Shaq has a theory on why NBA television viewership is down

The television ratings for NBA games in the United States have hit new lows, reports Front Office Sports. 

Last week's primetime games on TNT and ESPN saw huge viewership declines compared to games from the same juncture last season. While the Western Conference finals rematch between Dallas and Minnesota averaged 1.07 million viewers, the high-profile contest between second-year phenoms Chet Holmgren and Victor Wembanyama averaged only 730,000 viewers. The latter saw a 51% decline compared to last year's Lakers-Clippers game in the same ESPN slot. 

While last week's games were hit by opposition from the most-watched World Series since 2017, the viewership for the NBA's opening-week games was also down double digits from last year except for the father-son debut of the Lakers' LeBron James and Bronny James.

So what is leading to the NBA's dwindling television audience? The obvious answer would be that a lot of fans are consuming the product via other avenues such as YouTube, streaming (League Pass) and social media. But Shaquille O'Neal has another theory.

On the latest episode of "The Big Podcast," O'Neal blamed the monotony of the modern NBA game, which features teams bombarding threes at a record pace, for the waning interest among fans.

"I have a theory that it is down because we're looking at the same thing," O'Neal said. "Everybody's running in the same place, with the damn top-of-the-key dribble handoff (leading to a three). I was talking to a coach yesterday, he said they want to shoot 50 threes (a game)..."