For the record the undisputed best duo of all time has to be magic and kareem, they were both in their prime when they won(38 year old kareem won fmvp), while kobe wasn't in his prime for his first ring at least
Truth is after mj in 98 before steph the finals really lost fans besides lebron people haters and lovers alike...nobody really cared about the lakers finals outside of kobe fans....curry brought people back like mj magic bird
From someone who isn’t from the states I have to say I love basketball but the amount of advertisements and breaks in the nba is insane. It’s just a money making scheme at this point, entertainment and the game comes second
@@justwhy7449no that’s american sport today. watch football in europe… 90 minutes game and only one halftime. no pauses, no timeouts, no breaks in between. yes I don’t mean handegg
that is unfortunately how sports in america are. just recently did they start putting small ads onto uniforms, but for decades, games have been dramatically dragged out due to commercial timeouts and family friendly entertainment. I would gladly trade for the sporting environment of most other countries: minimal, if any, commercial breaks. less family friendly atmosphere, and less unrelated entertainment. cut out the crowd games. ditch the commercial timeouts. I see games in other countries where the crowds are truly raucous. the atmosphere is hostile, not to deter families, but in attempt to disorient the opposing team. the games start, and the action only pauses in between periods or when a team uses a timeout. it looks like the way sports should be played. they’re far too commercial and neutered here in the states. physical ads aren’t enjoyable to see, but they’re a good trade off if you lose the unnecessary breaks for tv and the “entertainment” gimmicks of american organized sports.
@@SemajRaffexactly it’s not just about presentations modern day NBA basketball sucks. Football pro and college and college basketball and college baseball and MLB and UFC all clear it pretty easily for me. I can’t watch the refs and I can’t watch 90 3 pointes a game and I’m tired of seeing teams go up 25 points and just quit. It’s just a weak product
@@TheBlackestKnight21yep. The amount of 3’s has killed the game. Never have there been so many blowouts. It’s basically whoever makes the most 3’s win. People like to see close competition
@@kenw2225maybe but the US market is the biggest, ignoring that is just foolish. Maybe they can pick up some viewership overseas but it won't be better than the US. Other countries already have sports they like. They may watch casually but if there is a good game of say soccer, they'll choose that over basketball. Even if it's a regular game vs a playoff basketball game. What team are they going to follow? They're mainly American with a few Canadian teams. How loyal can they be to a team they have no ties to? I think they want to be like the nfl who has been playing games in London for years now. They used to have some in Mexico and they had some in Germany. They usually send Jacksonville, who was one of the four newest expansion teams and doesn't have the biggest fanbase. They aren't neglecting the American market for that. If anything it makes it better for viewers. You wake up on Sunday and at 10 the game is London is playing. Then you have the regular 1 and 4 slab of games followed by the night game. I'm actually surprised how well they do in London. The times I've seen the stadium is packed.
The reason why no one cares is because: 1) refs helped warriors beat LeBron when they allowed KD to join stacked team 2) refs/NBA helped warriors beat Grizzlies & go on to win championship 3) refs helped Celtics win in spite of Celtics having the easiest road to the finals due to opposing team injuries
That’s why I just watch the highlights after the game on other UA-cam channels. Plus, I don’t like the game, I like the politics of it specially during trade week. I like watching the drama and the decision making of how they put the puzzle pieces in forming their team. The game is boring coz Steph Curry made the game a shooting galore instead of rim attack.
The ad breaks are bananas. I don't know if Americans realise just how many ads they ingest during a game of basketball or NFL. I'm starting to think that adds to the exhaustion that you may feel towards the end of these marathons.
NFL has gotten pretty good with ad breaks, mostly because they're trying to shorten the length of the games lol. Less tv timeouts and shorter breaks compared to 5+ years ago
@@angelcalderon5680 I don't think that's true. They have one one every change of possession, every touchdown, quarters obviously, every half quarter if there are no prior timeouts. That's heaps.
Lots of Americans notice but are either too addicted to stop or they have stopped. I barely watch any sports anymore. College football is the only one and even then it's much less than it used to be.
We haven’t had a great 7 Game Series NBA Finals since 2016, the dynasty era is dead, media refuses to talk about the next generation of basketball and is squeezing every last drop of the LeBron, Curry and KD era.
What people often forget is that injuries ruined the blazers dynasty in the 70s. They were 50-10 before Walton went down, he still won the MVP, and the blazers were still the 1 seed. I swear man our big men are cursed 😭
Or if they kept Moses, that probably prevents the Sixers early 80s runs too. Or maybe if they kept Moses AND decided to draft Larry in 78, they dominate the entire 80s.
You're missing the bigger point. People are caring about the NBA less in general. Season too long with lots of meaningless games. Not much defense being played.
Such a bad video talking about nothing. From "why nobody cares about nba finals" to "heres 2 hours of yapping that could have been 5 minutes". No sub and dislike. Such bad content.
Plus we just got more things to do,I watched alot more sports back in my teens and early adult hood cause it was not nearly much things I can do like watch UA-cam videos, it's 100s of streaming services etc
I feel like the current era can be summed up as “the rise of Europe.” Giannis, Jokic, Luka, and Wemby are all becoming the premier players of the league, some of them winning titles. Could even go with a “US vs. the world” type summary
"[Auerbach] literally leveraged the racism of St. Louis in the '50s into helping a Civil Rights Leader become the winningest player in NBA History." fucking lmao
completely revisionist history. Auerbach traded a proven hall of famer and all-star Ed Macaulay and the draft rights to future hall of famer Cliff Hagan. in '58, when the Hawks won the title with those two player playing significant roles, you could've even argued the Hawks won the trade. it's only with 20/20 hindsight vision decades in the future that the deal was a robbery. also the Hawks had two black hall of famers during this same era, Lenny Wilkens and Zelmo Beatty. bro did a 'deep dive' and messed up basic facts in the first 5 minutes of the video. embarrassing tbh
@@uberneanderthalLenny Wilkens was drafted, 4 years and 3 Championships of the Celtics later. This Championships might‘ve been a reason to change your mind about Black Players on your Team. I don’t know if your Arguments are as Good as you might think.
@@queyno5420 the Hawks already had black players on their team even before Russell was in the league, so there goes that theory. Racial attitudes were no different in Boston than St. Louis. Macaulay was considered one of the very best players and was only 27 at the time of the trade (knee and ankle injuries led to a sharp decline in the years following the trade; if he stays healthy the Hawks could've been the ones with a dynasty) and Hagan also ended up being a star player. Auerbach trying to rewrite himself as a social justice hero when really he just took a big gamble on a rookie prospect and it paid off, simple as that.
@@uberneanderthal They won in 58 because Bill Russell was injured and didn't play hence why Pettit dropped 50 in the close out game. But the Hawks lost 3 or 4 Finals vs the Celtics so, no even by 1962, you could clearly see that they won that trade, you didn't need decade to see that. Unless you're a racist guy in the 50'- early 60's. Auerbach was criticized in Boston for having black players starting on the Celtics and even more after the trade of Macauley, him deciding to still go through it does make him a social justice hero in a sense. Plus I think tat Sam Jones and Bill Russell had good thing to say about him compared to Boston and St Louis city that they despised, especially Bill. Also the important point was to have black starting players and even making them the star of your team, and this is where Auerbach is one of the first coach to do that
I have no complaints about the length, I just had to watch it in 3 seperate viewings due to time constraints. Normally I'd listen to it in podcast form, but I wanted to include the visuals here.
1 thing I have to point out. There were a LOT of blowouts this postseason. The conference Finals were painful to watch. It’s not a choose one or the other scenario:2024 or 2016. My favorite post season in would be the 2019 postseason as it was full of moments, games 7s and a new champion out of nowhere.
@@AlbanianGoosePacers could have had as much as a 3-1 series lead, but they couldn't win a close game to save their lives or their families. We were surprisingly close to both joyous memes and almost certainly a better Finals, but we just can't have nice things.
