Game 1 of the Finals posts horrific TV ratings

[Pachinko_]

Re IND-OKC, I don't mind.
As much as I'd love to see the excitement that a gigantic market like NY would create in the FInals, the fact that two tiny (by US standards) regional markets made the absolute biggest stage is a testament to the integrity of the game and the league should be proud of it.
It would never happen in Europe.

[dakomish23]

The way ESPN talks you’d think there are only 4 teams in the league. Barkley called it out during the season

[jokeboy86]

Why does it seem like a lot of people are happy about bad ratings and seemingly wanting the NBA to fail? Is it just an ego thing by proving they’re right? I don’t really get it

It's become recreational now for a lot of people in society to hate. Whether it's hate watching, hate commentary, or just being contrarian about any little thing in general. And now cause of social media, there's a communal aspect that people are drawn too and the fact that it can even become lucrative now. The thing I love most about people who complain about the Kardashians, Taylor Swift, music, movies, sports or anything is how they're at a loss for words when you tell them to just turn it off or ignore the things that they hate so much. Like if you really really hate the current NBA, the "conspiracies", style of play or today's current players, simply don't watch. But unfortunately capitalism has convinced people that if you're a loud angry consumer you'll get attention similar to a toddler throwing a temper tantrum

[Pachinko_]

But unfortunately capitalism has convinced people that if you're a loud angry consumer you'll get attention similar to a toddler throwing a temper tantrum

To be fair, they did it because it works. For a whole century some kept telling people that capitalism has problems and maybe they should consider something else, and for a whole century nobody in the West gave a **** (rightly or wrongly, mostly rightly IMO but I'm not trying to start a political discussion).

But. When the same people told them that half the population in the West is a victim one way or the other because of their identity and they should complain, every-body bought it hook line and sinker. Tremendous appeal. The few that didn't are desperately digging up Thomas Sowell videos trying to keep their sanity and end up voting for bizarre individuals with orange comb-overs LOL
If you step back and look at it, it is a funny situation

[Sharkboy242]

I waited for these stats before deciding if I enjoyed game 1 or not. Thanks.

[yosemiteben]

The way ESPN talks you’d think there are only 4 teams in the league. Barkley called it out during the season

Barkley is on a show that's one of the biggest culprits.

They literally have a segment on that show called "who he play for" that makes fun of the fact that they don't know enough about the league to know where certain guys play.

[dakomish23]

The way ESPN talks you’d think there are only 4 teams in the league. Barkley called it out during the season

Barkley is on a show that's one of the biggest culprits.

They literally have a segment on that show called "who he play for" that makes fun of the fact that they don't know enough about the league to know where certain guys play.

Random nobodies on a team has nothing to do with which markets play in. They know all the big names no matter who they play for. Or is Chicago a small market?

https://youtu.be/

Watch on YouTube

?si=Fs3A5X5NVmN3afPk

[doogie_hauser]

How come soccer fans can happily accept and watch the Champions League final with 2 non top most popular teams in the world (maybe PSG is lineball but Inter certainly isn't by any stretch)

Regardless the NBA Wanted Parity and they got it, making a historical mint from their next TV rights and streaming deal, I don't think they would be concerned at all by the so called ratings of game 1.

[Memories]

Knew this would happen. I told people this Finals ratings was going to be horrible.

This matchup will end up being a curse to future rigging shenanigans like the Luka Trade/Mavs getting 1st pick. They will never let two extremely small markets in a Finals matchup ever again.

[Memories]

I know people mock because we are all watching. But this stuff matters. TV money subsidizes the game and the stakeholders aren't going to like taking a lot less which means they will pass the costs on to us whether it be increased ticket pricing or a streaming service you are paying for.

We should want high ratings so that TV and advertisers are paying the costs, not us.

I 100% agree. At the end, we want this sport to be best it could be.

[doogie_hauser]

Knew this would happen. I told people this Finals ratings was going to be horrible.

