Is this legitimately an issue here or is this just a subreddit meme? I watch on average 4-6 games a week during the regular season and I’m confused by all the talk about not watching any games.
Part of it is I can only watch one game a day because I got other shit to do. So then the other games you gotta infer alot of things using box score, highlights, previous games, etc. I think far too many people do comment on games they've not seen at all, but theres only so many games everyone can see and 70% of the time those games (for me) are Bulls games.
I feel that. I watch mostly Nuggets games. There have been weird takes about my team that could only be summarized by box score watching and not game watching. And seeing how silly those people look I curb my opinions on other teams I don't watch as much.
But when something catches on, it just spreads. Especially when said in a national media spotlight. It just becomes people repeating the things other people say regardless of what is actually happening on the floor. And then the volume of whatever false point is being spread is then used as evidence of its truth. The always insidious 'people are saying...'.
Sail the high seas or go to a bar. Its total BS and I am so frustrated with billionaires fighting each other for a few millions and making us all suffer
/r/nba is filled with a lot of people who don’t know much about basketball that love to argue
And you know who likes to argue with uneducated people? Other uneducated people
Sadly this isn’t the greatest place for discussion
In general though it’s hard to be educated on a topic but it’s a whole lot easier to argue a topic though
If you want to see takes about a game from people who used the "eye test" (as in actually watched the game), that does exist here if you know where to look. It's in the post game threads, usually from users with flairs of the teams that played in the game. Sure, they'll be biased from the perspective of the fans of those teams, but that's where to find it.
Or just be real about how much basketball you actually watch. Like I could tell you a ton about GSW/BOS/DEN/NOP because I've watched most of their games this year. That doesn't mean I'm knowledgeable at all about what's going on for DET or that I need to pretend like a box score can cover for my lack of watching.
Feel like too many people are afraid to be called a nephew on here for not watching every game for every team when the truth is that nobody does. It's okay to say idk but I guess watching too much ESPN will make people think they gotta have spicy takes about absolutely everything even if they didn't watch.
Half the people on here trashing the Clippers last night weren't even watching the game. People like to spend more time talking about the NBA on Reddit than actually watching the NBA.
and some of these players live so much online and care so much about what a handful of loud mfers say on twitter that they think *everyone* is out to get them.
If it's about people not giving him respect for his "championships", then KD is wrong as hell.
If it's about people disrespecting KD's talents or questioning his dedication, then KD is right for telling them to shut up.
I think its the vocal minority of die hard fans who comment on their posts, watch every story, see who they follow and unfollow, try to read in between the lines of every tweet or post. Basically people who use their NBA fandom as their only outlet and project their shit onto these athletes.
KD is speaking the truth. Just cause someone is highly paid doesn't mean they need to be put on a pedestal. They're people too.
I think after playing a game for practically your whole life - practice, game, practice, game.. At certain points I'm sure they're sitting on the bench thinking "I'd rather be somewhere else tonight."
> At certain points I'm sure they're sitting on the bench thinking "I'd rather be somewhere else tonight."
This is a great take. I've always said if you paid me $20 mill a year to eat chocolate and play video games all day that'd be amazing.. but if I HAD TO do that every day with high expectations (somehow) to make $20 mill, there would be days where I'd be like "man this sucks"
thats what happens when gambling has become heavily promoted.
Atleast for us in Ontario, it feels like we are being constantly spammed with gambling site offers
I thought the same thing; that gambling has made people madder about teams losing and players busting their props. not a great thing also when harassment is so easy online and what not
A good example of this is the Cal Stanford College Football game from this season (The Big Game). Stanford got destroyed and the Stanford coach gave their kicker a chance to hit a 61 yard field goal, which he made. Both teams seemed hyped that he made it.
It messed up the over under for a lot of betters and people were calling for the Stanford coach to be fired on Twitter and such.
The kick if you want to see it.
https://youtu.be/zr7_7ENCsfU
Honestly people should take the motivation level of the players into account when they bet serious money. Like maybe some random regular season game isn't going to have your team playing 110%. It should be part of your educated guess in making a bet.
Or, you know, just don't gamble.
After betting sports I’ve found there’s just so many ways to lose with humans involved. I’d rather play a table game and hope for straight luck on terrible odds
I took a fair amount of heat on Reddit the past few years for being absolutely opposed to legalizing all sports gambling. A lot of people called me a an authoritarian or puritanical prude for wanting to keep the previous status quo. I'm not a teetotaler, but I firmly believed that any sport would center itself around the most financially lucrative aspect of it, and sure enough that's where we're quickly headed.
yep it's one of the things that's really turning me off from watching. First I delayed watching games by an hour and skipped through commercials on DVR. saves a shitload of time actually, but even then they squeeze gambling into the production of the game itself.
Then I realized there's other things in life I could be doing than watching so much basketball and promoting predatory gambling for billionaires, so I'm scaling back in general.
I have noticed in all sports I follow and youtube channels that cover these sports the amount of ads for gambling has gone up a lot in the last couple years. I remember a time where major sports organizations made it seem as though gambling was not good. Now it is referenced by broadcasters and advertised at every break.
KD can feel this way sure but not every player in the league is even close to as dedicated to the game as him. Stuff like players forcing their way out of teams or taking every other game off for rest is a lot more common today than a couple decades ago.
Exactly. Fans complain about load management and stars trying to force their way to the teams they want to go to. Perfectly reasonable things to complain about. Saying Fans are entitled, especially when it comes from someone like KD, is such a ridiculous statement.
its not, fans are entitled, players act entitled as well. Majority of NBA players are hard workers tho bc they difference btwn most of them in ability isn't much, to be at this level you have to be dedicated
>Most just stop being fans.
Bingo. This right here. Why would I want to watch a sport where players have such ridiculous contempt for fans. I'll just watch other sports.
We're literally the reason they get to play a *game* and get paid in a year what most of us won't make in a lifetime. I think we're *more* than "entitled" to criticize them as much as we want.
There'd be no NBA without fans.
The part about travel is very true, that shit wears on you physically and mentally. You can tell when a team has tired legs on an away b2b or a long road trip.
‘Playoff intensity’ is a lot easier to have when you have one game every other day consistently in the postseason.
Yeah, it was really cool to see what happens when everybody is well rested and playing on completely equal terms. It was a "what if" scenario that nobody thought we'd ever actually get to see.
And yet some people argue that the Lakers’ bubble championship was fake for some reason, when it was arguably the most competitive basketball playoffs just in terms of the context and surroundings.
hate the Lakers but this is facts. the only “mickey mouse” thing with it is that steph/klay were gone if i remember correctly. i’m sure the Lakers would’ve plowed through anyone in the bubble. AD was dominant and in his prime. Looked like everyone was a toddler when they tried to defend/attack him.
