So far this season, NBA ratings have been incredibly disappointing.
As FS1 personality Colin Cowherd sees it, this stems directly from the strategy of NBA Commissioner Adam Silver compared to other sports commissioners.
While the NBA continues to trend downward from a rating perspective, the NFL is on pace to see a slight improvement for the 2024-25 NFL season. Similarly, MLB ratings were at their highest in the last seven years this past season.
On Friday’s edition of The Herd with Colin Cowherd, Cowherd discussed the NBA’s struggles to attract fans this season, detailing the issues he believes are plaguing the league.
“Roger Goodell has navigated a multitude of cultural changes,” said Cowherd. “That CTE issue, that was bad and overlooked for a long time by a previous commissioner or two. Here he has made the PAT interesting. He tinkers, he evolves. The NBA meanwhile, 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.
“I like the NBA. But the All-Star Game is now embarrassing and I think 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 Giannis doesn’t play or Embiid doesn’t play.”
Cowherd then compared the NBA to the Democratic campaign in the 2024 election, arguing that the league is “detaching from regular people in America” similar to how the Democratic Party has in his eyes.
“Go ask the Democrats,” he said. “Be warned, once you detach from regular people in America, you will pay a price.”
Cowherd further discussed how Silver, who is generally well-liked by NBA fans, could learn a thing or two from MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, who inversely hasn’t gotten nearly the credit from MLB fans for speeding up the game.
“Rob Manfred… he gets nothing but criticism because he’s like we’ve got to make games faster,” said Cowherd. “We gotta get stars at the plate so I’m gonna change the pitch clock. Regular season, I’m gonna put a guy on second base to speed up (the game). Nobody wants a four-and-a-half-hour game on a Tuesday night in Cleveland… Rob Manfred is now considering the Golden At-Bat, which has got a Willy Wonka feel to it. But in the end, Rob Manfred has television networks going to him saying we’re not gonna renew. Including this one. Make the game faster. He did, stars got more at-bats, they got rid of the defensive shift, and Fox got great ratings.”
It is fair to say that the NBA has lost the favor of the everyday fan with all of the teams regularly using load management. As TNT’s Charles Barkley said earlier this season, fans who work regular jobs perhaps won’t be overly fond of players sitting out games to rest. Especially those who may have traveled across the country only to see their favorite player sit on the bench.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.