It’s been the way the last 4 playoffs, every team gets a 20-30 point lead and every series is basically 5-6 games with the exception of the early rounds. No drama
The nba overall is pure trash now. In season tourney champ banners? Play-in round? No defense? All star games not even competitive ball no more? Yeaaaaa count me tf out bruh
As someone who's primarily a baseball fan, I found this perspective really interesting, because the NBA's "ring/dynasty culture" is a lot different to how baseball fans conceptualize our own history. Only three MLB teams in the time period you covered would count as a dynasty by your criteria - the 1972-74 A's threepeat, the Jeter Yankees of the 90's, and the 2010's Giants - and even among those, I don't think they're considered as pivotal for the story of baseball as the Magic-Bird rivalry or the Bulls 6-0 run are for the story of basketball. MLB hasn't had back-to-back title winners in almost 25 years. A lot of the greatest and most popular MLB players (Ken Griffey Jr, Ernie Banks, Ted Williams, Mike Mussina, Tony Gwynn) never won a World Series, and most fans don't really consider that a knock on their respective legacies. A title is great, of course, but they're generally considered the climax for a great team or career, rather than a baseline requirement for greatness as some basketball fans seem to treat it. A lot of that is just because it's a lot harder to build a constantly winning team in baseball. In basketball, you can structure your offense around just one great player and still get results, like you said happened with Wilt or Luka. But in baseball, it's ALWAYS been about depth: your best hitter will always only ever get 1/9 of plate appearances, and your best starter will always only start every 5th game. The 2020s Angels managed to stack the two greatest superstars in the league, Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, but never even *MADE* the playoffs because they had no depth beyond them; imagine if an NBA team had both SGA and Jokić but could only manage to win ~35 games a year! And as the quality of players continues to rise, the NBA could be heading towards that kind of roster construction. So if the NBA were to continue without a dynasty for an extended period of time, I'd wonder whether basketball fans would adapt by taking on a more baseball-ish mindset towards rings. Where a star player or great team can still be the "main character" and set the league's narrative for casuals without needing the continuity of a dynasty.
Yeah giannis playing well in game 2 after the injury cp3 showing out then booker playing well bucks win 2 close games and the game 6 50 point giannis game was iconic...
BSOLZ said it best y’all have to prop the upcoming players better yall spent the whole year shitting on Tatum and the Celtics saying they would lose and how they were boring and a fluke team,who would want to see that if that’s how it’s advertised ?
I agree. It’s been lebron this Steph that the last decade and a half now leaving little room for anyone else. Now that they are older and getting ready to retire in a couple years they need to start showcasing the INSANE amount of young talent and stars they have. The league hasn’t been this balanced in literal decades and if they play their cards right it can be massive success for the NBA. They keep tearing down the young guys to prop up the old guys even though the old guys haven’t been winning anything. Let them go and start focusing on the future
@@drolleskate6164people wanted teams winning finals organically, and not the super team route. They got just that with the Celtics, bucks, nuggets. Yet they still complain about those series and they also had horrible ratings. The fans are horrible and the league only cares about money.
Yup. They failed Tatum and The Celtics. The finals storyline should have been: Can Boston finally get over the 16-year hump vs the return of Kyrie/Luka winning his first ring. Instead, it was just trash Boston. Make them look weak. Huh?? That doesn't make the finals look appealing and hurt The Celtics/Tatum rep with casuals.
Having 6 teams in the last 6 years doesn't make the NBA boring. Some might say that fact would make it more exciting. The biggest problems in the modern NBA is too much emphasis on the 3, traveling, too many uncalled for fouls (for barely touching the opponent) and too many commercials
It's interesting because as much as I'm growing to dislike the hyper-emphasis on three pointers, it could very well be leveling the playing field and contributing to parity. And I'm a fan of league parity.
@@McSomething15 even European players like Jokic and Doncic has said that the European leagues are more physical. The NBA is fouls galore, cannot touch the attacking player
i sincerely appreciate the work you put into your passion Rusty, this video couldn't have been easy to make but it shows where your heart is and that you're really about this life.
wilt had the talent to do literally anything he wanted on a basketball court, the problem is just that he played in an era where people didn't know exactly what the best thing to do on a basketball court was.
He should have been meaner and more hungrier to win, not care what others think of him and play like physically bulldozing his way to get points like Shaq. Guess he was too nice for his own good. Also got the jitters when game is on the line in the playoffs.
I like how u broke this down. Coming from an old school perspective, I believe if there r not enough rivalries in today's game. Those, along with compelling superstars on each team, would draw eyes back to the product
That's also another bigger issue of how goddamn bloated software is now and how shit all these high level programming languages are. Everything has massive overhead and using tech is getting slower despite how fast hardware (and your average internet connection) is now.
This is not a video, this is a two part documentary. Mad respect for the production value alone. This could be shown on any streaming platform. Well worth the wait.
I don't agree with the premise of "the 70s is forgotten because there were no dynasties." In the 70s, the NBA players (not exclusively) were dealing with crack epidemic and also the ABA had a vastly superior quality than the NBA.
I know this is late, but i now save watching these videos for when i have the time to watch them. I love these videos man and I hope you reap the rewards of your efforts.
I wanna continue this analogy: Charles Barkley is Joey; scrappy, talented, but ultimately just a half step behind the best of the best. Jordan is Pegasus: a showy, flamboyant sociopath willing to destroy anyone in his way. Kelly Oubre is Duke Devlin: just damn sexy.
As a lifelong NBA fan, watching this made me realize I am far more a casual fan than a hardcore one. I don't get a lot of time to watch games, so I've always relied on highlights from Sportscenter. Know when I was watching basketball the most? The Warriors dynasty run. So yeah, this league thrives on dynasties, and I'm really not sure what that means for the league now.
Drafting Bronny on nepotism terms and every media just keeps talking about how legendary is gonna be when Lebron and Bronny plays together is not helping the NBA case.
@ghoul5371 "Minneapolis Lakers moved to Los Angeles where there are no lakes. The Oilers moved to Tennessee where there is no oil. The Jazz moved to Salt Lake City where they don't allow music.". Baseketball 100% dropped the facts lol.
I usually don’t watch more than 15 minutes of any video. This video is so well crafted that kept me going forward watching. You performed a masterpiece.
Parity is great, but too many rest days between games, league is soft, hockey guys play with broken bones and mad respect, NBA is divas and super teams
8 minutes in and i already know this is gonna be a banger. good to see you back with another one of these man! genuinely great to see your growth from like 5 years ago or however long I've been watching
No not really since most of the finals are watched by adults before 24 and older. If it was only kids maybe yku would have a point but it's not. Maybe the nba just got boring. Play stops for the weakest fouls, player throw themselves onto the ground or into their defenders and complain, it has too much politics in them. The nba got boring recently, it just has
Rule changes ruin the league... When you make the league soft and short and lack defense and rim protection and rebounding and post play on both sides of the ball for 3-point shooting people catch on to what the league has become and when the US gets killed overseas in Fiba and Olympics starts to show today's NBA rule set isn't the best basketball being played... What real fans that have been watching since the 80s have noticed and why they complain about it
If you’re looking for video ideas, a rundown of the Aba would be awesome. A bunch of great players are totally forgotten by today, and even those who did make it to the nba aren’t seen as the greats they were.
I saw a brief interview in which Dr. J said that his stats were erased coming into the NBA from the ABA . I can understand why but it is a shame still.
Imagine being an NBA fan in the 60s and how damn surprising it must have been to see Wilt FINALLY beat Russell to end the 8 peat Celtics' title defense. Must have been crazy exciting
Can we just appreciate how much Marc Jackson and Van gundy were missed from the NBA finals coverage. Doris and jj were just meh. And it doesn't help that the broadcast team keeps reminding us about other teams and especially players that have nothing to do with the finals.
Do you think a shorter regular season could help too? Obviously not a full solution, but making every game matter more for casual fans and producing less injuries could be a way to get people in the door before the playoffs, and then they watch the playoffs and finals to appreciate the end of every little narrative for the season. As a NFL fan first, this makes the most sense to me since most big football fans would never miss a single game their team played, and usually watch at least a few every season between out of market teams on national TV, whereas I regularly miss 90% of regular season games even for my NBA teams and opt for summaries or scores instead, but do watch every playoff matchup when I can
As someone not from the States, watching an NBA game is a taxing endeavor. I once watched a Knicks game live and I nodded off mid game because it took so long. TV broadcast is not better because you're bombarded with ads and more ads. Eventually I only watch sub 10-minute highlights on UA-cam and if my fav team doesn't make it to the playoffs or the finals, I just ignore it.
I think the seen success of the NBA is completely inflated. Most of my friends have moved to primarily watching other sports such as NHL or MLB. Eventually the NBA success bubble will pop
How about sports media talking EVERY SINGLE DAY about a guy who retired almost 30 years ago?? How are fans suposed to care about todays game, if Skip, Stephen A Smith, Barkley, Shaq, and every single talking head just talks about how the league is worse than it was when MJ played?? If you tell a lie a MILLION times, if sinks into the brain of the masses
The NBA Finals used to feel like life and death. The stakes felt so high and I think a lot of that had to do with presentation on TV. Now they just feel like any other game
So this is a topic close to my heart. I have long tried to explain to people that the best sports and the best periods of those sports are defined by favourites and underdogs. It's always the same, bandwagonners want a team to follow and haters want a team to root against, elitists want two big guns going all out playing the best ball possible. The fact that you can't predict who will be in the finals or who will make it out of the first round is a big problem. People want narratives, they don't want; Celtics pretty good team, play below average teams all the way through and then stomp the Mavs in the finals.
man i sure do remember seeing literally every single highlight video of the LeBron Curry era flooded with: "NBA is boring now, who cares" but also from a monetary point of view, it was pretty annoying in the 2010s but the 2020s leveled it up to levels of stupid. The amount of advertising during every play, it has become the NFL. Do people really prefer have to go thru 3-4 mins of adds every 5min of play instead of just plastering the jerseys and the arena with logos from companies? I'd rather have the team jerseys look like F1 suits and enjoy a near uninterrupted game session. But the problem is that they already have some of it and they keep adding more propaganda. So many times I muted the tab or swapped channels during ads and completely forgot about the fucking game and I know I'm not special, I cant be the only one who does that. The media is incompetent and boring, it reeks of a reheated meal from 3 days ago. The sport has gone late-stage capitalism, like Elon Musk levels of son of a bitch, corporate greedy fucks. But hey, players get 300mil contracts now and we know damn well they never dial down things like that. So they will have to find a way to print more money and it's always ads, more ads and more ads.
