The other day, I wrote about the idea of the Golden-at-Bat rule in baseball, a radical concept that could shake up the game. It's a strange idea because baseball is more popular than it's been in years. Basketball, on the other hand, needs help. Radical ideas like that Golden-at-Bat rule might not be necessary in baseball, but an equally radical idea is precisely what the NBA needs right now to address its crisis of declining viewership and engagement.

Famed sportscaster Dan Patrick, in fact, gave it as an example of the kind of extreme change the NBA needs to do to save themselves and I couldn't agree more. And save themselves they do need: ratings and attendance have been down for years; just this past year it was down over 50%. They are in trouble.

The Old ABA Saves the Day

This isn't the first time. Back in the day the game was viewed as boring and conservative, and that inspired a new rival league to form: the ABA. The ABA revolutionized basketball with fast breaks, a dynamic style of play, and innovations like the 3-pointer—elements that are now integral to the NBA. Its rivalry with the NBA sparked lawsuits and culminated in a merger that essentially reshaped the league. The end result looked a lot like the ABA with a new name, a fact that most players of that era agree with. As player and coach Doug Moe later said, "The ABA might have lost the battle, but we won the war. The NBA now plays our kind of basketball."

Without the ABA to steal from, would the NBA have survived? Even after the merger, it was touch and go for awhile. The NBA was so unpopular that games were taped and broadcast late at night after most people had gone to bed. It really wasn't until Bird and Magic came into the league that things started to improve. But make no mistake: Bird and Magic's style of play was all ABA. It wouldn't be wrong to say that when the NBA merged with the ABA, the old NBA died and they simply renamed the ABA to NBA.

In Trouble Again

Now 48 years later, the NBA is in serious trouble again. This time there is no rival league to take from.

This time the problem is not the speed of play. But it has once again become extremely boring. Today, the NBA has become a game of threes. There is no longer any inside game. Images of Bird or Magic, Jordan or Kobe, weaving around defenders as they drive to the basket, throwing up a layup and being hammered down, taking the foul while the ball somehow amazingly falls in used to be what you thought of when you thought of the NBA. But in today's game, no one drives in. Is the defense too good to stop them? No. No one challenges people who go inside—the center usually isn't even in the lane anymore—but no one challenges jump shots either, so everyone just takes the easy route and shoots the ball, usually from behind the 3-point line.

Possessions are often reduced to quick passes and long-range shots, with minimal defense and virtually no inside play. Team A gets the ball, takes it half court, pass it once, then shoot a three. Miss. Other team gets it, takes it to half court, passes it once, shoots a three. Miss. Repeat for the entire game. With so many three point attempts, some do go in so the games end up being fairly high scoring, but it is incredibly boring: just pass and shoot (and usually miss), pass and shoot. Defense is gone, any kind of offensive play is gone. This starkly contrasts the physical, strategic game of the past, where players like Jordan and Magic battled defenders to create spectacular plays. It's hard to imagine how any of today's players would have survived in any other era of the league, even the pre-ABA one—or especially the 1990s when defense was so strong that games were typically held to below 100, even below 90.

Let's Fix it Right This Time

So how do they fix this? They need to do something, because they are just bleeding fans. Gen Z evidently likes it, but they are the only ones: longtime fans are leaving the game in record numbers and no one else is watching—all watching metrics are way down. Another few years of this and advertisers may start to turn elsewhere, then the league really will be in trouble.

I say they need to loosen some of these rules that killed defense and they have to bring back the fundamentals of basketball. I could kind of go both ways on banning or capping the 3-pointer, which is a common idea among fans. The incredible prevalence of 3-pointer attempts today is just a symptom of the problem, not the cause, so I'm not sure banning or capping it would have any effect. Bringing back defense should be the number one priority.

Basketball’s future hangs in the balance. What changes do you think would restore the NBA’s excitement and bring fans back to the game?

David is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Twitter or Mastodon.