Contextual Analysis
Prior to the 2014-2015 NBA season, there was a ton of talk about changing the game length of an NBA game from 48 minutes, to 44 minutes (Palladino). In all fairness, this was just talk, but talk also means that one side had a legitimate argument for why they wanted this change. Therefore, it has potential. It's important to understand how social media plays a role in this issue, without it, it may not be such a big deal in the first place. With it, we receive responses from all types of people, one of those being; Michael Jordan.
Now, before we look at the social media aspect, lets first look at some of the issues against this proposal in the first place. Number one; the players. These guys are getting paid MILLIONS of dollars to go out and, figuratively speaking, put on a show. If you shorten the game length that these players have agreed to, then you must also shorten their pay because they are spending less time on the job. As you can imagine, the players would not be as in favor of that.
Second; the fans. We are paying hundreds of dollars to go watch this 'show'. We want our full two and a half hours in attendance to not be shortened one bit. The fans enjoy this game, and enjoy attending it. In perspective, if you shorten the MLB to 8 innings, you'll have a lot of upset people. Same thing with shortening the NBA, we want to see this game played just as it is.
And finally; finances. During broadcasts of this game, companies are advertising their products, commercials are playing, and all times of publicity is available inside and outside of the arena. Companies that have contracts with the organizations, or deals with the television networks, will be very upset because a shorter game, means less breaks. There are good things that may come out of it, such as players being fresher, stars being on the court throughout individual games for the larger part, and people with things to do having more time to do them. In the long run though, you'll have a lot of angry people on your hands if you choose to shorten this game.
Now, would this whole issue have been a deal 20 years ago before ease of interaction through our mobile phones, tablets, and laptops with the NBA rumors in the first place? It's a pretty obvious, no. That's why, this is such an interesting topic to analyze. Now, with twitter sharing the rumors instantly, and news articles being shared on Facebook, the people know and respond to the subject without any delay. We have players responding, ex-players responding, analysts responding to this idea and I think that had a huge impact on the NBA not implementing the shorter games this season.
This idea of social media also gives citizens the opportunity to respond and share their opinion on the matter, which, (besides the trollers) is actually very good. This makes it much easier for NBA management to decide if the idea will be taken well or not in our society. At the same time, it makes for many many mixed messages. The mixed messages come from citizens that take matters into their own hands and post official looking responses to the subject without any credibility. Then, people like you and me, see these second hand posts and we therefore may only get one side of the story.
This idea of social media also gives citizens the opportunity to respond and share their opinion on the matter, which, (besides the trollers) is actually very good. This makes it much easier for NBA management to decide if the idea will be taken well or not in our society. At the same time, it makes for many many mixed messages. The mixed messages come from citizens that take matters into their own hands and post official looking responses to the subject without any credibility. Then, people like you and me, see these second hand posts and we therefore may only get one side of the story.
You can look at social media's impact positively or negatively. Before it, there wouldn't be this many people fighting against it, and a lot of angry fans wouldn't have their voices heard. That's whats so great about social media though, is that now our voices are heard. Now, the NBA (who has a Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram) heard the fans and decided against it for this season. The issue became such a big deal that even Lebron James came out and said,
It's not the minutes, it's the games. The minutes don't mean anything. We can play 50-minute games if we had to. It's the games that I think we all as players think is too many games in our season. 82 games are a lot. But it's not the minutes, taking away minutes from the game is not going to shorten the game at all. (Broussard)
Players, fans, and coaches alike took to social media to voice their opinions on the manner. This also saves a lot of time for the people deciding on the issue to go out and get opinions in the first place. Afterall, when you have Michael Jordan against it, you probably shouldn't do it.
All in all, the NBA is a very successful business and is not broken at all, so don't try to fix anything. Atleast that's my take, here on social media. Who knows what will happen, all we can do, is let our voices be heard.
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