The 2024 role players seem better because the modern defense is trash. The NBA tells refs to handicap the defense. If defense was allowed full time, then only the top tier players would still be able to excel. Which creates the hero-narrative ecosystem people love. The 70s was a high scoring era. The 80s and 90s brought in physical defense that allowed stars to separate themselves. Modern stars arent less skilled, they are less tested.
Havn't watched the video yet, But for me its the constant stopping for fouls and reviews. The constant jawing at the refs EVERY PLAY is super old. They gaslight the refs all game into giving them fouls, then have the audacity to get angry at a bad call. The flopping and faces players make is ridiculous. They get touched on the wrist and make faces like they are riding a judas cradle or getting skinned. Teams just chuck 3's all game. In transition with a 3 on 2? Chuck a 3. 23 seconds on the play clock? chuck a 3. Need 2 to win? chuck a 3.
I love the video so much. A couple thing to add: -1.) I know this is nitpicky, but Cooper was not the first DPOY. Before him was Sidney Moncrief (x2), then Mark Eaton, and Alvin Robertson. -2.) A thing that needs to be pointed out with the 70s is that we were robbed of a lot of talent. Rampant drug abuse aside, Bill Walton was had such a high peak before his injuries, and we were robbed of what should have been the best player in the league in the transition between Kareem's era and the Magic/Bird era. For reference, can you imagine if Steph Curry's lower body injuries robbed us of his superstar career post-2016, only for him to resurface a few years later as a cool 6th man on the Nuggets? Because that would be the equivalent of what happened with Walton
As a casual, the Finals have fallen off to me cuz everybody's getting effin injured. Key players always get injured Every Season and the next runner up easily slides into the Finals. The gaps between teams just seems too damn wide. Every Finals feels like a team is there that shouldn't be there or got there too damn easily. The "parity" doesn't feel legit. These teams are only in the Finals cuz "something" happened.
It’s been a pleasure watching you grow as a content creator. Can’t believe the guy who once argued John Wall was the best PG in the league is now making such great breakdowns
Ratings are done because people are just streaming the games illegally. Everyone is indoors on their computers during pandemic era, accelerating this transition. Nobody is paying to watch the games, their views are reflected in social media but not Nielsen ratings. You spent 100 minutes talking about anything except the single biggest reason.
If this were the case, the league itself would jump at the opportunity to blame criminal activity for their problems, but I've never heard them say anything about it.
You’re over exaggerating illlegal streaming. Yes more ppl are doing it but it’s not even close to the norm. There is just legitimately less interest in watching.
they need to make these games easier to watch. i understand they have league pass but im not spending all that money for one thing when i can catch games on a streaming service. problem is the services have a select few games.
This is something that only white people say. They support teams and don't really care about the players. That's the just culture white people have with sports. They want the players to be minimized and the team/franchise maximized. This is a large reason why white Americans really don't like the NBA
I just wanna share something with you. Jesus Christ loves everyone. He died for us all and rose. All you have to do is accept Him as your Lord and Savior and He will save you and grant you eternal life in Heaven. Much love brother 🙏❤️
@@sovietonion4487 But you had key players stay with the same team much longer and a fan could follow that team (with those key players) year to year. When so many good players like KD, Lebron, Harden change teams so much, it becomes harder to follow a team through good times and bad.
For me a big reason why I don’t watch basketball or care anymore is the rampant traveling and carrying that’s not getting called. Which is, to me, hilarious because they try to cut back from calling those things in order for games to have more points and scoring plays to be more exciting to the viewers. But for me it’s like “yeah, this is lame. They are getting away with 6 step travels.”
Correction: Michael Cooper DID NOT win the first defensive player of the year award. That would be Sydney Moncrief in the 1982-1983 season for the Milwaukee Bucks.
It should be a shame that San Antonio is rarely mentioned amongst the best NBA organizations of all time and even more of a shame that Duncan, Ginobili, and Parker barely get recognized as one of the best Big 3 combos in NBA history
Kind of yeah. The early to mid 2000s were a weird era that is generally overlooked, largely because of the media's obsession with Lebron. Kobe's teams are underrated too. People only talk about Kobe.
@@TheGreatness-gg1jxCould it be said that because people have singled out MJ and LeBron, and neither one got a title in that decade, that the 2000’s gets a bit lost in the shuffle?
Them sticking to cable like it’s the 90s and not having an app you can stream the games on for a monthly charge like the NFL does is holding them back so much.
It’s not just the Finals. The NBA as a a whole has become unwatchable. It’s like a video game. The thinking was that increasing scoring would increase interest, and it probably did, in the short term, but scoring isn’t special when everyone is doing it, and running the same offense.
The dip in numbers is 100% because of illegal streaming, its just a better service than what the NBA offers. League Pass is absolute ass, and too expensive for most people outside the US. The price would be justified if you could watch old games or something with the same subscription but you can't even do that so its not worth it.
And somehow the contracts are going up to insane numbers. Eventually advertisers will realize it’s not worth the squeeze and the NBA will go bankrupt trying to pay these salaries
No sports league needs dynasties in order to survive and if it does then that model was not sustainable to begin with. The lackluster presentation and narratives surrounding the current crop of players is why I think a lot of fans have been turned off by the finals lately. If a league gives fans a worthwhile experience they will stay and want to see how seaosns unfold regardless of who is at the top because it shouldn't matter. New champions should be able to be just as marketable as dynasties in a vaccuum because at the end of the day there is always going to be a narrative about them somewhere. People still talk about Dirk in 2011 and the 2004 Pistons. Dynasties or not a good league that will market its players will see success. I mean if Boston becomes a dynasty that by itself won't make the NBA more exciting to watch whatsoever and won't change anyone's opinion on this year's finals either. People watch basketball for entertainment and for their own rooting interests first and foremost.
I mean the NBA and the NBA personalities should advertise real analysis of the game, promote teamplay and small market teams. Instead they are talking about Lebron and Steph, about character, who wants it more and other macho stuffs.
Viewership is down imo, because there are so many ways to digest the game, what happened & who won more than there were years ago, viewership may be down but the amount of fans have grown. There are also way more things to pay attention to than in the past which all goes into it. Dynasties do bring a certain amount of casual fans but that isn’t the reason for viewership being done, maybe at best, a small part of it. In the 90’s you HAD to watch the game to see what happened in completion for the most part. Sure SportsCenter was there but even then they would only show so many highlights, so many clips. They had other sports to cover. The non stop sports media is what changed it. I can hear who won, UA-cam the entire game or every made shot & then be able to join in the discussion about said sport or game. They don’t need to watch the whole game like yesteryear to say did you see Gary Payton make that pass in the 3rd quarter? I love the discussion however.
Rusty really is a legend for emphasising how well built the Showtime Lakers and Bird Celtics were. Kareem is THE all-time two-way centre. Magic is THE point guard. The 86 Celtics have the best front court ever. And these squads were together for a decade.
Unfortunately, we are in a generation where the people running the Basketball care more about profit over product. If the NBA wants to improve its image, it starts by getting rid of ESPN. this move would be short term loss; long term gain.
As someone who currently can't watch any of the regular season games because I have to work/doordashing and for the playoffs really wasn't able to sit down to watch them but mainly just listen to them I count on people who cover the sport (mainly UA-camrs) to keep up with it. Having so many games unlike the other two sports I keep up with the NFL and Nascar( and they are called fire suits 😂😂) happen once a week so I can carve out a block of time to watch it but it's impossible to do that for the NBA. Thank you for covering the sport and keep up the great work
Because being still talking all the time about MJ and having and Icon living his 20th year in the NBA, this is like living in the past forever, the longer it gets the more boring it is. New brands grow small from that perspective. We should past the page , start focusing in the present for once, send Bron to play domino with Michael and let the young players make something of it.
@@weplaydk2343 Yeah, Bron isn't near universally liked by fans in the way MJ was in the 90s and beyond. What LeBron has always been since "The Decision" is polarizing. Some people love him, some people hate him.
Basically Lebron overstayed his welcome too long and should have just gracefully played out his final years without much hiccup but he craved the attention and it didn't help the media seems to be in his side and this annoyed loads of people and on top of already being hated by a sizable amount of him people by the things he's done in the past. And because of all that focus, other promising players don't get much time on the spotlight and thus they don't get as much fanfare as they should have.
