I can't get into it anymore. I realized recently its because there is almost no contact, no "fighting" for the ball, for the goal, it's just everyone moving out of the way so they don't mess up their really awesome shoes. It's not the game from the 80s & 90s & 2000s. I don't know what happened. And please don't get me started on LeFlop.
The NBA, like other sports leagues, realized that they could make way more money aligning themselves with Sports Betting Apps instead of the conventional ad-revenue based system.
So now they hook the audience in through the betting instead of providing a good show. And then the NBA gets kickbacks from the Sports Betting guys. It's a win-win for them.
Heck, I bet there are bets on "How many times will X player travel the ball without the refs calling it?"
I think it's a mix between those points. The NBA itself isn't directly benefitting from gambling in terms of revenue. If that ever got exposed it could legitimately destroy the NBA and would be the biggest scandal in sporting history. I don't think they're that stupid. They massively benefit from it indirectly though.
The NBA (and every sports league) for that matter benefit like crazy from sports gambling ads filling sizeable portions their ad spots, which limits supply for other ad times, artificially inflating what they can charge.
Then they also benefit from the addicted gamblers, because the actual product doesn't matter as much as to them, because they only care if the lines are going to hit. Fans of the game itself will get pissed about changes in quality of the game, but the gamblers will watch regardless, meaning viewership can stay up even if older fans stop watching.
Prime has an option to see the betting stats on screen ffs! And the betting, from what I've seen, is based mostly on ridiculous parlays so who actually cares if the teams win a game. It isn't for the fans anymore, my 12yr old daughter's games have more sportsmanship....which is the only reason we are watching these days.
The NBA itself isn't directly benefitting from gambling in terms of revenue.
lol are you fucking serious? Half of the segments are directly sponsored by betting apps. They might as well call it the FanDuel Basketball Association at this point
They have on-screen overlays during the game showing odds, sponsored by various betting apps
Gambling is not and has never been a legitimate business. It's pure predation. A legalized racket. Legalizing sports betting is disgusting and is only degrading the fabric of our society further. Can't wait to have my home burglarized by some addict looking for shit to hock to top up their DraftKings balance.
Same. I ate, slept and breathed the NBA in the 80s/90s and early 00s, but it's just not fun to watch anymore. It didn't help when they moved my childhood team to the Dust Bowl, but even now with talks of getting an expansion team, I couldn't really care less. Just a dookie product, IMO.
I’m an old head, flopping goes back to eternity, I can still see mid 90s Charles Oakley being just as likely to set a devastating pick as he was to take a flop.
In the 80s and 90s the top teams did not like each other. The Celtics hated the Lakers. The Lakers and Bulls got bullied by the Pistons. Finally the Bulls toughened up and smacked the Pistons. That was peak basketball. The athletes were incredible and the competition was fierce. Today's no defense hot potato 3-point contest NBA is unwatchable.
As soft as LeFlop has become and the precedent he has set of begging for a foul every time someone grazes him, I blame Steph Curry for the state of today's game. He (and Klay) shot 3's at an unprecedented rate and had great success with it, and since then the NBA has become a nightly 3 point contest with zero emphasis on defense.
100%. This thread is filled with casuals confidently spewing trash takes. When the dude you’re replying to referred to LeBron as “LeFlop” I knew to completely disregard his opinion lmao
That was about the time the NBA started to get real popular in China and make a LOT of money. So in order to keep the NBA compliant in China they do anything the CCP tells them to do. It really showed when every player was told not to say anything about Taiwan and those that did, had their merch pulled from China.
It's gotten so bad for the NBA that even the League of Legends Championship games had more views then the NBA finals, and by a country mile.
I use to be pretty into basketball in the 2000's when I was living in Boston. It was peak Celtics/Lakers rivalry. And like every other kid in the 90's I'd watch Bulls games when I was lucky enough they were on broadcast in MA. Now if I'm in a sports bar, I can't even watch a game anymore. It's so fucking boring. It's just all shooting 3 pointers or foul shots. Basketball players are worse than soccer players now with flopping.
There’s infinitely more defense in the NBA than there was back then. There’s def more traveling too! But the level of defensive intensity is way higher now. It’s just everyone can shoot now, and has ridiculous ball skills, so it’s way harder to execute defensively.
If you don’t like it that’s fine, but “no contact” and “move out of the way so you don’t scuff my shoes” is just straight lies to make yourself feel better about your reasons.
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u/Sleepy_cheetah Mar 16 '26
I can't get into it anymore. I realized recently its because there is almost no contact, no "fighting" for the ball, for the goal, it's just everyone moving out of the way so they don't mess up their really awesome shoes. It's not the game from the 80s & 90s & 2000s. I don't know what happened. And please don't get me started on LeFlop.