However, I think there are other reasons why the numbers are down so much right now as well. For one thing, the NBA season literally just ended like a month ago - I understand that they had to get it fired back up again to try to get back on track but even for big fans like myself, I am still kind of burned out.

Yep, you're totally right. I just started to watch NBA not so long ago (the playoffs when ESPN were airing a match) and I'm not that interested yet. It's the same with football, I'm more of a football fan, but I'm still burned out. PL ended in July, UCL ended in August and in September they were playing again. We didn't have a proper rest like in a normal season where in July/September you didn't watch anything. Also, while you normally have one or two matches a week (when UCL/UEL is played and the ocasional midweek matchday for a national league or cup) we had a match every 3 days basically when the football came back. It's insane. I think we'll feel like THAT interested again when we have a proper rest