What's Wrong With The NBA? It Starts At The Top
For many years now, the NBA has had a culture problem.
The "player empowerment" era has done nothing but enable low standards. Some stars have teamed up to destroy the league's competitive balance. Others have gotten their coaches fired when they don't have their way. Others still, are too soft for the grind of an 82-game season and only show up to collect a paycheck. Some care more about their stats more than winning, and look to exploit loopholes in the rulebook so that they don't have to put their bodies on the line on the court. The league is paying the price, as proven by the sizable dip in ratings this season.
If you ask Adam Silver, though, the reason for the lower ratings is because of... the World Series and the U.S. Presidential Election.
If that's not the perfect microcosm of the weak, broken culture Silver has fostered as commissioner, nothing is. As a leader, rule number one is to always hold yourself accountable. The NBA can't control people watching baseball or election coverage (those two events accounted for a combined one week, by the way) instead of its games. What it can control, is its own struggling product, which clearly Silver thinks all is well with, and there's nothing to be concerned about. What. A. Joke.
If Silver wants to know the real reason why the ratings are slipping, all he needs to do is look in the mirror. Every single problem with the current state of the league has been enabled, if not actively championed, by him. Aside from one of his very first actions as commissioner, when he dropped the hammer on former L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling, with a lifetime ban for blatantly racist comments, nothing he has done has commanded respect. Players and owners alike know they can just walk all over him, and it shows.
Fans may have had some mixed opinions on David Stern, but it can't be denied that when he was in charge, the league thrived. The culture was healthier, and as a result, the product felt more meaningful. That was all a reflection of the fact that Stern knew how to be a leader -- when to assert his authority, and when to step back and let things play out as they may. When he vetoed a trade that would have sent Chris Paul to the prime Kobe Bryant-led Lakers, it sent a message that players shouldn't be encouraged to take shortcuts to success.
Silver, meanwhile, has overseen an era in which Kevin Durant joined the 73-win Warriors. Anthony Davis was traded to the LeBron James-led Lakers. Kawhi Leonard pulled strings to pry Paul George away from the Oklahoma City Thunder so they could team up with the Clippers. In the meantime, there's been a rise of "load management," where stars will sit out games for rest purposes, and there is a visible lack of effort on the court throughout the regular season. Players would rather stand around behind the three-point line, or bait the opposition into fouling them, rather than earning their buckets the hard way. As for defense? Forget about it.
Silver has taken minimal steps to solve these issues, such as setting a threshold of games played in order to earn season awards, and adjusting the foul rules to stop rewarding flopping. The former has changed nothing, and the latter seemed to make a difference for about half of a season before it quietly stopped being enforced, due to complaints about scoring numbers being down. Then, as far as addressing the deeper issues surrounding the league's culture, it's been all crickets from Silver.
Watch a regular-season NBA game today, and it will far too often have the same energy as a shootaround practice. There's just no passion. No enthusiasm. No pure love for the sport of basketball. When the Milwaukee Bucks play the Philadelphia 76ers on a random Wednesday night in December, with both teams' star players sitting out, it's as if the result doesn't even matter. It's not because the schedule is too long or the game is too physical -- neither of those variables were "problems" until recently. It's because the life has been sucked out of the top level of basketball in the world.
LeBron James and Kevin Durant's superteams didn't ruin the NBA. Nor did Joel Embiid and Kawhi Leonard's load management. Not even James Harden and Russell Westbrook's shameless stat-padding playing styles did. Adam Silver's weak leadership did, and his comments this week prove it. He's created a culture where there's no accountability and no standards, and the league's ratings are suffering as a result.