The NBA’s Christmas Day games, a longstanding tradition, faced fierce competition this year as the NFL boldly scheduled matchups on Christmas, drawing between 27 and 29 million viewers and overshadowing the NBA’s 5 million for the Celtics-Lakers clash, revealing a significant decline in viewership.
The other NBA games did significantly worse. For example, the clash between the Mavericks and Suns had just 1.5 million viewers tune in.
Entrepreneur Patrick Bet-David, an Iranian-born American, is critical of the NBA’s waning appeal, attributing it to the league’s overtly political stance.
