Holding Court’s 2016 NBA League Pass Rankings
The 2016–17 NBA season opens tonight and in anticipation of the tip-off of what promises to be an exciting year in basketball, we’re here to give you our best bets for a year in NBA League Pass viewing.
No, we’re not talking about what teams you should watch. That’s already been done by other NBA writers. We’re here to rank your prospects for actually getting a league pass account to help you make it through the season.
5. Your Dad
Last year, you finally convinced him to actually sign up for his own league pass account. You took hours of your time to show him how it works and walked him through the process of accessing games, even how to watch more than one at a time! Then, he changed his password. “I just don’t understand how I can get away with sharing it with you” he told you. “Won’t they know? I don’t want to get in trouble.” He actually said that. Your sixty-year-old father said the words “I don’t want to get in trouble” about sharing his account password with his only son. This year, you’re prepared. You shared your HBO Now account (ok, your friend’s step-mom’s HBO Now account) with him, and neither you, nor Cindy are in jail for it. Hopefully that will convince him to share the NBA League Pass wealth! If not, you can always threaten him that the family name will end with you.
4. Your College Buddy Rick
Well, my college buddy is named Rick, you probably have a Rick-like person in your life. You know, somebody who’s making more money than they know what to do with (upwards of $30,000) and springs for things like cable TV, their own wireless internet service, and might even be convinced that he’d like to watch every NBA game for the entire season even though he “kinda stopped watching basketball after the league got stupid — the game was so much better back in the ‘90’s — they don’t even play the NBA on NBC theme song anymore!”
3. Group Effort
This one should be easy. Reach out to as many friends as possible to find out who’d be interested in splitting the bill for a League Pass account. I’d reccomend posting a status on Facebook for maximum visibility — something like “NBA Friends, who wants to split a League Pass account with me?” should do the trick. Create a shared email account, and there you go! Now, you only have to worry about your friends sharing the information with their friends, and their friends sharing the information with their friends, and before you know it, your dad’s worst fears have come true! Account suspended!
2. “ The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it.” — Woodrow Wilson
Ok, so this isn’t really a “league pass” solution, but you know you can totally find streams of games online for free, right? I don’t mind 150 pop up windows telling me my computer is going to blow up if I don’t download some program in the next sixty seconds, and then each of those pop ups creating a litter of other pop ups every time I try to close them as long as I get to see Russell Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder face his old friend Kevin Durant and the Golden State Warriors without having to pay for it, or sitting in a bar by myself for hours, or convincing people to be my friend.
1.It’s $199. Just Pay For It.
It’s really not all that much money if you think about it. You can eat PB&J’s for a week or two to make up for it. Oh, you’re already eating a diet that mostly consists of PB&J’s? Ummm, use less PB and J? Trader Joe’s has some good samples usually, and they don’t really monitor how many you take either. You can probably live off those for a little bit. Oh, and you wouldn’t think of it but Bed Bath & Beyond has a great selection of samples, you can eat like a king there. They also have beds if you want to sublet your apartment for a month and need a place to nap.
