The NBA might have a legitimate problem if one of its top ambassadors in Shaquille O’Neal thinks the game has turned boring.
Viewership is down in the NBA, and on the latest episode of The Big Podcast with Shaq, O’Neal gave his theory on why. It’s the 3-point shot, stupid.
“It’s down because we’re looking at the same thing,” Shaq said of the NBA’s viewership. “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 everybody has the same strategy? I think it makes the game boring.”
Shaq recalled teams running different offenses during his prime years in the NBA. But in the wake of the success that Curry and the Warriors achieved, the rest of the NBA attempted to follow. According to Shaq, those attempts at replicating the Warriors’ success is ruining the NBA.
“The game has already been perfect ever since Naismith created it,” Shaq claimed. “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. 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.”
O’Neal’s rant stemmed from viewership being down for the NBA’s opening week. Basketball also just saw Major League Baseball’s World Series viewership surge past the NBA Finals rating. And MLB has the NFL to contend with, whereas the NBA usually owns enough TV real estate around the Finals to make it the lone major sporting event of the night.
Shaq dominated the paint. Naturally, he’s going to defend his NBA era that embraced high percentage shots and a more physical brand of basketball. But this sentiment is a growing one in the sports world. Last year, Bob Costas made the claim that the increased number of 3-point attempts might be making for a displeasing TV viewing experience. Bob Ryan, Bomani Jones and Nick Wright have also since aired their grievances with the NBA’s modern style of chucking as many threes as possible.
It seems unlikely that the NBA will choose to do something about these complaints. But hearing one of their most valuable brand ambassadors claim the NBA is boring should be enough to at least catch their attention.
