I suspect that being seen as too American is a part of it. Basketball is a lot more popular in Europe (in Spain some of the top football teams also have basketball teams in their league, Real Madrid most famously).I can’t understand why NBA isn’t more popular in the U.K? Whenever I go down to the local park there are always groups of young men playing basketball.
This does also remind me that there have been cases where the last 2 minutes of an NBA game have lasted almost as long in real time as the previous 46, because of how the strategies end up playing out.
I do love American Football, but it is in a lot of ways ludicrous. The closet comparison is to Rugby League.