“Divisive” LeBron James Makes NBA Games “Unattractive”, Claims $350 Million Rich Entrepreneur
Over an illustrious career that has spanned 21 seasons, LeBron James has racked up an incredible CV only a few can rival. The 39-year-old living legend has won four NBA titles, four NBA MVP honors and countless All-Star and All-NBA accolades.
LeBron James will go down in history as one of the greatest basketball players to ever step on an NBA court. He has been a model professional and a source of inspiration for countless aspiring hoopers.
However, despite his continued brilliance, entrepreneur Patrick Bet-David has claimed that LeBron has made the NBA unattractive because of his divisive nature. He even blamed LeBron for the NBA’s poor viewership numbers compared to the NFL.
Has “divisive” LeBron James made the NBA “unattractive”?
In a recent episode of the PBD Podcast, Youtuber and $350 million rich entrepreneur Patrick Bet-David called LeBron “divisive”. He said, “LeBron is divisive. He makes the game unattractive. He makes it unattractive to watch, unattractive to follow. I haven’t followed the Lakers since this guy joined the Lakers.”
The comments by PBD should be taken with a pinch of salt because LeBron’s political ideology doesn’t align with Patrick’s. His comments couldn’t be farther from the truth, as LeBron’s exceptional skills consistently draw millions of viewers to NBA games.
Patrick also compared the viewership statistics of the NBA and the NFL to further justify his point. However, that is a gross simplification of a really complex and nuanced problem. While the NFL enjoys greater popularity and viewership within the USA, the NBA surpasses the NFL in terms of global popularity and influence.
In fact, basketball is the third most followed sport in the world–only behind soccer and cricket. According to Sports Monkie, basketball has garnered 2.2 billion fans worldwide. However, the NFL’s recent moves could prove to be disastrous for the NBA’s stronghold on Christmas Day.
The NFL has traditionally held a strong presence on Thanksgiving Day, while the NBA has historically dominated the Christmas Day holiday. However, in recent times, the NFL has begun scheduling games during the Christmas holiday. This season, the NFL hosted three games during Christmas. The average viewership of those games was 28.47 million viewers.
On the contrary, the NBA hosted five games during the holiday and garnered an average viewership of 2.88 million viewers. That’s almost 10x less than the NFL’s average viewership. However, it still remains to be seen whether the NFL will pursue Christmas Day games in the future.
The NFL’s top executives have stated that they won’t schedule games on Christmas if the holiday falls outside their regular broadcasting window.
