
and it becomes about the player and the fan watching
basketball and and not telling you how you're supposed to think,
or where or what you're supposed to see with your
visuals other than basketball, I don't watch it as much
I used to, Right, It bums me out.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Yeah, I just don't.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
All right, let's continue to discussion next seven one, three,
seven ninety as we roll along right here on seven
ninety
Now back to Sean Salisbury. All right, Sean, what are
you hearing out there now? The Salisbury stakeouts?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Salsbury takeout on the Sean Salisbury Show.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
All Right, it's time for the stake out here on
the Sean Salisbury Show, Sean Brown and Tripoli astros Trey
Kyle Tucker to the Cubs, Rockets loves to Oklahoma City
in the NBA Cup Semifinals.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
The Texans beat the Dolphins.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
They win the AFC Souths for the second straight year
after the Colts loss of the Broncos yesterday. All Right,
for the steakout, Seawan, I want to talk a little
bit about the NBA. I was watching the NBA Cup Semifinals,
which were the Rockets in Oklahoma City Thunder and the
broadcast crew Mike Breen, Richard Jefferson, and Doris Burke tough.
(00:54):
Listen for me, Richard Jefferson sucks.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Although Doris Brooks better than most of their she is
She's alone.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
My issue with Doris Burke and it's not just the Rockets.
I feel like when I do listen to her as
of late, she picks one team and she rides for them,
and she criticizes the hell out of the others. She
made so many backhanded comments about the Rockets the other
night it was annoying, and Richard Jefferson is also annoying.
So my question is there's been so much to be
(01:24):
made about the ratings in the NBA and how they
are just continuing to decline. NBA ratings are down forty
eight percent since twenty twelve. They are already down twenty
eight percent this year alone on ESPN, while other sports
leagues NFL, NBA, NHL all are setting records when it
comes to their ratings. So I'm just gonna list a
(01:46):
couple things, and i want to get your take on
why you think ratings are down. You have to pay
for multiple streaming services to watch games. We've talked about
that with all kinds of different leagues, But in hometowns,
you can't even watch your hometown teams with League pass
small Mark. It's with big stars get no airtime. Anthony
Edwards for minnesot I'm just gonna use him as an example.
ESPN fired the best broadcasting crew they've ever had when
(02:08):
it comes to the NBA, which is Mike Breen, Mark Jackson,
and Jeff Van Gundy. Those three were phenomenal together the league. Also,
the NBA also picked money over the most entertaining cast
and sports hosting on TNT. Obviously, I think tn T
finally got picked up. Whatever the deal is with that, they're.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
ESPN, right, they're gonna go thatw But are they gonna
are they gonna filter them?
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Well, they don't filter. They don't filter Pat mckins, they
better not filter.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Charles not be anywhere near the same.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
No, won't and they I don't think they'll stand for it,
to be honest with you. So with all that being said.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
They're bigger than the ESPN, right, it comes to basketball
hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
With all that being being said, why do you think
NBA ratings continue to decline and.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
They're gonna continue to I? I uh, they only market
their superstars right, Like you mentioned Anthony Edwards and small markets.
You know, do you realize, well, what about Shake, Gilgess,
Alexander Those are two of the biggest stars in the league. Now,
maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm not paying close enough. I
know who they are, but dude, does everybody it's an
(03:13):
Put it this way, Here's how I judge if you
market them, right, if the average four sports fan who
watches sometimes knows who the people are. Now that has
to do with talent. I also think that when you
went through COVID and went through how they shifted that everything,
it turned people off woke society, turned people who pay
(03:35):
and watch off. See. The one thing is Michael Jordan
always pointed out, which is great liberals and conservatives spend
money on sneakers, So why did he have to take us?
You know what I'm saying point and I'm not saying
it was just politics, but they went They forced stuff
down your throat as opposed to letting a great game
with great players, and we have allowed. And I'm going
(03:59):
to tell you another thing that I think is big
about it. I think load load management has been a
big problem. Now that now have you've seen how now
they're trying.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
To fix it.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
But here's how they have to fix it by giving
you an in season tournament to pay them a million
dollars a player to win before Christmas. Prices go up.
For the fan, I'll always say it, fans don't get
a seat at the table. I think it's a lot
of things. I think it's it is the marketing of stars,
it is they don't play defense a lot of times
(04:29):
in the NBA. Look at the NBA All Start game, unwatchable.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Now, Oh, just on that point, the halftime show of
the Rockets in Oklahoma City, they were bitching about how
much of a defensive game it was.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
I think it was like forty two to forty one
at the half. I am, and they were complaining about it.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
That's and so you're not marketing. You're not marketing good basketball.
You're marketing offensive basketball. And I get it, but you
may not like it. Covid mass the price woke telling
people they had to wear I'm just saying all of it,
all of it combined, instead of just letting you be
a basketball fan and shoving stuff down your throat. And
same with the players and the and the then fans
(05:05):
in corporate America, I think there's a there's a lot
of different things. Whether you like WOLK, I'm just saying,
you're asking me. Whether you agree with it or not,
I don't care. That's up to you. But I'm just
telling you go and read comments about somebody when matter
of fact, if you want to see a fan like fans,
and I think the NBA bat the athletic the athletes
played for play, best athletes in the world playing basketball
(05:26):
doing the things that you can't high rise and do
what they do and play like they put that's not normal, right,
But go go go put an NBA thread up about
what you just asked me and watch the comments. I'm
not saying that that that's what dictates social media. But
social media helped an election, has happ helped it the past.
