The new NBA season is humming right along. Are you enjoying the action so far? A few of the people here at the offices of the ShaqFu Radio blog are from Cleveland, so we’re having a great start to the season, thanks! Still, our man Shaq has made some comments on the “state of the game,” and they’re not all bright and shiny. Read on…
It’s not something we check on a regular basis, usually because we’re too busy watching the games. But it seems that TV ratings for the NBA are sliding a bit – down-sized numbers this year. On his latest podcast – The Big Podcast With Shaq – O’Neal says there’s a simple reason for the shrinking numbers: The game is getting more and more boring.
How can the big man say that? Well, he has an answer, and you might not like it. According to Shaq, it’s all about 3-point shot.
On the podcast this week (as of this posting date), Shaq said, “It’s down (TV viewership, we’re guessing), because we’re looking at the same thing. Everybody is running the same plays…Steph Curry and those guys messed it up. I don’t mind Golden State back in the day shooting threes, but every team isn’t a 3-point shooter. So why (does) everybody have the same strategy? I think it makes the game boring.”
The BIG Podcast with SHAQ
There’s no doubt that back in his playing days, things were indeed very different. On the podcast, Shaq recalled teams running a variety of different offenses. But in the wake of the success that Curry and the Warriors achieved, the rest of the NBA is apparently trying to follow the same blueprint.
According to Shaq, all the other teams – trying to duplicate the Warriors’ success – is ruining the NBA. In his words, “The game has already been perfect ever since Naismith created it. This new era of humans f***ed it up… Golden State came in and changed it and you made a great point, it’s a copycat league.”
Shaq brought up Curry several times, saying, “Everybody wants to be Steph Curry, but everybody’s not Steph Curry and that’s why viewership is down. But these dudes, they need to wake up because if viewership is down, the money is gonna come down.”
As far as sports on TV, the timing wasn’t the best for the NBA, which started the regular season just as baseball was finishing with a strong World Series between the New York Yankees and the LA Dodgers. For that week, baseball ratings easily beat out the NBA. Now the NBA also has the biggest sport-giant on the block to contend with, the NFL. And now with football games on Sunday, Monday and Thursdays, there’s less and less TV real estate for the NBA to own outright. We should mention there’s hockey, too. The NHL doesn’t always get big ratings, but it’s getting stronger in recent years, as well.
It’s probably no surprise that Shaq is unhappy with the game being dominated by three-point shooters these days. Speaking of dominating, of course that was our man during his career, pretty much owning anything down close to the hoop. So it seems natural for the big man to speak out of in favor of a time and a playing style that was more to his personal liking.
Shaq’s not alone in his “boring” opinion. Last season, veteran sportscaster Bob Costas spoke out about the growing number of 3-point attempts in the Association, and how that might make the game less exciting. Other commentators, including popular guys like Bob Ryan, Bomani Jones and Nick Wright have also since aired their grievances with the NBA’s modern style of putting up as many threes as possible.
What do you think? Do you like the “downtown” shooting, or would you prefer stronger, close-in action? If the viewership numbers really do go down noticeable, the NBA will probably make a move to shore things up. We’re not sure what could be done to change the popularity of the 3-ball, but it’ll be interesting to see what happens.