Shaquille O’Neal says he’s bored with basketball. The former Los Angeles Lakers center reacted to a recent report about the NBA’s declining ratings by claiming that the league has become too predictable-and he quickly pointed to Stephen Curry, the master of three-pointers, as the reason.
According to a report by Sports Media Watch, ratings for the first two days of the 2024-2025 NBA season dropped by as much as 47% compared to last year, depending on the game.
O’Neal didn’t hold back on finding a reason for the ratings decline. On the latest episode of “The Big Podcast with Shaq,” the three-time NBA champion claimed that the game has become too predictable and “boring,” which he believes is why fans have stopped tuning in.
“I have a theory,” Shaq told co-host Adam Lefkoe. “It’s down because we’re looking at the same thing. Everybody’s running the same plays. At the top of the key, dribble handoff,” he asserted.
Blaming Stephen Curry
The Big Aristotle played in an era dominated by giants like Hakeem Olajuwon, Yao Ming, Ben Wallace, Karl Malone, Tim Duncan, and David Robinson, who ruled the NBA in the ’90s and early 2000s. So it’s no surprise that O’Neal isn’t impressed with a game increasingly led by sharpshooters.
“Steph Curry and those guys messed it up,” he said. “I didn’t mind Golden State back in the day shooting threes, but not every team is a three-point shooter, so why does everybody have the same strategy?”
O’Neal explained that he recently spoke with a head coach who confessed that teams were looking to shoot more than 50 three-pointers per game, with the goal of making between 10 and 15 of them.
“I was like, ‘Well, that’s not gonna help you win,’“ Shaq warned, adding, “I think it makes the game boring.”
O’Neal’s prediction
For Shaq, the bottom line is clear: as long as teams’ primary weapon remains the three-pointer, “the viewership will continue to go down.“
Some analysts agree with the former Orlando Magic star, with a few even speculating that if the numbers continue to drop, the NBA may need to consider rules that limit how often teams can shoot from behind the arc.
