http://www.dbsforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=78332

http://www.dbsforums.com/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=4637373&postcount=13

None of the reasons as to why the NBA's popularity has declined is
the only reason why the NBA has suffered over the past decade. In
fact, there are a multitude of reasons. Those include (but are not
limited to):

1. The demise of the Chicago Bulls dynasty and the league's greatest
star -
Michael Jordan.

2. The lack of compelling rivalries such as 76ers-Celtics, 76ers-
Lakers,
Lakers-Celtics, Celtics-Pistons, Pistons-Bulls, Bulls-Knicks, Bulls-
Jazz, etc.
I think this is a huge reason because every spring, these teams would
meet deep into the postseason almost every & contend for the
conference
title or NBA Finals. Sure, the Western Conference has the Suns, Mavs,
&
Spurs - but they have not developed a consistent pattern of clashing
in
the postseason the way the teams I listed above did in years past
(although they may very well be on their way to doing that in later
years).

3. As a result of Number 2, the league's biggest stars (i.e., Kobe
Bryant &
LeBron James), do not get deep into the playoffs every year where
viewership increases with every round. Last year, was the first time
that
King James got past the second round and Kobe has been stuck to first
round status or worse since the Lakers lost in the Finals in 2004.
Again,
this may be changing and the NBA may be on the verge of reversing this
trend.

4. When you combine 2 & 3, one begins to realize how fortunate the NBA
was from 1980 to 1998. The league's biggest stars always seemed to
make the league's biggest showcase, something that has not been true
since 2002. This may be changing as well.

5. ABC's television coverage of the NBA is vastly inferior to that of
its
predecessor, NBC.

6. Daivd Stern's decision to rely more on cable TV to broadcast
conference
finals and the All-Star game (along with reducing the number of Sunday
network games) instead of the major networks.

7. The perception of thuggery among the athletes in the
NBA among its fans - symbolized by the Malice in the Palace in
November
2004.

As Michael Wilbon put it in the following Washington Post
article, "NBA players have endured more scrutiny, pertaining to
image, than any other professional athletes in America. This was the
case in the 1970s, when the league had to deal openly with the
perception that the league was too black and too drug infested. And
after a very cozy period with patrons and Madison Avenue from, say,
1984 until about 2000, the league is back to dealing with the
perception that too many of its players are thugs.

Whether that's racial code or not, the NBA is a business and Stern is
its chief operating officer, and he's had to deal with the perception
affecting the league's reality and bottom line. The recent adoption
of an age limit, the dress code, and the crackdown on demonstrative
complaining to the refs is all part of a larger effort to improve the
league's image.

So was hiring a conservative operative to figure out how the league
that had married itself to hip-hop could be better perceived by the
people who buy the tickets and jerseys.

You can sugar-coat this any way you want but the bottom line is: A
black league has to be palatable to white patrons. And black
multimillionaires swinging at each other isn't part of the equation.
If Stern doesn't send the message that the league has zero tolerance,
it's incredibly bad business."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...801403_pf.html

These are just some of the many reasons as to why the NBA is where it
is today.