Adam silver couldn't have dreamed of a worst scenraio

[damedash09]

Injuries piling up to stars

Since play in

Butler
Zion
Now Lillard out/plus Giannis may not play at all
Kawhi not healthy at all

And then you have
Lebron possibly swept
Curry not around
KD possibly swept



The players can't stay healthy at the most important time

[cgf]

Old guys are old

[KyRo23]

Not sure why the NBA isn’t rigging it. I’m told they want the ratings but I’m not seeing the results

[itrsteve]

Players get injured?

I’d suppose the only “disaster” is a lot of marquee names of yesterday either not making it to or out of the first round.


Sit back and enjoy the show, there’s a crop of new talent that we get to crucify down the road for forming super teams in 5 years.

[Duke4life831]

The NBA and Tuner/ESPN should try and take advantage of these playoffs. This is a pretty damn good time to get casual audiences up to date with the current crop of stars.

The era of just banking on LeBron/KD/Steph are over. Those guys dont run the league anymore.

And its not like these younger guys arent marketable. Jokic and Luka's games are very easy to pump out and be appealing. Anthony Edwards is your high flying non stop highlight machine young star. You got Tatum who is already a well known name and on one of the biggest franchises.

[Johnny Bball]

Silver just isn't right sometimes. This is what the majority basketball fans actually want to see IMO. They don't want to see stars gifted further.

[Infinite Llamas]

Not sure why the NBA isn’t rigging it. I’m told they want the ratings but I’m not seeing the results

DLO begging Silver to turn on the magnets tonight lol

[ChipotleWest]

I think NBA has moved on from just looking at TV ratings and more focused on growing as a global brand. TV ratings have been down in the Finals this entire decade, but you don't hear how the NBA is in trouble. It's not like it used to be where everyone watched on TV, there are many different platforms now. I doubt Silver is that worried about certain players advancing and others not.

[Peregrine01]

Suns had 18 free throws in the first quarter. 18. While the Wolves had 4 and they were still leading. There's only so much Silver can do.

[jkvonny]

Worst case scenario? For who, the casuals?

Maybe the NBA just needs to learn how to market their product better.

The NFL has no problem doing so.

[LuDux1]

Solar eclipse must have messed up the magnets

[Wolfgang630]

Who gives crap. My god every week y’all care so damn much how much money the billionaire company.

[ellobo]

It seems very odd to frame this in terms of marketing or the commissioner's point of view.

As a fan, when I see player injuries, my first reaction is sadness that I'm not going to see those players play or see their teams at full strength, and my second reaction is sympathy and empathy for the players involved.

Then my third reaction is to watch and enjoy the games anyway.

[Potential]

DEN vs DAL/OKC/MIN
BOS vs NYK, PHI

And then one of those teams vs Boston in the Finals is great. I see no problem

[Marrrcuss]

Injuries piling up to stars

Since play in

Butler
Zion
Now Lillard out/plus Giannis may not play at all
Kawhi not healthy at all

And then you have
Lebron possibly swept
Curry not around
KD possibly swept
The players can't stay healthy at the most important time

LOLOLOL Man, yall really love that dude. Thats about as polite as you could have put it

[Clav]

Basketball

[sp6r=underrated]

The NBA and Tuner/ESPN should try and take advantage of these playoffs. This is a pretty damn good time to get casual audiences up to date with the current crop of stars.

The era of just banking on LeBron/KD/Steph are over. Those guys dont run the league anymore.

And its not like these younger guys arent marketable. Jokic and Luka's games are very easy to pump out and be appealing. Anthony Edwards is your high flying non stop highlight machine young star. You got Tatum who is already a well known name and on one of the biggest franchises.

Yup, for good or ill a huge percentage of basketball fans are players fans not teams fans. Basketball is unique in that sense. One of my closest friends is from Boston, used to attend pre-Bledsoe Patriots games. When Brady left he hoped for him to do well but primarily followed (and still follows) a rebuilding Patriots team.

That isn't the case in the NBA. When Jordan retired the Bulls lost a ton of fans. When Lebron left Miami, they lost a ton of fans, and those fans didn't return when they started making ECF regularly. And the reason is the fans who left were never Heat or Bulls fans. They were Lebron and Jordan fans. I'm a Knicks fan but really the Lakers are the only NBA team that is marketable no matter the players on the roster.

The NBA needs to figure out how to market the top players in the league. Right now they're facing headwinds because the best players are centers and basketball fans generally don't like centers. But the NBA needs to find a way to sell American fans on bigs like Jokic/Embiid because they're going to be around for awhile. It is not a good thing for the NBA the two best players aren't even in the top ten for jersey sells.




It isn't a concidence that the 7 footers who move jerseys play more like wings. As Wilt said no one roots for Goliath.

They're also going to have to get American basketball fans to stop being so xenophobic. Basketball is an international game. It is likely a majority of superstars will be non-Americans going forward. If Luka Donic was Luke David and from Pennsylvania he would be way more popular with American fans. I don't know how to tackle the xenophobia but it is an issue.

[Airmiess]

So Zion and a bunch of big names who've been around for 20 years ... these players are older and we're having trouble accepting them being phased out by the younger stars.