NBA commissioner Adam Silver fires back at Shaq over bad TV ratings
Today at 12:43 PM
As the NBA television ratings continue to take a slight dip, commissioner Adam Silver gave his thoughts on why viewership might be declining. Contrary to former 15-time All-Star Shaquille O’Neal’s belief, Silver does not think the modern style of play has anything to do with the ratings.
“I don’t think it has anything to do with the three-point shot,” Silver said in an interview with Cheddar. “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 [that had] two very attractive teams. You had a presidential election that was commanding an enormous amount of attention. So I don’t think it had anything to do with the style of play on the floor.”
Silver’s comment in the interview was a response to O’Neal saying on his podcast that he believes the dip in ratings is due to more teams attempting more three-pointers. O’Neal said that the success of recent three-point shooters such as Stephen Curry and James Harden has led to all teams basing their offense around a similar concept of getting as many shots up from beyond the arc as possible.
Whatever the reason may be, the NBA is no stranger to occasional dip in ratings. The league experienced a similar conundrum when the Curry and Kevin Durant-led Golden State Warriors dominated the NBA, with many believing that Durant joining the team made the overall picture less interesting.
Are Adam Silver’s NBA ratings actually down?
Silver seems to believe that the dip is due to a smaller sample size, but the ratings have actually been down for longer than just the beginning of 2024-2025. The 2024 NBA playoffs received 12 percent fewer views than they did the year before, per Front Office Sports. However, many attributed that to a plethora of injuries to star players in said playoffs, with Joel Embiid, Jimmy Butler, Jalen Brunson and Tyrese Haliburton all missing time.
In 2024-2025, Front Office Sports reports that the games that have received the most views are those with compelling storylines. The Los Angeles Lakers’ season debut of LeBron and Bronny James drew in a crowd, as did Klay Thompson’s return to Golden State. Yet, the big picture still shows downward arrows across the board.
Despite the slow start, the NBA does not appear to have any concerns. Aside from the external factors Silver mentioned, the commissioner failed to bring up the Netflix live boxing debut headlined by Jake Paul and Mike Tyson, an event that reportedly drew in over 65 million international views; a new record for the world’s largest streaming platform.
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