I stopped watching the NBA because its not like back in the day. It's become a joke, you aren't allowed to play defense any more it seems.
Also, the agenda. The NBA has never been happy with the percentage of black players being so high, so they have made a concerted effort to bring in white players from Europe and promote the hell out of them. US white boys can't compete, so they go overseas. The season tickets are so high, only upper middle class white people can afford to go.
Also, white people LOVE seeing a white boy dominate or play well in a black sport. Hence the hyping of Jokic. The guy is a fantastic player. But if you look at comments sections its white boys who obviously have very little knowledge of the game sometimes repeating over and over, he's the GOAT. Jokic is in a league that isn't deep with quality big men. If he was around in the '90s he'd barely make the all star game: Shaq, Duncan, Hakeem, Robinson, Ewing, on and on he'd be worn down every game. Just like how white boys overhype Tyson Fury. Tyson Fury would have had 4 or 5 losses his first couple years in the 90s: Tyson, Ruddock, Moorer, Lennox Lewis, even old Foreman would hurt him, even Tua, Mercer, or McCall.
But I digress. The NBA wants to be at least a half white league very badly. Right now if you see any rankings of top players, most are European. They even value foreign born and raised black players more. The same way they do here in the states because they didn't grow up or were born here. So a different vibe oftentimes.
The NBA has been a racist league. And they saw how the black players, FBAs, were in the BLM protests and bringing in foreign born and raised players, white or even Black will dissipitate that as well as work against the players in salary negotiations.