@@weplaydk2343I don’t literally mean everyone likes him. Maybe “popular enough” is the phasing I should have used. I get the frustrations with Bron and I’m a huge Bron fan
Before getting deep into the video ima give my opinion. Yes people just don't care as much about the league and the championship. But, does that matter? Basketball and the league are a fundamental part of culture and it will be so for a long time to come. NBA players will still get their bags, and championships and legacies will still be built. Now back to the vid.
@@MegaMjjordan That stuff can return. I'm not advocating against that. I'm just saying that the NBA is a very profitable and popular league, especially compared to other leagues and other NBA eras. Is it truly a terrifying travesty that new viewership records aren't being set?
@@gardenpop I agree! It definitely can return but they just pull whatever out their asz because they think the numbers matter. They’re popular enough but like Rust said if they get lazy eventually those numbers will be a concern for especially if it gets to nfl numbers
I think this idea of ratings equating to quality is a bad measure (yeah yeah I'm the millionth person to say this). I find I've still enjoyed the playoffs and the finals. I think dynasties are good for bringing in the casual fan but basketball fans can still enjoy the finals. I think the lack of aura around the finals has more to do with the lackluster presentation than anything on the court (except for the lack of a 7 game series, those tend to stick out in people's memories), and the lack of a dynasty now will also only likely make the next dynasty feel more special. Enjoy what is present today, and be excited for what's coming tomorrow.
As someome who watched the finals it was luka vs the celtics this year. Also the nba is dying out due to the stale 3 pt contest it has become. (Not saying these guys arent incredibly skilled)
I think viewership being down over the last few years has less to do with the teams, and stars themselves, and more to do with the style of play. Let’s be honest, NBA basketball is boring now. With a few exceptions there is very little defense being played, nor do I think an emphasis is being placed on it. It’s all about the offense. Score as many points as possible in 48 and you don’t have to worry about defense. It’s hard to watch teams running up the floor just to jack up a 3 in transition over and over. Couple that with the “rule changes” with traveling, flopping, bad refereeing and you get a game that is extremely hard to watch. The fundamentals are gone. Luka, for example, is a great player but it is easy to put up 25+ points a night when you take 27 shots and are allowed to change your pivot foot when you like. Teams are praised when they do stop him or defense is played, as if not playing it is the norm. It is not entertaining any longer.
You say that and I would normally agree, but that would damage the NBA irreversibly. The only way to keep a steady amount of viewers is with Superstars who get constant attention from Stephen A Smith and with dynasties being the favorites which means there is an underdog to root for. What you hope for would heavily reduce the amount of casual NBA watchers, which is something the league honestly can’t handle.
@@Sage_Hashishit would be detrimental to the league. They need dynasties in order to keep interest. As much as everyone says they like parity, the ratings say otherwise.
@@Sage_Hashishyeah, no casuals = no money.. not so different from video games tbh .. don't kill your casual fan base or your product will suffer beyond belief
@@Sage_Hashishcasuals are the lifeblood of any field in sports of entertainment. So your probably right. Also ppl underestimate the role Stephen A an sports media plays in all this as well. No doubt. For casuals, it's nothing like a dynastic villainous team to root against..
The majority of the issue is capitalism, make the shitiest app, charge as much as possible, pump as much ads as possible. 0 consideration of viewers experience
![What Does “Most Valuable” Really Mean? [Deep Dive]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/cIO4Qx6veh8/mqdefault.jpg)
Check out FABLETICS.COM/RUSTY!
For the record the undisputed best duo of all time has to be magic and kareem, they were both in their prime when they won(38 year old kareem won fmvp), while kobe wasn't in his prime for his first ring at least
Great video dude
To be honest the last 2 finals have been underwhelming and no one sees tatum as generational and luka got exposed and sucked same for kyrie....
Truth is after mj in 98 before steph the finals really lost fans besides lebron people haters and lovers alike...nobody really cared about the lakers finals outside of kobe fans....curry brought people back like mj magic bird
Hopefully we get shai and brunson in the finals next year...2 guys we all can get behind...I would say ant but he getting over hyped
From someone who isn’t from the states I have to say I love basketball but the amount of advertisements and breaks in the nba is insane. It’s just a money making scheme at this point, entertainment and the game comes second
Thats televised sports for you
@@justwhy7449no that’s american sport today. watch football in europe… 90 minutes game and only one halftime. no pauses, no timeouts, no breaks in between. yes I don’t mean handegg
that is unfortunately how sports in america are. just recently did they start putting small ads onto uniforms, but for decades, games have been dramatically dragged out due to commercial timeouts and family friendly entertainment.
I would gladly trade for the sporting environment of most other countries: minimal, if any, commercial breaks. less family friendly atmosphere, and less unrelated entertainment. cut out the crowd games. ditch the commercial timeouts.
I see games in other countries where the crowds are truly raucous. the atmosphere is hostile, not to deter families, but in attempt to disorient the opposing team. the games start, and the action only pauses in between periods or when a team uses a timeout. it looks like the way sports should be played. they’re far too commercial and neutered here in the states.
physical ads aren’t enjoyable to see, but they’re a good trade off if you lose the unnecessary breaks for tv and the “entertainment” gimmicks of american organized sports.
It's a big reason why i dislike American sports at a whole. Especially rugby. The finals are unwatchable.
That cracks me up considering all the ads in this video and sports UA-cam in general. Sports youtubers be desperate as heck for sponsors and ads.
First of all: the atmosphere isn’t the same without the playoff and finals logos on the court.
That’s cool but if the play ain’t there, then people will complain about that on top of a pretty court
@@SemajRaffexactly it’s not just about presentations modern day NBA basketball sucks. Football pro and college and college basketball and college baseball and MLB and UFC all clear it pretty easily for me. I can’t watch the refs and I can’t watch 90 3 pointes a game and I’m tired of seeing teams go up 25 points and just quit. It’s just a weak product
@@TheBlackestKnight21 you’re speaking facts
@@TheBlackestKnight21yep. The amount of 3’s has killed the game. Never have there been so many blowouts. It’s basically whoever makes the most 3’s win. People like to see close competition
@@TheBlackestKnight21 these days, you'd rather just watch the 4th quarter. the rest are truly meaningless.
if you're asking a mega corporation like the nba to stop the over monetization than i have bad news for you
Nba doesnt care about u.s. fans. U.s. interest been declining, so theyre looking overseas. Im sure advertisers love it. New markets to get viewership
@@kenw2225maybe but the US market is the biggest, ignoring that is just foolish. Maybe they can pick up some viewership overseas but it won't be better than the US. Other countries already have sports they like. They may watch casually but if there is a good game of say soccer, they'll choose that over basketball. Even if it's a regular game vs a playoff basketball game.
What team are they going to follow? They're mainly American with a few Canadian teams. How loyal can they be to a team they have no ties to?
I think they want to be like the nfl who has been playing games in London for years now. They used to have some in Mexico and they had some in Germany. They usually send Jacksonville, who was one of the four newest expansion teams and doesn't have the biggest fanbase. They aren't neglecting the American market for that. If anything it makes it better for viewers. You wake up on Sunday and at 10 the game is London is playing. Then you have the regular 1 and 4 slab of games followed by the night game.
I'm actually surprised how well they do in London. The times I've seen the stadium is packed.
NBA and EA probably Chinese finger trap style jerk each other off then pillow talk new ways of monetizing their consumers
The reason why no one cares is because:
1) refs helped warriors beat LeBron when they allowed KD to join stacked team
2) refs/NBA helped warriors beat Grizzlies & go on to win championship
3) refs helped Celtics win in spite of Celtics having the easiest road to the finals due to opposing team injuries
That’s why I just watch the highlights after the game on other UA-cam channels. Plus, I don’t like the game, I like the politics of it specially during trade week. I like watching the drama and the decision making of how they put the puzzle pieces in forming their team. The game is boring coz Steph Curry made the game a shooting galore instead of rim attack.
The ad breaks are bananas. I don't know if Americans realise just how many ads they ingest during a game of basketball or NFL. I'm starting to think that adds to the exhaustion that you may feel towards the end of these marathons.
NFL has gotten pretty good with ad breaks, mostly because they're trying to shorten the length of the games lol. Less tv timeouts and shorter breaks compared to 5+ years ago
@@angelcalderon5680 I don't think that's true. They have one one every change of possession, every touchdown, quarters obviously, every half quarter if there are no prior timeouts. That's heaps.
This is why I love Soccer. 95 minutes match and only 15 minutes halftime were 5 minutes are analysis and no ad breaks
@@angelcalderon5680it’s not like the game slows down though when a plays occurring it’s on the tv
Lots of Americans notice but are either too addicted to stop or they have stopped.
I barely watch any sports anymore. College football is the only one and even then it's much less than it used to be.
