Five Reasons Why the NBA's Ratings Are Up

Through the first third of the sprint season, the NBA's regular season ratings are up... which kind of confounds the league's (inter-minable, never-ending, tiresome) critics. You see, the public was supposed to get well and truly turned off by these 1% athletes, who were arguing over money at a time when I'd finish the rest of this sentence but it's very difficult to write when you nod off and your eyes roll up from credulity. In any event, millionaire black men in starring roles has never been a great sale to the American public, especially when they play a game that doesn't serve up a side order of brain injury, so when the league missed Halloween to Christmas, no one cared and a pox on anything that isn't the NFL. (A league which had its own lockout, not that anyone remembers. But moving on.)Then the league started, with a big Christmas Day launch, and in the 5+ weeks since, it hasn't slowed down at all... despite the fact that points are down, play is...