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One of the re-occuring themes on this website is Detroit and San Antonio fans panicking about the idea of a Dallas/Miami NBA Finals. Many have claimed that they would not watch the series, and that the matchup represents some sort of worst-case scenario for their perception of championship basketball.
This talk is very amusing to me. I feel that it is entirely appropriate, given that the San Antonio/Detroit matchup of last year, the wet dream of Spurstalk.com, represented a "perfect storm" of unwatchability for the rest of America at large, as ratings plummetted to record lows and Americans turned away in droves.
This year, with Miami and Dallas seemingly on a collision course, a Miami/Dallas matchup would pretty much guarantee the NBA its first ratings increase of the post-Jordan era.
During last years finals, only the cities of Detroit and SA paid attention. This year if things play out as they appear, only SA and Detroit won't pay attention.
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whatever...this message is for the good people of SA...
Yeah, thats what they said when the Lakers and Pacers were in the Finals, and the Lakers and Sixers, and the Lakers and Pistons, and the Lakers and Nets, and guess what, all those ratings sucked too. Nothing will be an increase from the Jordan era. First ratings increase of the post-Jordan era? This series would be lucky to do what any of the Laker ones have. Jordan's ratings were about twice what the ratings for the finals are now, some years they almost tripled them. That's not gonna happen this year with the Mavs and Heat, and trust me it won't be just Spurs and Pistons fans not watching.
true NBA fans will watch a finals series with any teams in it.
Could be worse... what if it's a Phoenix-Miami series?
No matter what teams get to the finals, the ratings will never be as in the Jordan times. With the NBA and especially the finals and playoffs, people outside of basketball don't follow it much or watch it, unlike say, the super bowl where millions who don't even know the teams or the game will watch it. Jordan was a superstar along with his team and gave some incentive to watch, whether you followed the sport or not.
I'll watch the games no matter what teams get there.
yeh, the NBA in Australia gives you an idea of what Jordan did for the game
during Jordan's prime you could see an NBA game on free to air tv on saturday and they had a show on saturday dedicated to all stuff NBA. You could buy an australian magazine that was all about NBA as well. Trading cards, jerseys etc were everywhere and scores were always given on sports tonight (a sports show that gves updates on sports around the world)
after Jordan there was nothing, u get one or two games a week and thats on ESPN so if u dont have cable then its bad luck. Trading cards are very hard to come by, Jerseys only come out in a few varieties and you cant even get an update of scores on TV anymore (not that it matters as much now coz of the net).
But it was mostly coz of MJ that the NBA was big in Australia. As an aussie i can only hope Bogut starts to lead the way in making the NBA also target the Australian market before i go crazy
exactly, BUT the fact that the playoffs have moved to cable doesn't help, i miss the old days of nba on nbc but i have to spend money on nba league pass, nbatv, etc because i don't want to miss out on games...lots of nba fans don't have cable and if they do, they may only have basic...if the nba cared about its viewership then it wouldn't have signed a stupid deal with tnt/abc (owns ESPN) basically forcing many people to wait until the NBA Finals before they can view some basketball...it's hard to get into the finals if you haven't watched the previous rounds
of course, viewership is up this year compared to previous years because of all the close series, great nytimes article link posted:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/24/sp...4sandomir.html
Nah, it's hard to get into the finals when you live in LA or New York and couldn't give half a about any team not covered by your local paper.it's hard to get into the finals if you haven't watched the previous rounds
i lived in nyc until last year and rooted for the mavs, no problem at all...buying nets tix to see my favorite road teams were easy as pie...and the nytimes covers all teams...besides, we're talking tv here, not people who actually go to the games...people in nyc will attend a knicks regular season game before they'll attend a nets playoff game anyday, doesn't mean the rest of the nation really cares two cents about the knicks or that new yorkers at home won't tune into the finals
also, new york fans have every team covered, i've seen fans run the gamut from bosox, to pistons, to lakers, to spurs, to north carolina, to duke, they don't just care about their own teams
Yeah, I lived in California and followed the Spurs on LeaguePass.
That really helped the finals ratings.
The NBA isn't about marketing to the fans anymore, it's about marketing to the corporations that pay for the luxury boxes and the air-time on TNT/ESPN. This is one of the main reason I believe Stern has to go. Let's bring the playoffs back to network T.V.. Let's quit treating our Stars with kid-gloves so they become immune to contact, and let's add a tape-review of controversial calls like they have in the NFL. Let's promote the league in disadvantaged school grounds around the country by using fine-money to build 'home-courts' for kids. Let's franchise The NBA Experience that travels with the All-Star game to coliseums and Arenas around the country, not just in NBA cities.
You watched the finals on LeaguePass?....must have been in a league of your own, some special package for Spurs fans. I've had LeaguePass for six years now and have never once seen a playoff game on one of those channels.
No. That's how I followed them, not how I watched the finals.You watched the finals on LeaguePass?.
I don't expect a Mav fan to be able to make the connection.
You are forgiven.
I agree with all of this...except the instant replay review. I hate the NFL precisely because of this review crap although it's a bit more warranted in the NFL where one drive/play usually has a lot more of an impact than one basket. The NBA already has instant replay for end of the quarter calls, that's enough. For such a fast-paced game, instant replay for controversial calls would be a death sentence. The only thing I might accede to is if the coaches each had one token to request an instant replay on a controversial call, one-time only per game.
You're the one who made the stupid mistake with your poor attempt at sarcasm. Don't use NBA League Pass when referring to the finals if you don't expect a sarcastic retort.
The mistake is yours.
I read magazines and internets too.
Again, you are forgiven.
I think tape review is the only way to add real-time accountability to the game, and we learned in this years series with the Mav's, one bad call can change the outcome of a game.
One bad call? You seriously believe this to be the case, that ONE, and ONLY ONE, bad call occurred in whichever game you're talking about that resulted in a Mavs win? Just curious, which game is it? So who would get to decide if a call is controversial? The coaches? The refs? The fans? What if there's a controversial call every 2-3 minutes? We stop and review tape for all these calls? Bad calls are usually canceled out at some point in a game, if they happen at the end as opposed to the beginning of a game, that's tough but still, it's not any less fair for them to happen at the beginning than at the end.
In denial...typical and right now, given your cir stance, understandable for some Spurs fans. Anyway, if you ever care to explain your *mistake* feel free to do so...that's what I thought.
The blocking call against Duncan against Dirk changed the course of Game 5(?). Without that Call, the Spurs are up by 7 and the Mav's are sunk.
Had I made a mistake, I'd explain it.
I didn't, so I don't have to.
Individuals following teams <> finals ratings.
I still don't expect you to understand.
My point, if you read the original post carefully, was not about following individual teams, it was about watching the playoffs while living in NYC and how it's not easily accessible unless you have stuff like TNT/ESPN because DUH, no local channels to bail you out.
LA and New York have national papers, not *local* cute ones like the S.A. Express. If you read the internets as you so claimed, following your Spurs wouldn't have been a problem while living in California. Way to look like a moron.
I went to Game 5 in S.A., Spurs won. Maybe Game 4? I don't remember a blocking call against Duncan in Game 4 but I can check it out tomorrow. I remember a miss by Duncan at the very end of the game but no call on the other end after that miss. Spurs got tons of calls that went their way in Game 7, even Spurs fans like Kerr started pointing this out. In that game, these calls didn't affect us negatively in the end so should these have been automatically reviewed anyway? I don't think so. When do these calls get reviewed? What about Parker's jersey grabbing on Dirk's last shot in Game 5, a shot that would have potentially won the game for the Mavs? Review? No. My point is, that we would have a six hour game if every call was reviewed.
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