Brew Hoop Night Shift: December 10th, 2017

Welcome to the Brew Hoop Night Shift. Every evening at 9:00pm (central time), this all-purpose thread goes up, and the comments section is where it’s going down. What Bucks news did we not cover? What topics do you want to break down further? Or is there something non-Bucks that you want to bounce off of one another? Even something non-basketball? This is the place.

Today’s (on)topic: NBA Ratings

The NBA’s viewership is way up, and that’s without the five total teams in America’s largest TV markets (New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago) being contenders. The NBA has surpassed the NFL as being a 365 day news cycle and the NFL fatigue has carried over into viewership. The NBA has done a fantastic job of marketing their biggest stars and story lines, while also letting their players’ personalities flourish without penalty.

This season the NFL allowed touchdown celebrations to make a return, but seeing guys celebrate a touchdown is not reason enough to tune in. This afternoon I wanted to watch the Buffalo Bills and Indianapolis Colts play in a blizzard, but CBS was not showing the game and Fox was showing the Green Bay Packers, obviously. Unless you spring for the NFL Sunday Ticket, or have the Red Zone channel, you are stuck with regional games. I think that is a bigger sticking point with ratings since the NBA and MLB have standalone streaming services, albeit ones with outdated blackout restrictions.

Today’s (off)topic: Christmas Cookie Shapes

For some reason Christmas cookies that are in a tree shape taste better to me. There has to be some deeper psychological meaning as to explain why I prefer the tree cookies. Gingerbread Man cookies are great but that has more to do with gingerbread being yummy and less do with eating a human-ish looking cookie. Which holiday cookie shapes do y’all find yourselves nibbling on?

As a general rule, non-basketball topics are permitted in an open thread, provided that they follow the SB Nation Community Guidelines.