In business if you want to expand your business it's worth understanding why people are buying your product and why they are NOT buying your product. I would suggest that average punter doesn't watch NBL not because they don't like it, it is because they don't understand it.

My thoughts on commentary... for what they are worth.

I always felt the game moves really fast, at any time a lot is happening. This gives leeway for tangents, stories, asides etc... The commentary is there for the nuance and for entertaininment.

It's a tough balance, when it was just nbl tv, we could be highly technical as most people subscribed were really into the sport; now with further reach the games there needs an education and entertainment aspect to attract and keep the casual fan.

I believe that the styles of commentary can be become more sophisticated as the general population becomes more familiar with the game.

In Australia 'the average punter' is probably an NBA fan considering the rate that we consume NBA League Pass, last time I checked. So between the average punter knowing the game and Australia being a sport-heavy society, I don't think people's inability to grasp basketball is an issue.

More technical talk in the half-time breaks would be good

I was referring to the AFL / NRL followers.

The unsophisticated level of analysis of Australian sport is similar to the where America was at with sport analysis during the 1960s. It's old fashioned, all surface level with little or no rigor, no room for nuance, and almost child-like.

Don't get me wrong cobba, like meself some boofhead commen-tate-tahhhhs every now and then aye.

Heeeeeeyyyyyyyy tru-blue. God help me....I was only nineteen. Up the mighty bluuuuues. Come good come Finals time but. Best and fairest. Love me club song sing it loud sing it proud. Ladder. Fixture. How's his fitness? Come on maaaaaate.

It's over, you win Jasmine. Let's go home. Let's go home.

I think I'm in love.

They were harder for longer

Jasmine is the woman every man wants to be.

I feel like if you want to get people interested in your thing, you teach them about your thing. Show them that there are many layers to this sport/league and there is a pursuit of knowledge here, and that that pursuit is fun. You can easily fit a lot of both ocker talk/dumbed-down shit and analysis in a broadcast

I think you can't have sufficiently informative technical commentary within the constraints of the current television coverage approach. That approach mostly relies on part-time commentators who have undeveloped television skills, together with a reliance on the watcher to know what is going on in order to appreciate the spectacle on court.

Commentary that adds real value has to both entertain and inform to get the biggest audience. Technical commentary works best when there are good visuals designed to accompany it, such as using replays and on-screen mark-ups to demonstrate how specific tactics affect the game.

Cricket coverage does this well, for example, with things like batsmen's scoring wheels, bowlers' length/line graphics showing dot balls, wickets and boundary balls. USA gridiron coverage also does it well. Both of those sports benefit from regular breaks in play in which to present those graphics/replays with accompanying technical commentary.

Sports like basketball and AFL don't have the same regular breaks. However, arguably basketball has opportunities through time-outs (up to 8 per game I think), fouls (around 45 per game), and video replay delays (one or two per game this season). There are also quarter time and half time breaks. So more than 55 opportunities per game with 30 to 120 second breaks or longer.

Consider the current practice of sticking mikes into time-outs, to hear what the coach says to the players, maybe with some shots of X's and O's on a whiteboard. Does any of that mean anything to a watcher with little or no basketball playing experience? Would it be better to show 90 seconds of visuals breaking down how one team is successfully running its offence with commentary on how the other team could combat it, then have a boundary rider give a plain English summary of the coaches' time-outs as the players return to court? I think it would.

The issue then becomes having the on-hand resources to prepare those graphics and replay materials along with the commentary expertise to analyse and rapidly prepare their narrative outline during the game. That requires much more technical support than the broadcasters and NBL are investing in game coverage.

Our game needs endless new fans who know nil about the technicalities. Growth will not come relying on those who go to games on regular basis. New faces a must so all of us need to bring them along.
I think the commentary is pretty good except when Heel calls the Kings games