[Sports Illustrated] Charles Barkley: “The game is too disjointed … we have disrespected the fans … I understand, Adam took the most money, but it’s hard for me … I have to go to my app to see where the game is at”
Lakers v Thunder g3. I went to SIX bars and none of them could play the game off Amazon Prime. So freaking lame
I have to go on random twitch streams to watch the Amazon games
Or you could do what Jack Sparrow does best and watch the games.
pressing through 16 different porn advertisements for the game to be in 240p and buffer every 14 seconds
Jesus Christ it’s 2026 get a fucking adblocker. What is wrong with you
I have ad blocker. Still gotta click through some shit. About once a quarter it will fart out
Then you don’t have the right adblocker. The best one is Ublock Origin.
I haven’t seen ads in ages on sites, or Youtube.
With Firefox.
What websites you use? Always looking but never finding lol
I pirate streamed the first spurs/thunder game on Monday and didn’t have any of those problems. I used the same adblocker I’ve been using for 5 years and a basic Xfinity Internet service. No lagging, no fart out, no intrusive ads.
Streameast.sk
girl get an adblocker
[deleted]
They got that DAWG in them
and by dawg I mean so much spyware
Seriously people just use Ublock
First of all, if you use Firefox with Ublock Origin, you’re not gonna have any problems with ads.
Second, I don’t have many problems with buffering and even if I do, I can always switch to a different stream.
There’s a dedicated site for NBA games and you can pick from numerous links there.
and every time the game is close the stream your watching will suddenly have an issue. its a bad viewing experience for the most part, no reason to pretend it isnt
these dudes are so committed to pretending its perfect you’ll never get through to them
Right? I got gigabit internet and mfs in here typing like it’s our fault sites buffer or have issues. I have ZERO issues streaming anything else, but it’s my fault the jack sparrow nba stream is shit? Lmfao
Skill issue
Y’all see ads on the internet?
doesnt happen if you use FireFox with ublock origin installed.
Or HD, no buffer and no porn ads at all. But w/e you say
Right? I have an adblocker and the main problem for me is the buffering.
I’ll pay the $5/month for a service I already use (Prime) in order to stream on my TV and literally no buffering.
When I was broke in college? Sure I’ll use that, but I don’t want to miss gme winning plays anymore
Use brave browser
get drunk on rum?
It’s kinda funny Twitch is owned by Amazon. Twitch should have them streaming on an official account.
They do stream some of the nfl matches.
Yeah I know which is even more confusing why they don’t do it for the NBA
On the flip side, my local sports bar is struggling and dropping a good chunk of change to ensure they can stream all sports. Hell, they even have the weird MLB+/ESPN shit this year.
And then NBC had a minute or two of absolute garbage audio. We just want to watch the games.
FWIW, it’s really just mlbtv this year. I didn’t even have to do anything with ESPN
Going to sports bars only to have the watch the game/fight on my phone anyways has become an annoying ass reality smh what happened to our country
Pure unrestrained greed has happened
Yet my uncle in Asia can basically watch every game using League Pass lol.
It’s fucking vomit inducing to know the blackout market has screwed the product. 6am the next day to watch a national televised game and 3 GOD FORSAKEN DAYS to watch a local broadcast?!
The seven seas will always be my friend
10yrs ago people started to cut the cord and basic cable and ota programming was never the same
It’s the Peacock games that really get me. Amazon Prime is bad enough but at least most of us already have it and it’s easy enough to get to. Peacock is like ….oh you want to download ANOTHER fucking app? Come on man ..
The Peacock games are also on NBC though which is an OTA station in virtually every market
Not in the earlier rounds.
Or in the regular season with the Coast 2 Coast thing they do.
You can get into the Real Housewives if you download peacock tho
You can sub peacock through Amazon prime if you don’t want to switch apps.
I’m not subscribing to another thing man, enough is enough.
Prime is problem when you want to go to a bar.
Kinda odd the bar doesn’t have prime though. The NFL has had prime games since 2022. Plus now the NBA and WSL. I don’t know know much about how bars works with tv packages though. They might have contracts/packages specifically for them that haven’t caught up.
