The Players held an award show last year that did pretty well in the ratings, so I assume the NBA took notice and saw an opportunity. I don't think it's a big deal one way or the other.
This was in 2015, and I was under the impression that it did so poorly is the reason there hasn't been another one since.
I'm not 100% sure how to read the ratings, but it looks like it did an 0.27 with approx 700k viewers. By comparison the NBA drafts usually have like 3m+ viewers, and the sports talk shows before and after the draft do better ratings too I believe. I don't think this was a success.
The NBA Awards show is definitely not my cup of tea, and I won't be watching. We already know most of the results (
MVP is believed to be Westbrook with 72% of the votes accounted for,and we know All-NBA, All-Defense, and All-Rookie teams). And I don't care enough to find out who won ROY, DPOY, or 6MOY to tune in. Definitely don't care who won "Assist of the Year" or "Best Style."
Maybe right after the season ended I would have been intrigued on who would win the awards, but I no longer care at this point.
Hope this bombs and the NBA goes back to regular old press releases.