The NBA has experienced a drop in its ratings in the past seasons, and Charles Barkley has said a few times that the league has got to do something to deal with the issue.
In his guest appearance on “The Dan Patrick Show,” Barkley said that load management and too many three-point attempts have turned fans away from the product. The NBA legend-turned-analyst also expressed his worry about the future of the league if commissioner Adam Silver did not do something to address the situation.
Barkley returned to Patrick’s program on Wednesday to talk about more basketball. The program host asked the former MVP what concrete steps the league should take to bring the ratings back up, and Chuck had a unique suggestion.
“I think we need to seriously consider starting on Christmas, because listen—you’re wasting your time going up against the NFL and College Football, they own the weekends now,” Barkley said. “If we start at Christmas, there’s no other sports that we have to compete with. College Football would be over, pro football is winding down, we’d have the entire calendar, late December, January, February, March, April, May, June to ourself.”
“I think we need to seriously consider starting on Christmas because listen you’re wasting your time going up against the NFL and College Football, they own the weekends now… We’d have the entire calendar to ourself.”
-Charles Barkley on changing the start to the #NBA season pic.twitter.com/uJasfWlO3D
— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) December 18, 2024
According to Sports Media Watch, the NBA ratings went down 48% from 2012. The in-season NBA Cup tournament, which the Milwaukee Bucks recently won, dropped 10% compared to last year. The NBA Finals have also suffered a drop in the ratings.
“The most important thing of the game is the fans. If they’re not watching, you can’t keep your head in the sand. You gotta ask, ‘What are we doing wrong?’” Barkley added.
The Hall of Famer believes that starting the NBA season around Christmas would help boost the league’s ratings, but he is also open to any other suggestions.
Charles Barkley says the NBA games have become ‘3-point shooting contests’
Charles Barkley gave a reason why fans have lost interest in the NBA games. Talking with Dan Patrick in his eponymous “The Dan Patrick Show,” the 11-time All-Star recalled watching an “awful” match between the Golden State Warriors and the Dallas Mavericks.
“In one of the games, I watched the Warriors play the Mavericks. It was one of the worst games I’ve seen. I think it was 140-130. They just went up and down the court and shot 3s. I was like, ‘Man, this is awful to watch,’” said Barkley.
“We’re just having a 3-point shooting contest every night. I think we gotta figure out something,” he added.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver recently announced a new format for the All-Star game next year. While Barkley is going to be involved in it, he is unsure if the change will positively impact the viewership of the league for the rest of the season.
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Dan has been active in sports since 2016 and has worked behind the scenes as a scriptwriter for basketball, volleyball, and other sports. At a time, Dan has also been working as a sports commentator for CBA Pilipinas. During the pandemic, he has also been actively writing betting articles for CashBet and BetNow.
