NBA: Official App Reviews

by Shadoboxer

The new (forced) update has broken NBA for me. Anytime I try to open it, it tells me I have a slow network connection and it can’t open NBA . I don’t have a slow network connection. Everything else on my phone works fine. I’m running iOS 12.3.1. I’ve tried NBA on WiFi and 4G and I get the same result every time. I’ve also updated to the most recent version today, and it still won’t load.

This is why forcing people to update their apps is a bad move. I’ve hated it every time you change NBA because I’ve always been afraid that it would break NBA for me, and while I know it means there are new features with the update, it also puts NBA at risk for breaking for people with older phones and/or iOS versions. Forcing updates is kind of a jerk thing to do, especially when it’s clearly not for security purposes (like an email app or something related to sensitive data). Let the fans decide if they want to update to get the new features or not. It should be our choice, not yours. I’m perfectly happy with running an older, feature-lite app if it means that NBA will actually open and work.

by Bigtyme0626

I recently purchased an IPAD and was excited that I would be able to use my League pass subscription to watch games so that I didn’t have to constantly use my phone. To my dismay, I learned I can’t watch the games on my iPad. Not sure why when my iPad is not just the WiFi version but the version that uses data. Why allow the device to download NBA and not be able to use it to its full capabilities. NBA on my smart tv does not work, it constantly says the game will be back shortly, but when I look at NBA on my phone, the game is in progress. The same with my Xbox. And before anyone says it’s probably the WiFi signal, it’s not. It streams just fine with everything else.

Also, if you have NBAtv with your cable subscription, or have the league pass subscription, you should be able to watch games that air on that channel. Sometimes you’re not home to watch it on tv and should be able to take advantage of the high price you’re paying anyways. I will most likely discontinue my subscription after this season. It’s not worth the money anymore.

by ABFRE

First, I subscribe to all of the other major sports official apps (MLB, NHL). I have subscription services with all to watch my home team since I live out of town. The this app app is by far the worst. Many times there are errors and user experience issues. The other day it took logging into “Watch” several times before it was a live feed, as it was displaying what occurred nearly a quarter ago as live. Then for an entire night, all of the scores were hour+ behind which obviously fed other apps since the Yahoo Sports app was also showing the same hour+ lag in scores for this app games.

Second, this is the only official league app where you need to watch a 30 second ad just to see a 90 second highlight! That’s crazy that they’re so interested in ad revenue that they cripple the user experience and force a user to watch an ad before seeing any highlight videos. Totally dissuades someone from wanting to watch what happened in other this app games that they didn’t watch live.

by Tominatoes

I’ve been buying this app league pass since 2013. Every year at least a couple times a year it logs me out and won’t let me reactivate. Either I give up and still buy the next year or I contact tech support and try to fix it some how. 6 years and NBA is still this buggy? The level of cockiness exhibited by not fixing major bugs over that time period is ridiculous. I’ve had NBA downloaded on 1 iTouch, 3 iPhones, and 2 iPads (never more than 2 of those in a season) over the last 6 years and I’ve had the same problem on every-single-one. Sometimes the “Listen” doesn’t work. Sometimes it just tells you the game isn’t available and it has nothing to do with blackouts. Sometimes NBA just crashes altogether and you have to start it again whether you’re enjoying the game(s) or not. The bugs are consistent and no matter how much you love the this app, if you travel for work, it’s not worth $200 because it only works consistently on the TV at home. I want to buy this. I want to be a loyal customer because of how much I love the Association, but I need NBA to work and it doesn’t and has shown no signs of reaching that point.