This matchup will end up being a curse to future rigging shenanigans like the Luka Trade/Mavs getting 1st pick. They will never let two extremely small markets in a Finals matchup ever again.

Care to make a friendly wager about that ?

Jerry Buss is not walking through that door again.

Lakers ain't making the finals again for the rest of the decade (and hopefully next decade either)

Smart and astute Front Offices win chips these days more than the actual market any team is located.

The Knicks got back to being an elite team and contender cause of their current front office, not because they play in the Mecca of Basketball.

Also i think years down the track, the Mavs decision to trade Luka to the Lakers will be vindicated for Nico and Dallas.

We probably wouldn't be having this discussion if LeBron and his gigantic ego were playing in the finals

LeBron is probably the 3rd best player of all time (after Jordan and Kareem imo) but his presence and the cult/legion of fans he has cultivated globally is perhaps a reason why the ratings this finals have been low so far.

It's not Lebron's fault I should reiterate BTW, he has been transcendtal for the league and the game, just spitballing here.

Shai, as brilliant as he has been, has never really being renowned for being one of the top 5 most popular players on the planet, ditto Haliburton, the NBA and especially Nike are somewhat to blame for their top heavy superstar endorsements ovet the years.

Someone mentioned it earlier in this thread but Nike and Espn and their superstar obsession is actually damaging the global image of the NBA, even if the league has more talent and great teams than ever before.

[Memories]

Knew this would happen. I told people this Finals ratings was going to be horrible.

This matchup will end up being a curse to future rigging shenanigans like the Luka Trade/Mavs getting 1st pick. They will never let two extremely small markets in a Finals matchup ever again.

Care to make a friendly wager about that ?

Jerry Buss is not walking through that door again.

Lakers ain't making the finals again for the rest of the decade (and hopefully next decade either)

Smart and astute Front Offices win chips these days more than the actual market any team is located.

The Knicks got back to being an elite team and contender cause of their current front office, not because they play in the Mecca of Basketball.

Also i think years down the track, the Mavs decision to trade Luka to the Lakers will be vindicated for Nico and Dallas.

We probably wouldn't be having this discussion if LeBron and his gigantic ego were playing in the finals

LeBron is probably the 3rd best player of all time (after Jordan and Kareem imo) but his presence and the cult/legion of fans he has cultivated globally is perhaps a reason why the ratings this finals have been low so far.

It's not Lebron's fault I should reiterate BTW, he has been transcendtal for the league and the game, just spitballing here.

Shai, as brilliant as he has been, has never really being renowned for being one of the top 5 most popular players on the planet, ditto Haliburton, the NBA and especially Nike are somewhat to blame for their top heavy superstar endorsements ovet the years.

Someone mentioned it earlier in this thread but Nike and Espn and their superstar obsession is actually damaging the global image of the NBA, even if the league has more talent and great teams than ever before.

That’s literally what I’ve said.

[durden_tyler]

Knew this would happen. I told people this Finals ratings was going to be horrible.

This matchup will end up being a curse to future rigging shenanigans like the Luka Trade/Mavs getting 1st pick. They will never let two extremely small markets in a Finals matchup ever again.

Lots of dumb conspiracy takes in a single post, i wonder if the public is as dumb as some of these RealGM posters.

[Memories]

Knew this would happen. I told people this Finals ratings was going to be horrible.

This matchup will end up being a curse to future rigging shenanigans like the Luka Trade/Mavs getting 1st pick. They will never let two extremely small markets in a Finals matchup ever again.

Lots of dumb conspiracy takes in a single post, i wonder if the public is as dumb as some of these RealGM posters.

Not really when it’s just facts. Deal with it.

[Memories]

I think it’s a mix of a couple things.

