The Great Debate, a column as old as time, (or at least the last five semesters), is starting the beginning of its end. While I only have a few more of these things left to write before I’m off to the real world, I will make sure to get every ounce of my best takes into this semester.

I’ve heard some rumblings of a “rival” Great Debate column from sports editor Henry Mode, who — in typical Mode fashion — will do the exact opposite of what I say. We shall see where that takes him and if he actually follows through with a column for a full semester for once, but don’t fret — we all know where the best takes of the Daily Trojan’s sports section lie.

If there’s one thing I know for sure, it’s that after a few weeks, Mode will most likely complain that the readership numbers for his column are “shockingly” down, much like the number of NBA fans currently.

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There’s been an all out debate on X recently about what exactly the reason is for this sharp rating downturn for the NBA. In December, about two months into the season, TV ratings were already down 19% from last season. Many are pointing to the brand of basketball that the modern NBA has become.

The new-age game of basketball relies more on 3-point shots and scoring from a distance. So far this season, teams are attempting nearly half of their shots from behind the arc. In NBA history, the 3-point rate has never been more than 40% in a season. Many argue that this diminishes the beauty of the game, and all basketball has become is players trading deep shots over and over.

Some seem to think this is a direct correlation to why no one seems to want to watch the league anymore. While there are a few other reasons some people have attributed the decline to — the classic scapegoat of “load management” and other points that I’m not even going to give airtime to — it seems the style of play has been a default for most.

I don’t entirely blame them. It can easily be boring to see a team pass the ball around the arc for 10 seconds, hoist up a brick, and then watch the other team take the ball down the court and proceed to do the exact same thing. But if you watch basketball consistently and don’t cherry-pick a 30-second highlight clip that shows a lot of 3-point misses, you’d know that this isn’t what every possession looks like.

But regardless, even if you do feel this way strongly, why does it matter? Why do you, as a fan, care so much about the NBA ratings? Are you a front office executive or someone considering purchasing an ad during a national TV slot and debating which program to choose?

No, of course not. That’s why it puzzles me a little that these supposed NBA fans care so much and are so worried that the NBA ratings are down.

Let’s also not act like we should look at the TV industry and ratings the exact same way as in the 1990s when they carried more weight. Nowadays, there are so many more ways to interact with media than just watching it live on your TV.

One of the biggest groups of NBA fans interact with the sport on social media and through the highlights. It’s unrealistic, with how many games there are, to expect non-die-hard fans to tune into every random game on a weekday in January. But many of those fans — myself included — watch the highlights and what happened on the game on social media.

TV ratings are mainly used to see how many people are interacting and watching a certain program and inherently see which program is more popular and which ones don’t really care about. In today’s day and age, we just don’t watch TV as much as we have, and especially with sports, we interact with them in so many different ways.

And even considering that, ratings don’t solely determine the quality of the product of a show. Plenty of bad programs have tons of viewership. These TV ratings shouldn’t be the end-all-be-all metric.

I’d argue that the NBA has one of the best social media presences of any non-NFL sport. Fans of the league are constantly interacting with and tweeting about the games. Just because they don’t pay for the extra streaming services to watch every single team all the time, doesn’t mean that these fans aren’t interacting with the sport.

Reduced viewership is also not a problem that’s unique to the NBA. Overall, the NHL’s viewership is down 28%, men’s college basketball is down 21% and college football showed a decrease in viewership too. People just don’t watch TV as much as they used to, and that’s okay. That doesn’t mean we need to all freak out and complain about the product of the NBA. It’s also early in the season, so the league has plenty of time to compensate for the TV viewership loss.

Is the NBA perfect? Not by any means, but it is in no way “doomed” because teams are shooting more 3-pointers. I couldn’t care less that ratings are down, and you shouldn’t either. Just enjoy the game we have.

Stefano Fendrich is a senior writing about his opinions on some of sports’ biggest debates in his column, “The Great Debate,” which runs every other Friday. He is also the editor in chief at the Daily Trojan.