NBA woes: The trio won, but who will beat the trio?

There is a saying in sports that the title is easier to win than to defend, because everyone wants to win the championship, everyone wants to be better than the best. Think about this theory, and try to apply the logic to your personal experience, business or private.

The halo of the best is not easily acquired, but it can be easily lost. People in the business world, even entire corporations, face a similar problem. Today, even the greatest success does not guarantee protection from future difficulties, but is only a warning for dangers and threatening competitors.

She found herself in a similar situation NBA League. Just a few months after the largest TV deal in sports history was signed, which will bring the league and club owners a combined $76 billion in broadcast rights over the next 11 seasons, serious debate has erupted about how much product quality, competitive and interesting on the basketball court.

Trouble in paradise

Complaints about today's NBA league are well-argued and numerous, and it is difficult to find the exact causes of the problem. Some mention the lack of domestic, American superstars such as Magic, Bird, Jordan or LeBron at their peak.

Their positions were mostly replaced by Europeans, such as Jokić, Janis or Dončić, and it was also seen at the last OI that the difference between America and the rest of the basketball world is getting smaller, if it exists at all.

On this topic, as well as on the differences in working with younger categories in the USA and in Europe, we already wrote in one of the texts.

Another major objection is related to the number of games in the NBA league. Teams play 82 games each in the regular season, which many consider too many. In the last ten years, the occurrence of the so-called load management, i.e. resting the best players, in order to preserve freshness and health before the playoffs.

This drastically reduces the quality of the self product which is marketed to viewers, who much prefer the uncertainty of the NFL season and the fact that there every game is almost crucial, because the teams play 17 of them in a season.

However, it will be difficult to change anything in this matter, because the peppered TV rights require a large number of matches, as well as the owners who generate huge revenues through the sale of tickets and related items in the hall.

After all, since the 1967/68 season, the NBA season schedule has consisted of 82 games, so the big question is how much shortening the NBA season would increase the competition's popularity.

Apart from these, there are other various theories, such as the fact that the attention span of today's man is much shorter than in the past, so many people choose to watch summaries instead of complete matches.

The NBA league was ahead of its time here, so it has long since allowed its video content to be downloaded, modified and used without any consequences, thus creating a real marketing boom and bringing its stars additional popularity through increased reach on social media.

The phenomenon and history of the three-point shot

It is clear that there is no single answer to the complex question about the real popularity of today's NBA league.

It is very likely that the lower TV ratings are the result of various factors, which increasingly include the appeal of the style of basketball. The game became too fast and more dependent on the three-point shot.

Something that, once upon a time, represented a revolution that was somewhat avoided, today is a tool that cannot be done without.

The three-point line was introduced for the first time before the start of the 1979/80 season, which then met with various reactions, mostly negative. Neither the players nor the coaches were enthusiastic, but neither were the owners.

From today's perspective, it sounds paradoxical that one of the loudest opponents of the introduction of the three-point shot was the then owner of the Golden State Warriors, Franklin Miuly, who called the change immoral and saw it as a danger to the concept of team basketball. This same franchise, three and a half decades later, would build a dynasty precisely on the three-point shot.

In the first NBA season in which the three-pointer was introduced, the number of such attempts in one game was 5,6. It was considered that the three-point shot was an unreliable shot, so the game through the centers, in the immediate vicinity of the hoop, was much more emphasized. The fact that in the six games of the final series of the NBA League that season, between the Lakers and the 76ers, only one three-pointer was shot is incredible.

In the 2024/25 season, one team shoots an average of 37,6 three-pointers per NBA game.

Pioneers, causes and models

It's hard to pin down who is most responsible for the meteoric rise in popularity of the three-point shot.

For a long time, there was a belief that a superstar in the center position was a prerequisite to win a championship title. Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Walton... these are just some of the names of the players who were considered the best until the mid-eighties.

There were great players in outside positions as well, such as Oscar Robertson or Jerry West, but championship titles were mostly won by teams that had better centers.

At the start, even the guards, let alone the centers, were shying away from the three-point shot, so the logical conclusion was that the three-point shot does not bring championship titles.

The first great player to include the three-point shot in his repertoire was Larry Bird. The three-point line was introduced in his rookie season, but it took him a few years to adjust and see the benefits of the long shot.

He didn't shoot too much from a distance, but he was very accurate, while he had a habit of saving his attempts for the most important moments of the game, when he knew how to touch the opponent's morale with a hit three.

He also won the first three editions of the three-point shooting contest at All-Star on weekends. Many see the beginning of this competition in 1986 as one of the most important things in the history of basketball.