by Hsmith403

I love the this app and have been wanting to buy League Pass for years but never did because I couldn't justify the high price tag. This year I finally gave in and bought the full year pass. I'm unhappy with the performance on both Mobile and PC. On mobile NBA constantly loses connection during live games no matter how good or bad your current internet connection is at the time. On PC the games are shown in SD. It's almost 2018, what streaming app can't even do at least 1080p? League Pass is the only one I've ever used that doesn't. It does have a decent amount of options as far as camera views and stream choices and NBA itself is easy enough to navigate. The condensed game option after a game is over is a welcome one. But still, the most important thing for a streaming app is that the actual streaming function of it performs very well and that's where League Pass fails. I've requested a refund and I anxiously await for when this app App and League Pass get their priorities straight.

by Jefferdean22

When it works the way it’s supposed to, it’s great. The problem is that half the time it doesn’t work. This is the third year I’ve used it and the quality has gone down. I live in the Los Angeles area, but I’m from the Pacific NW, so I have the one team option for Portland. I don’t recall having so many problems in the past. The most common issue for me is that when listening to the audio, the volume is too low for me to hear. It’s not my phone, because anything else I listen to is fine. And I can’t walk away from my phone because of the screen saver comes on, then the audio stops. So I am forced to keep tapping the screen. Dangerous to do while driving... in the past, NBA stayed open even when my screen went to sleep. also, several times this season, My team’s audio and video feed plays the opponent’s feed. I love my Blazers, but I’m probably not going to renew for next year. Too frustrating.

by Zlionsfan

It's not bad, but the delay that the video feeds operate on frequently creates an obvious difference between the score during "live" action and the score visible on NBA . There's no (obvious) in-app option to switch video feeds, and the video quality varies wildly even when you have tons of available bandwidth on your network, with long periods of lower-quality video and occasional freezes. Instead of pouring millions into VR add-ons, the this app should be shoring up base functionality - you'd think they were hard up for cash instead of sitting on billions of dollars.

The one thing that seems worthwhile is the package that allows you to watch commercial-free games (of course you'd think that's what you pay $200 for, but no; they'll continue to show ads if they think you'll pay for them). It is a bit weird to see courtside activity during a road game, since obviously it's the home team's feed that provides that action, but it's far superior to the garbage commercials you'd see instead.

by Anderson62205

I’m really into basketball, so that’s the main reason why I downloaded NBA. I’ve been using it for several months, but currently run into problems. For one, it’s stupid u need to purchase the league pass just to watch/stream videos. When I first got NBA , it let me watch a few videos, but a few weeks later it stopped working, and there’s no way I’m wasting money on it bc the price is just ridiculous. Second, there has been an error watching videos. Just yesterday, I was about to watch a video and it just loaded and loaded and loaded and...my point is that it never played. It always says no “there was an error playing your video.” However, I am still able to read articles, but starting yesterday videos won’t load. Please fix bc this is just sad that the “official” this app app doesn’t even work properly 🤦🏿‍♂️SMH

Edit: Thank you very much. It started working properly about a week ago, so everything is fine now. Thanks for the reply 😁😁

by Grimer85

Haven’t been using NBA long. I’m using the free sample right now, which is an awesome thing NBA is doing. And I’m thinking of buying the pass, but I do not like the camera angles. They aren’t very good. They either focus on 1 player or are way too close to the action. I get that the main tv provider probably owns the nice half court camera view. But I think the back board camera is a nice conciliation prize if it was used right. Right now they use the same back board camera as the side of play. Which leads to being too close and the camera flys all over the place trying to keep up with the ball and you will miss a lot of the action. But if they used the camera opposite of action, you could see the whole half of the court. You could see plays break down, see off ball stuff. See everything. Most camera angles are not very good from the small sample I’ve had so far

by LAA7776

I wish it had a better way to rewind game plan when you start watching in the middle of games! Most of the time I can’t sit and watch the games until it’s half way into the game and there isn’t an option to “start viewing from beginning” instead you have to spend 15 plus min skipping back 15 seconds at the time... there isn’t even a recording bar at the bottom of the screen to just wind back in that form! Really wish that could get implemented into NBA ! I’ve been subscribed going on two years now and before you could skip several minutes at the time by hitting back multiple times but now it has to be 15 seconds at a time.. please fix that issue!

