As the NBA looks to combat its declining ratings, there has been plenty focus on potential solutions to help fix the league’s on-court product. Brian Windhorst, however, doesn’t think the NBA’s action is the issue. In fact, he thinks it’s as good as it’s ever been.
Rather, the ESPN senior NBA writer believes that the league and the media that covers it should be doing more to showcase its product as opposed to focusing so much on its off-the-court happenings.
“My feel is that the balance is a little bit off, that I think that we should balance it a little bit better,” Windhorst told the Sports Business Journal‘s Austin Karp on The Sports Media Podcast. “There are lot of times on an average NBA night where there are absolutely amazing performances in some of these games.”
Windhorst noted a recent matchup between the Milwaukee Bucks and Golden State Warriors, which Giannis Antetokounmpo was sidelined for. But despite the Greek Freak’s absence, the game proved to be an absolute masterclass with Stephen Curry and Damian Lillard each scoring 38 points in the Warriors’ 125-111 victory.
Come postgame, however, the duel between the future Hall of Fame point guards took a backseat to Golden State’s acquisition of Jimmy Butler.
“My viewpoint is not that we shouldn’t talk about Jimmy Butler — I mean, there’s a lot of interest in that,” Windhorst said. “There was a stretch in that game where there was incredible shot-making back and forth between Steph and Lillard. And this game, in and of itself is not really that remarkable.
“It’s not that I think it should be all one way or all the other way; I think the balance is a little bit off. I think there should be some more celebration of the night to night greatness that we see in the league.”
Brian Windhorst proceeded to take issue with observers who have referred to the state of the NBA’s on-court product as “boring.”
“It’s an instantaneous indicator to me that the person who is saying that is not really watching the games. Whenever I hear that, I kind of turn off because I’m really not interested in what that person keeps saying,” he said. “As somebody who’s covered the game for 22 years, I reject the notion that the game isn’t being played at an incredible level in the NBA. I think part of the reason is there’s not enough celebration over the night to night greatness that happens.”
This isn’t the first time that the Akron, Ohio, native has taken issue with the coverage of the NBA, as his recent comments are largely an extension of statements he made during an appearance on Thanasis Antetokounmpo’s podcast last fall.
Ultimately, Windhorst knows that coverage of off-court transactions and drama has a place in the league’s coverage — “you can’t play games for 24 hours a day,” he admitted. But the question is at what point does such coverage come at the expense of the league’s primary product?
According to Brian Windhorst, we may already be there.
