NBA thread

[Doc Hogaday]

I posted this in this thread right before the Woopig shutdown of 2025. It wiped a day or 2 of stuff, but this was in response to questions of the direction of Dallas and the current NBA ratings in general. It was still sitting in an open notepad window.

"The Mavs aren't going anywhere. If they did there would already be a plan for an expansion franchise to be awarded the day after to DFW.

As far as ratings being down, here are some reasons:

-Pop started the whole "load management" deal 10-12 years ago when he began listing Duncan, Parker, and Ginobli on the injury list as "old" under the reason. Kawhi was the up and comer at that time and I think that stuck in his mind. More on that later.

-2015-2018. There were 4 straight years of Lebron vs. Curry in the finals. People got tired of it.

-2019. Kawhi is in Toronto now and they win the championship. Nobody wanted to see the Canadian team win.

-2020. Covid splits the season in half. 2nd half of the season is after several months and then in "the bubble"...and people were moving on to football by the time it picked back up. Also during the middle of the split season was the whole George Floyd deal. NBA was very vocal about the BLM movement and turned a certain demographic completely off.

-Beyond. Load management really took off. Kawhi has been the front-runner but also folks like Embiid and Paul George have been terrible about this. Fans pay good money to go to games and then the stars just sit. Tune in at home for a game and so-and-so isn't playing so watch something else.

I don't know. This is a stream of consciousness. Fans are turned off by all these things plus the prominence of international stars they don't know, players switching teams so often, no continuity in uniforms/courts, a 3-point dominant game, etc. It's hard for a casual to keep up or stay interested these days. I still love the NBA, but I get it, too.

They did change the rules a while back to where you have to play a minimum of 65 games in a season to qualify for post-season awards, but I don't see that that has changed much of what is going on. I still watch it, but they need to do something if they want ratings back up. I don't claim to know the answer to that."

[Doc Hogaday]

Well, I didn't think it was possible but somehow DipSilver found a way to make the all-star game even worse.

And adding Kevin Hart to anything is just a recipe for disaster. Woof.

[Barton Fink]

100% agree. It was awful.

[animal]

So a white won the dunk contest?

[Sus-Scrofa]

So a white won the dunk contest?

I think this one wins all the dunk contests now.

[HughJasole]

I'm hopeful that maybe next year with a return to NBC and getting off TNT will maybe spark some sort of return to normalcy.

I know they're whoring 'Inside the NBA' out to ESPN and while Shaq/Ernie/Kenny/Chuck are funny, they also don't do casual fans a favor.

They and players like Draymond just shit on the product on air. How do you think you're going to attract casual fans (of which they've lost hundreds of thousands if not millions) when you're just like 'yeah what you're seeing is an absolute turd.'

If I was Silver, I would demand that everyone get in line and promote the product as positively as possible. They've got talented players, the skill level is insane. They just need to do a better job of marketing.

[buff2.0]

So a white won the dunk contest?

Saw people talking about him being the best dunker ever, so I looked at the highlights.  Vince Carter would have eaten him and shat him out mid-air while performing his own dunk.

[BASS]

[Lurk]

You youngsters...

You cannot view this attachment.

[animal]

I'm sure it's because I was a teenager really into the NBA at the time but I do like those Harold Miner/J.R. Rider years of the mid 90s. That's about the only thing those guys were good for too.

I do remember Spud Webb winning it when I was a little kid.

[BleedinRed]

I'm sure it's because I was a teenager really into the NBA at the time but I do like those Harold Miner/J.R. Rider years of the mid 90s. That's about the only thing those guys were good for too.
I do remember Spud Webb winning it when I was a little kid.

Fell down a rabbit hole.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1YRJvFvlgg

Spud Webb had hops.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQKF8MdsJdU

Always liked watching the old dunk contests.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_xGiuBivFY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHF1HULU5Aw

Vince is still the best dunker ever.

[jdcatty]

Didn't see this coming:

https://x.com/BBakerHogs/status/1892602344778383439


https://x.com/ShamsCharania/status/1892600485036589564

[DirkPiggler]

Didn't see this coming:

https://x.com/BBakerHogs/status/1892602344778383439


https://x.com/ShamsCharania/status/1892600485036589564

He claims he unknowingly took Tramadol thinking it was Toradol.  The former is an opioid and apparently banned.  The later is an NSAID and legal. 

[Doc Hogaday]

Tramadol lol. Guess he was out of Darvocet.

[PHARMHOG]

25 games for tramadol is crazy.

Guess I will be seeing Bobby at home a little earlier this year.:/

I hope he appeals this and wins.

[BASS]

Had a doc prescribe me tramadol for pain after a root canal, didn't do a damn thing, I was better off using Advil. Pretty sure I still have 25 of the 30 pills.

[Doc Hogaday]

Also, Wemby is out for the year w/ a blood clot.

[Spiderham]

Tramadol is not exactly a performance enhancing drug. 

[Lurk]

25 games for tramadol is crazy.

Guess I will be seeing Bobby at home a little earlier this year.:/

I hope he appeals this and wins.

That's the worst pain medicine ever.

[Doc Hogaday]

The very dated pain equivalency chart says 100 mg Tramadol is equal to 10 mg oral morphine. My ass. You're better off taking 800 mg ibuprofen.