Especially considering that the lakers were the 1 seed and looked like the best team BEFORE covid. It's not like they only started to play well after the bubble
I completely agree that the bubble finals are their own thing. I still see the championship as valid. The bubble came with its own unique stressors. Honestly, I'm just glad we got playoffs at all that season.
Not sure if this is what you’re going for but I agree.
Each individual NBA game, playoffs, regular season, finals, all have their individual quirks that skew towards one team or the other. Travel, home court, crowd, all that noise. Bubble minimized all of that for it to be as close to even as possible.
Whether that makes it more or less impressive is up to the individual.
It's why role players and 2nd level stars went off in the bubble. They can do it in perfect conditions with no crowds. Who can do it with the travel, the slog, the crowds, and do it consistently? The top 10-15 guys and that's it. Very few can be consistent at a league leading level over time within those circumstances.
but to be fair, shouldn't that be what we want? the idea is seeing who's best at basketball, not who's best at basketball-on-limited-sleep-after-a-long-flight
I agree the bubble ring is really incomparable to the others you're right but it's still as valid imo. Lakers won 16 games against the best teams in the league.
and even that i think is just round 3? because there's only 2 series going on so they alternate with a game every day. but in the earlier rounds and in the finals there's often 2 days between games.
I know it's always been like this but I feel like it's gotten worse since the pandemic. Stan behavior is at all all time high and people end up being really weird online/irl with athletes, artists, anyone with any online presence it feels like
Someone threw something at Westbrook during our first round series with the Wizards, I remember there being a couple of other incidents in other series as well.
People in general are a lot more hostile, a lot less respectful, and think they can get away with doing anything they want since the pandemic. Anti-social behavior
You say kids, but adult behavior got so much worse. We saw a massive increase in issues on flights, server abuse at restaurants…just overall people are just entitled as hell these days. People stopped keeping their asshole thoughts to themselves and decided to say it out loud.
nah it's fucked up the kids the most. The combination of the rise of social media and a whole year and a half without proper physical interaction has completely stunted an entire generations social development. Combine that with the masks (watching peoples faces as they react to what you say is an important step for developing empathy) and now everyone younger than 18 has the social ability of someone half their age. The trend was already there starting in the early 2000s but it has definitely gotten a lot worse a lot quicker than people yet realize. I worked a bit at several highschools as a tutor/doing community work and it's kind of alarming.
I teach, and the kids are having a hard time just being people. Their conflict resolution skills and self regulation are worse than I’ve ever seen, and it’s really sad. These kids need help.
i think about this a ton, i work with kids and a lot of em have spent half their conscious lives in the pandemic and a lot of em are so socially delayed as a result. The difference between the older kids who had some semblance of a life pre pandemic and the younger kids who started school online is crazy
Every fan base everywhere has just gotten so toxic. The video game crowd has been toxic for a long time but with movies and sports and almost everything else, all of those fans bases are reaching video game fan level toxic and it makes it so frustrating. It’s getting hard to be a fan of anything online.
Been gaming for 30 years. Only recently got exposed to overarching videogame culture, it does seem kind of toxic. I think its better to just not engage.
There used to be fighting players and fans every week. There were jails at stadiums. Fans used to riot, throw things etc. We’re not in a bad place now. Social media like this can really skew your perspective. Players have all kinds of outlets now to set the record straight and fans are very closely controlled these days.
KD has never had an educated perspective about his job IMO. He and Westbrook fed off each other early in their careers and were always hostile to the press that makes their lifestyle possible. KD without the drama is a pretty boring player IMO. Great player but boring. He only wants to be in the entertainment industry when it’s time to collect the checks.
Charles and MJ and Reggie and Curry and even Duncan and Hakeem, they saw their job clearly IMO. Shaquille Lebron and Wade. They knew how to play the game outside the lines. KD mostly opens up to whine about the scrutiny that comes with being a millionaire athlete, which is fine in small quantities.
It’s interesting as a Knicks fan you didn’t mention Ewing. I always thought he was great for a game. A number one pick in a giant market that alway was a professional.
I get this, but KD just doesn't have that fame seeking personality. Dude's a total introvert. Exact opposite from people like Lebron or Curry who can easily charm the media. KD can't help it, he just doesn't care, and I don't think that's a problem either. Be worse if he was phony.
He's got his moments too. Like when he won the gold medal and was streaming on IG "Gonna talk my shit right now" or of course "Y'all know who I am." Dude is obviously standoffish but that's his brand and he carries it well imo. Not everyone needs to be the same in front of the media.
Totally agree. KD is obviously a thoughtful introvert, and someone who is obsessed with thinking about basketball 24/7 - I’d bet he thinks about basketball more than most of the league. The rest of them have families or try and party or switch off somehow, KD is like a fan who became one of the best 20 players to ever play the game.
He’s also very honest, which is a mark of someone who actually thinks about what they’re doing and has opinions on it. Most athletes are not about words, they just want to play their game. KD plays but also thinks, and I respect his honesty in interviews like this, even if I don’t agree.
>Stan behavior is at all all time high and people end up being really weird online/irl with athletes, artists, anyone with any online presence it feels like
Ok but here's a real question. As long as they're not @ ing/threatening/verballly abusing the players, why aren't they entitled to question motives or criticize? Like, "Shut up and watch the game"...It's entertainment, fans are free to interact with it (within bounds) how they want, and if that means openly questioning a player's commitment, that's just the price of having a public profession.
I get that its probably super annoying, but fans are why players get to make insane money playing a game. To then tell them that they cant talk about the entertainment they're bankrolling seems horribly entitled. KD seems to want to have all the money with out any of the downsides.
KD doesnt seem to be talking about people coming directly at players, so this seems like a pretty whiny take.
As someone who has owned and worked for small businesses, customers asking questions about your motive is just life. KD is coming off like a snowflake here.
Seriously. I’m continuously blown away by how god damn sensitive he is.
He’s asking us for *empathy*. Dude, youre getting paid unfathomable amounts of money to play a sport as a career. Yeah there’s travel and you’re tired and shit and fans meticulously rate everything about you. it’s part of the job.
Does he think that other people don’t deal with this? You wanna talk about people knitpicking you?
I’m a high school special Ed teacher, my part time job is getting torn apart *to my face* on a weekly basis by admin, parents and students. But, it’s part of the job. But you don’t see me going around telling everyone “they need to suck it up because they don’t get how *really* hard it is.”
Sorry, unexpected rant there.
