By Hoopwrld Staff | February 2026
This week Mark Cuban posted a thread about tanking. But buried inside it was the most important thing anyone in NBA leadership has said publicly in a long time.
“The NBA should worry more about fan experience than tanking. It should worry more about pricing fans out of games than tanking. You know who cares the least about tanking — a parent who can’t afford to bring their 3 kids to a game and buy their kids a jersey of their fave player. They are in the business of creating experiences for fans. Few can remember the score from the last game they saw. What they remember is who they were with.”
— Mark Cuban, @mcuban · February 17, 2026
Cuban is right. And he’s only scratching the surface.
The NBA generated 32 billion social media video views last season. Ja Morant’s two spinning layups in November were watched 161 million times in 24 hours. But the 2025 Finals averaged just 10.2 million TV viewers — among the lowest in two decades. The league isn’t losing fans. It’s gaining them in places traditional metrics can’t capture. The problem is it’s not converting that attention into anything deep.
The NBA has the world’s attention. What it needs now is its heart.
Here’s the playbook for how to get there.
01. Affordability First. Everything Else Second.
Cuban’s sharpest line was about the parent who can’t afford three tickets and three jerseys. That parent isn’t just priced out of one game — they’re priced out of fandom entirely. And their kids are the season ticket holders of 2040.
📊 61% of fans say they feel priced out of the game they love.
Create a Fan Access tier in every arena — priced at $25–40, designed for young families and first-timers, with pre-game practice viewing and player arrival walkthrough included. Treat it as a fan funnel, not a discount seat. And launch an NBA First Game Initiative that guarantees every kid in a partner school district their first NBA game free before age 12. One live experience converts more fans than a thousand highlight reels.
02. Give Fans Real Access to the Stars
Fans don’t just want to watch Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. They want a story to tell about the time they were near him. One player per home game signs autographs for 50 lottery winners — drawn through the NBA app — 30 minutes before tip-off. The organic social content alone is worth millions in earned media. Add Rookie Debut Fan Days where every top draft pick does a city tour before their first season. Real human connection before the marketing machine takes over.
Build out a broader NBA player card program with wider autograph access — live pack opening events in arenas with players present, hybrid digital/physical cards where each card unlocks an exclusive clip or player message, and Autograph Draft Nights where top picks sign their first rookie cards on-site. Turn what’s currently a transaction into a cultural event.
03. The G League Is the Answer Nobody’s Using
The G League is the NBA’s most authentic, accessible product — and almost nobody knows it exists. That’s a failure of activation, not of the product. It’s also the most direct answer to Cuban’s affordability point.
Launch a Next Up Weekend — an annual G League showcase with 1-on-1 tournaments, 3-point contests, and fan voting for MVP. Broadcast it. The NFL turned its Combine into a cultural moment; basketball is more watchable than a 40-yard dash. Open fan skills competitions against G League players at accessible price points. And when a G League player gets their call-up, host a watch party in the affiliate city. Let those fans own the moment they saw coming.
04. Build the Prospect Pipeline Into Fan Culture
There’s a gap between when a player becomes a household name on social media and when they put on an NBA jersey — sometimes two or three years. That’s fan engagement being left on the table.
Bring top college and high school prospects into the tent early: pre-draft fan events, a Road to the Draft documentary series following 5–6 prospects through their pre-draft journey, and sanctioned viewing events around elite high school games co-branded with the NBA. Drive to Survive grew F1’s US viewership by 140% — basketball has better characters and more drama. Someone just needs to press record.
05. The Big Swing: NBA Life Academy
The NBPA has run financial planning events for student athletes. Valuable. Episodic. Doesn’t compound. The NBA should blow it out into a year-round platform — NBA Life Academy — serving young athletes across five domains:
- 💰 Financial literacy and NIL navigation
- 🏋️ Athletic and mental performance development
- 📱 Media and personal branding
- 🤝 Leadership and team culture
- 🎓 Career pathways for the 99% who don’t make the league
Franchise it across all 30 teams. Each franchise runs the program in their market with league curriculum and player engagement built in. Every student athlete who goes through it becomes an NBA brand ambassador for life. It’s the most authentic answer to the Gen Z authenticity gap — and a massive sponsorship vehicle for financial firms, tech companies, and apparel brands that want to reach young athletes.
This isn’t charity. It’s the smartest fan development play the NBA has ever had available to it.
06. Make Fandom Worth Something — Fan Rewards Done Right
Build a formal NBA Fan Rewards tier system where points accumulate across app usage, game attendance, merchandise, and community events. Top-tier fans earn the access experiences above — autograph sessions, practice viewing, player events.
The key insight: fans don’t just buy their way to Shai’s autograph. They earn it. Meritocratic access is psychologically more powerful than premium pricing will ever be. Engagement becomes aspiration — and that’s the engine of the most loyal fan bases in sports.
Cuban wasn’t writing about fan engagement when he posted that thread. He was writing about tanking. But the insight underneath it is the most important thing the NBA needs to act on right now.
The league isn’t in the basketball business. It’s in the experience business. And right now, it’s leaving the most valuable experiences — the ones that create lifelong fans — on the table.
The stars are unmatched. The culture is global. The infrastructure exists. The only question is whether the league is willing to be as bold off the court as its players are on it.
What would you add to this list? Drop it in the comments. 👇
