Lakers News: Adam Silver Explains NBA Ratings Dip To Start 2024-25 Season
Yesterday at 12:37 PM
The Los Angeles Lakers’ 2024-25 season is off to a great start, but as a whole, television viewership across the NBA has been poor.
There are a lot of potential reasons to explain that, whether it be injuries, other leagues going on or an increase in 3-point shooting that makes the game less watchable.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver pushed back on that notion and believes the slow start for the league is merely tied to the World Series and recent stretch of covering the presidential election, via Cheddar:
“I don’t think it has anything to do with the 3-point shot. I think we’re just looking at a couple weeks of ratings. There’s always some unique things. This year, we were up against the World Series, speaking of L.A., the Dodgers and Yankees. My Yankees didn’t make it, but two very attractive teams and they had a good run, brought in a big audience.
“You had a presidential election that was commanding an enormous amount of attention. So I don’t think it has anything whatsoever to do with the style of play on the floor. I mean, on the style of play, I love where our game is right now. There’s always things we’re looking at to tweak in various ways, but the fans are responding.
“We have more social media traffic than any time in our history. It’s a huge global marketplace of interest in the NBA. So as I said, we’re off to a good start.”
It’s hard to know what exactly has caused the NBA’s ratings dip, but things usually pick up around Christmas so the hope is that will be the case again.
The league is also currently in the midst of the Emirates NBA Cup, which has helped bring viewership to regular season games on Tuesday and Friday nights. Regardless though, the NBA needs to continue to find better ways to keep fans engaged during this early portion of the season as what they have been doing isn’t working if the goal is to increase viewership.
Having high-profile teams like the Lakers in the championship mix will only help, so Silver and the league are likely hoping they remain competitive throughout as they have early on.
LeBron James explains what changed during Lakers win streak
After a rough 1-4 road trip, the Lakers have found their way by winning six straight games to improve their overall record to 10-4 on the season. LeBron James discussed what changed for the Lakers during that stretch and why they’ve been able to have so much success.
"We have some really good sets," LeBron noted. "We have some really good movement, and the team trusts me a lot with the ball, and I'm just trying to put the ball on time, on target, to my guys. And it's great to have guys that can make shots and guys that can make plays. AR, DLo. Obviously, AD, DK. Rui [Hachimura] when he's in the lineup. We just try to keep guys' defenses off balance."
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