The format and uncertainty of the competition popularized this shot, which soon became a favorite of many kids on basketball courts across America. They may not have been tall and strong enough to dunk, but they were skilled and accurate enough to hit the three-point shot.

Some coaches who did not have at their disposal a team gifted with athletics also thought similarly. In 1988, the then young Rick Pitino made it to the University of Providence Final Four tournament relying precisely on the three-point shot. Pitino had to find a solution to the lack of physically dominant players, so he based his team's game on penetration, passing and long-range attempts.

The last decade of the last century also brought Reggie Miller, who, until the appearance of Ray Allen and later Steph Curry, was considered the most lethal three-pointer in the history of basketball.

A big thing was brought about by a rule change in 2004, which banned the use of hands in defense. This led to a big advantage for forwards in the penetration game, which required more rotations and help on defense, and led to passes to the open player who had more room for three-point shots.

Smart coaches saw the opportunity faster than others. One such visionary was Stan van Gundy, who led the Orlando Magic from the bench.

This team was led by dominant center Dwight Howard who was a force at center, but they lacked a quality solution at wing center. Van Gundy realized that he could solve the problem by surrounding Howard with four great shooters, which would also give Howard more room in the racket.

He encouraged the team to shoot more three-pointers than any other team in the history of basketball, and this brought them a place in the NBA Finals.

They didn't go to the championship title, but this generation of Orlando showed a different basketball philosophy, and thus paved the way for the phenomenon of Steph Curry and the revolution of the Houston Rockets.

Curry, the Rockets and the analytics factor

Steph Curry is the first true superstar who based his game primarily on the three-point shot. It would be wrong to conclude that Curry's qualities end there, but his shooting talent opened up other options for him, and made him the best basketball player in the world for a period.

He was lucky to arrive in the league when the three-pointer was no longer considered a bad shot, but also to have his team taken over by Steve Kerr, who at one time was one of the most accurate shooters in the NBA.

The biggest opponents of his Golden State Warriors in the West were the Houston Rockets, who represented the basketball laboratory of their architect, general manager Daryl Morey.

This successful official is one of the most faithful supporters of analytics in basketball, which preached that a three-point shot is many times better than a two-point shot, with all the risks it entails.

Mori had the power in the team hierarchy to be able to choose coaches who would follow this philosophy, and he found the perfect partner in Mike D'Antoni, who had already led a revolution in the world of basketball, when he patented with his Phoenix Suns 7 seconds or less attack.

The Houston Rockets completely eliminated the half-distance shot from their repertoire, so the majority of attacks ended with shots at the rim or outside the three-point line. James Harden was the alpha and omega of this team, and he is surrounded by three outstanding shooters and one mobile center who is excellent in the pick-and-roll game.

The Rockets recorded results that exceeded realistic expectations, and other teams saw the benefits of this way of thinking. The NBA is said to be copycat league, that is, that the winners dictate trends that are followed and not questioned, at least for a while.

This team didn't go all the way, they came up a little short like Orlando once did, but they continued the philosophy of the Florida team and took it to extremes.

More importantly, they inspired other teams to follow in their footsteps. The average number of three-pointers shot by one team in an NBA game in 1980 was 2,8, then in 2000 it was 13,7, and in the current season it rose to 37,6.

Other parameters of advanced statistics, such as offensive rating, confirm that the increase in the number of three-point shots was accompanied by an improvement in offensive performance. So, there is a mathematical confirmation that more three-point shots mean a more efficient attack.

However, is this what the fans really wanted?

"It's easy for me for him, he'll manage"

You must have heard this statement many times from those around you, when a story is told about someone who is successful or rich, but is currently in trouble.

In our story, the NBA is a successful and wealthy person with a problem in the form of a slight decline in popularity and TV ratings. We have presented certain objections that can often be heard from disappointed viewers, trying to penetrate into the causes that led to the current state.

It is the responsibility of the smart people running the league to find adequate solutions. That is what they are paid for, and to begin with it is important that they are aware of the problem, so last season they already suggested to the referees to allow a slightly tougher game, which the spectators generally like.

This should reduce the advantage of the attack over the defense, but will it solve the problem of more and more frequent injuries and rest of the main players?

The introduction of the four-point line is being mentioned more and more loudly, which from the current perspective seems like a distant and unrealistic future, but the same was once thought about the three-point line. It's hard to expect coaches to give up on 3-pointers, which spread the game on offense and open up so many scoring options.

At the beginning of the text, we mentioned the belief that the title is more difficult to defend than to win. Another famous basketball saying is that "defense wins titles, offense sells tickets."

The reigning champions Boston Celtics are well on their way to becoming the team with the most 3-pointers in NBA history. The outcome of their season will give us the answer as to whether the trio, as a concept and philosophy, definitely won.