The NBA and ABC/ESPN touted huge ratings from the league’s Christmas Day games, but Bill Simmons thinks one of those games that drew big numbers highlighted the NBA’s problem with declining viewership.
Specifically, Simmons pointed to LeBron James and Steph Curry, who faced off in the Los Angeles Lakers vs. Golden State Warriors Christmas night matchup, as part of the ratings problem … and possibly part of the solution as well.
On The Bill Simmons Podcast Thursday, the host called out the NBA and ABC/ESPN for placing the Lakers-Warriors in the prime 8 p.m. (ET) time slot. That game averaged 7.8 million viewers, making it the most-watched Christmas and regular season NBA game in five years. That’s a 499% rise over last year’s broadcast in that time slot, albeit that game went head-to-head with Monday Night Football.
That showed the ratings punch a LeBron vs. Steph game can bring, but Simmons thinks that by focusing on those two superstars, the NBA is missing the opportunity to showcase other, younger stars.
“There’s been so much, ‘What’s wrong with the NBA?’ stuff,” Simmons said. “Some of it is basically how do you find these under-30 American stars that people are going to give a s*** about like they care about Steph and LeBron? And yet the Steph-LeBron thing … was the solution and the problem at the same time.
“It’s still coming at the expense of everybody else. [Christmas Day is] in that eight o’clock spot, it’s in the best spot, it’s after football is over, and that’s the signature game. And it’s basically two .500 teams and it’s guys that have been in the league since 2003 and 2009 respectively and yet OKC wasn’t on Christmas Day. Giannis [Antetokounmpo] wasn’t on Christmas Day. [Victor Wembanyama] was buried at the beginning of the day and you’re kind of doing this to yourself but at the same time I get it because Steph and LeBron was awesome.”
“Basketball’s ratings across all networks are down four percent year over year after Christmas Day’s strong showing, which helped them rebound a bit,” Erich Richter of the New York Post reported.
Plenty of culprits have been blamed for the decline, from players shooting too many three-pointers to negative buzz and criticism about the league on social media and even on shows such as Inside the NBA.
Simmons certainly isn’t the first to suggest the NBA has erred by not highlighting a new generation of stars to replace James and Curry as the faces of the league. But he might be the first to point out it’s a tough situation because both players still draw big ratings.
“So I don’t really know what the answer is,” Simmons said. “You could go glass half-full, glass half-empty on it, but the fact the Steph-LeBron game was so good, and sucked up so much oxygen from the day, it’s actually kind of part of the problem.”
About Arthur Weinstein
Arthur spends his free time traveling around the U.S. to sporting events, state and national parks, and in search of great restaurants off the beaten path.