Shaquille O'Neal blames Steph Curry for making the NBA “boring.”

The NBA could have a legitimate problem if one of its top ambassadors, Shaquille O'Neal, thinks the game has become boring.

NBA viewership is down, and in the latest episode of The big podcast with ShaqO'Neal gave his theory as to why. It's the 3-point shot, stupid.


“It’s declining because we’re seeing the same thing,” Shaq said of NBA viewership. “Everyone's doing the same plays… Steph Curry and those guys screwed it up. I don't mind that Golden State shot three-pointers back then, but not every team is a three-pointer. So why does everyone have the same strategy? I think it makes the game boring.”

Shaq remembered teams that ran different offenses during his prime years in the NBA. But after the success that Curry and the Warriors achieved, the rest of the NBA tried to follow suit. According to Shaq, these attempts to replicate the Warriors' success are ruining the NBA.

“The game has been perfect since Naismith made it,” Shaq claimed. “This new era of people screwed it up…Golden State came in and changed it, and you made a great point, it's a copycat league. Everyone wants to be Steph Curry, but not everyone is Steph Curry and that's why viewership is down. But these guys need to wake up because if the viewership goes down, the money will go down.”

O'Neal's rant came as viewership declined during the NBA's opening week. In basketball, viewership for Major League Baseball's World Series also rose above the NBA Finals rankings. And the MLB is up against the NFL, while the NBA usually has enough TV real estate around the Finals to make it the only major sporting event of the night.

Shaq dominated the paint. Of course, he will defend his NBA era, which was all about high shooting percentages and more physical basketball. But this feeling is growing in the sports world. Last year, Bob Costas claimed that the increased number of 3-point attempts could make for an uncomfortable viewing experience. Bob Ryan, Bomani Jones and Nick Wright have also since expressed their displeasure with the NBA's modern style of shooting as many threes as possible.

It seems unlikely that the NBA will do anything about these complaints. But hearing one of their most valuable brand ambassadors claim that the NBA is boring should be enough to at least get their attention.

[The Big Podcast with Shaq]