By Lamar Reevers
Viewership of the NBA has decreased by at least 23 percent from the start of this season. Commissioner Adam Silver introduced many rule changes to the NBA to make things more competitive. He introduced the in-season tournament and a new all-star format this year, allowing rookies to participate in the all-star tournament against the all-star players. A lot of legends and former U.S. president Barack Obama spoke about how players put in the same amount of effort anymore. Meanwhile, some fans are calling the NBA greedy for allowing people to pay for games online when some people are unable to get all the games. Many NBA fans are concerned about the future of the league when all the players in the 2010s era are getting old or about to retire.
The NBA League Pass allows fans to watch live games NBA anywhere they go on the app. “It’s expensive to watch games now,” said Former Wizards All-Star player, Gilbert Arenas, on his podcast Gil’s Arena. “It used to be free. Getting a league pass and you ain’t getting all the games. You have to buy cable for your own teams, and then you got to buy league pass to get the league pass stuff.”
The NBA had many changes for teams to be efficient from 3-point shooting now that caused some fans to tune out.
Shaquille O’Neal, four-time NBA champion for the Lakers and Heat, shared his theory on an episode of “The Big Podcast With Shaq.’ “I have a theory it’s down because we’re looking at the same thing,” he said. “Everybody running the same plays. In today on top of the key, dribble handoff and Steph Curry and those guys mess it up because now every team is a 3-point shooter. Which makes the game boring.”
Magic Johnson, a former player and five-time Lakers Champion, brought up the lack of rivalries in the NBA. “They don’t hate each other. See I hated Larry, and the Celtics. The Celtics and Lakers hated each other or disliked each other, but made the game great on TV, and people tuned in. And now everyone is shaking hands,” Johnson said.
In 2024, the all-star weekend was a major issue when Larry Bird said it was the worst all-star game he ever watched, while Obama was disappointed in how bad the all-star game was.
During a podcast from “The Young Man & The Three.” Obama expressed how he felt about the NBA All-Star game last year to All-Star, Indiana Pacers Tyrese Haliburton. “Y’all got to have a little more pride in the all-star game,” Obama said. “It’s not as if y’all played pickup games in the summers and not trying to hurt each other. But that all-star game is broken, man. People are not running and when it used to be Michael, Kobe and Isaiah. They wanted to win.”
Some students at Grand Rapids Community College grew up watching the game, but have since tuned out.
Tatyana Johnson, 20, of Grand Rapids, says she is not watching the NBA due to her busy schedule. Johnson also agrees with the legends about why viewership has decreased.
“I don’t hear a lot of people talking about it, so I imagine it’s going down because back then everybody was talking about it and now you don’t hear anything on the news or social media,” Johnson said.
Johnson thinks the physicality is there because the players are getting paid to play and compete.
“The passion has gone down since nobody hasn’t been watching,” she said.
Lynn Tynes, a 20-year-old GRCC student from Detroit, said she occasionally watched the NBA when she was a kid but also thinks that the viewership is going down.
“At least with the players there is a degree of lack in passion and motivation that’s going on in the world which is hard for the players to stay focused and things can get political and get hard to just enjoy the game they wanted to play in the first place with so many new rules they make which degrade the players with their ethnic background,” Tynes said.
Tynes also thinks the physicality is still there. “Each year we get greater showmens that comes with the physicality and not just a regular NBA game, all-stars and anything else with players using a smart technique to bring more into the game every year,” she said.
