With the Paris Olympics now done and dusted, it is time for the likes of LeBron James and Stephen Curry to focus back to the next NBA season. After the schedule release yesterday, all teams have got a chance to understand how they need to plan for the upcoming season. While coaches want to maximize their win percentage, the marketing teams of each franchise will be circling the nationally televised games.
Also glancing through the schedule was sports analyst Colin Cowherd. What he saw made him speak out while on his show The Herd with Colin Cowherd.
Do you know who's gonna have the most games on? Not the best team, LeBron James, 39. Do you know who's gonna be 2nd? Not a top 5 team, Steph Curry. Season no. 22, LeBron has the most, and season no. 16, Steph is 2nd. All these young NBA stars, most don't move the needle.Colin Cowherd said
Cowherd was clear that TV companies and NBA commissioner Adam Silver prioritizing games featuring James and Curry suggests that even they know nothing else is working. Which in the analyst’s eyes is concerning.
According to Colin Cowherd, the NBA made a mistake by not embracing college basketball. That is, college basketball shaped the rivalry of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, and Michael Jordan winning the NCAA Championship. All of that generated the hype for those players which they continued with in the NBA.
In contrast, the analyst feels that fans do not even know who the draftees are unless it is close to Draft night. It goes to show that fans are not interested in watching the younger players. All they want are two superstars well past their prime, which proved to be true at the Paris Olympics.
Without LeBron James and Stephen Curry, NBA could face competition from WNBA
The NBA’s steady decline in viewership is a pure lack of marketing. This explains why fewer people watched the Boston Celtics win the NBA title than the NCAA women’s college basketball Final Four this year. Cowherd suggested that every other league in the world has seen their TV ratings go up. Except the NBA.
What that last part suggests is that without LeBron James and Stephen Curry in the mix, the NBA will likely lose more viewers than what is happening currently. On the flip side, the WNBA is growing day by day. Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese are already setting viewership records. With the more exposure other stars and teams receive, the following is only likely to grow.
To sum up what Colin Cowherd said, if the NBA continues to ignore the obvious problems, it will be in grave danger of being overtaken in terms of popularity by its own subsidiary, the WNBA. Adam Silver and the NBA need to work on fixing the issue as soon as possible.
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