NBA’s new proposition a wrong step in right direction
By Ethan Becker
The NBA has a problem, one that even its star duos like Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis can’t seem to fix. But will the new scheduling ideas help the league?
The NBA has always been in a fairly tight space when it came to TV ratings. It’s consistently ranked lower than the NFL, but has always seemed to do fairly well on the nights it’s on.
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This is probably due to the major prime-time games falling on Tuesdays and Thursdays, two days where there either isn’t any football or at least any football worth watching, unless, that is, you’re a fan of watching the Texans and Buccaneers go at it.
But, while ratings have always been fairly good for the NBA, commissioner Adam Silver has long wanted to figure out a way to increase them. Why? Because better ratings means more money, obviously.
Recently, a possible solution was proposed to solve this problem. The league is currently in talks with broadcast partners and the National Basketball Players Association about figuring out how a schedule change up might work, including play-in games for the postseason, an in-season tournament and a shorter regular season.
The problem is that, while it’s nice to see the NBA trying to right the ship when it comes to its viewers, this is likely the wrong way to do it.