This year’s Daytona 500 served up yet another embarrassment for the NBA, smashing the league’s all-star game in the television ratings. Television viewers preferred NASCAR racing by a whopping 41-percent margin over the NBA all-star game, according to Michael Mulvihill, an executive vice-president for Fox Sports.
That’s the largest gap between the two sporting events in five years, Mulvihill revealed.
For NBA apologists who say the all-star game also had the Olympics to compete with, note the Genocide Games had horrible ratings, too.
This year’s all-star game had the second lowest ratings of all time, beating only last year’s dismal figure. And that followed the NBA’s 2020 social justice eruption, which heavily damaged league approval.
Outkick blogger Bobby Burack responded by writing, “NASCAR is quietly experiencing significant year-over-year growth. FOX’s half of the NASCAR season, through two events, is up 94%.
“I, too, choose NASCAR over LeBron.”
I’ll add to that by saying the latest smackdown of the NBA is indicative of its dying approval rating, if not its very brand. In 1998, 37 million people watched Michael Jordan and the NBA Finals. Now the NBA’s television audience is a mere pittance of what it used to be.
How long can this league engage in stupidity and foolishness before it says “no, mas” and gives up the social justice? Stands up to communist China? Bids adieu to the Marxist organization Black Lives Matter? It’s like the person unknowingly wearing the “kick-me” message of the back of its shirt.
Yet this is what you get when you have a weak stick of a commissioner in Adam Silver. It’s what you get when you have LeBron James as the so-called "face" of the league and turning it into a get out the vote organization for Democrats. It’s the end result of a league that celebrates criminals like Jacob Blake and boycotts playoff games, as it did two seasons ago.
It’s really no surprise that League “Woke” is killing off its fan base and isn’t concerned about it. Its all-star game used to be a crown jewel. Now it’s a yawn and a distant thought in the back of the mind of sports fans with the tv clicker in hand.
One further point worth mentioning is that the all-star game used to be a fierce rivalry between the Eastern and Western Conferences. It was serious business for players and fans alike. Now it’s a joke.
This year it was Team LeBron James vs. Team Kevin Durant. Acting as captains, they held a player draft for their respective teams and divided up the teams and intermingled players from both conferences. James is a disaster as the “face” of the NBA, and the all-star game’s new format is a genuine loser. Who cares if James' team beat Durant's squad?
On the other hand, the Daytona 500 actually meant something.
