The NBA sucks and is no longer fun to watch, and if they want viewers to flock back, there needs to be immediate changes.

According to Sportsmediawatch.com, the finals ratings were down thirty-seven percent from 2019 to 2020. This of course has to do with the NBA being in a “bubble” with no fans, but I believe it is bigger than that. My issue with the NBA is that it is no longer focused on loyalty to teams.

The NBA’s top stars, like Lebron James, Kevin Durant and Kawhi Leonard, will leave their teams over the slightest inconvenience. They leave if their multi-million dollar contract isn’t enough for them, or if their team doesn’t win a title. 

I believe this is the main reason for fans not coming back to watch. Fans can no longer watch their favorite player grow with their team once they are drafted and develop into a bonafide superstar. If a fan just likes a specific player, they must follow multiple teams now.. This causes fans, including me, to have to buy more jerseys, shirts, and other merchandise with this constant fickleness.

As a fan of the Oklahoma City Thunder, I believe this has been the worst for me. My former favorite player Kevin Durant left us to join the Warriors, the team that beat us in 2016!

He really followed the saying of “if you can’t beat them, join them.” But it did not stop there. Russell Westbrook left after 11 seasons with the Thunder two summers ago.

I know that I cannot fully understand the situations that the players are in, and that I will never know all the details. But, I would like NBA players to stay with their team.

My two favorite players of all time, Kobe Bryant and Larry Bird, both stayed on the team they were drafted to for their whole careers. I believe this helped solidify them as top-two because they stuck with the team even when they were not good. 

The NBA has almost turned into fantasy football, where players are always changing teams and no team stays the same.  

This is not entirely the players’ fault as team owners and general managers are to blame as well.

The team organization, as a whole, no longer has faith in developing players throughout their careers. To further prove my point, in recent NBA drafts, players have been traded on the same night that they are drafted. I never saw that during the early years of my watching of the NBA.

If the NBA and the players were to read this and make changes, I believe this would bring back viewers and revamp the interest in the NBA.