I think Chuck pays more attention than Shaq. Unless we’re talking about when he does the NCAA Tournament.
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Shaq is way way worse than Chuck. Chuck not an incredible ball knower but he loves the game and the current stars. Kenny same deal. Shaq shows up to set and never watches a game.
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I get that it is pathetic that he gets paid by the NBA, but why does him watching or not, impact a regular fan watching? Do people really think, screw it, Shaq doesn’t watch so neither am I!
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I don’t think it’s that simple but I do think the way the nba is covered does affect fan sentiment in many ways. Especially for more casual observers
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My I am just looking at it in a vacuum, because I completely agree that negative talk (from more than just Shaq) could certainly have an impact on viewership. I was just referring to the Shaq part by itself.
I listen to a lot of basketball podcasts depending on what type I want to listen to. One is dedicated to scheme similarly to what JJ and LBJ did last year. One is dedicated to former players telling BTS stories about their time in the NBA. One is dedicated to former players praising the current players (KG and Paul Pierce comes into mind). The NBA media needs to do a better job instead of doing Skip Bayless hot takes. So frustrating as a fan.
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Think it just goes without saying that it’s very bad business that the people explicitly employed to promote your product are ignorant about the best parts to sell or, more troublingly, complain that it’s worse than it used to be.
Also, like, bro, get real. Your show cuts to commecial and there you are telling everybody that a tiny cartoon general is the dopest car insurance provider around. “Saving” your integrity to sell out the thing that gave you your fame in the first place is ridiculous.
At least Kendrick Perkins was never famous or interesting to begin with.
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I don’t know for sure. It certainly doesn’t affect whether die hard NBA fans will watch. But the NBA does have this problem of the general public casual fans thinking there are only like 4-5 teams in the entire league worth watching. So when you have Shaq confirming that yeah, he doesn’t watch all of those other teams either, it does not help promote the overall league product or promote new stars. Shaq says I’m not missing out on anything so I guess I won’t tune into teams outside the major markets.
NBA should want fans watching every game even if you’re just tuning into Cade vs Franz on a Friday night rather than requiring Boston-LA or Steph to be on the TV in order to tune in.
NFL certainly promotes a product that every team is important and newsworthy and you get people watching terrible games on Thursday nights or Sunday mornings just to watch the league.
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Yeah if you have the option of being the NFL or MLB, pretty obvious what promotional strategy to take.
Yeah, I guess you are right. I watch Pistons pretty much exclusively (unlike college where I will watch just about any game) until the playoffs then I will watch more games. I don’t care what Shaq says, but I am only watching Detroit in general, so I am probably a different consumer than many.
With that said I did happen to watch the end of the Bucks Pacers last night which was pretty wild and generally entertaining basketball.
The NBA has this old school thinking ways in big market is the most important for their products
Only thing I’d add to this conversation is that there are smart NBA ball knowers and ball lovers out there who take a broadly expansive view of the league and cover it in the ways you guys are suggesting. They’re just not who the NBA’s media partners often choose to elevate. And even worse, the best of them–Zach Lowe, who can talk about the league broadly and in an accessible way–was let go by ESPN shortly before the season. It’s been a detriment to the NBA this season, and certainly to my viewing experience.
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I’m not an NBA watcher and only a casual fan. I think there are a lot of factors here and I don’t think it is much different in other sports. The bad or less popular teams don’t get much coverage. The popular teams do. Even in the NFL, which is probably the most agnostic with its coverage, hypes up teams like the Cowboys way more than they should.
So now you’re covering the NBA…
- TNT crew is driving views because they’re fun, interesting, controversial, and seem to enjoy what they do.
- The NBA season is a grind…82 games is long, teams load manage, teams tank, etc. You can’t hype up bad teams because what’s the point.
- The Pistons have been so bad for so long that there hasn’t been a reason to pay attention.
- You’re on the TNT show trying to appeal to people during pre/half/post game time slots. You’re going to talk about the popular teams and big city teams more often. Just like ESPN does.
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This Celtics-Thunder game is some high level basketball. Worth flipping over to.
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Yeah, it was a great game. Boston getting up 63 threes was sure something - they played pretty well, have to assume they’ll probably more than 31.7% in the future. But watching NBA teams running a 4/5 p&r both ways (with both Hartenstein and Holmgren as the ballhandler) warmed my heart. Jrue was sort of the big “problem” if there was one, in that he really didn’t drive to score but seemed to kick no matter what was in front him.
For me though, the two big look just gave the Celtics tons of fits. They had a good Shea game but not a great one, no JWill. Part of the Celtics whole deal is that they have like 3-4 guys (Brown, Tatum, White, Jrue) who are supposed to be able to show guys like Shea down, but Brown got smoooooked, and basically no ballscreens involved.
Also…I think Chet is arguably the best defensive big in the NBA?
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Wait
They call Cade Mello Yello
I need to sit down and breath into a paper bag
Timmy digging back to the 1800s for his slurs, lol
Awesome breakdown on Beef Stew’s defensive skill. I wish more mainstream media can do this type of breakdown instead of hot takes. $15 mil per is a steal for an elite rim protector who can switch 1-5. I would absolutely vote him for All-Defensive team this season.
falling below 20 mpg is basically prohibitive of getting voted anything, and part of why the salary makes him more “properly paid” (good backup) than “a steal”
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The Pistons released an update on Ivey. It sounds like he’s done for the regular season and will be reevaluated for the playoffs.
Not surprising. At least he’s progressing in recovery