Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla is not mincing any words and has admitted that he’d rather watch something else besides the NBA as the league’s rating continue to fall into the dumper.
On Wednesday, sports reporter Noa Dalzell asked Mazzulla what he thought of how the game is being sold in light of the falling ratings, and he replied that he just isn’t interested in watching NBA games.
According to Fox News, he went on to say, “I add to that I don’t watch NBA games. I’m just as much of a problem as everyone else. I don’t like watching the games,” he said explaining that he’d rather watch something else.
Mazzulla’s comments come as reports find that the league’s ratings have collapsed even more, which is in keeping with repeatedly lower ratings year over year.
The 2024 NBA Finals, for instance, averaged 11.3 million viewers, down from 11.64 million the prior year, according to The Big Lead.
During the latest episode of his The Herd show, sports commentator Colin Cowherd claimed that the NBA has failed to stay in tune with what its fans want and has lost touch with regular Americans, adding, “I’m sorry. Go ask the Democrats. Be warned. Once you detach from regular people in America, you will pay a price.”
Perhaps showing that he has not yet inculcated that message, NBA commissioner Adam Silver brushed off the ratings declines and insisted that they are just a symptom of a change in how Americans access their media. In an interview with The Athletic, Silver blew it all off, saying that “ratings are down a bit.”
Silver went on to note that ratings are down “double digits” for all of cable TV and the big three networks and that people’s way of viewing sports is quickly changing in this new world of sports viewership. He also claimed that viewership for men’s and women’s college basketball is down.
“We’re almost at the inflection point where people are watching more programming on streaming than they are in traditional television,” Silver said.
Unfortunately for Commissioner Silver, more people are turning into Joe Mazullas than into NBA fans, and they are watching something else.
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