#1. The NBA has god awful marketing. The NBA promotes big markets and big stars. And the NBA seems to not think of a player as a “star” until after a few deep runs in the playoffs and the casual fan sees them more because of the playoff runs. These Finals are kind of the worst case scenario for the NBA. No big markets and no recognizable names. I get SGA is the MVP, but this is the first time casual sports fans are actually seeing him. And I’m sure from here on out, he will get promoted like crazy. But that won’t help these finals.

Kind of reminds me of Jokic during that 2023 championship run. He was a 2x MVP at the time and we had ESPN sideline reporters during the playoffs talking about how blown away they are watching Jokic for the first time…

#2. The NBA market (in the US) is not as big as it once was. Whether that’s because of politics, regular season, heavy reliance on the 3 and so on.

I’ll use myself and friend group as an anecdotal example. Since middle school I’ve been a die hard basketball fan, all my friends were basketball fans. I’m kind of the key demographic for the NBA and sports in general. 34, lifelong sports fan, with lots of miscellaneous spending opportunity. My friends fall into the same group. I mean I’ve been a mod on this place multiple times. I was a very “pro league pass” guy on here for years. I stopped buying league pass and didn’t watch a single entire game during the regular season. I talked to a buddy the other day, he didn’t even know the Finals were about to start. I don’t have a single buddy that watches the NBA anymore. But my phone blows up every Sunday during the NFL season from them.

And for those saying these old cable numbers don’t mean anything because everyone streams. Ratings nowadays include essentially all legal streaming. And for comparison, the NFL has no issue with getting the younger generation to watch games and be part of their ratings.

100%, absolutely. Fully agree.

My work place goes CRAZY for NFL games. Especially the playoffs. The Super Bowl might as well be considered an American holiday by law.

The NBA finals? Unless it’s a Game 7, they sleep. Even the most die hard NBA fans in some of those games.

[nomansland]

The way ESPN talks you’d think there are only 4 teams in the league. Barkley called it out during the season

A few weeks ago Brian Windhorst joked on his podcast that he had to talk about the Lakers because ESPN makes him.

He wasn't really joking.

[shi-woo]

I love how people think this has anything to do with the actual teams, and not the overall marketing strategy of the league.

Maybe telling the entire fanbase that this matchup was going to be one sided, Hali the most over rated player in the league, and one that was going to be all about defense was a terrible take

We know the actual market doesn't matter given the super team era was dominated by CLE and GS...

The NBA and media just hates anyone who isn't just a handful of chosen dudes.

The NBA, unlike the NFL, has a long regular season, and a ridiculous postseason. Single elimination in and of itself creates hype because no matter what you are seeing what happens if you tune in/buy a ticket. NBA is always hit or miss, that just as easily could have been a 30 point blow out GM 1, I skipped the 3rd and a lot of the 4th myself. If you didn't know the Pacers like I do, you aren't coming back with 6 minutes to go...The variance is completely different in the two sports.

They only focus on building up those few players all year, and it's sad because the Hali v SGA matchup is just as intriging as the Tatum v Luka one last year. Both these guys are likable off the court too for casual fans, and have huge personalities.

This isn't a problem with the teams or market, but with how trash the NBA is at marketing it's product, and how horrific ESPN as a whole has become. Don't understand why people always bring up the small market crap when that literally has nothing to do with anything outside of why ESPN doesn't care

[Bloodbather]

This is a self-fulfilling prophecy, imo. Every time there's a small market matchup like this, swathes of NBA media craps on its watchability and excitement, as if market size impacts the play.

I would I also like to point out that the game is international and that non-US people don't give a crap whether the team plays in a big city or not.

[SportsGuru08]

This is actually a pretty big problem for the NBA. From my perspective, I think that the Finals have been horribly advertised. From talking heads **** on it, to the NBA not pushing it effectively, the League's reliance on big markets for viewership is not ideal.

Unfortunately that's what happens when one of your media partners insists on talking about one player and one team specifically.

[seren]

I stopped watching after the first half as well. This blowout all game until last 6 minutes saga may be good drama but it doesn’t help with fan interest.