Ratings for the National Basketball Association have absolutely plunged over the last decade, and many pundits have their pet theories as to why. It’s “load management,” some of them say, describing the practice of keeping out perfectly healthy star players to rest them for the playoffs.
Imagine shelling out hundreds (or thousands) of dollars to take your kids to see a game, only to find out that the main player needs a night off.
I don’t remember Michael Jordan ever talking about “load management.” In fact, the Hall of Famer and GOAT had a different outlook: "You have competition every day because you set such high standards for yourself that you have to go out every day and live up to that."
Those words seem like they came from a bygone era.
There’s no denying that—despite the massive 11-year, $76 billion contract the NBA signed over the summer with Disney, NBC and Amazon—the league’s viewership has taken a huge hit.
The league's ratings have taken a 48 percent drop over the last 12 years, and this year alone they are down 28 percent on ESPN, according to Front Office Sports.
Fox Sports commentator Colin Cowherd has thoughts:
"The NBA...ratings are down 48% in the last 12 years and they have fallen off a cliff this year and Adam Silver's solution is let's make the courts brighter...Go ask the Democrats. Be warned, once you detach from regular people in America, you will pay a price." - Colin Cowherd pic.twitter.com/V3wifBWu5a
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 13, 2024
There's more to it than just "load management":
Many fans and analysts have pointed to load management as a source of blame but while Cowherd agreed in part, he suggested there was an added factor behind the reasoning - and it's to do with the American people.
'The NBA ratings are down 48 percent in the last 12 years and they have fallen off a cliff this year and Adam Silver's solution is let's make the courts brighter,' he began on his FS1 show, 'The Herd.'
'I like the NBA but I think the All-Star game is now embarrassing. Load management is a shame on the league. It is a really bad look for a family of four to go to a game and the [stars] don't play.
But then he weighed in with a little reality:
Go ask the Democrats. Be warned, once you detach from regular people in America, you will pay a price.
Let me just say that Cowherd, like most big-name sports commentators, is paid to be loud and opinionated. I don't always agree with his hot takes, but he is on to something here.
Is “load management” really to blame, or is it that the league became “detach[ed] from regular people in America,” as Cowherd posited? I would argue that it’s the latter, and it’s that the NBA never recovered from its wholehearted embrace of “woke” during the COVID pandemic and following the George Floyd riots. I know for myself that I had been an avid NBA fan my whole life and was lucky enough to have been living in Boston during the Larry Bird-Kevin McHale-Robert Parish years, and then I lived in LA when the Lakers came back to dominance with the likes of Shaq and Kobe Bryant. As a long-ago native of Chicago, I also reveled in the unrivaled success of Jordan’s Bulls—to this day, one of the great sports dynasties of all time.
These days, however, I rarely tune in, and if I bother, it’s only for the Finals. Did I make a conscious decision: I’m going to boycott the NBA? No, I just found myself uninterested and was one of the many fans who felt betrayed and disillusioned after they went all in on progressive politics—the kind of politics that, I would point out, have just been roundly denounced by the American electorate.
🚨 POP GOES OFF: Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich tears into Donald Trump, calling him “pathetic,” “small,” and “a damaged man.”
— Irrelevant News (@IrrelevantFeed) December 15, 2024
pic.twitter.com/5JkhPTARgN
Don't even get me started on Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who's oh-so-woke except when it comes to the issue of China and Hong Kong. "Now there’s money involved. Can’t rock the boat," as one X commenter astutely pointed out.
I just wanted to watch sports: Legendary Coach Phil Jackson Blasts the Woke NBA, Says He Doesn't Watch Games Anymore
Eleven-time championship Bulls/Lakers coach Phil Jackson perhaps summed it up best:
“Justice just went to the basket and Equal Opportunity just knocked him down.”
— Bob Hoge (@Bob_Hoge_CA) April 23, 2023
That is too good, @PhilJackson11 @NBA! 😂
https://t.co/2oS7dqMqqh
Just as Kamala Harris and the Democrats found out, Americans are tired of being called racist, white supremacist Nazis, and even though the NBA is still raking in cash—they’re nevertheless losing fans by the millions. They'll still keep expanding their brand in China and overseas, but is that sustainable?
The “load management” problem is real, but I would argue that many viewers were walking away long before that became the hot topic.
The NBA may be rolling in cash now, but they have a long-term systemic problem that may come back to bite them in the rear.
And they would deserve it.
