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NBA ratings plummeted by 28%, and the All-Star Finals were only 10 minutes! Xiao Hua s reform made fans call for a refund?
5:09pm, 9 July 2025【Basketball】
When Thunder players won the 2025 championship trophy, the NBA's official data department fell into silence. The ratings of G2 in the finals of only 8.76 million people not only set the lowest record after the 2020 "Park Finals", but also became the only two embarrassing case of "G2 ratings lower than G1" in the league's 20 years of history. What's even more cruel is that the average viewership in the first four games of this year's finals was only 7.3 million, and by the end of the series, it was the second lowest record in 20 years.
This is not an isolated phenomenon. Throughout the season, the number of viewers in the opening game of ESPN Live plummeted by 42% year-on-year, and the ratings of TNT focus game fell by 29%. When President Adam Xiao signed the 11-year, $76 billion broadcast contract, he might not have expected that the NBA was experiencing the worst viewer loss crisis since the Jordan era.
Superstars at dusk, the new generation is difficult to support the banner
LeBron James temporarily announced his withdrawal before the All-Star Game, wearing casual clothes to become a "coach" on the sidelines, and even substitutes were too lazy to arrange. This symbolic scene unveils the biggest pain point of the NBA: super giants such as James, Curry, Durant have reached the end of their careers, and the new generation of stars have not yet filled the huge gap they have left.
When the Thunder and the Pacers met in the finals, the ratings tragedy was already doomed. Although Alexander and Halliburton were skilled, their commercial value was less than one-third of Curry's peak period. Historical data coldly reveals the law: the ratings of the Raptors (non-US teams) won the championship in 2019 hit a 12-year low, and the Spurs' finals against the Cavaliers in 2019 were also bleak, and small and medium-sized teams lacked box office appeal.
What is even more worrying is the dilemma of local identity of international stars. Jokic and Antetokounmpo won the MVP trophy, but failed to win the hearts of American audiences. "The US basketball market has a stronger sense of identity with local players," a court observer pointed out the mystery. When Doncic fought on the finals stage, the ratings of 5.8% hit a new low since 2007, becoming the best footnote to this conclusion. In the
Deformed game, the out-of-control whistle
The finals G4 was ridiculed by fans as a "free throw battle". The referee's whistle became the real protagonist: when the Thunder fell behind, the Pacers players "looked at Alexander and were all whistles"; when the Thunder chased the points, Halliburton "was beaten to death by Dort, nothing happened." This explicit control method even the Pacers coach Carlisle was even more severely punished and publicly bombarded. Behind the fragmentation of the
There is a deeper tactical crisis. O'Neal was heartbroken in the podcast: "The ratings dropped because we were watching the same thing, and every team was playing the same game: pick-and-roll, pass, and three-pointers." The data confirmed his anger: In this year's tiebreak battle, the Thunder made 40 three-pointers and the Pacers made 28. Nearly half of the offense ended with three-point shots.
"Stephen Curry and the Warriors screwed up the game," O'Neal said in a stunning way, "I don't mind the Warriors shooting three-pointers, but why do every team imitate them?" When basketball becomes a pure game of probability, the "more scientific" basketball philosophy is eating up the diversity and drama of the game.
All-Star farce, reforms have turned into jokes
In order to save the ratings of the All-Star Game, the league has launched a four-team championship system. result? Durant bluntly said that he "has disgusted with these changes": "It is completely unacceptable and should return to the traditional model of confrontation in the east and west areas." The actual battle is even more tragic: Curry won the MVP controversially (12 points in 8 shots), while Tatum's wonderful performance of 15 points and dunks was ignored.
The new competition system requires "win 40 points first". The original intention is to increase stimulation, but it has become a three-point shooting training. The 40-point threshold is too low. The actual game time is only half an hour, and the advertising and timeouts last for three hours. The most ironic scene appeared in the final timeout: When the score was frozen at 11-1, the official timeout lasted for 15 minutes, the reporters were collectively furious: "It has been 15 minutes since the last touch, what the hell?"
Paul and Vampan Yama openly cheated in the skill game. McLen, a G-League player, "save" the dunk contest for two consecutive years, and the NBA could not find an active player who could contribute wonderful dunks. The full collapse of the All-Star Weekend has become a microcosm of the league's powerless innovation.
manipulation and calculation, the disappearing pure competition
return to the finals of this year is full of doubts. Thunder and Pacers had a huge difference in strength on paper, but they were dragged into seven battles. The details of Xiao Hua G6's absence from the award ceremony attracted the sensation of senior fans. The president was unwilling to arrive early, implying that the game must be played for seven games. This manipulation exposes the league's despair. But what really kills the game is the disappearance of offensive and defensive games. In today's NBA arena, defensive players always maintain a one-step distance, fearing fouls and not daring to be close to each other, breaking through the inside line hardly shows exquisite assistance, only rough fouls, and the tactical system is highly homogenized, "it's all a monotonous cycle of large-scale singles + shooters group".
Comparison of the tactical blooming twenty years ago - D'Antoni's run and bomb, Jackson's triangular offense, Adelman's Princeton - the current tactical manual is pitifully thin. "Three-pointers, whistle, free throw, and another dunk" constitutes all the elements of the game. When basketball loses the charm of intellectual game and only physical sensory stimulation remains, the audience's boredom is inevitable.
The business model falls into a death cycle: ratings decline → advertising shrinks → salary caps decrease → star group intensifies → game quality declines → audience continues to lose. The Mavericks were acquired at a low price due to fiscal deficits, revealing the cracks in the league's commercial foundation.
Xiao Hua's strongly promoted tiebreaker battle is like an overdrawn future stimulant - this year the small market combination of Thunder and Pacers has reduced the effect. If the process continues to be done in the same way next year, it will only accelerate the collapse of trust. Only by rebuilding the defensive scale, cultivating the star's personality, and liberating the diversity of tactics can basketball return to the essence of wise and brave game. Otherwise, when James Curries and others leave completely, what will the NBA fulfill its promise of "the future belongs to basketball"?
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