Black Jesus and his Disciples sounds like the title to a Kendrick Lamar album
More a song than album title but lemme stop lol
We haven’t had a great 7 Game Series NBA Finals since 2016, the dynasty era is dead, media refuses to talk about the next generation of basketball and is squeezing every last drop of the LeBron, Curry and KD era.
They're getting one more Olympics out of those guys! Savor them!
2019 was good
2021 was a good ass series. Unfortunately consisted of small market teams
Celtics might be a dynasty on its way
@@JohnGoetzGamingno. Ill be glad when they are all retired especially LeBron
What people often forget is that injuries ruined the blazers dynasty in the 70s. They were 50-10 before Walton went down, he still won the MVP, and the blazers were still the 1 seed. I swear man our big men are cursed 😭
I agree because who at the time was gonna stop them at full-strength? The Sonics? The Bullets?? 😂😂😂
And we just drafted a big man in the first round. Again.
@@jasonpdsi yeah because we needed one. Don't jinx it
@@akeme25everybody ain't on steroids like y'all master l.b.j
Or if they kept Moses, that probably prevents the Sixers early 80s runs too.
Or maybe if they kept Moses AND decided to draft Larry in 78, they dominate the entire 80s.
Krause didn’t draft Jordan. That was Rod Thorn under previous ownership. Jerry Reinsdorf bought the team during Jordan’s rookie year and hired Krause.
He doesn't know bud.. This is a guy trying to act like he knows... Rule changes made this league bad
@@wattwatkins3574no defense
I was wondering if someone was gonna say something....
@@wattwatkins3574Obviously he did a lot of research to know a lot, he just seemed to have looked over this one.
Isn’t rusty a bulls fan?? I was so confused at that part
You're missing the bigger point. People are caring about the NBA less in general. Season too long with lots of meaningless games. Not much defense being played.
Such a bad video talking about nothing. From "why nobody cares about nba finals" to "heres 2 hours of yapping that could have been 5 minutes".
No sub and dislike. Such bad content.
@@carloangelozack2374tbh, you are right. Title does not match the content
Yeah, this is more of the history of dynasties than an analysis of why NBA viewership is down. Stopped watching pretty early on when I realized that
Plus we just got more things to do,I watched alot more sports back in my teens and early adult hood cause it was not nearly much things I can do like watch UA-cam videos, it's 100s of streaming services etc
Also too many injuries or good players that don't play games
I feel like the current era can be summed up as “the rise of Europe.” Giannis, Jokic, Luka, and Wemby are all becoming the premier players of the league, some of them winning titles. Could even go with a “US vs. the world” type summary
"[Auerbach] literally leveraged the racism of St. Louis in the '50s into helping a Civil Rights Leader become the winningest player in NBA History." fucking lmao
Might be the single greatest finesse in sports history 😂
completely revisionist history. Auerbach traded a proven hall of famer and all-star Ed Macaulay and the draft rights to future hall of famer Cliff Hagan. in '58, when the Hawks won the title with those two player playing significant roles, you could've even argued the Hawks won the trade. it's only with 20/20 hindsight vision decades in the future that the deal was a robbery.
also the Hawks had two black hall of famers during this same era, Lenny Wilkens and Zelmo Beatty. bro did a 'deep dive' and messed up basic facts in the first 5 minutes of the video. embarrassing tbh
@@uberneanderthalLenny Wilkens was drafted, 4 years and 3 Championships of the Celtics later.
This Championships might‘ve been a reason to change your mind about Black Players on your Team.
I don’t know if your Arguments are as Good as you might think.
@@queyno5420 the Hawks already had black players on their team even before Russell was in the league, so there goes that theory. Racial attitudes were no different in Boston than St. Louis.
Macaulay was considered one of the very best players and was only 27 at the time of the trade (knee and ankle injuries led to a sharp decline in the years following the trade; if he stays healthy the Hawks could've been the ones with a dynasty) and Hagan also ended up being a star player. Auerbach trying to rewrite himself as a social justice hero when really he just took a big gamble on a rookie prospect and it paid off, simple as that.
@@uberneanderthal They won in 58 because Bill Russell was injured and didn't play hence why Pettit dropped 50 in the close out game. But the Hawks lost 3 or 4 Finals vs the Celtics so, no even by 1962, you could clearly see that they won that trade, you didn't need decade to see that. Unless you're a racist guy in the 50'- early 60's.
Auerbach was criticized in Boston for having black players starting on the Celtics and even more after the trade of Macauley, him deciding to still go through it does make him a social justice hero in a sense. Plus I think tat Sam Jones and Bill Russell had good thing to say about him compared to Boston and St Louis city that they despised, especially Bill.
Also the important point was to have black starting players and even making them the star of your team, and this is where Auerbach is one of the first coach to do that
A two hour Rusty Buckets video? We are eating good tonight.
Per my waist size, I’ve been eating good for a while. Not going to turn this buffet down.
Literally eating dinner watching this
Ikr
@@shoeless1137 same just inhaled a lasagna
I have no complaints about the length, I just had to watch it in 3 seperate viewings due to time constraints. Normally I'd listen to it in podcast form, but I wanted to include the visuals here.
1 thing I have to point out. There were a LOT of blowouts this postseason. The conference Finals were painful to watch. It’s not a choose one or the other scenario:2024 or 2016. My favorite post season in would be the 2019 postseason as it was full of moments, games 7s and a new champion out of nowhere.
Yeah but they pacers series was tight game after tight game
@@AlbanianGoosePacers could have had as much as a 3-1 series lead, but they couldn't win a close game to save their lives or their families. We were surprisingly close to both joyous memes and almost certainly a better Finals, but we just can't have nice things.
It’s been the way the last 4 playoffs, every team gets a 20-30 point lead and every series is basically 5-6 games with the exception of the early rounds. No drama
That's not really a thing the league can deal with, most of the close series were in the first and second rounds, and people claim to want parity.
Is 2019 when Kawhi had the most b******* shot in history and eliminated my Sixers
The nba overall is pure trash now. In season tourney champ banners? Play-in round? No defense? All star games not even competitive ball no more? Yeaaaaa count me tf out bruh
Agree.. it’s boring to watch teams jack up bad low percentage 3 points cause of the analytics…. I tuned out this season…
bye casual
@@Megatraum504casuals keep the sport going
@@yahshuayoungeenthenewwave6445 well i cant fully argue with that.
As someone who's primarily a baseball fan, I found this perspective really interesting, because the NBA's "ring/dynasty culture" is a lot different to how baseball fans conceptualize our own history.
Only three MLB teams in the time period you covered would count as a dynasty by your criteria - the 1972-74 A's threepeat, the Jeter Yankees of the 90's, and the 2010's Giants - and even among those, I don't think they're considered as pivotal for the story of baseball as the Magic-Bird rivalry or the Bulls 6-0 run are for the story of basketball. MLB hasn't had back-to-back title winners in almost 25 years. A lot of the greatest and most popular MLB players (Ken Griffey Jr, Ernie Banks, Ted Williams, Mike Mussina, Tony Gwynn) never won a World Series, and most fans don't really consider that a knock on their respective legacies. A title is great, of course, but they're generally considered the climax for a great team or career, rather than a baseline requirement for greatness as some basketball fans seem to treat it.
A lot of that is just because it's a lot harder to build a constantly winning team in baseball. In basketball, you can structure your offense around just one great player and still get results, like you said happened with Wilt or Luka. But in baseball, it's ALWAYS been about depth: your best hitter will always only ever get 1/9 of plate appearances, and your best starter will always only start every 5th game. The 2020s Angels managed to stack the two greatest superstars in the league, Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, but never even *MADE* the playoffs because they had no depth beyond them; imagine if an NBA team had both SGA and Jokić but could only manage to win ~35 games a year! And as the quality of players continues to rise, the NBA could be heading towards that kind of roster construction.
So if the NBA were to continue without a dynasty for an extended period of time, I'd wonder whether basketball fans would adapt by taking on a more baseball-ish mindset towards rings. Where a star player or great team can still be the "main character" and set the league's narrative for casuals without needing the continuity of a dynasty.
I agree with the other years finals being boring but anybody who thought the 2021 finals were boring don't love basketball
Yeah giannis playing well in game 2 after the injury cp3 showing out then booker playing well bucks win 2 close games and the game 6 50 point giannis game was iconic...
best finals in recent memory fasho
Who said that? Ya be coming up with fake enemies 🤣
@@calvinharmony1Isn’t the topic of this video the idea that nobody cares about the recent finals? And he includes 2021? Are you awake in there?
I argue that the 2020 Finals was a great series too.
the awful nike jerseys and phasing out white uniforms being the home defaults is also an aesthetic issue to the game
Home team not playing consistently in light uniforms (white or yellow) annoys me way more than it should.
Nobody gaf we wanna watch nikas hoop
Wow I just now noticed that
BSOLZ said it best y’all have to prop the upcoming players better yall spent the whole year shitting on Tatum and the Celtics saying they would lose and how they were boring and a fluke team,who would want to see that if that’s how it’s advertised ?
