Scottie Pippen saying current NBA is bad bc modern players cant connect with fans

There is no sport that gets more hype and coverage relative to its actual viewership and ratings than the NBA.

I can count on one hand how many NBA games I've watched start to finish in the last 10 years

Objectively, the first part of that video is true. (Load management).
The second part, however, is bullshite. Yeah back then they'd just connect with their right hand to the face

Agree with alot of that.

He makes great points, but the amount of traveling they are allowed to do makes the game unwatchable for me. Then you throw in the flopping and passing up open layups for 3s and it gets even worse.

I haven’t watched an NBA game since

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The style of the game is horrible, and just caters to bad habits in basketball, which are uncalled violations like traveling, horrible shot selection, no inside out play.

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Last night they called a traveling foul on Cooper Flagg and one of the NBC announcers said, "Once he makes a few All Star teams, they'll quit calling that on him."

I thought to myself 'I've seen guys that have been in the league for six or seven years, and never made the All Star game, not get called for that'.

They may have called it on him because he's a rookie, but it doesn't take All Star game appearances to get free of that call.

Last night was the 1st time our local NBC team showed their late game during the week. They have been showing the 1st game but then showing their news and whatever talk show comes on afterwards. I think maybe they just showed it this week because of the holidays. Maybe they gave their news people this week off. I've always been a Mavs fan and I've always pulled for the Western Conference teams, so I was pissed they weren't showing the late games.

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The only sport that the athletes hate the people paying to see them.

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No it isn't. Most athletes look down on fans even though they wouldn't have jobs if there weren't fans who want to watch them play. This Evan Neal quote always comes to mind, and I think a lot of them feel the same way but won't say it out loud:

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“The person that’s commenting on my performance, what does he do? Flip hot dogs and hamburgers somewhere?”

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I don’t see that same problem in OKC. The players have been great in being available and almost every home game in post game interviews they thank the fans. SGA spends a lot of time signing autographs before and after games. Before last nights game in early warmups he signed over 100 of them alone.

Maybe it’s because we’re smaller market but you can run into the players locally all the time. SGA and his wife do all their own shopping and you will see them in grocery and other stores. Chet same thing. All of them. Then you have IHart who has done tons for the local charities. JWill does blood drives. I could go on and on but most of the posts are just flat wrong.

In the championship parade in June, the players were on top of busses. But every player got off the busses and walked and interacted with the crowd. SGA and others let fans touch the trophy and take selfies with it and player. They were chugging beers. And not one incident happened. You can’t do that in NYC or LA.

Then players were able to each have allotted time to take trophy to their home towns and have those parades.

One tidbit, Presti set this up from the start. Every player who comes in is taken to the Oklahoma Bombing Memorial. Its done to help them connect with the community and see how citizens responded to tragedy. Players have said it was very moving and dedicated to always playing for the fans.

Its possible some cities have too many major sports and that dilutes NBA. Not the case here.

Some of SGA signing before game last night. This happens every game even road games he has fans and signs for them and opposing fans.

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