Since when did the NBA Draft become so much like the NHL Draft?
Foreign players, guys straight out of high school, athletes with little concept of typical American English. There's a lessening ability for the average NBA fan to connect with the league's players. Differences in language, culture and style of play are all obstacles in deterring the fan base from relating to its team.
Though not a bygone league the way the soon-to-be-extinct NHL is (say "bye" because she's gone), the NBA has struggled since its heyday in the 1980s and '90s, when multiple-year college players like Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan ruled the basketball world.
Fans were able to develop an interest in these players while they were playing NCAA ball and could transfer that passion to the pro circuit. LeBron James notwithstanding, high schoolers and foreign players have made little to no impression on the eyes and minds of the average NBA fan leading up to the draft. Honestly, on draft day, I don't think even Commissioner David Stern had seen some of the names he called out in the first round, much less knew how to pronounce them. (That's quickly becoming my favorite draft-day moment: Stern, opening up the envelope with a team's pick, visibly being surprised by a name he's never seen before and stumbling through a made-up pronunciation of a European player's name. Classic.)
I'll admit that I had lost some interest in the NBA -- my Celtics have fallen into the Pit of Despair thanks to general manager Danny Ainge's dismantling of nearly their entire roster (only three players remain from the 2002-2003 season). I declare without a hint of uncertainty that this season's Celtics were the worst playoff team in the history of the NBA. I could have sworn I saw one betting line where they were favored to lose their best-of-seven first-round series in just three games
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