Yeah they need to get it through a commercial distribution service.
The bar more than likely has it, they just don’t realize it.
If they have the DirectTV Business package, which most bars do, there’s a dedicated specific channel for Prime sporting events, like Thursday Night Football. The issue is most bartenders/managers don’t realize it exists.
I’ve had multiple occasions where I’ve told the bartender “Hey the game is on channel XYZ, can you flip it there” and when it works they look at me like I’m a wizard
The reason is cost. Bars have to pay waaaay more than you or I to get a commercial license based on maximum occupancy to show games
Do these bars not show Thursday Night Football?
You mean they dont “stream” in the “east”?
Or have “the” “tv” on the “app” .to enjoy ball in net action?
Im not even trying to be funny, where do you live that a sports bar doesnt have Prime in 2026? NFL has had Thursday night games on prime for 9 years.
Bro i was in downtown Seattle. I had to go to a freaking Top Golf to watch the game
I logged into the Roku TV at my local bar to save all of the bar. Probably still logged in but if my legacy is being the Bar PRIME account so be. That bar was smaller though, next bar I tried it at they were like “nah we caught huge huge fines from the NFL for doing that with someone’s Sunday ticket”.
Who the fuck snitches on a local bar streaming sports????
i believe that game was on a friday night too!
The NBA needs to bully teams into licensing their local media rights out to local/regional over-the-air broadcast networks. It’s absurd how many teams make local fans pay for bespoke services that tend to be \(15-\)20+/month. This is practically a blackout for all but the most dedicated fans. Huge unforced error.
Local OTA networks might not be able to pay as much up front, but teams that aren’t broadcasted locally/regionally end up paying huge opportunity costs. It limits these teams’ exposure to their home markets, which limits demand for tickets, merch, and general interest. The the sum of the opportunity costs that each these teams pay works to pose a gigantic opportunity cost to the entire NBA.
Come playoff time, just let fans buy passes that entitle them to watch every game on every network/streaming service. I don’t even think it would matter that much if these passes showed games on a 5 minute delay, which would incentivize sports betters + the absolute most passionate fans to pay full price for every streaming service. (Although the gambling companies wouldn’t be too happy about that.)
__
In general, the NBA is really bad at recognizing when they’re paying big opportunity costs. It’s frustrating.
IIRC the nba plans to buy all the local rights in a few years when they all expire. It’s said to start with one next year when half of them expire.
What does this do? Allow NBAtv to broadcast?
Yeah Im pretty sure the NBA realizes that people pay an entire YouTube TV subscription mostly just to watch sports and sports media.
If they can guarantee a majority of your teams regular season games and some decent analysis, I think it becomes a pretty compelling product
I’ve said it in the past, if any team I follow gave me a \(100-\)150/year button that let me watch all regular season games I’d hit it instantly. The sheer annoyance of dealing with so many different services is explicitly why I use alternative methods of watching sports 90% of the time because it’s just easier to do that than figure out what service any particular game is on. God fucking forbid if it’s an early afternoon Phillies game followed by a Sixers game at 6:30, it’s insanely annoying.
That’s the goal I’m pretty sure, or atleast the NBA would package everything and sell it in one place.
….at $50 a month
$150*
If you have been following Silver, he plans to charge a lot more than that.
Saw that the Suns owner is doing free OTA for local games, despite how he knows it’ll be less profitable for him. Wish more owners would treat their teams like fun toys instead of private equity styled profit machines.
The Suns owner, for all of his faults, is extremely fan-friendly. Their concession stand is also leaps and bounds cheaper than the rest of the league by design, a lot of community engagement, and what you also outlined
He raised ticket prices like 300%. Upper deck seats for a First Round sweep team are significantly higher than lower bowl seats were for a Championship team.
He’s a master at P.R. though.
It’s also beside the point since none of the games that Chuck is complaining about aired on Ishbia’s free Local TV anyway. Adam Silver killed important games on local broadcasts for all.
