NBA caves! No ‘Black Lives Matter’ on courts and jerseys next year

American Thinker ^ | 10/07/2020 | Thomas Lifson

[SeekAndFind]

NBA commissioner Adam Silver casually let drop the bombshell news that the NBA will remove the name of the Marxist revolutionary organization Black Lives Matter from its basketball courts and player jerseys next season.  This comes following catastrophic ratings declines to all-time lows for the league's playoff games. From Sports Illustrated:

While the NFL is only suffering from a very slight ratings dip, the NBA has seen a severe viewer tune out. The question is, just how alarmed should the league be by this development?

Here are the numbers for the first three games of the Finals between the Heat and Lakers.

Game 1: 7.4 million viewers
Game 2: 6.1 million viewers
Game 3: 5.9 million viewers

Those numbers for Game 2 and 3 are all-time lows for the NBA Finals.

YouTube screen grab.

There are some mitigating factors in terms of competing programming for Games 2 and 3, but they don't begin to account for the magnitude of the crash:

The real issue is that the first game drew seven million viewers while last year's Finals between the Warriors and Raptors averaged 15.1 million viewers.

Speaking with friendly interviewer Rachel Nichols of ESPN on that network's NBA Countdown show, at the end of an interview focused mainly on COVID prevention issues came the following exchange, via Citizen Free Press:

 
YouTube screen grab.

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[WKUHilltopper]

FU NBA. You can’t raise the Titanic.

[dfwgator]

They think Biden is going to win, so they won’t need it anymore.

If Trump wins, it will be right back.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Game 1: 7.4 million viewers
Game 2: 6.1 million viewers
Game 3: 5.9 million viewers

Unexpected...

[Wizdum]

It will take more than removing a few signs and stickers to bring fans back.

Fans now know the NBA will cave to any political pressure of the far left. Their credibility is shot.

[Lurkinanloomin]

Too late, you have already chased off the fans.

[Red Badger]

FREE BEER!
TOMORROW!..............................

[Buckeye McFrog]

They are going to pay off the activists to acquiesce to this by writing some HUGE FRIGGIN CHECKS.

Which will actually do more real damage to this country than some stupid slogan painted on a basketball court.

[PGR88]

When are Black folk going to realize they are being used?

The founders of BLM are lesbians, marxists and descendents of (white) German-Jewish communists. does this represent the “Black community?” Their promotion of destruction of the nuclear family, disbanding of police, demand for race-based government activities are all going to ultimately hurt Black folk.

Wake up!

[eyeamok]

Hey Adam, you are going the wrong way with this, you should be encouraging the players to show their true feelings towards America and DEMAND they BURN THE FLAG On the court during the National Anthem, a Guaranteed Ratings Boost!!

[Altura Ct.]

F the NBA!

While the NFL is only suffering from a very slight ratings dip

Is that true? I had read that is was not only down but that from 2017 or whatever year this all started it was down considerably?

[mkleesma]

Of course not - it’s not an election year.

[rktman]

2 late dumbasses. You’ve shown your true, well you know....

[cuban leaf]

It would be impossible for me to watch a game with that logo constantly staring me in the face.

No way.

[Starboard]

Lots of people have by now found many other enjoyable things to do with the precious time they wasted watching commercial sports on TV. And they’re not going back.

[glorgau]

Those clowns have “Black Lives Matter” on the back of every jersey. What incredibly bad marketing.

[Empire_of_Liberty]

“The NBA in Caves” and “No Next Year”, both better ideas.

[Clutch Martin]

Too late, fools...

[Dana1960]

Never push your customers away to see if they can live without your product.

Or they will learn to live without your product. Forever.

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

They are going to pay off the activists to acquiesce to this by writing some HUGE FRIGGIN CHECKS.

That's what the NFL did, and you're right -- the NBA is going to do the exact same thing.