Sandomir - NBA TV Ratings in Tank

Any league that built all its popularity on the back of one person deserves whatever it is getting now.
Anyway, the three players mentioned - Lebron, Wade and Carmelo - were not established stars in college. They didn't come with automatic fan bases.
The league's old guard - Jordan, Magic, Bird - were collegiate legends and people wanted to keep up with them. Every player on the '92 Olympic team, with the exception of Pippen, was a collegiate superstar with a national reputation.
Now that's not true and it certainly has had an impact on the NBA's popularity.

EDIT: Oops forgot Stockton was on that team. And that was before anyone had ever heard of Gonzaga.

 

Yeah but 'Bron and Wade are already in the top 5 list of most marketable athletes in the US.

You said there were kids playing baseball in your area
I said there weren't kids playing baseball in my area(and I don't live in the "inner city")

What's the problem?

 

You said kids aren't playing baseball. I pointed out that they are.

 

List of today's kids playing baseball
1. Price, David
2. Moustakas, Michael
3. Vitters, Joshua
4. Moskos, Daniel
5. Wieters, Matthew
...
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/events/draft/y2007/drafttracker.jsp
...
1,453. Day, Lawrence

***

Not only are these 1,453 kids playing baseball, not only are these 1,453 kids all playing baseball all over America, but all of these 1,453 kids are playing baseball well enough to be drafted professionally.

And if you'd like to argue that it's not today's 18-year-olds who aren't playing baseball, that it's today's 12-year-olds, well, I will invite you over to watch the 2013 MLB First-Year Player Draft, when I can guarantee you that another 1,453 or so young baseball players in America will be good enough to get drafted by a major league organization then, too.

 

But they aren't playing in his neighborhood. QED, they aren't playing anywhere.

 

Ahh, now I get it.

I apologize Chuck, you're right. Kids aren't playing baseball.

 

Agreed. As for shortening the schedule, the playoff arrangement is maddening. There's no need for a series to start on Thursday with Game 2 on Sunday and Game 3 on Wednesday. One day between games if the series doesn't switch towns. Who cares what TNT, ESPN and ABC want, keep the games coming one after another, keep it moving. That never fails to bother me each season.

 

And here we reach the point of the ridiculous logical leap, where Chuck insists that because kids don't play baseball in his neighborhood -- which I'd be willing to bet is completely false, but whatever -- no kids anywhere are playing baseball.

We will all know that this is absurd.

 

Are there more kids playing baseball or basketball?

Whoa whoa whoa.
So when he says that there are kids playing baseball in his area its fine. But when I say it, it dosn't count because it's "my neighborhood". I see, I see....

 

You said kids today don't play baseball, Chuck, then you tried to qualify it with the bullshit "kids in my neighborhood" crap. If you don't like getting called out, don't try to make what occurs in your neighborhood apply to the entire country/world.

 

Chuck, you should call your local paper and ask them if kids are playing baseball. If they say no, we'll believe you.

And you might suggest that they do a story on that. I'm sure papers around the country would pick up a story about a town without baseball.

 

People said the same thing back in 1995 or so. And MLB has managed to pick itself up and thrive.

The NBA's marketing scheme and style of game hinges on a transcendent individual star emerging. That's why they scream "Next JORDAN!!!!!!!!" every time a youngster plays well. But they rode the Magic/Bird rivalry and Jordan's personality to match his play for a long time. It's over now. The NBA has become an unwatchable game, in which teams that play an entertaining style cannot win the title.

Buck: little disingenuous to claim 1,400 kids play baseball "well enough to be drafted professionally." Yeah, to play for lower-tier teams for the next few years and likely never have a cup of coffee in the majors. If the NBA had a network of minor league franchises that its main game depended on, who's to say the numbers wouldn't be similar in their own draft?