The NBA playoff ratings have been FANtastic

Well, Phil Jackson, it turns out that the NBA has not woked itself out of the American television landscape. Some news that you won’t find on the disingenuous provocateur in Nashville’s timeline is that the first round of the 2023 NBA Playoffs was a smash hit. According to the NBA, TNT, ESPN, and ABC were the most watched networks in primetime by viewers 50 years old, and under for 13 of the 14 nights in which games were aired. The first round averaged 3.4 million viewers per night which was the highest for the NBA in nine years. Games on ESPN and ABC averaged 4.5 million viewers. That is the Disney family of networks’ highest-rated first round since they reacquired NBA broadcasting rights in 2002. The crown jewel of the 2023 NBA first round was the Golden State Warriors against the Sacramento Kings. Draymond Green’s stomp, De’Aaron Fox’s fourth quarters, Stephen Curry’s greatness, the beam, the chaotic Game 4 ending, it all coalesced for a Game 7 that was the NBA’s most viewed first-round game since 1999. With an average of 9.88 million viewers, it was the highest-rated since a memorable Game 7 in Sacramento 21 years ago — the final game of the Kings’ 2002 Western Conference Finals matchup against the Los Angeles Lakers. Let’s be sure to give the good people of Sacramento a round of applause. The crowd at Golden 1 Center played a huge part in making that series must-watch TV. They kept the tech bros from the Bay Area from buying up tickets turning their home stadium into a neutral site. A crowd bringing Kings fans type of energy always provides a significant boost to the viewing experience. Also, as huge as those viewership numbers are, it is not like the NBA has been a struggling television entity. Sports Media Watch’s Jon (Paulsen) Lewis recently took a deep dive into the league’s regular-season nationally televised games and found that viewership has largely remained steady since the turn of the millennium. There have been peaks like the four seasons when LeBron James played for the Miami Heat, and valleys like the mid-aughts when the league was putting out a weak product. Too many popular players such as Allen Iverson and Kevin Garnett were playing on teams that were not good enough to contend for an NBA Championship on a regular basis. With all of the highs and lows of competing in the post-Y2K television industry, for the NBA to largely maintain its viewership, thereby increasing its market share of the ever-dwindling live television audience, the league has been a rousing success. Go ask ESPN executives how they would feel if Sunday Night Baseball did the same viewership numbers as the NBA. They would probably answer that they would lay out flattened cardboard boxes in the hallway and start spinning on their heads. Certainly, the NBA has some work to do to prepare for the inevitable and also fast-approaching day when James retires. The league’s next biggest star is Curry, who turned 35 years old in March. The NBA is flush with talent, but no one else is famous enough to hawk Subway sandwiches with Zion Willamson constantly rehabbing from injury. In America, any league that is not the NFL is going to need stars, and great storylines in order to resonate on a large scale. The NBA may not be able to promise that, but what it does have going for it though is it can confidently guarantee that nearly two million people will watch the games aired on major national television networks. Then come spring, there is always the chance for playoff viewership to catch fire like it has the last two weeks. For those out there that would rather Black bodies simply dribble and not acknowledge the unequal share of decency and resources that people with their racial designation receive, the league is doing just fine without you all.

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