The NBA’s ratings and viewership have been on the decline for a while now. It seems the players are also starting to ask questions regarding what the problem is. LeBron James attempted to pinpoint the issues that have been causing the decline during a press conference in Sacramento. Patrick Bet-David quote tweeted a clip of LeBron’s interaction with reporters and directly blamed the four-time NBA Champion for spearheading the NBA’s decline.
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“The NBA’s decline happened under your tenure. Period,” Bet-David wrote.
This comment didn’t sit well with NBA legend Eddie A Johnson, who came to LeBron’s defense. The former Phoenix Suns star quoted PBD’s tweet, declaring that this could possibly be the “dumbest tweet” of the year.
The 65-year-old believes that LeBron has been a great ambassador for the game for the last 22 years. In his opinion, LBJ has made a lot of people tune in to NBA games for over two decades, and for that he deserves immense respect. Johnson also believes that no one has ever represented what basketball and the league stands for better than LBJ.
He wrote, “This might be the dumbest tweet of 2024. Good timing. This guy Positive or Negative will go down as the best face of the league ever. Kept you tuned in for 20 plus years and counting.”
PBD’s post hinted that the King’s partisan politics is a big reason for the dip in ratings.
This might be the dumbest tweet of 2024. Good timing. This guy Positive or Negative will go down as the best face of the league ever. Kept you tuned in for 20 plus years and counting https://t.co/3BUyaXBF9s
— Eddie A Johnson (@Jumpshot8) December 21, 2024
There was one line, in particular, from LBJ’s interview that seems to have ticked off PBD. LeBron said, “It’s a bigger conversation, it’s not just the All-Star games…It’s a lot of f***ing threes being shot.” Although LeBron didn’t take any names and he probably didn’t mean it as an insult to Stephen Curry, PBD took it like that.
He wrote, “Blaming the 3-point shot for it is just you throwing shade at Steph Curry…Quite frankly, he’s been more exciting to watch than you.”
While it’s undeniable that the game has changed a lot over the years, simply pinning the blame on the number of threes being shot wouldn’t solve anything. The NBA’s decline can be equated to several reasons and players shooting threes is just a small part of it. The league has become offense-friendly, which has taken away the excitement of a physical defensive game.
A major problem that no one addressed in the exchange is that a lot of fans watch the games through illegal streaming. The NBA is losing millions in viewership because people either can’t pay or don’t want to pay money to watch games.
