Game 1 of the Finals posts horrific TV ratings

[hauntedcomputer]

You could cite a lot of reasons for the emergence of stupid basketball analyst takes-- mostly because NBA talking heads are by far the dumbest of any major sport.

In football, the early storied teams were Cleveland, Green Bay, and Pittsburgh and the NY and LA teams were usually terrible. It just happened that LA and Boston and occasionally NY had good teams during the rise of the NBA. In baseball you had the Yankees pretty much perennially but plenty of other teams had a bite at the apple over the years- St Louis and Oakland are next on the champ list after the Yankees.

I don't care how popular the sport gets-- even if salaries and revenue were cut in half, not much would change because the best players in the world would still play for $30 million a year instead of $60 million. Frankly, I think the sport would only improve by becoming more niche because the stupid people might leave. I'd gladly let Steve Ballmer lose money if it meant we had to dump Isaiah Thomas.

[JayMKE]

I agree the NBA does not really market teams or fan bases besides the Lakers and maybe to much lesser degree Boston, it is a star driven league and the national media has a very strong opinion on who & where the stars in this league should be. The national media seems to really hate international players and small markets, it is the bane of their existence. Maybe Luka is the exception now playing on the Lakers wit LeBron. Guys like Jokic, Giannis, SGA get way less attention than aging stars like LeBron, Curry, KD. I guess even we are focusing on the stars. It’s kind of a baked in part of basketball, the dominance and appeal of the superstar player is the biggest driver of basketball’s success for decades. There are certain things that can be done to make it more team orientated but the end of the day what the fans want is the larger than life star player to lead the way.

[Backcountry]

Could be worse. Imagine if Utah was playing?

[Quattro]

. Casuals cant watch because lebron and the lakers arent playing. Who cares

[Ritzo]

Thank goodness I stopped watching on TV like 6 years ago

[druggas]

This will be a very unpopular take for many posters here, but I think the NBA shot itself in the foot badly getting as political as it did during the covid years, and it might never recover from that.

The people who were bothered by the NBA's politics, were MAGA conservatives. They don't watch the NBA to begin with and would love to see the NBA crumble anyway due to their ties with China.

You don't know what you're talking about for one, and for two, this isn't the place to discuss politics!

[joeschmo]

The combined population of the two cities is below 2 million people. I'm amazed that there are as many people watching as there are.

[7seventynine9]

With the way the game is marketed (around superstars and not teams), market size and what team is playing shouldn't matter nearly as much as the players who are playing.

The NBA has done a bad job of advertising its younger superstars in favor of LeBron, Curry, Harden, Durant and all the older guys on their way out. Durant can't even carry a team to the playoffs anymore, but the talking heads talk about him 24/7 instead of SGA and Haliburton.

[Cactus Jack]

I don't know anything about football/NFL. But how is ESPN's coverage of football? Since many people say that in football big/small markets doesn't matter as much and the league market all the the teams, I would assume that ESPN coverage reflects that and that they are more neutral and professional than in basketball? If so, why can't the same network do the same in basketball?

The NFL markets teams. It's less about the individual player. Teams like Dallas, Green Bay, and Pittsburgh have large fanbases across the country.

Football in America has more built-in tribalism among fans. It's ingrained in the culture. The same is true for College Football. You're more connected to a local team or university.

The NBA markets stars. LeBron, MJ, Kobe, etc. It's less about the overall team. More about focusing on star players & their impact.

[durden_tyler]

This will be a very unpopular take for many posters here, but I think the NBA shot itself in the foot badly getting as political as it did during the covid years, and it might never recover from that.

The people who were bothered by the NBA's politics, were MAGA conservatives. They don't watch the NBA to begin with and would love to see the NBA crumble anyway due to their ties with China.

You don't know what you're talking about for one, and for two, this isn't the place to discuss politics!

He's right though, the dumb MAGA crowd is not the target market so couldn't care less if they watch or not.

[Stone]

The real shame about is that a lot of people missed a great game.

[durden_tyler]

The real shame about is that a lot of people missed a great game.

Not too worried about the live game ratings/stats, some numbers also matter in this day and age-- social media hits, etc. NFL might still be king in the US but the post-games and social media presence they can't hold a candle against the NBA, which in a roundabout way keeps the game alive and bigger.

[druggas]

The people who were bothered by the NBA's politics, were MAGA conservatives. They don't watch the NBA to begin with and would love to see the NBA crumble anyway due to their ties with China.

You don't know what you're talking about for one, and for two, this isn't the place to discuss politics!

He's right though, the dumb MAGA crowd is not the target market so couldn't care less if they watch or not.

Stop with the politics!

[jbsays]

NBA has way more competition for people's time in 2025 than in the 80s, 90s, or 00s. Even if people still have cable there's hundreds of channels. I'm sure they are hoping OKC wins and they can try to market SGA like Jordan or Kobe, but even still they're facing way more competition for people's time than they did during either of those guys eras.

[manlisten]

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.

Which is why it's completely unfathomable that the NBA would ever attempt to manipulate conditions in the league to drive fan interest or benefit their bottom line.

[Mirotic12]

How does this acccoub t for streaming?

TV ratings aren't as important as they used to be. That just means boomers in the US have tuned out. Streaming and international markets mean a lot more now, too

It's 2025. We need to stop pretending that live cable TV ratings mean anything

This. Someone get us those streaming numbers.

Streaming viewers are included in the number of people watching in the ratings. So those ratings numbers include the people that are streaming in whatever way, and not just live TV veiwers.

[bisme37]

You don't know what you're talking about for one, and for two, this isn't the place to discuss politics!

He's right though, the dumb MAGA crowd is not the target market so couldn't care less if they watch or not.

Stop with the politics!

Agreed. Durden and Marvin and etc, please stop with the politics. Stuff like this just starts fights and gets threads locked. Thank you and good day kind sirs!

[Raps in 4]

The real shame about is that a lot of people missed a great game.

Not too worried about the live game ratings/stats, some numbers also matter in this day and age-- social media hits, etc. NFL might still be king in the US but the post-games and social media presence they can't hold a candle against the NBA, which in a roundabout way keeps the game alive and bigger.

Ratings absolutely do matter. TV deals are how the NBA makes money.

Having said that, maybe if ratings keep collapsing, we'll see a shift away from cable towards streaming in 10-20 years (something that should have happened already 10 years ago, but executives aren't the sharpest tools in the shed).

[Yank3525]

The real shame about is that a lot of people missed a great game.

Not too worried about the live game ratings/stats, some numbers also matter in this day and age-- social media hits, etc. NFL might still be king in the US but the post-games and social media presence they can't hold a candle against the NBA, which in a roundabout way keeps the game alive and bigger.

Ratings absolutely do matter. TV deals are how the NBA makes money.

Having said that, maybe if ratings keep collapsing, we'll see a shift away from cable towards streaming in 10-20 years (something that should have happened already 10 years ago, but executives aren't the sharpest tools in the shed).

Yeah, people thinking ratings do not matter are being naive. There is a reason why NBC (broadcast channel) is getting 100 games next year.

[Shock Defeat]

Look at ESPN to see how much they care about the pacers-thunder. They spend more time talking about the Knicks coaching search than the NBA Finals. Literally no one cares about these two teams and that's probably because of the way that the sports media markets the NBA. I don't really get it because in the NFL, they talk about small markets all the time. KC, Cincy, etc. It doesn't really matter.

Adam Silver doesn't care, but he should. He should mandate ESPN change the way they cover the league. That should be a stipulation for owning the TV rights.

If the Knicks-Lakers were in the Finals, the ratings would probably be double.