The pistons are going OTA next year too
That’s great news! It has been a nightmare trying to watch the pistons here in Michigan. A couple years ago I tried to signup for Bally TV, or whatever it’s called, and I just couldn’t get it to work. I gave up and just watch a handful of games when I’m out of town.
Dallas has been doing it too the last couple of years
Detroit switching from draft kings to free broadcast too. Huge W.
For real I can watch every Pistons game and every Lions game for free next season, that is fucking awesome.
They even give out free antennas.
Unfortunately I lost interest in the team when they gutted their young core for geriatric KD
You missed a great season this year then! Glad the owner realized his mistakes.
The jazz do this too
It’s so short-sighted and simplistic in its greed. That sort of access in local market will pay back tenfold. American audiences are already used to be squeezed for every cent and they absolutely will give you more if you can make them care even more.
Honestly, at these prices, the NBA should just slowly push out the owners that aren’t Balmer rich and swap out for owners that can afford these teams as trophy assets lol.
Owners that rely on these teams for income end up cheaping out in ways that hurt the brand. There are enough billionaires that want a team that can actually afford it.
That’s how you get all the teams owned by China or the saudis. We don’t want that.
The licensing is just such a fuckin mess and it’s led to so many missed opportunities. Imagine something simple like an app where you could watch games from the last 50 years. Easily do able for a tech perspective but impossible the way the product is built.
At least make it that local games are viewable on league pass after the game is over instead of 4 days later.
I’m a diehard Magic fan that watched every game. The only game I missed all season was the playoff game that was exclusive to Peacock Premium. I pay hundreds of dollars a month on cable and streaming services, including Peacock. I had to pay another $20/month for Peacock premium to watch one game. Fuck that, put the games on basic cable channels for local markets. It’s ridiculous how much the loyal fans are being squeezed
If you’re not being maximally monetized while watching they don’t want you to watch
Yep this was the pistons the past few years but they just struck a deal with our local channel so games will be back on tv free of charge starting next year
The stupidest part for me is the games on only ESPN, like Disney owns all this shit, just put the game on Hulu or Disney so I don’t have to subscribe to more bullshit to watch a playoff game
They want you to get that bundle. If they don’t force you into it, ESPN+ has no value.
Not ESPN+. ESPN Unlimited. I know it’s confusing lol. ESPN+ is their mid-tier service that has like college football games and hockey and stuff. ESPN Unlimited is what lets you watch ESPN proper.
Another one?! Jesus fuck I have a job and a needy ass dog I can’t keep up with this hogwash
not only ESPN but a specific subscription that doesn’t come with the base Disney+Hulu+ESPN subscription.
At least put the ESPN playoff games on ABC as well so I can watch OTA. Makes it much easier than having to find a stream.
then why would you ever buy espn? lol
I don’t buy the full thing but I have the Hulu/Disney bundle that comes with ESPN+
Exactly!! I already have disney+, im not shelling out even MORE money to watch games on espn. You have to get league pass, peacock, prime video, espn and fan duel to watch all the games. Ridiculous.
The high seas await, Charles
It’s always on the same channel for me
What is the channel so I can avoid it at all cost because I’m a moral upstanding legal US citizen?
did you know the gulf STREAM is to the EAST of the US
Unrelated, but i like to inject CRACK right in my blood STREAMS
Or sometimes I replace the crack with METH
Why is this downvoted? Meth has better quality pic then crack its not even a debate.
and to get to those seas you need to DOT the APP that will guide you
Smh we got a fake pirate over here. Thats been seized!
I like to LIVE FAST.
No I didn’t, but I know know the SPORT of basketball can cause a SURGE of excitement
But the quality is garbage
LeBron approved for a reason
Same with the NFL.
That’s what happens when the decades-long call to break up the cable monopoly succeeds. Everyone was calling for standalone a la carte channels and now we essentially have that with streaming and this is the result.
Standalone channels and different streaming places wouldn’t be a problem if they didn’t break up the nba product between them. They don’t split up Landman or Yellowstone so you have to watch half the episodes on one service and half on another.
