Buck Harvey: If Stern Had Tiger: As Seen On TV

[Cry Havoc]

TV money rules this sport more than any other. It's showbiz, not showtime, ffffffffolks.

And yet the NFL and the MLB both make more money than basketball does right now.

Shocking... fans won't pay for a product they don't feel is authentic.

[Appoggiatura]

Stern stopped caring about basketball years ago and it shows with the way he lets ABC dictate when his league plays.

NBC had a similar deal with a Wednesday/Friday/Sunday format in The Finals. But, where Stern screwed it up with the TV deal was putting most of the playoffs on cable. The past couple of years, he had each Conference Final on every other day, yet in the early rounds you could get 3-4 day breaks in between games. The break between 6 and 7 was ridiculous, considering there was only one game on Sunday (CLE/BOS). Before, you would have all the Game 7s on Sunday. Would have given us an extra day,which could have helped.

Bottom line is though that the existing TV deal sucks and ABC/ESPN sucks in the way they've never been consistent with it's NBA coverage and it's not going anywhere anytime soon.