Spurs TV ratings story at nba.com :cry

[ElNono]

Like it or not, the Spurs could end up on your TV come June (http://www.nba.com/2012/news/features/shaun_powell/04/12/san-antonio-spurs-still-contending/index.html)

[Man In Black]

I like the story.

It would seem that he followed the as REQUIRED LABEL THEM BORING storyline before his VALIANT attempt to counter that label.

IDGAF about why they cry about ratings when in actuality, it's their own DAMN FAULT for not promoting just how good a team the Spurs are until the team gives them all a Capital F U Style We're here!!!

I used to think it was primarily because the Spurs play in small market San Antonio, but OKC is an even SMALLER market than San Antonio. Now I think, the media(especially the 4-letter) hates the Spurs, besides that they play in San Antonio, it's also because their STARS aren't what they consider AMERICAN enough. I guess if TP would have chosen to go to UCLA instead of declare for the draft, then maybe he gets as much pub as Westbrook. I guess they hate Manu because his National Team was the 1st team to beat a team with NBA players in the 02 Worlds or that his Golden Generation ARG team won the 04 Olympics didn't make those Q ratings people happy. I mean, for every bounce pass Rubio makes that they call spectacular, I can say, I've seen Manu do it better, and BEFORE Ricky ever came Stateside.
I guess Tim isn't American enough either. If you ever look at the NBA list of International players, you would see Tim Duncan listed as an International.
American Citizen yes, International according to the NBA.
Whatevs....We're Spurs Fans and we've been treated to 4 titles that say FU to the rest of the NBA and it's Media World partners and I'm expecting a 5th title for the first even year title and a shortened NBA season REPEAT!

[Manufan909]

I like the story.

It would seem that he followed the as REQUIRED LABEL THEM BORING storyline before his VALIANT attempt to counter that label.

IDGAF about why they cry about ratings when in actuality, it's their own DAMN FAULT for not promoting just how good a team the Spurs are until the team gives them all a Capital F U Style We're here!!!

I used to think it was primarily because the Spurs play in small market San Antonio, but OKC is an even SMALLER market than San Antonio. Now I think, the media(especially the 4-letter) hates the Spurs, besides that they play in San Antonio, it's also because their STARS aren't what they consider AMERICAN enough. I guess if TP would have chosen to go to UCLA instead of declare for the draft, then maybe he gets as much pub as Westbrook. I guess they hate Manu because his National Team was the 1st team to beat a team with NBA players in the 02 Worlds or that his Golden Generation ARG team won the 04 Olympics didn't make those Q ratings people happy. I mean, for every bounce pass Rubio makes that they call spectacular, I can say, I've seen Manu do it better, and BEFORE Ricky ever came Stateside.
I guess Tim isn't American enough either. If you ever look at the NBA list of International players, you would see Tim Duncan listed as an International.
American Citizen yes, International according to the NBA.
Whatevs....We're Spurs Fans and we've been treated to 4 titles that say FU to the rest of the NBA and it's Media World partners and I'm expecting a 5th title for the first even year title and a shortened NBA season REPEAT!

Here here!!!:flag::flag::flag:

[Manufan909]

I like the story.

It would seem that he followed the as REQUIRED LABEL THEM BORING storyline before his VALIANT attempt to counter that label.

IDGAF about why they cry about ratings when in actuality, it's their own DAMN FAULT for not promoting just how good a team the Spurs are until the team gives them all a Capital F U Style We're here!!!

I used to think it was primarily because the Spurs play in small market San Antonio, but OKC is an even SMALLER market than San Antonio. Now I think, the media(especially the 4-letter) hates the Spurs, besides that they play in San Antonio, it's also because their STARS aren't what they consider AMERICAN enough. I guess if TP would have chosen to go to UCLA instead of declare for the draft, then maybe he gets as much pub as Westbrook. I guess they hate Manu because his National Team was the 1st team to beat a team with NBA players in the 02 Worlds or that his Golden Generation ARG team won the 04 Olympics didn't make those Q ratings people happy. I mean, for every bounce pass Rubio makes that they call spectacular, I can say, I've seen Manu do it better, and BEFORE Ricky ever came Stateside.
I guess Tim isn't American enough either. If you ever look at the NBA list of International players, you would see Tim Duncan listed as an International.
American Citizen yes, International according to the NBA.
Whatevs....We're Spurs Fans and we've been treated to 4 titles that say FU to the rest of the NBA and it's Media World partners and I'm expecting a 5th title for the first even year title and a shortened NBA season REPEAT!

Here here!!!:flag::flag::flag:

[Darkwaters]

What do I care about ratings? Why are there always articles about this and people voicing an opinion on RATINGS? The only people that should actually care are those that have a financial stake in ratings of NBA games - and they're not fans, they're entrepreneurs and businessmen.

