For what it's worth, Charles Barkley has stated on a few occasions that he'd rather be watching the Stanley Cup Playoffs than the NBA Playoffs. Phil Jackson too.
Phil Jackson prefers NHL playoffs to NBA: 'More fun, much more action'
The NBA and NFL get more attention but that doesn't mean either a better product. The NBA and their pundits spent the off-season talking about what great parity was about to come from this season and what do we have? It's very likely we're going to have Bucks vs Lakers in the Finals, maybe the Clippers have an argument but the other 27 teams have next to no shot. It's gotten to the point where we can predict the Finals on the first day of free agency.
And I say this as someone who watches both playoffs, but the only time I can say I truly more entertained by the NBA Playoffs than the NHL was 2005 when there was no Stanley Cup. Maybe 2011 since I was rooting hard for Dirk to get his championship. But even in years where the Stanley Cup Playoffs were not great, the NBA Playoffs were just as bad. With Hockey, you don't know when a goal is coming. NBA takes forever with replays to see who touched the ball last, whether the shooter had his foot on the line, was that a flagrant foul?, did the ball leave the hand before or after the shot clock went off, etc. It takes forever to play the last two minutes of a close game and it becomes unwatchable, NCAA is the same way now.
Football is becoming harder to watch too, way too many replays/challenges/ticky-tacky penalties, it takes forever to play out the last few minutes of a close game, there's TV timeouts after every punt, challenge, score, replay, etc. On top of this, I sometimes get burned out by the constant Football coverage that dominates the news media, it gets to be too much for me, especially during the off-season.
And, honestly for my money attending Hockey games is just more fun than either Football or Basketball. Baseball is okay live, TV not so much. Hockey fans generally are knowledgable and don't hop around from team to team like NBA fans do. NFL attendees are kind of half knowledgeable/passionate and half idiotic know-nothings/drunken fools.
But, this is all just my opinion. I don't mind the NHL not being as popular as the other sports but I do get tired of the "Hurr-durr no one cares/lol not a Southern sport" that I personally deal with. It is what it is I guess.