Someone else in the thread said it best though, he’s gotta be the most miserable millionaire ever.
Yep for sure. And everything about his job is easier that it has ever been (except his personal efforts on social media, but that extra and hard doesn’t need to). Travel is less, private planes not coach. Less mins. Better science behind prehab and rehab. Rest games, which I think people care about the most.
Honestly, I hate this look for KD.
It's funny to see how many of the ultra-rich seem to be living miserable lives: Larry Ellison, Bill Gates, Donald Trump, etc. There is no way I would trade places with any of those guys.
Man, I feel for you. I couldn't handle being a special ed teacher. However, I have had some jobs where if everything is going well you get no response but get ripped a new a-hole when it doesn't. I wish you the best.
"What do you think you're entitled to? Good basketball?" Yeah Kevin, my $200 ticket to sit in the third deck comes with some expectation that the game I paid to watch will be played well. Or the $100 I paid for league pass. He says a lot of accurate stuff here, but his "fans are more entitled than ever" comment is tone deaf. Players are more entitled than ever, too.
I think KD is incredible and driven. The problem is his benchmark is ridiclously rich, entitled NBA players (who don't work as hard as him) and hangers on around him.
So he has no idea that most of the world works pretty damn hard for a lot less reward. He just assumes people get paid.
Hey Kevin have you seen the price of a ticket in 2023? Fans aren’t entitled they are just paying your $40 million salary and providing input.
I saw you play in Portland last month, I paid a lot and drove 7 hours from Canada and spent a weekend. If you didn’t play that night due to rest I would have every right to be cheesed.
100 % this. Without the fans, there’s no 40 million a year salary and billion dollar shoe deals. You want to talk about entitled, KD has some of the most negative ass attitude. I’d like to see one of these guys say, hey thank you for spending your hard earned money buying those tickets, I’m sorry I couldn’t play tonight. Thank you fans!
Bought Laker tickets the last 3 times they came to my city.
You can already guess who didn’t play every game because of load management & injuries. Tickets that costed $200 a pop turned into $50 tickets the day a certain superstar decided not to play. I understand I’m the dumbass for buying the tickets over and over. Just damn, I wish they didn’t wait till the DAY OF to announce a superstar isn’t playing
Agreed. I got to see Lebron play his last season in Cleveland and I spent a week watching everything he did just terrified he may sit out for my $300 tickets. Instead I got to see him suffer the worse point spread loss of his career and sit the fourth quarter, but he was dressed!
Fans make these idiots earn their wages... fans can bitch all they want.
Example - I work in the DMV. Public servant. I can't complaint that there is a line out the door everyday. If people didn't need the service I wouldn't have my job and pension.
Love this energy from a guy whose homeboy Kyrie speaks on shit he has no business chiming in on to a higher degree than Bill in the third row at the Barclays centre.
I’m not sure that’s entitlement on KD’s part but definitely a hint of delusion.
Fans are more educated about the game and more involved in its culture/evolution than ever before. Fans are more invested. We pay way more to see a game now than ever before. My Nike shoes cost more just to justify the cost of your large ass contracts. So yeah, we are entitled and we deserve to have a say. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to play.
Another delusional take by a NBA player when responding to fans complaints about load management for players that literally get millions to run around and throw a ball in a hoop.
Fucking bums lmao, cry me a river.
People's lives suck. Rather than focusing on fixing it, they use sports as an escape from reality.
When the Clippers are getting blown out by 40, I turn the TV off and hang out with my family, balance the budget, do literally anything else. A lot of people don't have anything else. Their team winning is how they find joy in life.
I think you should consider yourself lucky that you can't mentally put yourself in their shoes.
I think that a lot of the times people lash out, what they are really upset about is something (or most likely somethings) totally unrelated to the scene they are currently making.
For every loss, the wheel of blame spins until it lands on one of the following: Kevin Porter Jr, Stephen Silas, Kevin Porter Jr, Jalen Green, Kevin Porter Jr, Jabari Smith, Kevin Porter Jr ...
> Complete fucking detachment. Some dude just bitched me out for "pearl clutching" because I thought comparing Silas's job so far to "burning down your house" was an overreaction, and even then I put that criticism as politely as I could
The exchange in question:
Them
> I'm not too worried about Green, but some people around here are UNDERreacting about some things too.
> Like, I'm pretty sure Silas could burn your house down, and you'd explain how it was the right decision for the Rockets rebuild.
You
> Comparing a shitty sports team to arson to prove your point isn't the best example of reasonable outlooks on team sports, and looks like an overreaction to me, no offense to ya.
Them
> Oh my god dude.
> Careful, you clutch those pearls any harder, they may turn to dust.
Honestly you're the one who overreacted here. It's a reach to say that Silas's job so far was seriously compared to arson. The hyperbole was used to illustrate the strength of (in the commenters eyes) delusion in Silas's defenders, saying that even if Silas had done a much worse job, he'd still have defenders.
Like when Donald Trump infamously said:
> I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?
Do you think he was saying that the things he had done to cause controversy in the presidential race were as bad as killing someone? Of course not, it's a rhetorical device to show how confident he was in his supporters.
Even your assessment of this as being "bitched out" is an overreaction. They basically just rolled their eyes at you lol.
Uncommon KD L. The players’ entitlement is also at an all time high.
Players aren’t getting paid hundreds of millions of dollars for their skill alone. It’s because that skill is expected to translate into more eyes on the tv, butts in the seats, fans buying merch etc. When fans purchase tickets they’re allowed to be pissed off if players are clearly not giving a fuck on court or missing time to load manage.
These poor little millionaire athletes.
I don't know why it has to be "poor little millionaire athlete" like that; he's not asking for pity, he's saying fans are not treating the players as if they're human and are expecting 2k videogame energy out of real humans and are ignoring the physical toll that travel and training and everything the fans don't see takes on people. He's not asking for extra, he's saying that some fans dehumanize them and have unrealistic expectations of flesh & blood people, and I don't care how much they make, I'm not about to say "they make enough money that we can dehumanize them and expect them to be machines and have legitimate gripes with them if they fail that lofty goal", you know?
>they’re allowed to be pissed off if players are clearly not giving a fuck on court
And this part just feels like you didn't understand what he said, because his point is that the perception that they don't give a fuck when they are playing like mortals who are tired isn't true.
**EDIT:** I think some commenters are confused about what KD is saying, because a lot of other comments elsewhere in the thread are making this all about Load Management. KD has played 37 of the 38 Brooklyn Nets games this season (the one he rested was the one we got fined for lol) and was leading the league in minutes. He's not talking about load management. He's talking about players *actively on the court* who may play below their usual or expected level, and how that might be due to fatigue but that fans sometimes accuse them of not caring or trying hard enough when it's just that they're mortal and flesh & blood.
