Because the streamers are competing for subscribers. Look at it this way. If a streamer pays 2.6b for 100 gms, and they get some playoffs or All Star which are the equivalent of say 5 gms. So let's say 150 games. That's 17.3m per gm. Seems huge right? Compare that to the cost + risk for scripted programming. Most of which fail to draw viewers. Each series can cost this much per episode. With the NBA there is an amount of certainty for audience. Streamers will get near the same audience as the series, without the risk. Plus they get new subscribers. They hope. That's the 11b a year question. Peacock paid 100m to the NFL for 1 playoff gm and got like 2.3m new subs and kept 70pct of them. Will the NBA work as well per dollar ? That will determine the future of streaming and the NBA. All of which is why , they can't just do a central app. There is too much money that streamers are willing to invest to get and retain subs Fortunately, a lot of NBA teams still have local free broadcasts for games that are not national exclusives(Mark Cuban)