According to recent reports, the NBA has experienced a steep decline. in ratings as Americans prove to be increasingly the professional basketball league. While the NBA has reportedly blamed the recent presidential election for the downtick in ratings, some commentators have suggested it is because of widespread wokeness in the league.
In the first month of the 2024-25 season, the NBA has seen a notable 28% drop in ratings year-over-year on ESPN. The poor start to this season follows a 12% drop in playoff ratings during the playoffs last season. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver suggested the slow start is because of the World Series and the recent election. However, this ignores a broader trend of declining viewership, which has fallen 45% since 2012.
Conservative sports outlet Outkick weighed in on the matter, posting on X, “The NBA ratings continue to tank hard, now down 28% on ESPN. The league blames “the election.” Not true. NFL, CFB, and MLB all went up against the election and are up in the ratings.”
Outkick founder Clay Travis outlined his opinion that league politics has led to the downturn comparing the NBA to Bud Light. “The most consequential consumer boycott of the 21st century didn’t come from drinker’s rejection of a beer, it came from sports, in particular the NBA, which has destroyed its brand with a large percentage of the American sporting public by embracing woke, political, far-left-wing messaging in its games,” Travis said.
Travis further argued that the sports media complex refuses to recognize the trends before them, claiming leftist bias prevents it from doing so. He continued, “So why haven’t you heard about this despite the overwhelming data I’m about to lay out for you? It’s simple, the American sports media is so far-left wing they have refused to share the data right in front of their eyes.”
“The American sports media overwhelmingly supports far-left-wing political messaging, they love it because it reflects their own ideals,” he added, continuing to call out the apparent bias in sports broadcasting. “The vast majority of the sports media wants sports to be filled with left-wing politics – they see it as an affirmation of their own personal beliefs and applaud it.”
Outkick Reporter Bobby Burack also weighed in on the declining ratings, illustrating how he has observed the trend for at least half a decade. “In 2019, I was one of the only people who would acknowledge that the NBA was beginning to decline. The fanboys like @jadande called for me to be fired. Five years later, the NBA has continued to tank. NFL, CFB, UFC, and MLB are all on the rise. The NBA is now a niche sport,” he wrote on X.
In other recent comments, Clay Travis further derided wokeness in sports. Offering a solution, the Outkick founder suggested that if prominent figures in the league would start doing the hilarious Trump dance, it would revive the fan base. “Maybe LeBron, Popovich and Kerr need to start celebrating dunks with the Trump dance? Woke sports destroyed the NBA fan base,” Travis said.
Watch Sen. Steve Daines discuss uncancelling the Redskin’s logo below:
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