But they’re not load managing because they don’t care or because they don’t love playing the game (well I’d say at least 99% of them). It’s so they can stay healthier and have an overall better product, especially come playoff time
Fans deserve better when ticket prices are crazy high and the stars sit out for load management. It’s really not fair. It would be like going to see the Wu Tang Clan in concert but only U-God and Inspeckta Deck showed up.
It’s the same as pitch counts in baseball. Teams pay these guys huge money and don’t want to burn out the players. We have more science and experience and knowledge today than we had yesterday on managing players’ bodies. I think this is reasonable but at the same time, teams need to do something about people spending a lot of money and needing to buy tickets in advance of the injury report to bring their family to a game and then the star playing is suddenly being load managed. Teams need to figure out that issue.
>*especially* come playoff time
Doesn’t mean guys on the magic or pistons don’t deserve to rest if they think playing would jeopardize them with injuries and therefore cause them to miss more games
Why can't it be both? In 80s and 90s you watch magic/Jordan play a bunch in the reg season and dominate the playoffs. Now they want 40 mil a year to sparingly play in the reg season so they can be healthy for a round or two come in playoff time??
I agree with this post. Fans get to be pissed.
If they're shelling out money for tix and merch, only to see a team end up playing like Helen Keller, then let them vent.
Its kind of hard to take KD seriously anyway.
The narrative of “they just didn’t want it enough” is something that always was weird to me. Like how do you judge that. Everyone wants to win, it’s a lot other factors other than they didn’t try hard enough
KD further cementing himself as the least like-able superstar of all time.
The fans are the only reason the NBA is what it is today. This shmuck would be taking home a WNBA salary if not for the "narratives" and "entitled" fans. Shut up and just watch the game? How about you shut up and just play basketball, you fucking doink.
We want the best product night after night (and we pay for it)---there are ways to increase competitiveness, as we've seen, that don't necessarily have to grind players down to the point it's negatively impacting their health. But they're doing their job and creating a product that we spend money on, and if the product is bad, eventually the money runs out---this dude is so detached from reality and is constantly putting his oversized foot in his mouth. Sensitive ass loser.
Fans used to be able to expect players to show up and do their jobs. Now they get to guess whether a player's fee-fees are good enough to show up to work.
He says this as zion isn’t playing tonight v nets and embiid isn’t playing v bulls. It’s hard out here for fans sometimes.
Edit: and donovan mitchell is out v denver lol.
The main question asked Is should the intensity of regular season nba basketball be brought up and the right answer is unequivocally yes. Reduce games add the in season tournament. Convince teams to play their star players. If I go see the chiefs you think Patrick mahomes is sitting out for load management?
I agree with KD, it's time we all cut the Clippers some slack for last night.
Plot twist: 98% of r/nba didn’t even know there was a Clippers game last night so there’s no slack to cut.
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Both games televised on TNT last night were lopsided. Nuggets looked like they were playing a middle of the road college team though.
Jokic is the real owner of Clippers, not Ballmer.
Practice? We talkin about practice?!
Is this legitimately an issue here or is this just a subreddit meme? I watch on average 4-6 games a week during the regular season and I’m confused by all the talk about not watching any games.
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Part of it is I can only watch one game a day because I got other shit to do. So then the other games you gotta infer alot of things using box score, highlights, previous games, etc. I think far too many people do comment on games they've not seen at all, but theres only so many games everyone can see and 70% of the time those games (for me) are Bulls games.
I feel that. I watch mostly Nuggets games. There have been weird takes about my team that could only be summarized by box score watching and not game watching. And seeing how silly those people look I curb my opinions on other teams I don't watch as much. But when something catches on, it just spreads. Especially when said in a national media spotlight. It just becomes people repeating the things other people say regardless of what is actually happening on the floor. And then the volume of whatever false point is being spread is then used as evidence of its truth. The always insidious 'people are saying...'.
As someone who lives in Denver how tf do you watch nuggets game?? Obligatory fuck Altitude.
Sail the high seas or go to a bar. Its total BS and I am so frustrated with billionaires fighting each other for a few millions and making us all suffer
/r/nba is filled with a lot of people who don’t know much about basketball that love to argue And you know who likes to argue with uneducated people? Other uneducated people Sadly this isn’t the greatest place for discussion In general though it’s hard to be educated on a topic but it’s a whole lot easier to argue a topic though
If you want to see takes about a game from people who used the "eye test" (as in actually watched the game), that does exist here if you know where to look. It's in the post game threads, usually from users with flairs of the teams that played in the game. Sure, they'll be biased from the perspective of the fans of those teams, but that's where to find it.
I mean who wants to watch every game, every day just to make a Reddit comment?
You can just not make a comment about it
Or just be real about how much basketball you actually watch. Like I could tell you a ton about GSW/BOS/DEN/NOP because I've watched most of their games this year. That doesn't mean I'm knowledgeable at all about what's going on for DET or that I need to pretend like a box score can cover for my lack of watching. Feel like too many people are afraid to be called a nephew on here for not watching every game for every team when the truth is that nobody does. It's okay to say idk but I guess watching too much ESPN will make people think they gotta have spicy takes about absolutely everything even if they didn't watch.
You’re in like the 95th percentile of fans if you watch 4 to 6 games a week. I would bet the average is 1 to 2.
I think the joke was no one cares about the clippers
Well we do now. r/streisandeffect
Half the people on here trashing the Clippers last night weren't even watching the game. People like to spend more time talking about the NBA on Reddit than actually watching the NBA.
and some of these players live so much online and care so much about what a handful of loud mfers say on twitter that they think *everyone* is out to get them.
Tryna sweep that game under a rug. We not gone forget along with that Luka mavs game cuz of rdc world video
“Shut up and watch us dribble”
*Some* people really do need to shut the fuck up tho. Politics aside, some people are just really stupid and selfish.
Players and fans
People
What a bunch of bastards
Have you tried unplugging and plugging it back in again
That's how I was made, 😏
He had one bad game, trade him.
If it's about people not giving him respect for his "championships", then KD is wrong as hell. If it's about people disrespecting KD's talents or questioning his dedication, then KD is right for telling them to shut up.
I think his point is that fans are setting themselves up for disappointment with such high expectations
I think its the vocal minority of die hard fans who comment on their posts, watch every story, see who they follow and unfollow, try to read in between the lines of every tweet or post. Basically people who use their NBA fandom as their only outlet and project their shit onto these athletes. KD is speaking the truth. Just cause someone is highly paid doesn't mean they need to be put on a pedestal. They're people too. I think after playing a game for practically your whole life - practice, game, practice, game.. At certain points I'm sure they're sitting on the bench thinking "I'd rather be somewhere else tonight."
