Guys. this has nothing to do with NBA marketing strategy and everything to do with television market size. I guarantee you that if you took this exact same Spurs team and swapped them with the Lakers, they'd draw huge ratings, regardless of whether or not they have a high profile superstar. Put Memphis in New York, same thing. It's no coincidence the highest rated NBA Finals the Spurs were ever in is when they played the Knicks, who played a boring brand of basketball and lacked a marketable star after Ewing got hurt. Despite that, the series still had great ratings simply because of New York's market size.