The NBA has seen its viewership falter in the past few seasons. This includes a two percent decrease from the 2024-25 season compared to the year prior.
Related: Watch: Michael Jordan wears original Jordans in ’98 vs. Knicks
There are a few reasons why this is happening. For starters, it’s becoming more expensive to watch games, especially in the upcoming season with all the new streaming platforms covering the games.
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Another reason is the style of play that heavily lacks defense and any real urgency. This is especially true during the All-Star Game.
The last reason I’ll bring up is the toxic fan base the NBA has. Fans are always trashing players from past eras to lift today’s current stars.
A YouTuber named Kristopher London recently made a take that appears ridiculous. He claimed that if Houston Rockets forward Amen Thompson played in the 1980s and 1990s, he’d dominate Michael Jordan.
This take isn’t just bad, it’s sad. There’s nothing Thompson has done to prove he’d have any success against Jordan. Yet, a YouTuber says it, and young fans will likely believe it.
This take proves that London must not have watched Jordan play in real time. It also proves how the media, especially the NBA media, has become sellouts.
The goal is to write about controversial topics just to gain a few clicks. There’s no integrity in sports journalism any longer.
It’s a shame.
Even if London or other fans truly believe today’s players are better than those who came before them, why bash the past players? They claim ’90s opponents were plumbers, which puts down the past eras.
It’s a shame where NBA fandom has gone. But that’s okay, because one day fans will claim LeBron James and Stephen Curry played against TikTokers and Uber drivers.
The NBA will likely keep losing fans unless respect comes back into the fanbase. And if the game can add just a bit more defense and effort from the players.
