Why the NBA Sucks! Do you agree? \ stacker news ~Stacker

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820 sats \ 22 comments \ @BlokchainB 18 Dec Stacker_Sports

Jason Whitlock on his show today posted this graphic

I think he makes good points but the main reasons I don’t watch the NBA regularly is:

Hard to find what channel the games are on
I’m not paying MSG $39.99 a month to watch the Knicks play
Both the media and league devalued the regular season
Bench guys making $10-$15M per is ridiculous.

I like Whitlock’s idea of tying pay to performance. Getting paid win or loss is kind of ridiculous. Sports competition would change over night if pay was related to wins.

One last point. Whitlock mentioned how the 3pt shot and the protection of players reduced conflict. He mentioned how Jordan took a beating going into the lane how fearless he was no matter how badly the pistons beat him up. And what do we get? LeBron and Luka who flop around like fish at the littlest touch. How far we have fallen.

What do you think stackers?

Yea I agree the NBA sucks!60.0%

No the NBA is great! Jordan who?40.0%

10 votes \ poll ended

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147 sats \ 6 replies \ @grayruby 18 Dec

You made this very tough for me with the binary options. I agree with some of these points, definitely not the foreigner one though (some of the best and brightest stars in the game are international players).

I selected no because I don't think the NBA sucks. I enjoy the NBA but I do think many of these criticisms are fair. The player contracts and load management have gotten out of hand. There are too many 3 pointers in the game and style of play amongst most teams is very similar. I agree on the politicization but I don't think that is as prevalent as a few years ago.

I also agree on the physicality element. I don't want superstars getting hacked every play so they can't do superstar things but I also don't want them having a free path to the basket because you can't touch them without getting a foul.

What do you think Blok?

96 sats \ 4 replies \ @Undisciplined 18 Dec

I think the physicality point is way overstated. People always bring up the Pistons, but the Pistons were incredibly controversial. If you watch a normal game from the 80's or 90's, it's actually going to be much less active and physical. I do wish defenders weren't penalized for being on the receiving end of contact. To me, that's why defense can be less physical at times.

The play style point feels stale to me. That was a great take eight years ago, but the top teams are actually very different from each other. It's true that most average teams play space-and-pace, tre it in or lay it in, but average teams sucked to watch in the past too.

40 sats \ 0 replies \ @grayruby 18 Dec

It is a fair point that when we think of the past we often think of the outliers rather than the average but that being said I definitely think more physicality was allowed to occur in the past. I guess it is more of an issue with the way the game is called now rather than the way it is played.

I do agree that recently we are seeing some variance in the way teams play. I think the big man and play in the paint is re-emerging but that is definitely a recent phenomenon. Hopefully it continues.

36 sats \ 2 replies \ @BlokchainB OP 18 Dec

Yeah 90s had some ugly games for sure. Defense dominated at times. But it did create conflicts and real rivalries. The Pistons were the bad guys and you hated them. Now who are the villains of the NBA? The “bad boys” of the league?

152 sats \ 1 reply \ @Undisciplined 18 Dec

I definitely agree that rivalries are not nearly as good as they were. I think that's because players change teams so often. They don't have a chance to go through the repeated playoff battles that build the necessary resentment.

34 sats \ 0 replies \ @BlokchainB OP 18 Dec

Yeah this is what I miss the most.

50 sats \ 0 replies \ @BlokchainB OP 18 Dec

I have a similar take to yours. It just looks like the players don’t care. I like seeing great players doing great things. Hitting a three pointer just isn’t as exciting as watching a guard dunk or watching great ball movement for an easy dunk.

I would watch more NBA basketball if I could watch the Knicks but since I can’t I barely watch it. No one brings me to the game. I don’t have the oh (insert NBA Superstar) is playing l’ll watch.

87 sats \ 0 replies \ @suraz 18 Dec

Or everything is fixed now.

86 sats \ 3 replies \ @Bell_curve 7h

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @BlokchainB OP 6h

A part of me wishes he never left Cleveland.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve 4h

moving to LA was insufferable

moving to Miami was annoying but tolerable

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @nitter 7h bot

https://xcancel.com/dom_lucre/status/1870262925417459990

78 sats \ 0 replies \ @7e6e393a56 18 Dec

I believe that there is a romanticization of the past not only in the NBA, but in other sports as well, which does not correspond to what actually happened. Today I see players who have already finished their careers who are revered, but at the time they played they were heavily criticized by the specialized media.