Sell the rights to games to 1 place, or let us pay for league pass with access to all games.
They do that with golf too. Have to have multiple subscriptions to watch the whole tournament.
there be cheaper ways to fall asleep 😂
Don’t give them ideas you crazy mofo.
More likely to implement that than unimplement the other 😅😅😭😭
I just know that locking down and charging extra for season finales is on some motherfuckers whiteboard lol
literally every series game
The problem is that the league most likely makes way more in aggregate from selling rights to 4-5 different places versus one large or two large deals. I think what makes it even worse is that most people who watch sports follow a couple different leagues, and every other league is on 4-5 different services with one or two overlapping. It becomes overwhelming both financially and as a consumer.
I think it’s partially due to companies using # of subscribers as a key metric for shareholders and stock value. They use the NBA as the promotional offer to try to get subscribers to join the service and then hope they stay even after they get rid of the NBA rights.
Then the success ultimately isn’t what people wanted. Ultimately was people wanted was, I like these 10 channels I want to just purchase those 10 channels. Now you basically need cable and several streaming outlets just to watch some of the items you want. The NBA is the example. You either need ESPN unlimited or cable, Peacock, and Amazon just to watch the playoffs. Then if you want to watch certain teams you have to pay for league pass too during the regular season.
You can’t watch local games with League Pass. There’s a media blackout.
I feel like a lot of people forgot or are unaware that League Pass was designed to supplement cable and not replace it.
Except streaming has the same problem as cable, most of it is stuff I do not care about. Just like cable I’m paying extra for a whole lot of stuff I do not want to watch. I’d say we broke up cable into a dozen smaller cables
The NFL is the worst. Buy the \(600 package along with the \)80/month subscription and then you STILL have to pay for additional shit.
That’s why you pirate that shit
At least the NFL you know when games are where. Because of the scarcity mainly but you know now thursday games are on Amazon. Yes, I know there’s a set schedule with the NBA and I (like many) just haven’t memorized it yet but it’s also because you don’t know which games are those. Thursday NFL there’s only one game so you know that’s the game on Amazon. If for example Amazon has Thursday for NBA, there’s also a slate of games that day so you have to proactively figure out which of the games is on one of the like 5 different platforms
This is the easiest it’s ever been for me to legally watch a game
i’m really confused how many people are anti prime when i’d bet far more people have prime instead of cable and satellite, it really only sucks if you go to a bar
The number of people who said they were unsubscribing from prime once their coverage ends was really suprising to me. I just assumed a lot of people already had amazon prime
Fuck prime. It’s a complete rip off, and their streaming service is garbage.
I didn’t realize this was the consensus
it isn’t lmao, most people have prime not for streaming anyways but for the shipping benefits
You should cancel Prime and try it out for a few months. You’d be surprised at how useless the shipping benefits are.
I agree. Y’all gotta know that people shop with their dollar. See who owns the products and services you use. Bezos is pro-robot, anti-human who will bleed his work force dry, until the robots come and then just cut everyone loose without a second though. So yeah fuck Prime, and Amazon, I’ll shop at a different company that actually values their employees, and consumers
Same. Cable sucks, glad sports are moving away from it.
I understand people complaining about how expensive things are, but to complain about “I don’t know where the games are?” Like dude they’re on one of three places, which is no different than how it was before. Five years ago it would be like “Ok, it’s either ESPN, ABC, TNT, or NBA TV” now just replace TNT and NBA TV with Peacock and Prime.
Five seconds to search where the game is streaming and another thirty minutes explaining to your dad that Prime Video isn’t an actual television channel
It pisses me off that I can’t use the ‘last channel’ feature every time they go to commercials on a streamer.
Enshitification.
Tech and AI bros have literally made everything worse.
It’s so difficult that I just pirate now. I’m someone who’s usually willing to pay for stuff. It leads me to sus sites like daddylive
I pay for 2 of 3 streaming services I need to watch the games. I’m paying money for the games and I still need to watch cracked streams for the last 1⁄3.