Social Media gets people hired, social media gets people that
you know triggered all those things. Go and watch the well,
(05:48):
I don't watch it anymore. Oh I love that player.
I don't watch it anymore because of this or because
of that. Look at the comments and they are They're
all over them oup. So whether you like it or not,
it's affected a lot of people. Go ahead and.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Start reading them.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Okay, so I one of the reasons why so I
bookmarked over the weekend. Colin Coward on his show a
couple of days ago on FS one The Herd, he
had a segment on this and he said, quote, the
NBA ratings are down forty eight percent in the last
twelve years, and they have fallen off a cliff this year.
And Adam silver solution is, hey, let's make the courts brighter.
Just go out the courts suck, he said, Just go
(06:24):
ask the Democrats. Be warned, once you detach from regular
people in America, you will pay a price.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
End quote in the comments?
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Is it any way? Isn't out what I go and
detached for the regular people in America? That what happened? Yes,
isn't that what I'm saying? Here?
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Here is one guy I stopped watching when they would
not stop bringing politics like the BLM movement and putting
it all over the floor. I don't try to get
into politics too much.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Can I go to national anthems?
Speaker 3 (06:50):
But I go to sports to an escape, to find
an escape, and they try to shove it down the throat.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Here's another guy.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
NBA ratings are down because each game looks like a
no defense All Star. Another guy said, I didn't read this.
I didn't read went woke. I'm just reading the comments
from just normal like I told you to. And I
didn't see comic Coward's post. I promise you. So My
point is go read them, and you're gonna get a
lot of these same comments.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
And it's right. The part about it is as a
normal fan, you shouldn't be able to get. You market
your NBA the way you want to. But if you're
marketing only to the players and not taking the fans
of the consideration, would you expect, Like I said, if
you believe in a certain movement, great, If you believe
that you don't want to stand for the national anthem,
(07:34):
that's on you. That's not how I believe, but that's
on you. All those things that come into play. Well,
what's the first thing we think about NBA players? Spoiled rotten?
That's and that's not fair to all of them, But
that's what fans think that I've been around.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Dude, I wouldn't.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
I'm looking. I promise you as I'm sitting here now,
I'd miss NFL games growing up. I missed NFL games
when I was in college. Do you know the number
one thing I had to watch it was NBA. Yeah,
when Bird and Magic and Jordan and co. It was
all the time. But you know what they did. They
allowed you to choose. All Star games were competitive. They
and I'm just using all Star game. They didn't tell
(08:08):
you what you had to look at it uniforms and
shoes and who and this and somebody walking up the
court and the load management, telling Michael Jordan to take
a day off, he to punch you in the face.
All these little things start to add up to a
big thing. And when you do that, you can't cater
to just the players. You've got to players want to
get paid. You got to cater to the fan, the
(08:28):
average fan who shows up a couple of times, or
corporate America. You cannot tell them how they're supposed to think.
And when you do, you lose half of them. The
NBA ratings will the NBA rans aren't gonna get better. No,
they're gonna get worse. It's proven your year. It just
is so stuff that we used to watch like clockwork.
I can't miss it now it's well. And then I'm
(08:50):
telling you when a broadcasters weave in that kind of
stuff where it's a it's like a nut. Like you
don't like your guy, m Mark Joe. You don't like
him because he weaves it in for certain game he's
a d writer, be objective and called the damn game.
I don't want to hear you.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
We've got finished yourself calling Deon Sader's freaking game.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
We've gotten to the point, or like when the broadcast
team said you can't do that. This is rooting college football.
As much as I like Gus Johnson and Joel clat.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
As broadcast couldn't stop talking about.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
It, and and they're both great, but the problem is
when you weave yourself into over. Your job is to
report it, not create it. And when you start creating
at the average, you got to think about the end.
That doesn't mean you got to kiss the fans ass,
but when you start telling them how they're supposed to
think instead of report the action. Got a prop Now
on studio shows, that's an opinion show. You you you
(09:43):
right it, You do what you want. You're an entertainer.
You're not a journalist. Stephen A. Smith when he's on
the when he's on the NBA Show, or when he's
on WHOA I mean, woke Up? Wake Up?
Speaker 1 (09:51):
What's it called? Get it?
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Get up? Get up? When you're when you're on that show,
you it's your opinion, you're going at it. You're not
a journalist unless you bring a journalist on to give you, Hey,
let's go out to what's our guy on college game
day that they always go out to to do the reports.
When he's standing there, you know the uh.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
It's not that's not Stanford Steve he's talking about, not
Marty Smith.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
He's he's the actual Pete. Now that Pete reporting is
a jealous that's not opinion. That's with the facts that
he's getting. When Herb Street talks, he's watching tape. When
Nick said, they're entertainers, Yeah, talking sports. So when you're
doing the games, you got you gotta you gotta get
yourself out of that.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Yeah, you just do.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
But that's why the NBA and until they change it
and it becomes about the player and the fan watching
basketball and and not telling you how you're supposed to think,
or where or what you're supposed to see with your
visuals other than basketball, I don't watch it as much
I used to, Right, It bums me out.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Yeah, I just don't.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
All right, let's continue to discussion next seven one, three,
seven ninety as we roll along right here on seven
ninety
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