When Three-Point Shots Kill!

They sure bother somebody, anyway

Glad you’re here. Happy holidays.

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Just curious: Is the three-point shot taking the fun out of the NBA for you?

I ask because the commissioner of the league worries enough about that question that he and his fellow NBA pointy-heads are having “many discussions” on the topic. They’re trying to figure out what constitutes too many threes being taken, or to at least find the point at which the repeated firing of threes turns off fans.

Adam Silver — that’s the commissioner’s name — talked about all this with a group of reporters this week in Las Vegas, where the championship of the NBA Cup was played. (The NBA cup is an in-season mini-tournament designed to swipe a few extra eyeballs during the height of the NFL season. It went okay. Milwaukee won.)

"The answer is yes, [we are having] many discussions about the style of basketball [being played]," Silver said. "I would not reduce it to a so-called three-point shooting issue. I think we look more holistically at the skill level on the floor, the diversity of offense, the fan reception to the game, all of the above.”

I didn’t really follow that last part, but I get the gist. The Boston Celtics are on a pace to smash the NBA single-season record for three-point attempts, and teams just generally are shooting more threes — passing up lots of mid-range jumpers in the process.

The result is an outside-in game, threes and trees. Teams either bomb away from the perimeter or use the threat of that shot to draw defenses out and then fire a pass deep into the lane for either a layup, and and-one drive, or a jam.

Do you care?

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None of this has ever bothered me a bit. The game evolves. When teams finally start emphasizing ball-hawking perimeter defense, their opponents might well start employing that mid-range jumper again, just to force an adjustment. It’s basketball hide and seek, featuring large and athletic humans.

But Silver’s words drew attention because they come at a time when the NBA’s ratings are down, which alarms some people. It would alarm me, too, except for the context.

Yes, NBA ratings are down. Know why? Because the NBA, like almost all sports, still holds its primary broadcasting contracts with traditional carriers. It remains a cable TV sport, mostly. And as cable users continue their mass exodus to the world of apps, all of the numbers go down.

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The NBA’s ratings have taken an early season dip, true. But according to the industry site Sports Media Watch, they’ve taken less of a hit than NCAA men’s hoops, women’s hoops, the NHL, etc. Overall, viewers are leaving the platforms, not so much the sports themselves.

Silver noted that the NBA has set the highest attendance total in its history in each of the last two seasons. Its social media audience, meanwhile, “is at the highest of any league and continuing to grow exponentially,” he said. The league is migrating its product to streaming services posthaste. It’ll be fine.

Or, to put it another way, in this very same conversation in Las Vegas, the commissioner had to fend off questions about the league expanding by at least two more teams. Does a dying product do that?

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Anyway, three-pointers. Silver said the NBA is not considering moving the three-point line farther out, which some folks have suggested. The commissioner also suggested that from his own perspective, “It's not so much a three-point issue, but that some of the offenses start to look sort of cookie cutter, and teams are copying each other. I think that's something we should pay attention to."

I mean, knock yourself out. Pro teams have copied winning formulas from each other for decades. Then again, I don’t have any issue with a wide-open game of threes. I’d be interested to hear from any of you who do — maybe you’re on to something that I can’t see. Let me know.