If there's one man in the NBA who has the power to make change, it could be LeBron James.
The Los Angeles Lakers superstar and NBA's singular powerhouse was asked about the state of the league following the adjustments to the All-Star Game. In a video posted by ESPN's Dave McMenamin, he said that change was both inevitable and necessary.
"Our game, there's a lot of [expletive] threes being shot," James said on Thursday ahead of the Lakers' game against the Sacramento Kings. "So it's a bigger conversation than just the All-Star Game."
Conversations about the steadily declining rating numbers in basketball combined with the rising numbers of three-pointers have been a common theme on social media in the past few days, with commissioner Adam Silver going so far as to address the waning TV ratings earlier this week in an article from The Athletic's Joe Vardon and Sam Amick.
However, the commissioner dismissed the concerns, saying that the league is at an "inflection point where people are watching more programming on streaming than they are in traditional television."
Though last year the All-Star game surpassed 2023's record-low of 4.6 million average viewers, it still only reached 5.5 million — which would have been the lowest mark since 1990.
In response, the league decided to change the format of the All-Star Game this season, getting rid of the East vs. West showdown and turning it into a four-team tournament.
"It had to change, something had to change," James said of the new format. "I mean it's different, in a sense. We'll see when we get there, it's different. Anytime you make some kind of change there's gonna be some (pushback)."
James also mentioned that he had some ideas of his own that could possibly work, but didn't want to elaborate on them.
The waning numbers have turned the conversation toward how the product can be improved, whether that be the All-Star Game of the NBA in general, with many harping on the increased focus of three-pointers turning the league into a repetitive product.
"We gotta do something. Obviously, the last couple years have not been a great All-Star Game that Sunday night," James said. "But I mean listen, it's a bigger conversation, it's not just the All-Star Game, it's our game in general.
The three-point numbers are at an all-time high, with teams putting up 37.5 attempts beyond the arc per game this season — up from 35.1 last year. Such has been the case over the last decade-plus, with a period from the 2009-10 to the 2023-24 season that saw it go from 18.1 per game to 35.1.
Despite the skyrocketing numbers, Silver also dismissed the idea that the league should push back the three-point line, telling The Athletic that moving it is not in play and that the game is "in a great place." However, he did acknowledge that there have been problems with the product and that if there was a fix-all solution, he'd happily consider it.
“If I thought there was a … Golden At-Bat sort of quick fix, I’d put it on the table. I don’t think there is one here."
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