I’m going, this season, from being a long-time NBA fan, watching two, three games on the League Pass most nights, to, yeah, I’m going to wait and see this year with the NBA.
I’m tired of having to update the closet full of jerseys of my UVA guys, is one reason.
There are seven former ‘Hoos on NBA rosters at the start of the 2023-2024 season; four are on new teams – Malcolm Brogdon (Boston to Portland), Joe Harris (Brooklyn to Detroit), Jay Huff (Washington to Denver) and Ty Jerome (Golden State to Cleveland).
It’s like watching guys picking teams at noon ball at the Y anymore, the teams change so much from year to year, from month to month, in a lot of cases.
Another: load management.
If the schedule is too much, then cut back on the number of games, though I get why they won’t do that.
The more games played, the more money comes in; cutting back 10, 15 games to get it so that teams don’t have to play back-to-backs or road games in three cities in four nights reduces the inventory for ticket sales and for the schedules of games that ESPN, TNT and the regional carriers, so reduced inventory means reduced bottom lines.
On the ticket-sale end of things, I’ve long since given up, as a fan who lives three hours from the nearest NBA city, ever trusting it enough to buy tickets to attend a game in person.
You’re not guaranteed if you buy a ticket that Lebron or Steph or Giannis or whoever is going to play that night, so why bother?
I’m not like a lot newly lapsed fans who don’t like the way the NBA game is being played these days. There may be a smidge too much three-point shooting for me, but generally, I like the more free-flowing style of play that we’re getting, and I say that as a fan of the way Tony Bennett plays the game at the college level.
Maybe that’s why I like the NBA game, actually, because it’s so dramatically different from what I watch in college ball.
The NBA game itself is a beautiful game; I just can’t get around the revolving door in terms of rosters, and not knowing from one night to the next who is even going to play.
It’s like the league treats the regular season as seven months of exhibition games before the real season starts in April when the playoffs tip off.
If that’s the way they’re going to treat it, I’ll do the same.
No League Pass for me, but if there’s a good game on TNT or ESPN, and nothing else is on, and I’m caught up on my streaming, and I’ve gotten to a good stopping point in the book I’m reading, I’ll probably tune in.
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Chris Graham
