Why the NBA Feels Broken—and Why the League Can’t Fix It artwork
Plain English with Derek Thompson

Why the NBA Feels Broken—and Why the League Can’t Fix It

May 29, 2026 · 57 min

The NBA’s vibes have been unusually awful recently. There has been widespread hand-wringing about the homogenization of modern offenses and the league’s notoriously weak regular-season TV ratings. A tanking crisis saw about a third of teams purposely try to lose games in a race to secure the top pick in the 2026 draft. A barrage of gambling scandals took out a head coach and several players. And t…