This comment deserves infinitely more likes.
I agree. It’s been lebron this Steph that the last decade and a half now leaving little room for anyone else. Now that they are older and getting ready to retire in a couple years they need to start showcasing the INSANE amount of young talent and stars they have. The league hasn’t been this balanced in literal decades and if they play their cards right it can be massive success for the NBA. They keep tearing down the young guys to prop up the old guys even though the old guys haven’t been winning anything. Let them go and start focusing on the future
@@drolleskate6164people wanted teams winning finals organically, and not the super team route. They got just that with the Celtics, bucks, nuggets. Yet they still complain about those series and they also had horrible ratings. The fans are horrible and the league only cares about money.
Yup. They failed Tatum and The Celtics. The finals storyline should have been: Can Boston finally get over the 16-year hump vs the return of Kyrie/Luka winning his first ring. Instead, it was just trash Boston. Make them look weak. Huh?? That doesn't make the finals look appealing and hurt The Celtics/Tatum rep with casuals.
@@ajfanotreally2523They are a business of course they care about money. People always seem to realize that late
Having 6 teams in the last 6 years doesn't make the NBA boring. Some might say that fact would make it more exciting.
The biggest problems in the modern NBA is too much emphasis on the 3, traveling, too many uncalled for fouls (for barely touching the opponent) and too many commercials
It's interesting because as much as I'm growing to dislike the hyper-emphasis on three pointers, it could very well be leveling the playing field and contributing to parity. And I'm a fan of league parity.
Biggest issue is any little touch is a foul now. Game isn't physical anymore
Too many uncalled fouls? You're joking, right?
@@McSomething15 no, I said uncalled for fouls. These days, any little touch gets the whistle
@@McSomething15 even European players like Jokic and Doncic has said that the European leagues are more physical. The NBA is fouls galore, cannot touch the attacking player
i sincerely appreciate the work you put into your passion Rusty, this video couldn't have been easy to make but it shows where your heart is and that you're really about this life.
I can’t believe I’m hearing Rusty positively talk about the Celtics, I used to pray for times like this man.
Ok gay millz calm down
Don’t get your hopes up
@@geraldorivera8056 I’m savoring the moment
Short live the C's!!
im placing an uber eats order for a pizza while i click on this and look up and see nearly 2 hours, guess ima eat the whole pizza and watch this
Hope you enjoyed your pizza
I hope you didn’t, you ain’t give me piece 😂
That is a massive pizza if you can fill the whole video length with eating it.
wilt had the talent to do literally anything he wanted on a basketball court, the problem is just that he played in an era where people didn't know exactly what the best thing to do on a basketball court was.
News reports kept saying all Wilt was, was a scorer and nothing more. That 67 season was a giant F U to the NBA media of the time
@@lmchankins same people say Larry Bird was just a decent shooter and nothing more ahahahaha
@@BeerAndJointsAllDayImagine that man with the greenlight to shoot like players today get, along with the spacing
He should have been meaner and more hungrier to win, not care what others think of him and play like physically bulldozing his way to get points like Shaq. Guess he was too nice for his own good. Also got the jitters when game is on the line in the playoffs.
@@imfinishedgrinding638wilts era you could not body people like that you woulda been called for an offensive foul
I like how u broke this down. Coming from an old school perspective, I believe if there r not enough rivalries in today's game. Those, along with compelling superstars on each team, would draw eyes back to the product
Buckets, this is the type of analysis we will never see on network TV again. Salute to your entire team. Hell of a video.
The League Pass rant is so accurate.
Time stamp
@@Mdautkreix1:49:07
Wait. You pay for league pass and still have to watch ads? 😅😂
That's also another bigger issue of how goddamn bloated software is now and how shit all these high level programming languages are. Everything has massive overhead and using tech is getting slower despite how fast hardware (and your average internet connection) is now.
This is not a video, this is a two part documentary. Mad respect for the production value alone. This could be shown on any streaming platform. Well worth the wait.
A video which made a few mistakes which should not be made, and creating a narrative which doesnt exist.
I don't agree with the premise of "the 70s is forgotten because there were no dynasties." In the 70s, the NBA players (not exclusively) were dealing with crack epidemic and also the ABA had a vastly superior quality than the NBA.
I know this is late, but i now save watching these videos for when i have the time to watch them. I love these videos man and I hope you reap the rewards of your efforts.
Glad that message for Dorks is in there. Some days we forget that not everyone engages with a product the way we do.
Much needed video from a much needed channel.
As one of my youth coaches said, Magic is Yugi and Bird is Kaiba.
never in my life would i expect a ball coach to even know wtf that is. i really must be gettin old
I think I remember seeing an old clip where Magic shouted, "its time to duel!"
I wanna continue this analogy:
Charles Barkley is Joey; scrappy, talented, but ultimately just a half step behind the best of the best.
Jordan is Pegasus: a showy, flamboyant sociopath willing to destroy anyone in his way.
Kelly Oubre is Duke Devlin: just damn sexy.
@@danielshaltes911👀
@@danielshaltes911 Dillon Brooks is Weevil.
As a lifelong NBA fan, watching this made me realize I am far more a casual fan than a hardcore one. I don't get a lot of time to watch games, so I've always relied on highlights from Sportscenter. Know when I was watching basketball the most? The Warriors dynasty run. So yeah, this league thrives on dynasties, and I'm really not sure what that means for the league now.
Good thing we have the Celtics dynasty on the way
Drafting Bronny on nepotism terms and every media just keeps talking about how legendary is gonna be when Lebron and Bronny plays together is not helping the NBA case.
It’s really cringy 😂
The Minneapolis lakers was technically the first dynasty by winning five championships in the decade led by George Mikan
Oh shit so the Lakers moved to LA from Minneapolis?!? Crazy. Didn't know that
@@Shay416 they moved to la in the early parts of Elgin Baylors career
@@Shay416well there’s like no lakes in LA and Minnesota is known for theirs
Glad you mentioned the Minneapolis Lakers dynasty. It’s frustrating when an NBA history video misses something very obvious.
@ghoul5371 "Minneapolis Lakers moved to Los Angeles where there are no lakes. The Oilers moved to Tennessee where there is no oil. The Jazz moved to Salt Lake City where they don't allow music.". Baseketball 100% dropped the facts lol.
Man you get so creative once the season ends guys make sure you like so he can keep doing vids like this
Hoodie Melo
Untucked Kyrie
Glasses Rusty
Smiling Kawhi?
I usually don’t watch more than 15 minutes of any video. This video is so well crafted that kept me going forward watching. You performed a masterpiece.
Parity is great, but too many rest days between games, league is soft, hockey guys play with broken bones and mad respect, NBA is divas and super teams
8 minutes in and i already know this is gonna be a banger. good to see you back with another one of these man! genuinely great to see your growth from like 5 years ago or however long I've been watching
It's simple. People have shorter attention spans and would rather just watch the highlights after the game.
This attention span excuse is so sad
No not really since most of the finals are watched by adults before 24 and older. If it was only kids maybe yku would have a point but it's not. Maybe the nba just got boring. Play stops for the weakest fouls, player throw themselves onto the ground or into their defenders and complain, it has too much politics in them.
The nba got boring recently, it just has
TikTok is ruining humanity...
@@ryangreen2493 "grrr i cant focus on things unless its spoon fed to me in highlight form"
Rule changes ruin the league... When you make the league soft and short and lack defense and rim protection and rebounding and post play on both sides of the ball for 3-point shooting people catch on to what the league has become and when the US gets killed overseas in Fiba and Olympics starts to show today's NBA rule set isn't the best basketball being played... What real fans that have been watching since the 80s have noticed and why they complain about it
If you’re looking for video ideas, a rundown of the Aba would be awesome. A bunch of great players are totally forgotten by today, and even those who did make it to the nba aren’t seen as the greats they were.
This is in the cards in the future for sure
I saw a brief interview in which Dr. J said that his stats were erased coming into the NBA from the ABA . I can understand why but it is a shame still.
Imagine being an NBA fan in the 60s and how damn surprising it must have been to see Wilt FINALLY beat Russell to end the 8 peat Celtics' title defense. Must have been crazy exciting
Hey bud, Rod Thorn drafted Jordan, he was GM for the Bulls directly before Jerry Krause.
Can we just appreciate how much Marc Jackson and Van gundy were missed from the NBA finals coverage. Doris and jj were just meh.
And it doesn't help that the broadcast team keeps reminding us about other teams and especially players that have nothing to do with the finals.
People were ranting that Marc was unbearable
@@Renegade-kf8fp they must be talking about a different Marc Jackson then...
Don’t forget C-Webb. Super solid as a commentator. Smooth voice
Yeh the commentary was absolutely awful
Doris and JJ wtf!!
Do you think a shorter regular season could help too? Obviously not a full solution, but making every game matter more for casual fans and producing less injuries could be a way to get people in the door before the playoffs, and then they watch the playoffs and finals to appreciate the end of every little narrative for the season.
