The NBA finals ratings were not that bad

[cecil collins]

Youre seriously telling me the Spurs/Cavs got such a worse rating than Florida/Ohio is because of the number of games they played?

I guarantee that if the Gators played the Buckeyes in a best of seven, it would have EASILY drawn much more interest....how could it NOT? There was buzz about that match up. People like to watch Oden. They don't like to watch Duncan.
The Spurs and Cavs were all time low. ROCK BOTTOM. It can't get any worse than this, can it?

Lets trade Duncan for carrot top. Maybe then we would produce some real ratings. People liked to watch Duncan in college, but NBA fans expect more flashy play. If you can't appreciate what Duncan does, then you are watching the wrong ing sport. How did you people let Slamball go off the air?

Also, a one game finals would undoubtedly draw more ratings(not total, but per game), because anything can happen. The problem was, ESPN couldn't hype up Lebron enough to make people believe it would be a series.

[Johnny RIngo]

Sun Fan, cheer up. The Spurs just bought the Austin Toros of the D-League. That means you're not the only team they own now.

LMFAO!

[Reggie Miller]

ESPN/ABC is directly responsible for the declining ratings, IMHO. There has been a steady decline since ABC took over televising the Finals. Shaq's teams led to relatively higher ratings in 2004 and 2006, but even those Finals were low-rated compared to the Lakers 2000-2002 run on NBC.

ABC does not promote the NBA with prime time broadcast games during the regular season like NBC did. Strange as it may seem to many people, poor foks don't always have cable. You cannot realistically follow the NBA anymore without cable and internet access. Obviously, this does not help ratings. Many people can't watch the NBA until the playoffs start and tend to lose interest once their team is eliminated.

I haven't even begun to discuss the problems with the ESPN/ABC broadcasts themselves. Others have written on this topic quite eloquently, but here are a couple of quick points. If Jeff Van Gundy is your most informed and dynamic analyst/announcer, then you are in deep . At this point, I think that the Disney networks have stopped aiming at the lowest common denominator and lowered their sights a bit. It is very demoralizing to have your intelligence insulted and assaulted for 2-3 hours. ESPN dumbs down the broadcast to the point that I really question who the they are trying to interest/entertain. Does any sports fan (or any male for that matter) give a @#$% about the births of the players' kids? The half-time presentations were just awful. Grant Hill's speech coach needs to explain that hand gestures aren't needed for every sentence. Also, Barry, Hill, and Wilbon were obviously reading off of teleprompters, quite amateurishly. Just embarrasingly awful on every level.

Note to ESPN: When it is obvious that a particular team (i.e. Spurs) is going to make the Finals, you may not want to spend 2-3 weeks running down the team, especially when your parent network holds the broadcasting rights. Don't forget, ESPN/ABC was in the midst of negotiations for future rights during this period. I wouldn't be at all surprised if ESPN/ABC deliberately sabotaged ratings to low-ball the NBA. (This does not appear to have actually happened, but I thought so at the time.) Probably even more significant is the constant and unremitting negative coverage of the NBA by ESPN in general.

Obviously, the Spurs do not draw the same numbers as the Lakers. However, the relative strength and size of the San Antonio and Cleveland markets is just one small part of the overall picture. Any Suns fan that thinks that Phoenix would have drawn significantly higher ratings is kidding themselves. The real issues are that ESPN/ABC is killing the ratings, the Finals were not going to be compe ive with the current EC, and league scheduling needlessly prolongs the playoffs (killing any momentum with viewing habits). Obviously, the relative popularity of the Spurs is not the main isssue.

[ambchang]

LMAO!

Comparing the NBA Finals to the NCAA Championship game is nonsensical?



Right...because:
1) They're both basketball
2) They both determine the champions of their respective league
3) They're both on national television

But it doesn't make any sense to compare the two?

Tell me which part you don't understand and I'll explain it to you.

I guess it doesn't make any sense to compare the Spurs and Suns since theyre two completely different things, right?

What a dumb-ass.

Apparently, it was a higher rating than the Mavs and the Heat in 2006.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playof...ory?id=2497161
9 compared to 8.5 average. Hmmm ..... so the Mavs and Heat are also more boring than Gators and Ohio.