The Big Lead

Adam Silver blames the NBA's poor ratings on election, World Series

By J.P. Hoornstra

Jul 20, 2024; Phoenix, AZ, USA; NBA commissioner Adam Silver arrives prior to the WNBA All Star Game at Footprint Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
Jul 20, 2024; Phoenix, AZ, USA; NBA commissioner Adam Silver arrives prior to the WNBA All Star Game at Footprint Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
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Viewership for NBA games has dropped double digits through the opening weeks of the regular season, per a new report from Sports Media Watch. Commissioner Adam Silver has an interesting theory as to why that might be.

Last Wednesday's doubleheader on ESPN saw the Grizzlies-Lakers game average 1.52 million viewers, according to Braylon Breeze, down 11 percent compared to the equivalent game (Kings-Lakers) last year. The Pelicans-Thunder game opened the night with an average of 1.08 million viewers, down 42 percent from Celtics-Sixers last year (1.848 million).

To Silver, the reasons for the decline in ratings include everything from the World Series to the election of Donald Trump.

"I think we're just looking at a couple weeks of ratings," Silver told Front Office Sports. "There's always some unique things. This year we were up against the World Series, Dodgers-Yankees, two very attractive teams, they brought in a big audience. You had a presidential election which was commanding an enormous amount of attention. So I don't think it has anything whatsoever to do with the style of play on the floor."

On a recent episode of The Big Podcast with Shaq, Shaquille O'Neal lamented a homogenous style of play advanced by analytics — and, originally, the Golden State Warriors — in which three-point shooting is the cornerstone of every offense.

“We’re looking at the same thing,” O’Neal said. “Everybody is running the same plays. And [the Warriors] messed it up. I don’t mind Golden State back in the day shooting threes, but every team isn’t a three-point shooter. So why [does] everybody have the same strategy? I think it makes the game boring.”

Fortunately, this is a debate that can be resolved. Now that the election and the World Series are over, the NBA gets a fresh start. The league has a chance to show it can hold its own in a less crowded market for attention.

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