As a NFL fan first, this makes the most sense to me since most big football fans would never miss a single game their team played, and usually watch at least a few every season between out of market teams on national TV, whereas I regularly miss 90% of regular season games even for my NBA teams and opt for summaries or scores instead, but do watch every playoff matchup when I can
As someone not from the States, watching an NBA game is a taxing endeavor. I once watched a Knicks game live and I nodded off mid game because it took so long. TV broadcast is not better because you're bombarded with ads and more ads. Eventually I only watch sub 10-minute highlights on UA-cam and if my fav team doesn't make it to the playoffs or the finals, I just ignore it.
The invincible-esque titlecard cut offs are amazing 😂😂😂😂
The 70's were all about the NBA v. the ABA. That competition was intense. To analyze the decade properly, you have to look at the ABA and Dr. J.
I think the seen success of the NBA is completely inflated. Most of my friends have moved to primarily watching other sports such as NHL or MLB.
Eventually the NBA success bubble will pop
nah bro i don’t know anyone who watches hockey and only a few who watch baseball
Hakeem Olajuwon winning his two titles 94 and 95 is a dynasty to me. Dream4ever
I never knew bill russell also coached during his last years. That’s so wild
Yeah
yeah, hes the youngest coach to win the finals, until this year when joe mazzulla becamse the youngest
@@n8tethegr8t20 yup
How about sports media talking EVERY SINGLE DAY about a guy who retired almost 30 years ago?? How are fans suposed to care about todays game, if Skip, Stephen A Smith, Barkley, Shaq, and every single talking head just talks about how the league is worse than it was when MJ played?? If you tell a lie a MILLION times, if sinks into the brain of the masses
It’s hilarious to cause MJ wasn’t even nearly the best player, he has the marketing machine and people drink the koolaid
What about the constant Lebron topics I started tuning out because of that even Steph Curry topics
@@terrellewilliams2188aren’t they playing the game rn…
@@terrellewilliams2188you thought u did something maybe read what he said firstc
The NBA Finals used to feel like life and death. The stakes felt so high and I think a lot of that had to do with presentation on TV. Now they just feel like any other game
So this is a topic close to my heart. I have long tried to explain to people that the best sports and the best periods of those sports are defined by favourites and underdogs. It's always the same, bandwagonners want a team to follow and haters want a team to root against, elitists want two big guns going all out playing the best ball possible.
The fact that you can't predict who will be in the finals or who will make it out of the first round is a big problem. People want narratives, they don't want; Celtics pretty good team, play below average teams all the way through and then stomp the Mavs in the finals.
The golden era of the NBA starts in 1979(Bird and Magic) and ended in 2016. (Duncan retirement )
Agree
I was done after that Cavs title and Duncan leaving . It’s an unwatchable game and boring
This vid finna go crazy when I put it on at 1am
man i sure do remember seeing literally every single highlight video of the LeBron Curry era flooded with: "NBA is boring now, who cares"
but also from a monetary point of view, it was pretty annoying in the 2010s but the 2020s leveled it up to levels of stupid.
The amount of advertising during every play, it has become the NFL.
Do people really prefer have to go thru 3-4 mins of adds every 5min of play instead of just plastering the jerseys and the arena with logos from companies? I'd rather have the team jerseys look like F1 suits and enjoy a near uninterrupted game session. But the problem is that they already have some of it and they keep adding more propaganda.
So many times I muted the tab or swapped channels during ads and completely forgot about the fucking game and I know I'm not special, I cant be the only one who does that.
The media is incompetent and boring, it reeks of a reheated meal from 3 days ago. The sport has gone late-stage capitalism, like Elon Musk levels of son of a bitch, corporate greedy fucks.
But hey, players get 300mil contracts now and we know damn well they never dial down things like that. So they will have to find a way to print more money and it's always ads, more ads and more ads.
The 2024 role players seem better because the modern defense is trash. The NBA tells refs to handicap the defense. If defense was allowed full time, then only the top tier players would still be able to excel. Which creates the hero-narrative ecosystem people love.
The 70s was a high scoring era. The 80s and 90s brought in physical defense that allowed stars to separate themselves. Modern stars arent less skilled, they are less tested.
Havn't watched the video yet,
But for me its the constant stopping for fouls and reviews. The constant jawing at the refs EVERY PLAY is super old. They gaslight the refs all game into giving them fouls, then have the audacity to get angry at a bad call.
The flopping and faces players make is ridiculous. They get touched on the wrist and make faces like they are riding a judas cradle or getting skinned.
Teams just chuck 3's all game. In transition with a 3 on 2? Chuck a 3. 23 seconds on the play clock? chuck a 3.
Need 2 to win? chuck a 3.
I love the video so much. A couple thing to add:
-1.) I know this is nitpicky, but Cooper was not the first DPOY. Before him was Sidney Moncrief (x2), then Mark Eaton, and Alvin Robertson.
-2.) A thing that needs to be pointed out with the 70s is that we were robbed of a lot of talent. Rampant drug abuse aside, Bill Walton was had such a high peak before his injuries, and we were robbed of what should have been the best player in the league in the transition between Kareem's era and the Magic/Bird era. For reference, can you imagine if Steph Curry's lower body injuries robbed us of his superstar career post-2016, only for him to resurface a few years later as a cool 6th man on the Nuggets? Because that would be the equivalent of what happened with Walton
As a casual, the Finals have fallen off to me cuz everybody's getting effin injured.
Key players always get injured Every Season and the next runner up easily slides into the Finals.
The gaps between teams just seems too damn wide. Every Finals feels like a team is there that shouldn't be there or got there too damn easily. The "parity" doesn't feel legit. These teams are only in the Finals cuz "something" happened.
Yawn
You’re right, this is a casual take. Good work there
It’s been a pleasure watching you grow as a content creator. Can’t believe the guy who once argued John Wall was the best PG in the league is now making such great breakdowns
Wow Guy, that was the best sports vid I've watched in a long long time, well done!
It's just the quality of NBA finals the 2010's gave, Game 7s, Rivalries. Revenge series. Those were the guaranteed banger.
Faxx
Ratings are done because people are just streaming the games illegally. Everyone is indoors on their computers during pandemic era, accelerating this transition. Nobody is paying to watch the games, their views are reflected in social media but not Nielsen ratings. You spent 100 minutes talking about anything except the single biggest reason.
Fr I just watch all my sports through streaming and so do many of my family members.
If this were the case, the league itself would jump at the opportunity to blame criminal activity for their problems, but I've never heard them say anything about it.
You’re over exaggerating illlegal streaming.
Yes more ppl are doing it but it’s not even close to the norm.
There is just legitimately less interest in watching.
they need to make these games easier to watch. i understand they have league pass but im not spending all that money for one thing when i can catch games on a streaming service. problem is the services have a select few games.
The quality of the games is the biggest factor lol
NBA died whenever attention from fans went to players instead of teams
This is something that only white people say. They support teams and don't really care about the players. That's the just culture white people have with sports. They want the players to be minimized and the team/franchise maximized. This is a large reason why white Americans really don't like the NBA
I just wanna share something with you. Jesus Christ loves everyone. He died for us all and rose. All you have to do is accept Him as your Lord and Savior and He will save you and grant you eternal life in Heaven. Much love brother 🙏❤️
People had always cared about teams because of the players though
@@sovietonion4487 But you had key players stay with the same team much longer and a fan could follow that team (with those key players) year to year. When so many good players like KD, Lebron, Harden change teams so much, it becomes harder to follow a team through good times and bad.
Love the content brotha keep going strong ❤️
2 hours is crazy btw 😂
Amazing videos Jacob
For me a big reason why I don’t watch basketball or care anymore is the rampant traveling and carrying that’s not getting called. Which is, to me, hilarious because they try to cut back from calling those things in order for games to have more points and scoring plays to be more exciting to the viewers.
But for me it’s like “yeah, this is lame. They are getting away with 6 step travels.”
Correction: Michael Cooper DID NOT win the first defensive player of the year award. That would be Sydney Moncrief in the 1982-1983 season for the Milwaukee Bucks.
Ok
It should be a shame that San Antonio is rarely mentioned amongst the best NBA organizations of all time and even more of a shame that Duncan, Ginobili, and Parker barely get recognized as one of the best Big 3 combos in NBA history
Arguably the greatest team ever, I never seen better basketball than in that Heat series
because they couldn't repeat as champs
Kind of yeah. The early to mid 2000s were a weird era that is generally overlooked, largely because of the media's obsession with Lebron. Kobe's teams are underrated too. People only talk about Kobe.
@@TheGreatness-gg1jxCould it be said that because people have singled out MJ and LeBron, and neither one got a title in that decade, that the 2000’s gets a bit lost in the shuffle?