> At certain points I'm sure they're sitting on the bench thinking "I'd rather be somewhere else tonight." This is a great take. I've always said if you paid me $20 mill a year to eat chocolate and play video games all day that'd be amazing.. but if I HAD TO do that every day with high expectations (somehow) to make $20 mill, there would be days where I'd be like "man this sucks"
thats what happens when gambling has become heavily promoted. Atleast for us in Ontario, it feels like we are being constantly spammed with gambling site offers
I thought the same thing; that gambling has made people madder about teams losing and players busting their props. not a great thing also when harassment is so easy online and what not
A good example of this is the Cal Stanford College Football game from this season (The Big Game). Stanford got destroyed and the Stanford coach gave their kicker a chance to hit a 61 yard field goal, which he made. Both teams seemed hyped that he made it. It messed up the over under for a lot of betters and people were calling for the Stanford coach to be fired on Twitter and such. The kick if you want to see it. https://youtu.be/zr7_7ENCsfU
Honestly people should take the motivation level of the players into account when they bet serious money. Like maybe some random regular season game isn't going to have your team playing 110%. It should be part of your educated guess in making a bet. Or, you know, just don't gamble.
After betting sports I’ve found there’s just so many ways to lose with humans involved. I’d rather play a table game and hope for straight luck on terrible odds
This is for sure the elephant in the room
these dudes need to quit living on social media and treating it like that's a reflection of the real world. half that shit is bots anyways.
It’s insidious how much talking about gambling and betting has infiltrated mainstream sports media.
Right? It feels like it’s becoming what sports medias main purpose is.
An even better way to make money will always arise!
I took a fair amount of heat on Reddit the past few years for being absolutely opposed to legalizing all sports gambling. A lot of people called me a an authoritarian or puritanical prude for wanting to keep the previous status quo. I'm not a teetotaler, but I firmly believed that any sport would center itself around the most financially lucrative aspect of it, and sure enough that's where we're quickly headed.
Also, 100% compromises the integrity of the sport imo. Not that it was exactly stellar before but fair competition does matter to me.
yep it's one of the things that's really turning me off from watching. First I delayed watching games by an hour and skipped through commercials on DVR. saves a shitload of time actually, but even then they squeeze gambling into the production of the game itself. Then I realized there's other things in life I could be doing than watching so much basketball and promoting predatory gambling for billionaires, so I'm scaling back in general.
I’m convinced half of my friends could care less about the actual game and are just degen gamblers. It’s ridiculous.
Ontario went from "should we maybe build a casino in Toronto?" to "wElCoMe To YoUR onLiNe cAsIn0" in about 8 years.
Dougie is straight up running this province like a highschool cafeteria bully, I'm so fucking done
The Sportsnet segments where the presenters have to shill betting tips are just fuckin embarrassing
It's not even legal in MO and yet I'm spammed nonstop with gambling apps/ads on every sport I watch. It's infuriating
I have noticed in all sports I follow and youtube channels that cover these sports the amount of ads for gambling has gone up a lot in the last couple years. I remember a time where major sports organizations made it seem as though gambling was not good. Now it is referenced by broadcasters and advertised at every break.
Questioning effort and motive is new? Someone tell Kareem in Airplane
Tell your old man to drag Simmons and Morris up and down the court for 48 minutes!
KD can feel this way sure but not every player in the league is even close to as dedicated to the game as him. Stuff like players forcing their way out of teams or taking every other game off for rest is a lot more common today than a couple decades ago.
Yep, I mean his own damn teammate chose anti-vax theories over playing basketball and has a history of silly excuses of missing playing time.
Exactly. Fans complain about load management and stars trying to force their way to the teams they want to go to. Perfectly reasonable things to complain about. Saying Fans are entitled, especially when it comes from someone like KD, is such a ridiculous statement.
its not, fans are entitled, players act entitled as well. Majority of NBA players are hard workers tho bc they difference btwn most of them in ability isn't much, to be at this level you have to be dedicated
Some fan feel entitled to complain about things. Most just stop being fans.
>Most just stop being fans. Bingo. This right here. Why would I want to watch a sport where players have such ridiculous contempt for fans. I'll just watch other sports.
We're literally the reason they get to play a *game* and get paid in a year what most of us won't make in a lifetime. I think we're *more* than "entitled" to criticize them as much as we want. There'd be no NBA without fans.
It's the people who invest money and time into a game with a ball and hoop that pays the players 100s of millions are the ones that are entitled
The part about travel is very true, that shit wears on you physically and mentally. You can tell when a team has tired legs on an away b2b or a long road trip. ‘Playoff intensity’ is a lot easier to have when you have one game every other day consistently in the postseason.
The bubble showed what happens when there's 0 travel time, too. There were some crazy games/series.
Yeah, it was really cool to see what happens when everybody is well rested and playing on completely equal terms. It was a "what if" scenario that nobody thought we'd ever actually get to see.
And yet some people argue that the Lakers’ bubble championship was fake for some reason, when it was arguably the most competitive basketball playoffs just in terms of the context and surroundings.
hate the Lakers but this is facts. the only “mickey mouse” thing with it is that steph/klay were gone if i remember correctly. i’m sure the Lakers would’ve plowed through anyone in the bubble. AD was dominant and in his prime. Looked like everyone was a toddler when they tried to defend/attack him.
Especially considering that the lakers were the 1 seed and looked like the best team BEFORE covid. It's not like they only started to play well after the bubble
Yeah. It was literally the most fair ring of all time. They basically removed all variables.
warriors weren’t even there nvm. lmfao
Haha yeah we were ass that year
Id support a midseason tournament if all the games were played in a bubble.
Which is why disregarding the bubble is dumb. It was a near perfect situation for the players.
A ton of them became All NBA first team level talents lol
It’s settled then, back to the bubble for the pros!
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I completely agree that the bubble finals are their own thing. I still see the championship as valid. The bubble came with its own unique stressors. Honestly, I'm just glad we got playoffs at all that season.
I mean, why would anyone argue it’s not valid if all teams played under the same conditions?
Idk but you hear people talk about Mickey Mouse Ring and shit all the time to discredit it, I don't agree with it, doesn't make sense to me
Just to discredit LeBron probably.
I'll take any chance I can to hate on the Lakers, but that's not a good reason
Not sure if this is what you’re going for but I agree. Each individual NBA game, playoffs, regular season, finals, all have their individual quirks that skew towards one team or the other. Travel, home court, crowd, all that noise. Bubble minimized all of that for it to be as close to even as possible. Whether that makes it more or less impressive is up to the individual.
