Los Angeles Lakers head coach J.J. Redick spent several years following his playing career building credibility as a broadcaster and podcaster, mastering the art of the hot take along the way.
Redick clearly hasn’t lost his touch, as the rookie leader on the Lakers’ sideline took the league to task in public fashion this week, ripping the NBA and his former peer group for doing a poor job selling the product to the American public and abroad.
“I don’t think we … have done a good job of storytelling, of celebrating the game. If I’m a casual fan and you tell me every time I turn on the television that the product sucks, well, I’m not going to watch the product,” Redick said on Thursday, December 19, per The Athletic. “And that’s really what has happened over the last 10 to 15 years. I don’t know why. It’s not funny to me.”
LeBron James Had Different Critique of NBA Than J.J. Redick
GettyLos Angeles Lakers stars Anthony Davis (left) and LeBron James (right).
The issue that spurred Redick to chime in involves the sport’s ratings, particularly during the regular season.
There are a handful of issues that critics of the NBA’s drop in popularity have floated as among the primary factors for the shift in viewership:
- Too many regular season games
- Too much load management on behalf of the league’s superstars
- The fragmentation of the product delivery system from major networks exclusively to include streaming services
- The rise in tendency of young fans to consume highlights on social media and other internet sources rather than watching games in their entirety.
- Political factors stemming from the NBA’s and many of its players’ stances on social justice issues
Redick’s criticism of the NBA’s broadcast partners and their rhetoric is relatively new and a less popular critique than some of the others. The same is true for the most recent complaint from Lakers star LeBron James, who also addressed the issue on Thursday after reporters asked for his take on the coming changes to the All-Star Game.
“It’s our game in general,” James said ahead of a road contest against the Sacramento Kings. “There’s a lot of ******* 3s being shot. So it’s a bigger conversation than just the All-Star Game.”
NFL Coming for NBA Ratings on Christmas Day
GettyKansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
It doesn’t help that the NFL — already the ratings king of not just sports, but essentially all U.S.-based programming — has taken aim at the NBA in a more direct way in recent years.
Case in point, Christmas Day belonged to professional basketball for years. As the league has done for a long time, the NBA will air five matchups on Wednesday, December 25.
However, the NFL will be in action as well. That league reached a deal with streaming giant Netflix to run two regular season contests over the holiday.
The Pittsburgh Steelers will host the Kansas City Chiefs in the early game (12 p.m. ET), while the Baltimore Ravens will travel south to play the Houston Texans in the late contest (3:30 p.m. ET).
Sports fans will have football options from noon-7 p.m. ET on Christmas, a time slot that will overlap with the first three games of the NBA’s slate. The only two games that won’t be affected, other than by potential sports fatigue as the afternoon gives way to evening, are the Lakers against the Golden State Warriors in San Francisco (7 p.m. ET) and the Phoenix Suns hosting the Denver Nuggets in Arizona (9:30 p.m. ET).
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