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I recently provoked some reader disagreement with the proposition that the introduction of the three-point shot has ruined the NBA—not all at once, but slowly over time. The old fast-break and half-court offenses are largely gone, once the statisticians figured out that a higher number of lower-percentage three-point shots yielded more scoring. (I believe I saw a statistic about how few times Larry Bird attempted three-point shots, for example.) And here’s the graphical evidence:

Well guess what? Judging by viewer enthusiasm, it looks like my hypothesis may be right: NBA TV viewer ratings are down 48 % since 2012, and down 28% this year on ESPN. Better: the popular sports analyst Colin Cowherd says the NBA is tanking because it is too much like . . . the Democratic Party!

Fox Sports analyst Colin Cowherd has claimed the NBA and the Democrat party share an issue when it comes to losing supporters. Despite signing a 11-year, $76 billion TV deal with Disney, NBC and Amazon this summer, the NBA’s ratings have taken a severe hit over the past decade with figures plummeting even further this season.

The league’s ratings have taken a 48 percent drop over the last 12 years, and this year alone they are down 28 percent on ESPN, according to Front Office Sports.

Cowherd: “Go ask the Democrats. Be warned, once you detach from regular people in America, you will pay a price.”

Edmund Burke wouldn’t have changed the rules like this. (He also wouldn’t have screwed up college football, either. Prediction: college football is going to spiral down slowly as a result of the expansion of the BCS and wrecking traditional regional leagues and regional bowl games.)

P.S. Last Friday the Hornets and Bulls combined for 75 MISSED three-pointers, the most ever in regulation NBA history.

P.S. (2)—The great Sir Charles Barkley added these thoughts on a recent broadcast:

“People don’t want to take a seat to watch the officials sabotage the games with their bad decisions, when you’re watching a big game and you see several refereeing errors, you turn off the TV immediately. “

“The same rules of refereeing, are the ones that have caused players to defend less, causing them to watch matches with less intensity… It’s just a show of which team bumps the most in a game, that’s kinda boring.”

“Nowadays, players commit a lot of violations in the game, which are outside of the fundamentals of basketball and the referees allow it, that also affects the game a lot.”

“If you don’t correct these weaknesses soon, very soon what you’ve worked hard to build will disappear and ratings will continue to drop. “