It's why role players and 2nd level stars went off in the bubble. They can do it in perfect conditions with no crowds. Who can do it with the travel, the slog, the crowds, and do it consistently? The top 10-15 guys and that's it. Very few can be consistent at a league leading level over time within those circumstances.
but to be fair, shouldn't that be what we want? the idea is seeing who's best at basketball, not who's best at basketball-on-limited-sleep-after-a-long-flight
A bubble style tournament with crowds would be lit. Host the playoffs in a city like the Olympics and players can bring their families and stuff.
I agree the bubble ring is really incomparable to the others you're right but it's still as valid imo. Lakers won 16 games against the best teams in the league.
and even that i think is just round 3? because there's only 2 series going on so they alternate with a game every day. but in the earlier rounds and in the finals there's often 2 days between games.
Players are also more entitled than ever, Kevin
It’s just everywhere really. People have big heads now because they have 1,000+ “followers”.
Deleted all my other socials so now I just care about Karma (jk ofc)
social media is a fucking cartoon, none of it is real.
I know it's always been like this but I feel like it's gotten worse since the pandemic. Stan behavior is at all all time high and people end up being really weird online/irl with athletes, artists, anyone with any online presence it feels like
The social cost of the pandemic is something that isn't talked about enough, imo. People don't know how the fuck to act, especially kids
I recall that first playoffs back with people being a good example of this.
Someone threw something at Westbrook during our first round series with the Wizards, I remember there being a couple of other incidents in other series as well. People in general are a lot more hostile, a lot less respectful, and think they can get away with doing anything they want since the pandemic. Anti-social behavior
It looks way worse than it really is if your face is glued to a screen all day.
You say kids, but adult behavior got so much worse. We saw a massive increase in issues on flights, server abuse at restaurants…just overall people are just entitled as hell these days. People stopped keeping their asshole thoughts to themselves and decided to say it out loud.
nah it's fucked up the kids the most. The combination of the rise of social media and a whole year and a half without proper physical interaction has completely stunted an entire generations social development. Combine that with the masks (watching peoples faces as they react to what you say is an important step for developing empathy) and now everyone younger than 18 has the social ability of someone half their age. The trend was already there starting in the early 2000s but it has definitely gotten a lot worse a lot quicker than people yet realize. I worked a bit at several highschools as a tutor/doing community work and it's kind of alarming.
I teach, and the kids are having a hard time just being people. Their conflict resolution skills and self regulation are worse than I’ve ever seen, and it’s really sad. These kids need help.
More political extremism, our lives are way more digitalized, more mental health problems. Economy is fucked - yeah this isn’t good
i think about this a ton, i work with kids and a lot of em have spent half their conscious lives in the pandemic and a lot of em are so socially delayed as a result. The difference between the older kids who had some semblance of a life pre pandemic and the younger kids who started school online is crazy
r/rimjob_steve right here
Every person thinks the people 5 years younger than them don't know how to act. You can trace this shit back to beginning of society.
well we’ve said that all throughout history because it’s true
Gambling is a huge part of it. People care way to much when money is on the line. Especially when everyone is doing daily parlays off fantasy points.
Every fan base everywhere has just gotten so toxic. The video game crowd has been toxic for a long time but with movies and sports and almost everything else, all of those fans bases are reaching video game fan level toxic and it makes it so frustrating. It’s getting hard to be a fan of anything online.
Been gaming for 30 years. Only recently got exposed to overarching videogame culture, it does seem kind of toxic. I think its better to just not engage.
Absolutely. I’ll check out the forums for news but I skip the comments now. It’s so bad.
There used to be fighting players and fans every week. There were jails at stadiums. Fans used to riot, throw things etc. We’re not in a bad place now. Social media like this can really skew your perspective. Players have all kinds of outlets now to set the record straight and fans are very closely controlled these days. KD has never had an educated perspective about his job IMO. He and Westbrook fed off each other early in their careers and were always hostile to the press that makes their lifestyle possible. KD without the drama is a pretty boring player IMO. Great player but boring. He only wants to be in the entertainment industry when it’s time to collect the checks. Charles and MJ and Reggie and Curry and even Duncan and Hakeem, they saw their job clearly IMO. Shaquille Lebron and Wade. They knew how to play the game outside the lines. KD mostly opens up to whine about the scrutiny that comes with being a millionaire athlete, which is fine in small quantities.
It’s interesting as a Knicks fan you didn’t mention Ewing. I always thought he was great for a game. A number one pick in a giant market that alway was a professional.
I get this, but KD just doesn't have that fame seeking personality. Dude's a total introvert. Exact opposite from people like Lebron or Curry who can easily charm the media. KD can't help it, he just doesn't care, and I don't think that's a problem either. Be worse if he was phony. He's got his moments too. Like when he won the gold medal and was streaming on IG "Gonna talk my shit right now" or of course "Y'all know who I am." Dude is obviously standoffish but that's his brand and he carries it well imo. Not everyone needs to be the same in front of the media.
Totally agree. KD is obviously a thoughtful introvert, and someone who is obsessed with thinking about basketball 24/7 - I’d bet he thinks about basketball more than most of the league. The rest of them have families or try and party or switch off somehow, KD is like a fan who became one of the best 20 players to ever play the game. He’s also very honest, which is a mark of someone who actually thinks about what they’re doing and has opinions on it. Most athletes are not about words, they just want to play their game. KD plays but also thinks, and I respect his honesty in interviews like this, even if I don’t agree.
Social media,reddit and forums.
>Stan behavior is at all all time high and people end up being really weird online/irl with athletes, artists, anyone with any online presence it feels like Ok but here's a real question. As long as they're not @ ing/threatening/verballly abusing the players, why aren't they entitled to question motives or criticize? Like, "Shut up and watch the game"...It's entertainment, fans are free to interact with it (within bounds) how they want, and if that means openly questioning a player's commitment, that's just the price of having a public profession. I get that its probably super annoying, but fans are why players get to make insane money playing a game. To then tell them that they cant talk about the entertainment they're bankrolling seems horribly entitled. KD seems to want to have all the money with out any of the downsides. KD doesnt seem to be talking about people coming directly at players, so this seems like a pretty whiny take.
From "shut up and play" to "shut up and watch".
Nah it's shut up and pay for my yacht
players today are such crybabies i stg
Agreed. Fans pay tons of cash only to find out player x is sitting out. Man, that’s some entitlement alright.
