By Matt Godbee
8:27 PM EST on March 26, 2026
The first-round ratings for the NCAA Tournament are in—and they’re through the roof. Meanwhile, the NBA feels like an afterthought right now. America is proving it still loves basketball; it just doesn’t love the NBA.
It’s another hit for a league that’s been under constant criticism. From tanking to load management, it’s been a long season for the Association.
But the NBA isn’t alone when it comes to teams losing on purpose. NFL franchises have done it for years, and some Major League Baseball teams barely try to compete at all.
So why does the NBA take the brunt of the criticism?
It comes down to perception. Fair or not, NBA players often look like they don’t care about the regular season. Maybe they do—but that’s not what fans see. Too often, it feels like players are just as comfortable in street clothes as they are on the court.
There’s also been a noticeable shift in tone. The league can feel more like a fraternity than a cutthroat competition. The edge that defined the eras of Magic and Bird, Michael Jordan, and Kobe Bryant seems to be fading. Regular-season games don’t carry the same urgency, and too often they feel like an obligation rather than a battle.
Getting to the root—and ultimately fixing load management—likely starts with restoring a real sense of urgency and importance to the regular season. Right now, the players think there just isn’t enough at stake on a nightly basis to demand it.
This isn’t the first time the NBA’s image has come into question. In the early 2000s, during the post-Jordan era, the league struggled to connect with fans. Narratives emerged that the NBA was drifting away from its core audience, prompting then-commissioner David Stern to respond with a controversial dress code aimed at reshaping the league’s image. And once again, the league finds itself fighting perception instead of fixing the product.
You can’t ignore how much the NBA has deteriorated in recent years. The regular season, the All-Star Game, the Slam Dunk Contest—all of it feels damaged and out of place. It stems from a lack of urgency and appreciation from the players, and that perception is starting to take a toll on the fan experience.
Fans are responding the only way they can—they’re tuning out. The ratings reflect it. They usually do.
The image of the league may have changed over time, but the negative perception has come back in full force.
For too long, the players have held significant control over the direction of the NBA—and not all of those decisions have helped the product. Adam Silver has taken a largely passive approach, often allowing problems to linger instead of confronting them head-on. The league can’t keep pretending these issues don’t exist. At some point, the balance has to shift back toward restoring the integrity, urgency, and competitiveness of this great game.
