NBA Fans Are ROASTING the Finals Broadcast… For Good Reason

Fans say the NBA Finals don’t feel special anymore—and the league might actually agree.

Transcript

00:00Game two of the NBA Finals was so lopsided that the discourse after the game was about

00:04the trophies on the court? Here's what you need to know. So after game one of the NBA Finals,

00:09a lot of fans had the same takeaway. The NBA has sucked all of the aura out of what the NBA

00:14Finals used to be. Because ESPN didn't really do a great job in my opinion of making this feel like

00:20an event. The NBA Finals production sort of just feels like a regular season game on a Tuesday

00:24night. A lot of this criticism was focused on the playing surface. Fans yearned for that big

00:29Larry O'Brien trophy in the middle of the court, or at least some sort of text indicating that

00:34this is the Finals. So for game two, the NBA or ESPN or both decided to put some trophies on the

00:40court. Except they weren't actually there. They were just digitally imposed using augmented reality.

00:45You can tell pretty easily. Fans were still pretty disappointed. NBA, this is not what we meant!

00:51Actually, the giant trophy logo was only there between 2005 and 2009. There's a physical on-court

00:57Finals logo from then until 2014. Then players' safety concerns were raised and the decals were

01:03removed, but they still put them back in 2017 and 2020. And of course, the NBA has never had

01:08problems putting other brand logos on the court. Not having a trophy or a Finals logo on the court

01:13is nothing new, so what's the big fuss about this year? The core problem is really just a microcosm of

01:18a wider concern about how the NBA Finals are being presented. Among other things missing are the

01:23player intros at the beginning of the game, patches on the jerseys, and the national anthem.

01:27This doesn't feel like the Finals, it doesn't feel like there's stakes, it doesn't feel significant,

01:32and most importantly, it doesn't feel big. And people can tell. The good news is that the NBA

01:36is listening. After game one, Adam Silver told reporters he was reading the social media criticism,

01:41and that the league would look into putting a trophy logo on the court. Also, NBC has already

01:45announced that they will be including player intros in their broadcast next year. So,

01:49things are moving in the right direction. So what do you think? Do you want a trophy on the court?

01:53Let us know in the comments below, make sure to like the video, and subscribe for more NBA content.