Not me. I'm a fan. If we win I don't care who says it was a worthwhile venture to watch or not. We won bitches!

[100%duncan]

Haters gon' hate

[siraulo23]

http://spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=194847

[ElNono]

oops, merge/lock

[FuzzyLumpkins]

The NFL manages to promote Green Bay and Buffalo yet the NBA cannot promote 4 time champions, the greatest PF ever, and the best international cast in NBA history.

Stern is terrible.

[PublicOption]

its really sad.......what makes Spurs fans so insightful to this slight is the fact most of us are Cowboys fans. The Cowboys sneeze and they are TV. The Spurs are completely ignored.

We get why the league focuses on LA/MIAMI/BOSTON etc.

But, you know the league would suffer the same fate if Durant showed up against anyone other than the Heat. Who knows even if the Heat play the Thunder, people might change the channel anyway because LA/Boston/Dallas/Chicago and NY will not be playing.

The league is playing with fire when they ignore the Spurs.....It hurts them later in the finals and its there own fault.

[rascal]

its really sad.......what makes Spurs fans so insightful to this slight is the fact most of us are Cowboys fans. The Cowboys sneeze and they are TV. The Spurs are completely ignored.

We get why the league focuses on LA/MIAMI/BOSTON etc.

But, you know the league would suffer the same fate if Durant showed up against anyone other than the Heat. Who knows even if the Heat play the Thunder, people might change the channel anyway because LA/Boston/Dallas/Chicago and NY will not be playing.

The league is playing with fire when they ignore the Spurs.....It hurts them later in the finals and its there own fault.

How do you figure the league ignores the Spurs? The Spurs are on TV often enough .

[Wild Cobra Kai]

The NFL manages to promote Green Bay and Buffalo yet the NBA cannot promote 4 time champions, the greatest PF ever, and the best international cast in NBA history.

Stern is terrible.

Their biggest flaw is that in the past, their winners were also personalities. Now, they just seem to promote personalities.

[Wild Cobra Kai]

The NFL manages to promote Green Bay and Buffalo yet the NBA cannot promote 4 time champions, the greatest PF ever, and the best international cast in NBA history.

Stern is terrible.

Their biggest flaw is that in the past, their winners were also personalities. Now, they just seem to promote personalities.

[Venti Quattro]

The NBA is a superstar-driven market, while the NFL is a team-driven market. It's a sad fact.

[Man In Black]

Considering that Stern loves to copy the NFL verbatim, you'd think he'd have a way to promote a team like the Spurs. Ain't nothing wrong with efficient WINNING basketball.
The Bucks have an NBA title from a time when Oscar Robertson and a young Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Imagine if they got good enough to go deep into the playoffs by finding another stud center to go along with their young formidable backcourt, how would the NBA market them?
I laugh my ass off when the Spurs have made their climb to the finals and then you hear some 4letter hack offer some sort of apology that says something like so, "We do a disservice to the Spurs. All they do is play the way we'd want our kids to play. It ain't flashy but they've won for so long doing it Pop's way."

[spurs4real]

I still can't believe how the NBA allows it's own network NBATV to bad mouth us or ignore us or any other team. I have a good feeling that when Stern retires and the NBA has a new commissioner the Spurs and any small market team who is deserving of public attention (record wise) will get recognized. Unfortunately for our Spurs, we won't be the Spurs of old by that time.

[dbreiden83080]

When the Spurs were in the finals in 2007 people expected the ratings to be good because of Lebron and they were terrible. Bron was not as beloved as ESPN made him out to be and most people knew the Spurs were going to kill the Cavs. The ratings issue with the Spurs in the finals is over-rated though. It's not like they average a 20 when anyone but the Spurs are in the finals. Lakers Magic in 2009 averaged an 8.4 and Spurs Pistons were a 8.2.. The 99 finals with the Knicks was an 11.3.. In fact since the NBA left NBC the ratings have never really got back on track..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Basketball_Association_Nielsen_ratings

[Obstructed_View]

The NBA is a superstar-driven market, while the NFL is a team-driven market. It's a sad fact.

The NBA gained popularity as a superstar-driven market, and probably could have used that as a stepping stone to NFL-type popularity, but they never bothered to revise the model once Jordan, Bird and Magic began to age.

[Obstructed_View]

When the Spurs were in the finals in 2007 people expected the ratings to be good because of Lebron and they were terrible.

I don't see how anyone expected the ratings to be good. All ESPN did was talk down the matchup, basically from the time Utah and San Antonio were in the conference finals. It never made much sense for ESPN to seemingly drive viewers away from an event on their parent network. I don't actually remember ESPN making TV ratings such a big story about anything else. In 2007 they seemed to do it before, during and after the event.

The dropping ratings in the finals from 2003 on might have more to do with ABC taking over broadcasting from NBC than the Pistons or the Spurs or the Nets or the Cavs.

