The NBA's Problem Is Economics, Not Basketball

The NBA’s problem is a combination of many things, including basketball. Here’s a sample:

- The ref’s dictate the outcomes of the games more than the players themselves do. I’m of the opinion that when there’s a significant mismatch between two teams (let’s say one team’s stars are injured, or the other team is just simply vastly superior on offense or defense), the ref’s take it upon themselves (perhaps on the league’s orders) to help “even the playing field”, which means calling fouls on one side that they won’t call on the other side, confusing and bewildering everyone including both team’s coaches, the players, the commentators, and the fans watching. This keeps the gambling system better engaged, since predictable one-sided blowouts don’t make for lots of gambling revenue.

- Most of the big name stars are constantly injured, which doesn’t help sell seats/get people to tune in.

- Personality is prohibited. This highly sanitized product is pretty lame to watch. If a player just delivers a nasty dunk and then even so much as looks at the guy they just dunked on, that’s a foul. Players can’t even trash talk each other without the ref’s making it a huge deal and giving them both fouls. That is part of the essence of highly competitive basketball. Imagine giving Michael Jordan or 75% of the players in his era endless fouls simply for the most basic taunting. It would quickly become an unwatchable product that embarrasses all participants, and the players would retreat into their personality shells. People want to see shit talking, they want to see passion, they want to see anger/comedy. It’s exciting. It goes viral. This is not rocket science, NBA.

- region-restricted games are hilarious (awful)

- it’s overpriced

- outside of Inside the NBA with Shaq, Kenny, Chuck, and Ernie, the other show hosts are pretty devoid of personality, and they very rarely have something interesting to say, so there’s no point in watching them.

- I don’t know much about the AAU circuit, but I have heard many folks say that it hasn’t been good for the league. Am curious to learn more there

> Personality is prohibited. This highly sanitized product is pretty lame to watch. If a player just delivers a nasty dunk and then even so much as looks at the guy they just dunked on, that’s a foul.

Aside from the league and refs, a major issue here is simply lack of personality. Players today are just carbon copies of each other. They all do that lame shoulder flex with their arms down (which looks dumb to begin with) and intentionally try to step over the defenders. Either that or the played out three pointer celebrations. Like, come on. Get a personality!

This is a stark contrast from personalities in the 80s and 90s who either treated dunks as business as usual, which is fine in my mind, or had stylistic celebrations.

Have any players of today even heard of Shawn Kemp? https://youtu.be/HQeMhYJe5JA. None of his celebrations were even insulting. They were just stylistic flairs. Not to mention that his, Jordan's, Dominique Wilkins', etc. dunks were far more stylistic than in today's game.

I blame today's NBA on the players as much as the league and organizations. They're just plain boring, from their personalities to play style. It's like just watching pickup games. There's no tension, no style, no personalities, no "must win" attitudes.