74 sats \ 3 replies \ @SimpleStacker 18 Dec

Don't want to compete / load management
- As a casual fan, I'm not sure how bad of a problem this is. But I can see how it'd be super frustrating if you paid for a ticket and didn't get to see the stars play.
Unlikeable politicized players
- Personally, I don't see this as a big problem. Even if I don't like a player for their political views, that just makes it more fun to root against them.
3pt shooting
- I sorta agree with this. League has been weighted a bit too much towards the 3. Not sure what can be done at this point?
Stars don't go to college
- I honestly don't care about this at all
Too many foreigners
- To me that's a plus not a minus
No variety in style of play
- Again, as a casual fan, not sure exactly how true this is. But I do think the 3ball is becoming too dominant
Steve Kerr and Gregg Popovich
- I'm assuming this is politics related? I do find their outspoken political views kinda annoying, but once again--that just gives me more reason to root against them.
Money not tied to performance
- Wait, what? Your performance determines your next contract. If the problem is that teams are signing people to long guaranteed contracts--that's the team's problem!
Lack of leadership Adam Silver
- Not sure what this is in reference to. What did Adam Silver do?
Leftist culture is the enemy of competition
- I honestly think there's just a "woke right" out there that just hates everything coded left, just like the woke left hates everything coded right.

30 sats \ 2 replies \ @BlokchainB OP 18 Dec

I think you overlooking the college aspect. Without college no one would care about Caitlin Clark. When NBA players stayed 3 and 4 years they would have a fan base follow them in the pros. College football is a feeder system to the NFL. You get to see who’s good before they come to the pros. The NBA is missing that

11 sats \ 1 reply \ @SimpleStacker 18 Dec

I just think the option should be open to the players and teams to choose what they want to do.

There's no guarantee that going to college first will make a player more popular overall. Lebron didn't go to college and he became the biggest superstar since Michael Jordan.

117 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve 19 Dec

I agree with your list but I would like to emphasize:

too many 3 point shot attempts
NBA has been too political since 2015

Republicans buy Air Jordans too, less likely to shoplift than Democrats too

40 sats \ 2 replies \ @WeAreAllSatoshi 18 Dec

Tangentially related, I hate how so many drives in the NFL are basically just: throw up a jump ball down field, rely on collecting the spot PI foul, success. So many times, drives are almost entirely sustained by penalty and it feels almost like cheating.

I don’t have a way around it, it just annoys me

268 sats \ 1 reply \ @grayruby 18 Dec

I think PI should be maximum 15 yards unless it is absolutely egregious. If you pull a guy down to the ground before the ball gets there because you are beat then ok make it spot of the foul but some of these are so ticky tacky. I like the current rule that if you hold a guy before the ball is in the air its 5 yards. Then I think if the ball is in the air and it is minimal contact it should be a minor PI penalty which is up to 15 yards. So, it would be spot of the foul under 15 yards and 15 yards if the pass was beyond 15 yards. Then there should be a major PI penalty (think like in hockey when a defender trips a guy on a break away and they award a penalty shot). If this occurs it should be spot of the ball. You still need the threat of a spot of the ball foul otherwise guys are going to just tackle receivers on deep passes knowing it's only 15 yards.

50 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve 19 Dec

college football PI

11 sats \ 0 replies \ @gmd 18 Dec

Our new tiktok attention spans won't tolerate these super long 80 game seasons.

You used to be able to easily watch games on TV - now they want to monetize everything, which is great revenue in the short term but will kill their funnel for new fans.

Honestly ever since her insane March Madness runs I've found Caitlin Clark and the Fever much more compelling to watch.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @698f12932a 18 Dec

Summary

Jason Whitlock criticized the NBA, citing several issues. He highlighted the difficulty in finding games, excessive subscription costs, overpaid bench players, and the lack of correlation between pay and performance. He also lamented the decrease in physicality and increase in flopping, contrasting the era of Michael Jordan with today's players like LeBron James and Luka Dončić. A Stacker News poll showed that a majority (60%) disagreed with Whitlock's assessment that the NBA "sucks," while 40% agreed with him. The core argument is that the NBA has prioritized financial incentives over competitive integrity and the spirit of the game. The financial model, coupled with rule changes, has seemingly diminished the intensity and skill required to succeed.