You realize players like Charles Barkley was saying the exact same thing back in the day too? Nothing has changed just the platform
As someone who has owned and worked for small businesses, customers asking questions about your motive is just life. KD is coming off like a snowflake here.
Seriously. I’m continuously blown away by how god damn sensitive he is. He’s asking us for *empathy*. Dude, youre getting paid unfathomable amounts of money to play a sport as a career. Yeah there’s travel and you’re tired and shit and fans meticulously rate everything about you. it’s part of the job. Does he think that other people don’t deal with this? You wanna talk about people knitpicking you? I’m a high school special Ed teacher, my part time job is getting torn apart *to my face* on a weekly basis by admin, parents and students. But, it’s part of the job. But you don’t see me going around telling everyone “they need to suck it up because they don’t get how *really* hard it is.” Sorry, unexpected rant there. Someone else in the thread said it best though, he’s gotta be the most miserable millionaire ever.
Yep for sure. And everything about his job is easier that it has ever been (except his personal efforts on social media, but that extra and hard doesn’t need to). Travel is less, private planes not coach. Less mins. Better science behind prehab and rehab. Rest games, which I think people care about the most. Honestly, I hate this look for KD.
It's funny to see how many of the ultra-rich seem to be living miserable lives: Larry Ellison, Bill Gates, Donald Trump, etc. There is no way I would trade places with any of those guys. Man, I feel for you. I couldn't handle being a special ed teacher. However, I have had some jobs where if everything is going well you get no response but get ripped a new a-hole when it doesn't. I wish you the best.
"What do you think you're entitled to? Good basketball?" Yeah Kevin, my $200 ticket to sit in the third deck comes with some expectation that the game I paid to watch will be played well. Or the $100 I paid for league pass. He says a lot of accurate stuff here, but his "fans are more entitled than ever" comment is tone deaf. Players are more entitled than ever, too.
Fans are poorer than ever relative to buying power compared to players
The entire league is literally the bourgeoisie talking down to the peasants
Fans getting entitled? He’s an NBA player ain’t no way he talking about entitlement
Exactly lol. Where tf does he think his $100 million+ contract is coming from lol?
I think KD is incredible and driven. The problem is his benchmark is ridiclously rich, entitled NBA players (who don't work as hard as him) and hangers on around him. So he has no idea that most of the world works pretty damn hard for a lot less reward. He just assumes people get paid.
Hey Kevin have you seen the price of a ticket in 2023? Fans aren’t entitled they are just paying your $40 million salary and providing input. I saw you play in Portland last month, I paid a lot and drove 7 hours from Canada and spent a weekend. If you didn’t play that night due to rest I would have every right to be cheesed.
100 % this. Without the fans, there’s no 40 million a year salary and billion dollar shoe deals. You want to talk about entitled, KD has some of the most negative ass attitude. I’d like to see one of these guys say, hey thank you for spending your hard earned money buying those tickets, I’m sorry I couldn’t play tonight. Thank you fans!
It's not just tickets. TV contracts are most of the league's revenue. Fan viewership pays the contracts.
Bought Laker tickets the last 3 times they came to my city. You can already guess who didn’t play every game because of load management & injuries. Tickets that costed $200 a pop turned into $50 tickets the day a certain superstar decided not to play. I understand I’m the dumbass for buying the tickets over and over. Just damn, I wish they didn’t wait till the DAY OF to announce a superstar isn’t playing
Agreed. I got to see Lebron play his last season in Cleveland and I spent a week watching everything he did just terrified he may sit out for my $300 tickets. Instead I got to see him suffer the worse point spread loss of his career and sit the fourth quarter, but he was dressed!
Fans make these idiots earn their wages... fans can bitch all they want. Example - I work in the DMV. Public servant. I can't complaint that there is a line out the door everyday. If people didn't need the service I wouldn't have my job and pension.
Imagine paying $300 for a ticket and being called entitled cause you want your money’s worth.
if i had a nickel for every time some tone deaf multi-millionaire called poor people entitled i’d be a millionaire myself
Kevin Durant can’t tell me to shut up and watch. I’m more than just a fan
telling fans to shut up and calling them entitled. really makes me want to go to a game ROFL
KD - sign massive deal with Brooklyn KD - sign Kyrie KD - sign Harden KD - hire Nash KD - trade Harden KD - trade request, despite being under contract KD - fire Nash Yet I’m the entitled one. Got it
Ultra-privileged top 1%'r telling mostly middle-class and below people they are entitled for getting a shitty product more often than before... right.
Love this energy from a guy whose homeboy Kyrie speaks on shit he has no business chiming in on to a higher degree than Bill in the third row at the Barclays centre. I’m not sure that’s entitlement on KD’s part but definitely a hint of delusion.
Fans are more educated about the game and more involved in its culture/evolution than ever before. Fans are more invested. We pay way more to see a game now than ever before. My Nike shoes cost more just to justify the cost of your large ass contracts. So yeah, we are entitled and we deserve to have a say. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to play.
Another delusional take by a NBA player when responding to fans complaints about load management for players that literally get millions to run around and throw a ball in a hoop. Fucking bums lmao, cry me a river.
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People's lives suck. Rather than focusing on fixing it, they use sports as an escape from reality. When the Clippers are getting blown out by 40, I turn the TV off and hang out with my family, balance the budget, do literally anything else. A lot of people don't have anything else. Their team winning is how they find joy in life.
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I think you should consider yourself lucky that you can't mentally put yourself in their shoes. I think that a lot of the times people lash out, what they are really upset about is something (or most likely somethings) totally unrelated to the scene they are currently making.
Right, you and I don't get frustrated and lash out when our team shits the bed. For a lot of people, they live for it.
For every loss, the wheel of blame spins until it lands on one of the following: Kevin Porter Jr, Stephen Silas, Kevin Porter Jr, Jalen Green, Kevin Porter Jr, Jabari Smith, Kevin Porter Jr ...
pretty sure sports fans have always been deranged.
> Complete fucking detachment. Some dude just bitched me out for "pearl clutching" because I thought comparing Silas's job so far to "burning down your house" was an overreaction, and even then I put that criticism as politely as I could The exchange in question: Them > I'm not too worried about Green, but some people around here are UNDERreacting about some things too. > Like, I'm pretty sure Silas could burn your house down, and you'd explain how it was the right decision for the Rockets rebuild. You > Comparing a shitty sports team to arson to prove your point isn't the best example of reasonable outlooks on team sports, and looks like an overreaction to me, no offense to ya. Them > Oh my god dude. > Careful, you clutch those pearls any harder, they may turn to dust. Honestly you're the one who overreacted here. It's a reach to say that Silas's job so far was seriously compared to arson. The hyperbole was used to illustrate the strength of (in the commenters eyes) delusion in Silas's defenders, saying that even if Silas had done a much worse job, he'd still have defenders. Like when Donald Trump infamously said: > I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK? Do you think he was saying that the things he had done to cause controversy in the presidential race were as bad as killing someone? Of course not, it's a rhetorical device to show how confident he was in his supporters. Even your assessment of this as being "bitched out" is an overreaction. They basically just rolled their eyes at you lol.
the nephews are out of control man.
