The US’ National Basketball Association (NBA) seems to be having some trouble. This season’s TV ratings are either down precipitously or struggling to hold even, a shift too dramatic to be explained by cord-cutting alone. Meanwhile, the National Football League is doing fine. Tickets for the NBA Cup, the finals of which were last night (congratulations, Giannis Antetokounmpo), went for half of what they did last year.
Part of the explanation might be that both teams are from small markets — Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma — and part might be that fans have yet to figure out why they should care about the midseason tournament. The most plausible explanation is economic.
The NBA has a salary cap, which prevents teams in major markets, such as the Los Angeles Lakers or New York Knicks, from snapping up all the talent. (The cap also limits costs to the owners, who in essence are colluding against the players.) An unfortunate side effect it that is harder for all teams to bid for additional players, or to keep the ones they have.
Illustration: Louise Ting
Even when the total amount of the cap goes up, adding more talent at the margin has become increasingly costly in terms of penalties. It is becoming more difficult to form and maintain durable great teams, which makes it harder to elevate new superstars, which is what many fans want.
Think about a casual fan’s impressions of the NBA. They have heard of Michael Jordan and LeBron James, and maybe watched them play or even seen their movies. They know they are two of the all-time greats. The 27th-best player over the same time span — whoever it might be — is extremely accomplished, but does not attract anything close to the same attention.
Superstars are what the game and its popularity are about, most of all with the marginal fans who do not know every player.
It is not surprising that one of the best-known players today, with more than 8 million Instagram followers, is Bronny James, son of LeBron James. Bronny James has barely played in the NBA and is far from a star; his popularity stems from his family story.
Jordan won six rings and LeBron James four, but who is to follow in their footsteps and be the game’s marquee player? One candidate was Nikola Jokic, center for the Denver Nuggets and three-time Most Valuable Player (MVP). Given his extraordinary statistics, he is in the running to be MVP again this year.
His team is another story. The Nuggets won an NBA title last year, but since then they have been in free fall. They let some of their key rotation players leave, most of all because of the salary cap. If they had kept those players around, or brought in star replacements, the Nuggets would have had to pay large fines to the league.
Denver is a relatively small basketball market, so it made more sense to let the players walk. Jokic thus might retire with only one ring, when he could have three or four and become a truly iconic star.
Antetokounmpo was another contender to be the face of the game, and in addition to last night’s NBA Cup, his Milwaukee Bucks won a championship in 2021. Since then, they have not come close to winning again, or to patching up their limitations.
Over the past six years, six teams have won the league title. Compare that to the 1990s, when Jordan’s Chicago Bulls won six titles, or to the 1980s, when the Boston Celtics and Lakers between them won eight titles, with numerous iconic matchups against each other along the way.
Tim Duncan’s San Antonio Spurs, Kobe Bryant’s (and Shaquille O’Neal’s) Lakers and Steph Curry’s Golden State Warriors all produced dominant teams with top stars.
Of course, there are also problems with the product itself. Regular-season games do not mean much, and the median outing is too often mediocre. Optimizing players no longer give their best in these settings.
Due to basketball analytics, too many three-point shots are taken. What was originally a source of excitement has become routinized and predictable. Perhaps US fans do not relate as well to the growing number of foreign players and stars.
Yet there have always been issues with the product. In the 1990s, for example, there were far too many ugly fouls, and some say expansion diluted competition. The league’s main problem now is systemic. The NBA needs to remember that competitive parity is unsatisfying, and that we live in a celebrity culture. It is all about who is going to be the next No. 1 — and the league needs to let market forces have a greater say.
Tyler Cowen is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist, a professor of economics at George Mason University and host of the Marginal Revolution blog. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
You wish every Taiwanese spoke English like I do. I was not born an anglophone, yet I am paid to write and speak in English. It is my working language and my primary idiom in private. I am more than bilingual: I think in English; it is my language now. Can you guess how many native English speakers I had as teachers in my entire life? Zero. I only lived in an English-speaking country, Australia, in my 30s, and it was because I was already fluent that I was able to live and pursue a career. English became my main language during adulthood
Taiwan on Monday celebrated Freedom of Speech Day. The commemoration is not an international day, and was first established in Tainan by President William Lai (賴清德) in 2012, when he was mayor of that city. The day was elevated to a national holiday in 2016 by then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文). Lai chose April 7, because it marks the anniversary of the death of democracy advocate Deng Nan-jung (鄭南榕), who started Freedom Era Weekly to promote freedom of expression. Thirty-six years ago, a warrant for Deng’s arrest had been issued after he refused to appear in court to answer charges of
The Opinion page has published several articles and editorials over the past few weeks addressing Taiwan’s efforts to leverage unique or strong aspects of its culture to increase international awareness of the nation. These have included submissions by foreign journalists and overseas students, highlighting how bubble milk tea, Guinness World Record attempts, the entertainment sectors, impressive scenery, world-class cuisine and important contributions to the high-tech supply chain can enhance Taiwan’s recognition overseas and therefore its soft power. That entails competing for attention in already crowded sectors. Other nations, after all, offer popular entertainment exports, beautiful scenic spots and great food.
The National Immigration Agency on Tuesday said it had notified some naturalized citizens from China that they still had to renounce their People’s Republic of China (PRC) citizenship. They must provide proof that they have canceled their household registration in China within three months of the receipt of the notice. If they do not, the agency said it would cancel their household registration in Taiwan. Chinese are required to give up their PRC citizenship and household registration to become Republic of China (ROC) nationals, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. He was referring to Article 9-1 of the Act
RSS