:rolleyes:

Tell me, how many NBA games have you seen in person?

The college game is complete garbage. They need to change the rules. I realize that means that that the "elite" teams will destroy the smaller colleges but the games were just painful to watch last year.

The NBA regular season is too long, IMO, but the playoffs are awesome. And it's never boring to actually attend an NBA game. These guys are the most amazing athletes in the world and it's insane to see them in person, especially court side.

If you've never had the pleasure, I'd highly recommend it. You'll be blown away watching 6'11 dudes running up and down the court with the grace of a gazelle. It's an amazing sight.

Lol. People on this thread actually believe basketball is on the decline? I get that Missouri doesn't have a basketball team but... Wow. I hear this LeBrim James and Stephen curdy are kind of popular

The NBA is fantastic right now. The reason you don't see it is because KC doesn't have a team, and i totally get it. The league is packed with talent, and the kids play hard. The NBA is at a much higher quality level than the NFL today. If you don't see it you just like football a lot more than basketball which is fine.

Omg people's opinions of the NBA right now LMAO LMAO

Because basketball is growing globally maybe?

I heard this Stephen curdy is kind of good. I don't know, nobody is really talking about him. Underrated player.

Steph Curry, Lebron James, Anthony Davis, and Kevin Durant. 4 players with skill sets never seen before playing in the league at the same time. Any other sport would kill to have that going on. The NBA not being what it used to be is ****ing insane talk. Sure the season is too long and it doesn't heat up until the playoffs, but you can be extremely entertained watching the NBA. If you aren't entertained watching the Warriors play right now you 100% hate basketball which again is fine.

Are you a Mizzou fan?

The only reason anyone thinks basketball regular season is too long is because football set an impossible standard by making a short season with highly anticipated games every week. Every major sport but football has this problem, which isn't even a problem.

It's not if you are a fan of the sport. The difference with basketball and hockey opposed to baseball is the abundance of playoff spots. The NBA would be much more exciting with a 50 or 60 game regular season that was spread out a little more. They can't make as much money that way though so I'm good with it. The same reason the NFL keeps trying to add games even though the players are already destroyed physically by season end the way it is now.

Are you going to refute anything I said? Probably not, since we both know it's correct.

What does that have to do with the overall state of basketball. I used to love watching the NBA and college in the 90s. It blows now, though.

Describe an experience when you were watching an NBA game. What was it about it that made you so disappointed?

If you're a fan of a no-hope team struggling to crack 40 points, the game will really suck.

LMAO

Everything you said was complete horseshit.

Again, how many NBA games have you seen in person?

The only talking head program I try to catch is Russillo. SVP and Russillo were probably better but they spent more time trying to be funny. Russillo, especially when Kannel goes to CFB Live and he picks a topic and has an informed and in depth opinion is the best sports talk in the Business IMO. If his show was an hour or hour and a half and they didn't dictate which topics had to be included I would DVR that shit. Russillo is a legit talk personality and Kannel doesn't do much to detract. Sometimes they get bogged down in filler but it is a good show.

Le Batard is a talented mofo. When he actually talks sports or has serious interviews he's legit. Unfortunately they spend 95% of their time talking about how stupid they all are or failing to be funny. I'd listen to serious topics from him except for stretching non-stories into racism or anti-establishment concussion talk. But the "being different" bullshit is horrid.

Bomani Jones is unlistenable. End. Dude has absolutely no redeeming qualities and that Shannon mother****er who is on there with him actually has negative redeeming qualities. That shit is a joke. I actually turn ****ing Hannity on if I have to be in the tractor.

Mike and Mike is all non-offensive filler. But they usually run down what happened the previous day which if I listen to them, I haven't had time to read about.

People ignorant enough to say that the NBA is currently at an all-time high clearly don't remember Stockton/Malone vs. Jordan/Pippen.

And this is pretty much why a ton of people think ESPN sucks. They cater to huge markets while ignoring small ones.

It might be a good business model for them, but it's going to cost them viewers as there become more and more sources for a midwesterner to get their sports news without having to sit through 45 minutes of a boston/new york circle jerk.

They should move the free throw stripe back a few yards

Around 15, I would say.

So, you are going on record as saying college and NBA games are better now than twenty years ago? What are you, 25?

It could be worse. I could be a Trump knob slobberer.

Michael Jordan is dead. I ****ing killed him. He's gone and he's never coming back.

It's time to get the **** over him and realize that athletes even BETTER than Jordan will come along. And I think it's happening right now with a few of these top players.

It's astounding that people will hem and haw about Jordan not being in the NBA anymore when there are such fantastic players in the game today.

Nah, I'm pretty sure nothing is worse than watching a Mizzou basketball game.

