Posted on 12/13/2025 8:55:55 AM PST by MinorityRepublican
At the end of a Jan. 23 news conference in Paris, where even the NBA’s global ambitions failed to shield him from domestic criticism over the state of the league’s product, Commissioner Adam Silver acknowledged something that many had concluded long ago: The NBA’s analytics movement had pushed the game to a problematic place — one that sits exactly 23 feet 9 inches from the goal, or 22 feet in the corners — where the league must now consider intervening.
When it comes to the NBA’s glut of three-pointers, Silver said, “it’s absolutely [true] that the analytics have taken teams in certain directions.” Coaches and general managers paid to win at all costs, he said, are “not necessarily focused on the aesthetic appeal of the game.” He concluded: “I’m listening to the critics. I don’t want to overreact, but I think there potentially are some adjustments we can make.”
Change the setting and the sport-centered specifics, and move the date back five or six years, and those same words could have been spoken by MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred. In fact, they essentially were.
“The changes you’re seeing [on the field] are being driven by smart [team personnel] who want to win more baseball games,” Manfred said before the 2018 All-Star Game, addressing criticism of baseball’s on-field product. “The question [is]: At what point do we want to step in and manage that organic change?”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Analytics such as VPS (Viewings Per Swift) weren’t going to help.
This is an age-old problem: what is the business problem being solved, and for whom?
The purpose of sports, bluntly, is to win. In basketball, the use of data and statistical methods has revealed that floating a battery of 3-pointers keeps the knees etc of the players in-tact longer and, this, capable of winning longer. Similarly, charging into the paint with elbows etc. flailing around wears down the joints.
‘It’s business Sonny…strictly business.
Now…the fans? They are, basically, NOT part of the business problem. Well…not yet…if enough fans turn off the games and the broadcast money falls away, then the fans become part of the non-linear program’s objective function or constraint.
It’s made a lot of things in life crazy.
Too many people manage by the numbers. They should manage WITH the numbers.
But, when getting that 1/4 of a percent matters…
I’m waiting on the prop bets that let you pick the over/under on number of plays purposefully failing or number of ref calls suspect to altering outcomes (don’t need to get the win anymore). That will make it more entertaining
I’m not a sports fan at all, but all I hear from my in-laws is complaints about why they’ve traded so-and-so because “on paper” his statistics are down even though he’s playing well, they trade that guy to another team and boom, he’s “magically” a better player and “we should’ve kept him”. As a non-sports fan, the constant player shuffling from team to team is annoying.
Correct but no one wants to watch a NBA game where everyone is making a bunch of 3's.
That's not basketball.
More like a 3 point contest.
No.
The purpose of PROFESSIONAL sports, the subject of this article, is to MAKE MONEY. Nothing else. Most folks assume that "wining" equates to making money, but that really isn't true. Every game has a winner and a loser. The way to make money is to attract fans. The way to attract fans is to be exciting or entertaining or amusing. But winning is only a small part of that, because each game is a combination of winning and losing.
So, in fact, the fans are the most important part of the business problem. Money comes from fans, whether directly or indirectly via advertising. No Fans ==> No Money ==> No Business ==> Bankruptcy. Ask the USFL.
I would disagree. On average, teams play .500 ball in every sport. The purpose is to entertain the fans. The NFL has succeeded brilliantly by tweaking the rules to increase fan satisfaction.
It’s all Bread and Circuses.
It’s the Matrix.
People think they live in a society where hard work is rewarded, rules are followed, voters choose their government, and the legal system enforces justice. It’s all an illusion. A simulacrum. A false reality. But it’s real enough to give us enough Bread to survive.
And people sleepwalk through the world of illusion because things like professional sports, or watching Ariane Grande slowly die from anorexia is entertaining enough to keep most people happy. That’s the Circus.
I can easily get through a game of baseball, football, basketball, hockey, golf and tennis, NASCAR, F1 and drag racing with my TV’s audio muted. However, there’s not much I can do about the overabundance of graphics in the video portions!
Make all baskets (except free throws and technicals, of course) worth 2 points.
And winning makes money. An NBA team that goes to the finals can earn an extra $100 million from its high-priced playoff ticket sales, additional advertisements, promotions, etc...
So yeah. The obvious goal specifically for a team owner/manager is still to win.
Yes but the NBA ratings are not where they were in the '90s during the Jordan Era.
In the meantime, both the NFL and NCAA football are doing very well according to their ratings.
NBA is boring. Even the players look bored.
If my area didn't have an NFL team - and it therefore being a point of focus and conversation for friends, neighbors, business associates - there's no way I could sit through the near 4-hour spectacle and celebration of decayed culture and corporate advertisement.
The game itself is OK, but between every turnover and stoppage in play, one must sit through 10 mindless and woke commercials that celebrate degraded culture, woke politics, and corporate control of society.
Any tweaks to the game itself (I don't know what those might be) seem insignificant and are washed away by the overwhelming and constant need to increase revenue and political messaging.
Attracting fans makes money. Being exciting, entertaining, or amusing attracts fans. Going to the playoffs makes exactly squat if nobody is watching.
No fans ==> no money.
It's a job. They have been trained to play basketball since they were growing up on AAU teams.
But that that is very esoteric and effectively irrelevant to a team manager and coach, whose average tenure is about 3.5 years.
As the original poster indicated, its a contradiction and paradox between immediate incentives of everyone involved, and long-term concerns of the league as a whole.
. As a non-sports fan, the constant player shuffling from team to team is annoying.
This is a big one that is killing sports, also players aren’t marketable, and the casual fan only know the names of a few players.
One thing we learned from last year’s Mike Tyson fight is that name recognition is still everything in sports. Really gambling is the only thing that keeps most sports afloat.
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