Contrary to what you may have heard earlier this season, the NBA’s ratings are just fine.
After many in the media treated the NBA’s early-season viewership slump as a five-alarm fire, the league’s ratings rebounded during the second half of the regular season, finishing down a mere 2% versus last year. This decline is far less than the percentage of homes that cut the cord in that same period, suggesting the NBA “beat the spread” in some sense. And now, the NBA playoffs are off to a strong start.
The league had its largest opening weekend playoff audience in 25 years earlier this month, increasing viewership by 18% versus last year and averaging nearly 5 million viewers per contest. Those are not figures that scream crisis, as some in the media had you believe.
To be certain, some criticism was warranted.
The league found itself down nearly 20% at the beginning of the year, which was enough to legitimize discussion about the quality of the television product the NBA puts out. Most of those discussions were held in good faith. There are too many 3-pointers. The officiating sucks. Star players rest too often. These are all seemingly legitimate, on-court reasons that the NBA’s television product could suffer.
Then, there were the familiar voices who tried to tie a temporary ratings dip to broader, ambiguous cultural concerns. But a quick look at the actual ratings — or even a casual glance at sports media between April and June — tells a different story. The NBA’s cultural relevance remains as strong as ever.
And two preeminent NBA voices felt the need to call out two purveyors of these types of narratives after the NBA’s recent ratings success. The Ringer founder Bill Simmons and fellow podcast host Ryen Russillo singled out Outkick founder Clay Travis and writer Bobby Burack during a recent episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast.
Bill Simmons and Ryen Russillo EVISCERATE NBA ratings doomers Clay Travis and Bobby Burack pic.twitter.com/eyQBbYuURL
— The r/BillSimmons Podcast (@rBillSimmonsPod) April 28, 2025
“This is one of the best 24-hour stretches the league’s had in a while,” Simmons said after a weekend full of competitive playoff games.
“Yeah, Clay Travis, how about tweeting about the ratings?” Russillo replied sarcastically.
“Get Bobby Burack on that one!” Simmons quipped.
“Look, I realize ‘Group Economics’ wasn’t a great jersey idea either,” Russillo joked, referencing the pandemic-era social justice messaging on NBA jerseys that has since been criticized by the right and left alike.
The comments, which were obviously lighthearted in nature, hold plenty of truth. Travis and Co. have been mum about NBA ratings once the data stopped fitting their narrative.
And so, just like Outkick has every right to call out those in the media who get it wrong, as they often do, Simmons and Russillo have every right to call out Outkick when they’ve clearly missed the mark.
Suggesting the NBA has an audience-retention problem that is exclusive to it and that doesn’t impact other sports leagues not named the NFL is disingenuous at best. Simmons and Russillo are ready to serve up some crow.
