I think it’s very messed up all this time ESPN could have on onboarded great quality commentators who are also former pros like Blake, Nash, and Dirk and yet they freaking chose Kendrick Perkins. Bare minimum product indeed.

Stephen A Smith’s level of clout within that company is completely inexplicable

Refreshing to hear informative breakdowns instead of baity hot takes.

Total d bag

He’ll be better. He just started getting the national spotlight.

Im pretty sure it has nothing to do with the quality of the content or the personalities and EVERYTHING to do with Amazon and NBC being places where a lot of people have subs vs. Subscribing to the Hulu or Disney package that includes ESPN (i had both Disney and Hulu but no espn add on, for example)… now I can watch games on Amazon b/c I have prime.

“ESPN wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t getting a lot of people to watch”

The point people are missing with this is that the hot take bullshit generates a ton of views for the hot take bullshit shows, BUT that’s not the same thing as generating views for the actual games.

High quality analysis gets fewer eyeballs, but it helps drive interest in the actual sport of basketball.

That shit was always annoying cause espn’s numbers are inflated by random places like barbershops or gyms having espn on in the background. No one I actually know who’s into sports gives a shit about what these dudes argue about on espn lol, maybe back in like 2013 but not anymore by a long shot. It’s no surprise to me that once an actual alternative presented itself, people have begun flocking to it.

Tbh social media has replaced the need for hot take merchants, I’d rather see actual analysis from people we don’t get to hear speak often than to hear SAS shouting for the millionth time. If I actually want to read dogshit hot takes for some reason, I’ll scroll r/nba/new or go on nba twt lol

This is it. Most people have Amazon for delivery so the prime video is just a free attachment that they have without having to spend more. And anyone with an antenna has nbc free.

I remember when NBC won the rights to the premier league in like 2013, and they put the Fox-era broadcasts to shame. High production value and noticeably better audio mix.

My only knock with Amazon is that the announcers are too loud. I like hearing the crowd and player sounds

Amazon looks good and peacock is ok but neither one looks as good or runs as smooth as the 4k Dolby vision on the hbo max app when they had the TNT games

Woah that’s crazy!? Not just commercials and twitter narratives?

this can’t be understated, and I know it’s been stated so many times, but Amazon’s coverage is just way better than everyone else’s. They actually talk about the game of basketball, crazy innovative

You mean Bronny James isn’t the most important thing going on in the NBA right now?

The prime crew are fantastic

If a team plays in a tax-payer funded stadium, the game should be free OTA for the community that paid for the stadium.

Blazer games are free OTA. It’s amazing.

I just got an antenna a week ago, what the hell was I doing for so long without one???? It cost like 12 bucks and I don’t have to worry about finding a stream for lots of NFL games.

And if you’re in a pinch, make your own OTA antenna by screwing a coax cable into the TV and then make an antenna on the other end of the coax cable by using a metal coat hanger and duct tape and making sure the pin from the coax cable is touching the coat hanger. Boom. Antenna.

YES. It drives me fucking crazy. It happens on the Thursday night NFL games too. It’s like the screen kind of “jumps” up and down rapidly.

This is my biggest complaint. If rewind to rewatch a play, the resolution sometimes drops to 240p or 480p. It’s horrendous.

“Nervous laughter from uncomfortable host” by far the best work in this comment 🤣

“Let’s get one thing absolutely clear”

Nah fuck that guy. Retire already.

I prefer the inverse when he goes on a 1000 word verbal essay about the most fucking obvious thing in basketball.

Steph Curry is the greatest shooter god ever created, KD can pull up from THIRTY etc etc

I feel like the production value of the games in year 1 for Amazon and NBC is a pretty huge indictment on ESPN as well.

They pay so much for these licenses and then they just roll out the minimum viable product for production and promotion.

Having a pundit talk crazy about this or that player will get good social engagement but it’s not leading people to watch the games. There is just too much noise out there and it doesn’t stick with people.

I haven’t watched much NBA in the past, but when I turn on my Fire TV the NBA on Amazon is often auto playing on the main page. So I’ve watched a few games where in the past I wouldn’t have known there were games on.

I’ve been wanting the NBA to pivot from disney since forever. They’re not good stewards of sports they only care about money and not the sport itself. You see how they didn’t promote Notre Dame for a bowl game because they own parts of the SEC network. They just don’t care it’s all vested interests and gambling

Some people still cling to those guys, as if it’s 2011. But their time is over. You get one, maaaaaaybe two nose exhales per night with them and that’s it. Give me the Amazon/NBC guys and their actual basketball talk.

Facts

this is most likely not going to continue :/

Microsoft Edge.

I hate to have to suggest this.

Firefox and Chrome both run (live) Peacock like shit (on my PC).

Microsoft Edge works so much better

Are you serious? I stopped watching football when the Rams left for LA, but Redzone was practically a media miracle at the time. Just non stop football. Their really putting ads in that shit now? What a slap in the face of the product

The “Powered By” statement always gets me. Like what the fuck is Taco Bell actually doing? They just got a Taco Bell employee spinning a dynamo somewhere? They got a dam in some bum fuck lake to keep their lights on or what’s the origin of that statement?

Now presenting the Palantir NBA Cup Trophy!

You said it, friend! 

This comment has been brought to you by JP Morgan Chase. GIVE US YOUR MONEY

You mean you don’t enjoy the name Ligue 1 Uber Eats?

eh…

Don’t see it going that way.

The Premier League used to be the Barclays Premier League before they felt the title sponsor made the league feel less glamorous and decided to get rid of it.

I interpreted the comment as talking to OP, who included the sponsor in his post. I.e., no one here gives a shit about the sponsor and there’s no reason to use the full name on Reddit

They’re still funny pretty often but their basketball analysis is not it at all.

Yeah, I think you can both believe that Inside was amazing in the early twenty-teens and that they’re completely past their prime today. When Shaq joined the crew in 2011, he had played in 5 of the last 11 NBA finals. Chuck and Kenny were barely a decade removed from being top-level NBA players.

That was a really long time ago. They’re aged out of it, the game has changed, culture has changed, and they’re still reheating the same leftovers.

I really think they should have let the show end at the end of the TNT run. It was probably already five years overdue at that point. Would have been far better than trying to hang on for another few years in increasing irrelevance.

Their last great hurrah was the KD bus driver bit.

But even prior to then, you could tell they were barely watching games, and flat out disrespecting players by saying their namss wrong, and just devolving to old head nonsense.

Shame, because they were great in the mid 2010s, especially when Shaqtin a Fool was so much more light hearted fun.

Its just easier and prime & peacock do a great job of advertising. Like the games are front page whenever i turn on the TV

The NBC games should’ve helped increase those numbers compared to TNT for the local markets.

This would be true if the golden era people talk about was filled with only white players

There was a Cowherd segment the other day about how NBA viewership is “vanishing” because “OKC is boring” or some stupid shit. Just based on nothing at all.

Reminds me of hate watching the warriors

Nah. OKC is so good I have no interest in watching their games. By the time I put my kids to bed, their games are usually over anyway ie the NBA cup.

Playoffs, sure, do I want to watch them curbstomp the endless drek of the league by 50, nah I’m not into snuff porn dawg, I’m good.

Yeah I have peacock and so I’ll watch the games there, but the stupid app for the bulls is more than peacock is for the privilege to watch a shit ass loser team and nothing else.

Last year at least they were over antenna and I was actually crediting Jerry reinsdorf, but he immediately killed that goodwill by canning it after a year