Clay Travis: “Last year in Game 6, with a Canadian team in the NBA Finals, the numbers were down substantially – 18.3 million watched Warriors vs. Raptors. Last Sunday night, 5.6 million people watched Lakers vs. Heat. When the NBA sees those numbers and knows they basically lost 70% of its NBA Finals audience in the space of one year, they are thinking what...?”
Jason Whitlock: “They’re going to chalk up half of that 70% drop off to ‘we're just playing at the wrong time, and there’s too much competition’, then the other half they’re going to be concerned about is the politics… There is a reason to be concerned and I’ll frame it this way: If Tiger Woods is anywhere near the top 3 or 4 of the Masters' leaderboard in mid-November when the Masters is going to be played – the NFL will still be going on – there won't be a 70% drop off in Masters TV ratings. Tiger Woods is historical, compelling, and people will find a way to watch him. LeBron James is supposed to be THAT kind of compelling draw. He’s supposed to be the Muhammad Ali of this era. He is supposed to be right up there with Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods as a guy who is ‘must-see TV’ regardless of when he’s playing. That is clearly not the case with LeBron, and he’s NOT one of those guys. The NBA is probably going to sit back and say ‘we may have to transition to a new superstar'. LeBron to me has damaged his legacy with all the politics. When you are the biggest star in sports, and you are trying to say you’re on the same level as Michael Jordan, your primary responsibility is to grow the popularity of the game, and he hasn’t done that. He’s become a polarizing figure, he’s become a political figure, and he’s exposed himself as not very sophisticated. Last week I wrote that he’s the ‘Black Donald Trump’, and the comparison is really more of an insult to Trump than it is to LeBron. If I’m Trump, I don’t want to be compared to LeBron. LeBron is crude, crass, and unsophisticated, and all of the things that he allegedly dislikes about the President are actually true about him. He’s run off a significant segment of basketball fans. It’s just not a good look for his legacy, and if I were ESPN, TNT, and advertisers that are tied to the NBA I would be very concerned.” (Full Segment Above)
Listen to Jason Whitlock join Clay Travis on Outkick the Coverage to explain why he believes LeBron James has tanked the NBA’s television ratings, and damaged his basketball legacy in the process with his persistent and often combative political rhetoric.
Check out the segment above as Whitlock calls LeBron the ‘Black Donald Trump’, and details why LeBron has all the same negative qualities that he criticizes the President of having.
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