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After a promising opening night with a 6 percent rise in viewership, NBA ratings have since slumped. ESPN’s and TNT’s games reported significant drops compared to last year, and competition from events like the World Series only adds to the issue.
The league has acknowledged the decline but has not identified the culprit. While Commissioner Adam Silver and his boys are still trying to figure it out, Shaquille O’Neal already has a suspect.
The three-point revolution has taken over the NBA
Curry and the Warriors changed the game by weaponizing the three-point shot and making it their primary source of offense. With Golden State winning four championships, the rest of the league has tried to mimic their formula and emulate their style.
The number of three-pointers teams take per game and season has drastically increased. But as “Big Aristotle” pointed out, not every team shoots as well as the Dubs. And there is only one Steph Curry very long time, and we don’t give this out lightly.
“Like, I don’t mind Golden State back in the day shooting threes, but every team’s not a three-point shooter,” added O’Neal. “So why everybody has the same strategy? I think it makes the game boring.”
Defense is also boring
Aside from three-point shooting, Shaq also discussed the way teams defend in today’s positionless era of basketball. The Hall of Famer says defensive strategies and sets no longer exist because all teams just switch defenders, which leads to ugly matchups.
“We had about an hour and a half shootaround to try to stop other team plays,” continued four-time champ. “Now, you switch everything. You got motherfu**** Victor Wembanyama guarding goddamn Donovan Mitchell at the top of the key. That ain’t no good basketball. I think viewership will continue to go down until we switch things back up.”
During Shaq’s 2002 championship-winning season with the Lakers, the league’s top team attempted 18.4 threes per game. By comparison, this season’s leader attempts 43.2, with nearly half of
their field goal attempts coming from behind the arc. This reliance on threes and similarity in style, as O’Neal argues, can make games feel monotonous and cause people to switch to other programs, which, in the long run, is a big issue for the association.