And the sites are always awful, one I use has meth in the name and clicking anywhere gives tons of pop ups. It’s like the 90s again
I have two streaming services and I can’t watch even half the games. Yeah I’m pirating.
a lot more people aren’t paying for cable anymore. the viewership increasing tells me that more people have all these streamers and its less of a maze to find games then ppl say
It’s not a maze, but I don’t subscribe to EVERY streaming service. I rotate monthly. I barely watched any of the first Spurs series because I didn’t have Peacock at the time.
People rotate services monthly based on when shows come out. Why don’t they do the same for playoffs?
A lot of people have access, but the biggest problem is having to look up which particular service a game is on on any given night.
With cable you could flip between the major networks, ESPN, and TNT fairly quickly if you didn’t know. Now you have to spend a minute or two loading up each service.
yall should just get a vpn. i live in serbia and literally every game ever is on league pass. no exceptions
The app is pretty good about detecting vpn. I had my process down for getting around it last year but had issues this year, and at some point it becomes more hassle than it’s worth.. I will not be buying league pass next year.
i can only watch streaming games. when the game is on cable to have to go to a bar. I somehow have access to most major streaming services between me and parents: peacock, disney+, prime, Netflix. none of us have cable though
we have disrespected the fans
We’re all trying to find the guy that did this!
He’s talking about accessibility.
why do I have to get a DirectTV subscription to watch ABC sports? I’ve been watching ABC sports on a regular television channel for decades. But now I need to spend $40/month?
Every time I’m in a hotel which invariably has DirectTV I want to tear that shit off the wall. That has to be the worst interface ever designed with every station assigned a random number between 1-1000 that takes 10 minutes to scroll to, and as far as I can tell it’s 96% home shopping channels.
He’s not wrong but it takes 5 seconds to find out where the game is being shown. I’ve been doing it all postseason
I think you’re the minority, though I agree with you.
There isn’t an easy way for most people to find out. I had to go to the ESPN frontpage to see where it’s being shown, because I don’t have all of the apps.
I mean you can just go to the NBA app or NBA website and find where the game is on. Even opens the service if you have it.
… if you have it.
This is the larger issue, I think.
It’s annoying, but ultimately no big deal, to have to look up which streaming service is carry the game you want to watch.
The bigger issue seems to be that fans are required to purchase so many different streaming services to watch them. (Or pirate them, but let’s talk about legal recourses.)
This is the first season that you weren’t required to have a cable subscription to watch games, since TNT didn’t even have a streaming option. NBC is a free channel and far more people have Prime than have cable, yet people are complaining more now about having better access to games.
the only real downside is that I can’t easily switch to something else at commercial break on streaming.
some old people don’t use their phones or know how to use apps like that, technology is not for everyone
Yeah but that’s just old people being old and not understanding streaming services.
You can just Google the game and the first thing under it is where it’s being streamed lol
I don’t know how you do it that fast. It takes me about 30 minutes.
5 seconds for me and then another 29 minutes and 55 seconds to tell my dad over the phone that he needs to download an app to his TV called Prime.
It’s not like it was easier in the 90s. You had to either buy the TV Guide book or flip to channel 14 and wait for the damn game to scroll by and GOD FORBID YOU TURN YOUR HEAD AND MISS THAT FUCKER
The whole world is fucked for this. In NZ we can pay \(25/month for the NBA service for all games all year otherwise catch a couple per week on Satellite TV (Sky for \)125+ per month) through ESPN. Playoffs have been a bit better with most being on ESPN and the weekend games on Prime (\(7.99/month). I believe the Nuggets-Wolves series wasn’t on either in the first round. Without TV you can get Sky Sport Now for ESPN at \)59.99/month. But hey, CBA aside, the best players be getting PAID! Don’t even get me started on paying three different subscriptions to watch Arsenal kick a ball for 90mins.
I think International League Pass is pretty reasonable price and content wise. It gives you access to every game of the regular season and playoffs in multiple languages, live or on replay (replay with all the breaks cut out), in HD.