I’m using the this app league pass App on my IPad Air 2 and will be upgrading to the new iPad Pro. Hopefully issues could get fixed and even have an app upgrade.

by Whichoneofthesenamesisnttaken

This review isn't a reflection of NBA itself, I'd probably rate that 3 stars. I'm very dissatisfied with this app tv which was marketed to me through NBA . They put out this app tv for $6.99 a month in an attempt to bring in revenue from younger viewers without a cable subscription. Don't bother. You get access to the most boring games that you would never want to watch and they're never your home team. The 99 cent 10 minute pass is a complete waste too, the clock starts running as soon as the purchase goes through whether you're actually watching the game or not. Time will run out as you're connecting to the server, through time outs, on commercial break, literally anytime that isn't the game. I bought a ten minute pass 5 separate times and just barely got through 9 and a half minutes of actual game time. I basically paid to sit through commercials. They will also run ads past the end of the actual commercial break, as you'll see in the awkward transitions from advertisements to the middle of a play.

by Javajunco

**Update** The Audio only version has been fixed, and we are able to listen to all the games. We love NBA , and appreciate the developer’s response. The only issue we have now is volume control - sometimes the actual broadcast is very very quiet, so we turn the volume all the way up, but the commercials come on and are on blast. Otherwise we are very happy.

We purchased the Audio only version, we were excited to listen to opening night games. NBA says we are “listening” but there is no sound. I decided to leave it on in case there was a long loading time, and then forgot about it. The audio came on suddenly and lasted for about 15 seconds, and then went back off. Came on for another 10 seconds about 20 minutes later.

We were disappointed pointed to miss opening night play. Hoping this gets fixed soon! We actually purchased the Audio League pass on 2 devices, and it didn’t work on either of them.

by Leo2geo

I love this app league pass. But I am paying the top monthly fee that promises no commercials. For the most part there are no commercials and it’s fun to see the in arena feed. However, I follow and watch the Indiana Pacers and they are sneaking a commercial in during the free throws. I don’t know if other teams are doing this. Can you please make them stop? The commercial during the free throw is for some local Indy plumbing company that I will never use where I live. If not for these annoying commercials I would give league pass 5 stars.

In response to developer question. The commercial shows up in a side by side format when the teams shoot free throws. This happens on all devices. It seems to me it’s coming from the broadcast feed for the Pacers. I haven’t tried it watching the opponents feed but willing to bet it’s not on that feed. Seems like someone just needs to tell the Pacer broadcast company not to it.

by H_Nathan

Overall I am happy with this subscription and APP on my Apple TV and on my iPhone. The interface is smooth and the video quality is superb. The mobile view is a great feature, and I LOVE the backboard camera views when available. I also love the no-commercial Premium option. Watching timeout festivities in the stadium is actually quite cool.
This would be a 5-star App if the following happened:
1) Please allow for split screen to view multiple games at a time (Not mandatory on iOS, but definately needed on TVOS
2) Please allow access to older content. I would love to go back and watch some classic matchups going all the way back to the 80s. I beleive this used to be a feature in the past (maybe even as early as last year). I would like to see this available again. Users who buy the League Pass are your biggest this app fans, feed us.

by Jtefft

I decided to subscribe to league pass when I saw there was a monthly option. I sure am glad I did. My boys and I were able to watch nearly every game and we loved it. We could choose between my iPad or our tv and when out of the house we could watch games on my phone. It’s like Netflix but with the this app. It was an excellent season and we are very pleased with the league pass service. We will be subscribing again next season.

The only thing that bothered us was the blackouts for nearby teams. We don’t have cable or access to games that aren’t on TNT, ESPN or league pass but three teams nearby were blacked out due to location. The closest of those teams is 8 hours away and the furthest is 14. We couldn’t watch those games even if we did have cable. I wish that could be changed.