The NBA is better today than 20 years ago, period and certainly better than 30+ years ago, when the King played at Kemper.

That was awful.

I get it for sure. But ESPN's focus on the upper Northeast and West Coast has allowed Fox Sports 1 and the Regional Fox Networks to jump into the market and satisfy those customers.

It's also allowed the creation of the Big Ten Network, The Longhorn Network, et al.

The unfortunate side effect is that a company like Time Warner Cable creates a network for the Dodgers and won't license its broadcasts to competing service providers. For past two seasons, I've been unable to see a single regular season Dodgers game, despite the fact that the stadium is 3.7 miles from my home, because I subscribe to Direct TV.

As for ESPN, if it weren't for KU BB, MNF, bowl games and the occasional Royals game as of late, I'd never have it on. But I'd be bummed if I couldn't watch those events, so it serves a purpose.

Just for the record, Stuart Scott died.

Booyaah!

In terms of the aesthetics of the game, the NBA is much better to watch today than it was in the mid/late 1990's.

Scoring, fast-paced play is back in vague… unlike in the mid/late 1990's when Pat Riley's boring grind it out basketball became the norm and the NBA looked like college basketball does today with low scoring.

Adding "period" is what makes many of us think you're an asshole. It's like you don't think others can have an opinion, or are invalidating any other opinion.

Also, the "it's better now than then" argument is simply terrible IMHO. It's like saying the current NFL is better than the 70s. Not only is that subjective, it's also difficult to compare the two. Ticket sales? I hope not, it's only one point that can be made.

Now, are the athletes "better" now than then? Perhaps they are, but these kid's lives are very different from birth to draft then back then. Not to take anything away from them, but I'm sure Gale Sayers was about as natural and athlete as the sport has ever seen. C/mon man, Barry Sanders... And I know many of the kids today might not survive the game of 1975.

Another comparison......golf. It's almost as silly as comparing 2015 golf to 1973 golf, too much has changed in the game to equate the two. I love me some Tiger Woods and Justin Spieth, but introduce them to Amen Corner with some persimmon sticks and you might see a few strokes come off. But I do think they're equal to their sport's forefathers, perhaps better.

So I won't opine too much about the quality of 2015 basketball as compared to 1970s/80s basketball because I'm just not a huge fan of the sport, but I have employees from Fargo/Iron Mountain (to the north) all the way down to the coasts of Texas/Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and a very small part of Florida (to the south) and many of them are "basketball" fans. Many of those who live in NBA cities/states (MM, WI, IL, OK, TX, LA) think the same of the NBA as they do the NFL, and that's that it's getting harder to love. Don't get me wrong, they attend the games, they have a good time, but they are clear that the NBA isn't "what it used to be."

So I think you might be overstating things a bit. Then again, they aren't on the East or West coasts, so maybe that's why they think what they think.

I really enjoy watching the NBA. But I feel like at least half the league is bad to mediocre at best. Not enough to talent to fill 30 teams perhaps??


But you could probably say this about the other pro sports leagues as well...

Yeah, sorta weird how that works.

Shut the **** up.

I never realized what a complete and utter **** you where until I visited the DC the past few weeks and saw all of your ****ing bullshit.

Now you're spilling that shit into this forum?

**** off and die, you ****ing twat.

Your daughters get sad when they see you like this.

LMAO

Dude...

Mike And Mike ****ing blows. I can't stand that shit. And for the record Stuart Scott died.

He's just parroting the biggest assclown on this site, Cosmo.

Strange kind of unity there, I suppose.

The product is different. That's the only way it "ain't what it used to be."

If you give me a good reason why the NBA is currently worse than it was 20 years ago, you'll be the first

I'm not much of a basketball fan, but damn.

Watching Steph Curry is the coolest thing I've seen since MJ.
Is it just me, or does this guy not look like one of the best to ever play?

Sure is fun to watch, even for me.

You've got that right. I listen to ESPN radio in my car on Sirius XM. Whenever Dan Lebetard comes on, I change the station. I was a big fan of Colin Cowherd.

See, when you say, "Shut the **** up.

I never realized what a complete and utter **** you where until I visited the DC the past few weeks and saw all of your ****ing bullshit.

Now you're spilling that shit into this forum?

**** off and die, you ****ing twat."

People think you're an asshole. :Poke::Poke::Poke:

Whatever. At least you have your usual 11:30pm alcohol courage.

:rolleyes:

Oh come on! 18-0 is just awful to watch.

:D

Why? He knows nothing about sports. He is just a blowhard with a big ego, little to no knowledge and likes to hear himself talk.

I've never heard him before but that sounds like Kevin Kietzman.

Colin and Mike G. Both LOVE to hear themselves talk. They think they are radio guys from the 60's or earlier.

