Sports analyst and media personality Stephen A. Smith expressed his view on the decline of viewership and interest in the NBA, this time talking particularly about the comment of five-time NBA Champion and 12-time All-Star Magic Johnson, which was about the lack of “hate” amongst players in the NBA.
In one of his recent videos, Stephen A. Smith discussed Magic Johnson’s take on the issue of the NBA decline. Previously, the retired NBA legend discussed the “lack of hate” as the main reason why people are no longer watching NBA games like they used to.
“Everybody is shaking each other’s hand, everybody likes each other, they won’t go at each other really hard. That’s what happened to the All-Star game,” Johnson said. “We hated the East. I’m coming to bust you Michael, Isiah, Dr. J. You can’t have one over me, I’m coming to get that. Now it’s 200-200, what is that?”
Stephen A. Smith backed up Magic’s sentiments and clapped back at people who would commonly label such a take as “hating on the NBA.”
“Listen to me when I say what I have to say. I’m not trying to cast aspersions,” Stephen A. Smith said. “You folks on YouTube and social media have to get a bit more creative. Everything is about hating. What, telling the facts is hating?”
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He then went on to provide examples of NBA drama in the past that would fall under the “hate” Johnson was talking about. But then, something changed along the way.
“Branding,” he continued. “That’s what happened. Everybody saw a way to cultivate relationships with one another, ultimately doing business with one another or advising one another on how to do business and get more money. As a result, everybody was about brand protection. The NBA is guilty of this too because you took the physicality out of the game, to a lesser degree.”
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Stephen A. Smith Likens Present NBA to “Young and The Restless”
Stephen A. Smith dove deeper into what he believes changed in the NBA, which echoes the sentiment of others that the league has “gone soft.”
“The NBA started implementing rules and regulations to take out some of that physicality,” he said. “As a result, hate dissipates too, because if somebody ain’t getting away with knocking you upside the damn head or they know doing so could get themselves ejected suspended [and] fined, it’s going to be less of that and as a result, everybody ends up singing Kumbaya to one another.”
With that, Stephen A. Smith likened the present state of the NBA to a soap opera, saying: “Sometimes I watch the NBA and wonder if it was the latest episode of General Hospital or Young and The Restless.”
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