Literally stepping onto a 2 hour train ride. Thanks rusty
"literally"
Incredible video Rusty
Them sticking to cable like it’s the 90s and not having an app you can stream the games on for a monthly charge like the NFL does is holding them back so much.
It’s not just the Finals. The NBA as a a whole has become unwatchable. It’s like a video game. The thinking was that increasing scoring would increase interest, and it probably did, in the short term, but scoring isn’t special when everyone is doing it, and running the same offense.
The dip in numbers is 100% because of illegal streaming, its just a better service than what the NBA offers. League Pass is absolute ass, and too expensive for most people outside the US. The price would be justified if you could watch old games or something with the same subscription but you can't even do that so its not worth it.
I tried to do legal service but it's a $8000 UA-cam tv sub or getting cable Tv
@@jungshin87 the price is insane, where i'm from a yearly subscrption is pretty much 1/4 of your monthly salary if you make minimum wage.
Just because Rusty is ignorant of the 70s, it doesn't mean that era didn't have superstar players.
I didn’t say they didn’t have superstars bud
you look alright in the fabletics , do they have that in a Mens
Bro, you’re one of the best creators on UA-cam. I really appreciate all the detail and work that was clearly put into this
And somehow the contracts are going up to insane numbers. Eventually advertisers will realize it’s not worth the squeeze and the NBA will go bankrupt trying to pay these salaries
No sports league needs dynasties in order to survive and if it does then that model was not sustainable to begin with. The lackluster presentation and narratives surrounding the current crop of players is why I think a lot of fans have been turned off by the finals lately. If a league gives fans a worthwhile experience they will stay and want to see how seaosns unfold regardless of who is at the top because it shouldn't matter. New champions should be able to be just as marketable as dynasties in a vaccuum because at the end of the day there is always going to be a narrative about them somewhere. People still talk about Dirk in 2011 and the 2004 Pistons. Dynasties or not a good league that will market its players will see success.
I mean if Boston becomes a dynasty that by itself won't make the NBA more exciting to watch whatsoever and won't change anyone's opinion on this year's finals either. People watch basketball for entertainment and for their own rooting interests first and foremost.
I mean the NBA and the NBA personalities should advertise real analysis of the game, promote teamplay and small market teams. Instead they are talking about Lebron and Steph, about character, who wants it more and other macho stuffs.
Viewership is down imo, because there are so many ways to digest the game, what happened & who won more than there were years ago, viewership may be down but the amount of fans have grown. There are also way more things to pay attention to than in the past which all goes into it. Dynasties do bring a certain amount of casual fans but that isn’t the reason for viewership being done, maybe at best, a small part of it. In the 90’s you HAD to watch the game to see what happened in completion for the most part. Sure SportsCenter was there but even then they would only show so many highlights, so many clips. They had other sports to cover. The non stop sports media is what changed it. I can hear who won, UA-cam the entire game or every made shot & then be able to join in the discussion about said sport or game. They don’t need to watch the whole game like yesteryear to say did you see Gary Payton make that pass in the 3rd quarter? I love the discussion however.
Spectacular deep dive. Well done.
Great stuff, Rusty
Rusty really is a legend for emphasising how well built the Showtime Lakers and Bird Celtics were.
Kareem is THE all-time two-way centre. Magic is THE point guard. The 86 Celtics have the best front court ever. And these squads were together for a decade.
Right in the middle of Rusty's monologue complaining about intrusive, unskippable ads, I got hit with an unskippable ad. Perfect timing.
Unfortunately, we are in a generation where the people running the Basketball care more about profit over product.
If the NBA wants to improve its image, it starts by getting rid of ESPN. this move would be short term loss; long term gain.
Adam Silver ruined the NBA.
As someone who currently can't watch any of the regular season games because I have to work/doordashing and for the playoffs really wasn't able to sit down to watch them but mainly just listen to them I count on people who cover the sport (mainly UA-camrs) to keep up with it. Having so many games unlike the other two sports I keep up with the NFL and Nascar( and they are called fire suits 😂😂) happen once a week so I can carve out a block of time to watch it but it's impossible to do that for the NBA. Thank you for covering the sport and keep up the great work
Too much unnecessary rhetoric in the video dude. You were trying too hard to be funny.
Because being still talking all the time about MJ and having and Icon living his 20th year in the NBA, this is like living in the past forever, the longer it gets the more boring it is. New brands grow small from that perspective. We should past the page , start focusing in the present for once, send Bron to play domino with Michael and let the young players make something of it.
Bron is needed. We need a guy everyone likes. I honestly can’t think of the guy we’d root for once he’s gone.
@@SemajRaffbut everyone doesn't like him. Bro is super hated, every little thing elicits hate..most recently with his son's draft
@@weplaydk2343 Yeah, Bron isn't near universally liked by fans in the way MJ was in the 90s and beyond.
What LeBron has always been since "The Decision" is polarizing. Some people love him, some people hate him.
Basically Lebron overstayed his welcome too long and should have just gracefully played out his final years without much hiccup but he craved the attention and it didn't help the media seems to be in his side and this annoyed loads of people and on top of already being hated by a sizable amount of him people by the things he's done in the past. And because of all that focus, other promising players don't get much time on the spotlight and thus they don't get as much fanfare as they should have.
@@weplaydk2343I don’t literally mean everyone likes him. Maybe “popular enough” is the phasing I should have used. I get the frustrations with Bron and I’m a huge Bron fan
Before getting deep into the video ima give my opinion. Yes people just don't care as much about the league and the championship. But, does that matter? Basketball and the league are a fundamental part of culture and it will be so for a long time to come. NBA players will still get their bags, and championships and legacies will still be built. Now back to the vid.
It’s does compared to the days they had the trophy on uniforms & court with narrators/interviews before the game
@@MegaMjjordan That stuff can return. I'm not advocating against that. I'm just saying that the NBA is a very profitable and popular league, especially compared to other leagues and other NBA eras. Is it truly a terrifying travesty that new viewership records aren't being set?
@@gardenpop I agree! It definitely can return but they just pull whatever out their asz because they think the numbers matter. They’re popular enough but like Rust said if they get lazy eventually those numbers will be a concern for especially if it gets to nfl numbers
I think this idea of ratings equating to quality is a bad measure (yeah yeah I'm the millionth person to say this). I find I've still enjoyed the playoffs and the finals. I think dynasties are good for bringing in the casual fan but basketball fans can still enjoy the finals. I think the lack of aura around the finals has more to do with the lackluster presentation than anything on the court (except for the lack of a 7 game series, those tend to stick out in people's memories), and the lack of a dynasty now will also only likely make the next dynasty feel more special. Enjoy what is present today, and be excited for what's coming tomorrow.
As someome who watched the finals it was luka vs the celtics this year. Also the nba is dying out due to the stale 3 pt contest it has become. (Not saying these guys arent incredibly skilled)
I think viewership being down over the last few years has less to do with the teams, and stars themselves, and more to do with the style of play. Let’s be honest, NBA basketball is boring now. With a few exceptions there is very little defense being played, nor do I think an emphasis is being placed on it. It’s all about the offense. Score as many points as possible in 48 and you don’t have to worry about defense. It’s hard to watch teams running up the floor just to jack up a 3 in transition over and over. Couple that with the “rule changes” with traveling, flopping, bad refereeing and you get a game that is extremely hard to watch. The fundamentals are gone. Luka, for example, is a great player but it is easy to put up 25+ points a night when you take 27 shots and are allowed to change your pivot foot when you like. Teams are praised when they do stop him or defense is played, as if not playing it is the norm. It is not entertaining any longer.
And honestly, I am actually fine not having a face of the league or a dynasty for two decades.
You say that and I would normally agree, but that would damage the NBA irreversibly. The only way to keep a steady amount of viewers is with Superstars who get constant attention from Stephen A Smith and with dynasties being the favorites which means there is an underdog to root for.
What you hope for would heavily reduce the amount of casual NBA watchers, which is something the league honestly can’t handle.
@@Sage_Hashishit would be detrimental to the league. They need dynasties in order to keep interest. As much as everyone says they like parity, the ratings say otherwise.
@@Sage_Hashishyeah, no casuals = no money.. not so different from video games tbh .. don't kill your casual fan base or your product will suffer beyond belief
@@Sage_Hashishcasuals are the lifeblood of any field in sports of entertainment. So your probably right. Also ppl underestimate the role Stephen A an sports media plays in all this as well. No doubt. For casuals, it's nothing like a dynastic villainous team to root against..
@@weplaydk2343 They have the villainous teams already. They just arent dynasties lol.
Lets just say it how it is, no one wants to watch games where teams just chuck 3s. Its just spamming from the 3pt line
THIS IS YOUR MAGNUM OPUS
Nah, that KD hater manifesto was ELITE. 😂
Nah Rusty has plenty of magic in the tank. This is just part of his journey, if anything GOATmentary is . Shits beautiful 🥹
The majority of the issue is capitalism, make the shitiest app, charge as much as possible, pump as much ads as possible. 0 consideration of viewers experience