****in Ray Rice

Go compare NBA games 20 years ago to today's games. It's the nostalgia that has you saying it was better. It's at much higher level today. In addition to the players I named there are many more and they just added one of the better draft classes of recent memory. You may have established this opinion 10 years ago and checked out or you may have only been a casual fan because of Jordan. If you don't like today's product you don't like basketball

Yeah people might want to tune in or just spout off that's it's not what it used to be. The guy has a skill set no one has ever seen. He's ****ing incredible. He's not the only one either.

Exactly.

Anyone that goes to an NBA today versus 1995 would be blown away at the speed, athleticism, size and grace of ALL of the players, not just a few.

Television is the absolute worst at doing justice to the game of basketball.

I dunno. Big man play is freaking pathetic to what it used to be. You could argue guard play is better now.

What? :spock:

Instead of saying, "This shit is bad," tell us what's bad about it, and we might respect your opinion a bit more. Or at least try to have a real discussion with you.

LMAO

And what time did you "drink" bring about your "****" courage?

Uh oh, go lock all 352 locks you've placed around your 'wood house, you sure don't need another Hollywood A-list hottie breaking into your house to give you another no-hands blowjob...

Well, he does have Kristine Leahy there to help.

There are no dominant big men? There used to be 5-10 quality big men every year. AAU ball has killed their development.

Yup

Just announced 4M customers lost past year. Over 11M last five. Down 200M/revenue each year before the new losses, which will push it to 550M/yr.


2011: 101M subscribers
2016: 89M

I don't know what they expected. They stopped catering their shows to middle aged white guys, and younger people just don't give as much of a shit about sports.

As much as people hate Gruden and Favre, they had a special Gruden QB Camp hour show with Favre last night and it was really good. Favre is considered a gunslinger but it was great hearing him talk about the strategy of the game. The amount of information in his head was staggering. It really shows what it took to be great and how much you have to know to run an offense like Holmgren's or Reid's. I'd love to see them do more of those shows with former players, not just rookies. It was legit interesting programming.

Not sure those programs get ratings either though, so instead we get gossip hour on SportsCenter.

ESPN has never been the same since they quit playing music videos.

Bomani Jones is a racist prick. His show is on during my commute home from work. I try to tune in for the sportcenters but sometimes I'm subjected to him anyway.

No need for ESPN can watch everything on demand

ESPN lost me when they started putting ****ing tweets on the screen. Ridiculous! I watch ESPN for KU basketball and that's about it.

Yep. I used to think Dan Le Batard was awful, but I still listened. Now I never listen to ESPN radio when I'm driving home in the afternoon. Bomani Jones is the shit.

All the shows are the same concept. 2 guys arguing about bullshit stories involving Yankees, Cowboys, Lebron.

**** ESPN.

Bomani Jones said on Sportcenter that Usain Bolt is the greatest Olympian of all time. Ahead of Michael Phelps.

LMAO

Same coverage on NFL network I'm afraid. You almost have to tape the entire show and fast-forward past East coast bias till you find the 5 secs of coverage for your team.

I didn't realize how much I actually found first take interesting with skip until I saw max on there... Just no

How do they know people are cancelling because of ESPN? Its usually bundled together as part of basic or lower cable packages. People are cutting the cord alot these days, but not necessarily because of ESPN.

Dude REALLY ****ING HATES white folk.

Both guys on PTI said the same thing.

It's debatable. If it's simply medals then yeah it's Phelps. But as far as domination and cultural impact, and overall popularity as far as Olympics, it's Usain easily. People from all around the world watch for him, know him, and celebrate him. On the other hand, there's a large portion of the world that couldn't give two ****s about swimming much less who is the best at it.
Posted via Mobile Device

better was getting home about 2 am and watching Australian rules football
that was great
still have no idea what the rules are, and plan to keep it that way

It's the Olympics, it's medal count. And neither sport is cool enough to have pros, so there's that.

Sent from my phone using Tapatalk (so spelling be damned!!!)

Usain isn't even an American and his net worth is greater than Phelps made in a smaller period of time. That tells you right there what the world is watching. The only countries that have a large following for swimming are Australia, USA, Canada, Brits (white predominate). Track and Field attracts everyone.

Well, no. Both track and swim have pro athletes. And yes, they are paid money to show up to meets and have sponsors.

ESPN started really going downhill back when they were on 24 hour coverage of Terrell Owens about his spiff with Andy Reid and the Eagles. Sports programming turned into soap opera.

Nowadays, they have too much left leaning political commentary or programming. For that matter, I wouldn't want them to spout right leaning political commentary, either. I don't watch sports channels to hear your political views. I watch it for sports, period. The only time I watch ESPN these days is when one of my teams is playing a game on an ESPN channel.