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Tuesday, September 01, 2020

Is anyone watching the NBA Playoffs?

From Breitbart: NBA Playoff Ratings Crash by 23%, Lowest Watched in 5 Years
Despite near-daily efforts to show America how woke they are, or, because of it, the NBA’s playoff ratings are still tanking.

“Weekday afternoon games have certainly hurt, but the first weekend of the NBA Playoffs was no ratings bonanza either,” Sports Media Watch reported.

Viewership on ABC is down 23 percent and the numbers are down 20 percent overall compared to last year’s playoffs

“The Lakers’ win ranks as ABC’s least-watched playoff opener in five years (2015 Pelicans-Warriors: 3.49M), with the caveat that this year marked the first time since 2004 that it did not air a game on the opening day of the postseason,” Sports Media Watch added.

The league has tried to blame the coronavirus and its effects; however, SportsBusiness Daily recently noted that ratings for last season were also bad, as the 2018-2019 season lost 12 percent in viewership. That, of course, was pre-pandemic.

Other ratings reckoning also finds the NBA has lost viewers. ShowBuzz, for instance, noted that the league lost 28 percent in the important 18-49 age bracket.
h/t Newsalert

I was following last week's news about LeBron James' rant on twitter about what happened in Kenosha, Wisconsin. No he wasn't entirely upset about the rioting, especially if it was mostly caused by people from out of the state of Wisconsin. Nope this was just another police shooting of a Black man.

Sometimes in thinking about some of these stories I just wonder if that's where the thinking stops. A Black man was shot by police, no context, not even any consideration as to whether or not the officer may have been justified. Another Black man was shot by police and the system is killing people of color.

Well either way the NBA playoffs, some MLB & NHL games were canceled although all seasons resumed. And I thought this was sad because sports fans have been waiting for sports to return after postponement thanks to coronavirus. However, we got the ongoing fallout from George Floyd going on and here we are.

I wonder if sports fans have gotten tired of athletes choosing to go "woke". NFL fans were already tired of players kneeling before the national anthem. NBA choose to plaster racial justice messages - well actually Black Lives Matter -  on their basketball courts and allowing players to place social justice messages on their jerseys. And then the blowup by LeBron James and others.

I'm still willing to bet the NBA and even woke athletes in other leagues are going to suffer the consequences of low attendance at games - once fans return to arenas and stadiums - or even TV ratings because of the social justice actions being taken by athletes. It could be coronavirus sure, however, I think it's more than that.

As stated earlier, movies are my escape and so is wrestling - at least WWE for example wasn't very thick with social justice messaging in light of George Floyd (I would expect Vince McMahon wouldn't play that for long if it messed with business). I had to see these "woke" athletes hurt themselves by turning off fans with their attempts at activism.

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