[dbreiden83080]

I don't see how anyone expected the ratings to be good. All ESPN did was talk down the matchup, basically from the time Utah and San Antonio were in the conference finals. It never made much sense for ESPN to seemingly drive viewers away from an event on their parent network. I don't actually remember ESPN making TV ratings such a big story about anything else. In 2007 they seemed to do it before, during and after the event.

The dropping ratings in the finals from 2003 on might have more to do with ABC taking over broadcasting from NBC than the Pistons or the Spurs or the Nets or the Cavs.

I mentioned the NBA leaving NBC.. And the post Jordan era is obviously a factor. Give the fans a good series and the ratings should be good, Heat/Spurs would draw good ratings because it would be a quality series and it has star power..

[DMC]

The "boring" line has been parroted by media so much that it's become an axiom. The fact they spend so much (or so little) time arguing against it is amusing.

I remember how boring I thought the NBA was as a kid when the same teams were in the Finals every year. Consistency is boring. People want drama. Can we get Snooki to suit up?

[DMC]

I mentioned the NBA leaving NBC.. And the post Jordan era is obviously a factor. Give the fans a good series and the ratings should be good, Heat/Spurs would draw good ratings because it would be a quality series and it has star power..
Heat and ________ would draw good ratings.

(fill in the blank with any other Western team)

[Obstructed_View]

I mentioned the NBA leaving NBC.. And the post Jordan era is obviously a factor. Give the fans a good series and the ratings should be good, Heat/Spurs would draw good ratings because it would be a quality series and it has star power..

Yeah I agree with the rest of your post about that. My single point of contention was simply that there's no way ESPN was expecting good ratings in 2007 since they never once talked up the matchup.

[Wild Cobra Kai]

Like most businesses today, the networks are colossally lazy. They don't have to promote a Lakers Finals, so they bitch to Stern when they don't get one.

[dbestpro]

Spurs can set records for lowest viewership in the USA, but then set records for most viewers worldwide.

[Obstructed_View]

Spurs can set records for lowest viewership in the USA, but then set records for most viewers worldwide.

That's why you don't hear complaints from the NBA, just from ESPN.

I seem to remember a story soon after the 2007 Finals where ABC/ESPN extended their NBA contract for record money.

[Arcadian]

The thing you have to remember is that most people in the world are stupid. That explains why ratings are down for the Spurs. True fans of basketball will just laugh at that and think, "WTF? Really? The Spurs are awesome to watch."

I don't want to make the argument that anyone who doesn't like the Spurs is stupid. That would be a fallacy. But I do argue that the lack of popularity for the Spurs is largely attributable to stupidity.

"thy dont dunk enuf durr!!11"

[Obstructed_View]

A large portion of fans for a championship series are very casual fans. It helps to have a gigantic metro area for those casual fans to bring up ratings and buy merchandise.

[jimo2305]

ha.. i brought all this up a long time ago but all i was hearing was 'nyuk nyuk! GNSF nyuk!'

[Man In Black]

A large portion of fans for a championship series are very casual fans. It helps to have a gigantic metro area for those casual fans to bring up ratings and buy merchandise.

For 2003 NJ/NY metro wasn't big enough?

[Legacy]

The "boring" line has been parroted by media so much that it's become an axiom. The fact they spend so much (or so little) time arguing against it is amusing.

I remember how boring I thought the NBA was as a kid when the same teams were in the Finals every year. Consistency is boring. People want drama. Can we get Snooki to suit up?


Exactly. WTF else do people have to say about us? Nothing--Exactly!! The Spurs are... *ahem* well... The Spurs. We ain't got shit to prove to nobody. The Media needs to make money. Spurs have too much of a thing called "Class" and "Consistency"--where is the DRAMA, dammit!!??? No drama, No money for them! LMAO. ... Now GTFOutta' here, and go back to your Dwight Howard/Orlando media-whoring circus; F'ing pathetic clowns!! :lmao

[Legacy]

The thing you have to remember is that most people in the world are stupid. That explains why ratings are down for the Spurs. True fans of basketball will just laugh at that and think, "WTF? Really? The Spurs are awesome to watch."

I don't want to make the argument that anyone who doesn't like the Spurs is stupid. That would be a fallacy. But I do argue that the lack of popularity for the Spurs is largely attributable to stupidity.

"thy dont dunk enuf durr!!11"


Fine post, IMO. :toast

[Obstructed_View]

For 2003 NJ/NY metro wasn't big enough?

I know, right? I remember a TV thing where they had man-on-the-street inteviews and people didn't know the Nets were even in the finals, and it was their second year to make it. It's possible that getting swept by the Lakers the year before dampened any enthusiasm for the second trip. I never understood it myself. I'm sure all that was a factor in changing the name of the team to get New Yorkers to identify more with it.