Tim Legler calls out lack of effort in NBA: Teams are ‘borderline disinterested’

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ESPN’s Tim Legler has been around the league for more than 35 years between his playing career and broadcasting work. And while there are numerous explanations for what has been a confusing NBA season — injuries, a new CBA, and legends on their way out — Legler believes a far more simple reason is a “tremendous fluctuation” in effort night to night.

Appearing on The Bill Simmons Podcast on Tuesday, Legler sounded the alarm on the malaise he is seeing even from top teams this year.

“The reason, I think is because … the guys being available, that’s been going on for awhile. The availability of players being as tumultuous as it is, that lends to some of this,” Legler explained.

“But I’ve also seen a tremendous fluctuation, the number of nights that I’ve seen teams either in-person when I’ve sat courtside calling a game or sitting at home on League Pass watching a game, the fluctuation in effort. There are nights when you watch teams where you can’t believe how flat they are. And I’ve seen more of that this year than any other time. Which means on any given night, anybody is capable of beating anybody.”

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Legler added his concern that even highly anticipated games between top teams have ended up as duds because of how often players appear “borderline disinterested” on a night-to-night basis.

“I’ve seen more nights now where those teams have been flat,” Legler said.

“Even in a matchup where two really good teams are about to play and you’re super excited about the game, and for whatever reason they come out and one of them is so flat that it’s almost borderline disinterested. And it leads to these weird scores, these crazy results, some of these blowouts we’ve seen.”

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