In Australia it’s only $230 AU for the full season of the pro version (obv that number is higher in NZ dollars). Find a friend and split the sub with them (since pro gives you multiple screens access), and it’s a bargain.
No need to be subscribing to 4 different services.
every day having to search where the fucking game is
Thank you, Charles
If you download the nba app and go to that day’s games, it’ll tell you what platform/channel the game is on👍
If it’s not on Amazon or peacock, I’m not watching the games at all. I’m not paying for anything espn or the rockets local app.
I don’t think I agree with his point when it comes to finding out where the games are being broadcasted. It’s really not that hard and also not that different from the various channels that used to broadcast games.
What I do think is a problem is having separate paywall for a lot of these services.
It’s not hard to see where the game is at. You can go to the official NBA site and it’ll show you right under the scheduled matchup.
The part that is dogshit is making people sign up for two different subscriptions just to watch two ongoing playoff games. I’d gladly signup for one of Peacock or a streaming service that offers ESPN. Even pay a little more to watch playoff games on there in general.
Having playoff games that you can’t even watch on cable is absurd
needing an app to find out where the game is on is the problem described in one sentence
I stopped watching NBA due to the influence of gambling, questionable refereeing, and having to hunt for some streaming site or channel. In the past I’d at least had it as background noise now it’s whatever.
The Thunder-Spurs game was unwatchable. The league is single handedly ruining their one unicorn. SGA flopping every play yet never getting called for flopping is also a head scratcher. Giving SGA MVP was a joke too.
100% - watching on amazon is BULLSHIT.
Bruh it’s 3 networks. That’s less networks than the NFL this shit is not that hard to figure out
Every day I miss Ballstreams
It is very confusing as a Canadian.
Give grandma her glasses back Charles.
My problem isnt figuring out which games are where, its that I can watch the official stream on Amazon and have the audio cutting out every minute but the high seas have a stream that works for free.
As long as people keep paying, they won’t stop. I canceled Sling today and have already canceled HBOMax, and Paramount.
We got a black friday deal of Hulu/Disney/ESPN for $5/month for a year. We’re keeping that and netflix
Every game should be on NBA TV. I don’t see why they can’t host games on all those channels and still have games on nba tv
And this is why I take to the seas. A pirates life it’ll be fer me matey!
Barkley is 100% right
You wanna know what helps the game tho, going on inside the NBA every night and talking shit about everyone in the league.
need peacock, amazon prime, and ESPN to watch every game. Absolutely ridiculous.
Facts. Some games from the same fucking playoff series were on mutually exclusive platforms. Game 1 on NBC. Game 2 exclusively on Amazon… etc etc. Wtf
Thank you Charles. I’m lost. I can’t ever find the games. I don’t gamble. And now, I don’t even recognize the league
Chuck is a man of the people
So true!!!!!!
is it really that hard to watch games? i’ve been using the same website for years now
this is why unironically pirating the games is easier lmao
I never have to worry about what network which game is on, I just go to my stream website and click on the “Okc vs spurs” link and call it a day.
Maybe it’s an age thing, but I love the Amazon prime games. It’s my favorite broadcast network from the new TV deal.
thats not true, I watch every game off the same site for free
That’s some Steve Urkel lookin glasses
Every night its a search for the games. BS that isn’t worth chasing.
Are there blackouts too? I can’t watch a chicago baseball game even when Peacock is broadcasting it
I feel completely disrespected but when I voice my concerns I am scolded on Reddit for being a dinosaur. What is the consensus here. Do people like the streaming and the gambling ads? I don’t like either bc I can’t watch at work on network tv and have to illegally stream if I want to watch a game.
Professional American sports are a travesty. It’s too expensive to go to games, you get locked out of watching your local team, and if they aren’t local then you have to subscribe to 300 dollars worth of streaming apps to get it. Like genuinely I only consume sports through highlights at this point
The biggest crime is having to listen to the broadcasters on Prime cheer for the team opposite of your home team during the game. If I watch my team, I want to hear my teams announcers.