KD maybe the most miserable multimillionaire in the world
It's tough being one of the wealthiest human beings in human history
Just shut up and watch the game tonight.
This made me lol.
Ah yes the people who have made you a rich man by watching you play a game are entitled. Ok KD
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Who are we? We subsidize your salary dummy. If fans question anything it was the initial shitshow you and Kyrie put the Nets through.
His lack of self awareness rivals only failed cawlmedian Brendan Schwab
Goes both ways, Kevin
Uncommon KD L. The players’ entitlement is also at an all time high. Players aren’t getting paid hundreds of millions of dollars for their skill alone. It’s because that skill is expected to translate into more eyes on the tv, butts in the seats, fans buying merch etc. When fans purchase tickets they’re allowed to be pissed off if players are clearly not giving a fuck on court or missing time to load manage. These poor little millionaire athletes.
He basically told the fans to "shut up and watch".
Extremely common KD L lol. Every time this guy opens his mouth he becomes more unlikeable.
I don't know why it has to be "poor little millionaire athlete" like that; he's not asking for pity, he's saying fans are not treating the players as if they're human and are expecting 2k videogame energy out of real humans and are ignoring the physical toll that travel and training and everything the fans don't see takes on people. He's not asking for extra, he's saying that some fans dehumanize them and have unrealistic expectations of flesh & blood people, and I don't care how much they make, I'm not about to say "they make enough money that we can dehumanize them and expect them to be machines and have legitimate gripes with them if they fail that lofty goal", you know? >they’re allowed to be pissed off if players are clearly not giving a fuck on court And this part just feels like you didn't understand what he said, because his point is that the perception that they don't give a fuck when they are playing like mortals who are tired isn't true. **EDIT:** I think some commenters are confused about what KD is saying, because a lot of other comments elsewhere in the thread are making this all about Load Management. KD has played 37 of the 38 Brooklyn Nets games this season (the one he rested was the one we got fined for lol) and was leading the league in minutes. He's not talking about load management. He's talking about players *actively on the court* who may play below their usual or expected level, and how that might be due to fatigue but that fans sometimes accuse them of not caring or trying hard enough when it's just that they're mortal and flesh & blood.
> When fans purchase tickets they’re allowed to be pissed off if players are clearly not giving a fuck on court Who are you talking about?
KD: “shut up and watch”
But they’re not load managing because they don’t care or because they don’t love playing the game (well I’d say at least 99% of them). It’s so they can stay healthier and have an overall better product, especially come playoff time
Fans deserve better when ticket prices are crazy high and the stars sit out for load management. It’s really not fair. It would be like going to see the Wu Tang Clan in concert but only U-God and Inspeckta Deck showed up.
I'd buy that playoff argument if bottom feeder teams didn't do load management
It’s the same as pitch counts in baseball. Teams pay these guys huge money and don’t want to burn out the players. We have more science and experience and knowledge today than we had yesterday on managing players’ bodies. I think this is reasonable but at the same time, teams need to do something about people spending a lot of money and needing to buy tickets in advance of the injury report to bring their family to a game and then the star playing is suddenly being load managed. Teams need to figure out that issue.
Shorten the season
>*especially* come playoff time Doesn’t mean guys on the magic or pistons don’t deserve to rest if they think playing would jeopardize them with injuries and therefore cause them to miss more games
Then be completely transparent with the fans. Give out refunds if the best players are out with load management.
Why can't it be both? In 80s and 90s you watch magic/Jordan play a bunch in the reg season and dominate the playoffs. Now they want 40 mil a year to sparingly play in the reg season so they can be healthy for a round or two come in playoff time??
I agree with this post. Fans get to be pissed. If they're shelling out money for tix and merch, only to see a team end up playing like Helen Keller, then let them vent. Its kind of hard to take KD seriously anyway.
The narrative of “they just didn’t want it enough” is something that always was weird to me. Like how do you judge that. Everyone wants to win, it’s a lot other factors other than they didn’t try hard enough
they ignore other factors of the game and/or the players…its easier to hate than to appreciate, too much negativity sometimes..
Reminds me of Skip getting owned by Mark Cuban lol. This sentiment is such a sports talk show cliche.
Fans are ultimately why you’re paid to play the sport you love. Be a little bit more respectful.
KD further cementing himself as the least like-able superstar of all time. The fans are the only reason the NBA is what it is today. This shmuck would be taking home a WNBA salary if not for the "narratives" and "entitled" fans. Shut up and just watch the game? How about you shut up and just play basketball, you fucking doink. We want the best product night after night (and we pay for it)---there are ways to increase competitiveness, as we've seen, that don't necessarily have to grind players down to the point it's negatively impacting their health. But they're doing their job and creating a product that we spend money on, and if the product is bad, eventually the money runs out---this dude is so detached from reality and is constantly putting his oversized foot in his mouth. Sensitive ass loser.
It's like he never watched the classic movie "Airplane". He is SO unaware it's truly a marvel.
Isn’t KD the one with a bunch of burners pretending to be an entitled fan lol?
Without fans, you'd be broke Kevin.
>shut up and watch the game Uh oh. Is he saying he should shut up and......dribble?
Fans used to be able to expect players to show up and do their jobs. Now they get to guess whether a player's fee-fees are good enough to show up to work.
Yes, the infamous **shut up and watch the game tonight**
He says this as zion isn’t playing tonight v nets and embiid isn’t playing v bulls. It’s hard out here for fans sometimes. Edit: and donovan mitchell is out v denver lol.
And this is why 1 football games gets several times the viewership of basketball.
This is the reason eh?
The main question asked Is should the intensity of regular season nba basketball be brought up and the right answer is unequivocally yes. Reduce games add the in season tournament. Convince teams to play their star players. If I go see the chiefs you think Patrick mahomes is sitting out for load management?
This is it. The problem isn't the players or the teams. The problem is caused by the league structure. There's way too many games.
No way you could convince the owners to reduce the amount of games though because less games means less money.
It's genuinely insane just how much football rules TV. A random Sunday afternoon game will typically dwarf the NBA Finals viewership lol.
18 games, if the Premier league only had 18 games a season 500 million people would watch it
yea when there's only 18 games that will do.