Thursday's game one of the NBA Finals drew the third lowest television rating of any NBA Finals contest. Ever.
The ratings were on par with those of the 1981 NBA Finals. In 1981 the NBA Finals weren't even aired on live television. They were shown on tape delay, late at night, after Johnny Carson's Tonight Show.
Good Lord.
Earlier in the week, we linked to an article which argued that nobody (outside of San Antonio) cares about the San Antonio Spurs. The article mentioned relief among NBA executives, that rising star, LeBron James and Cleveland would be San Antonio's opponent, rather than the star-power-challenged Detroit Pistons. The thinking was that, despite the fact that Cleveland is a smaller, Midwestern television market, LeBron's star power would be enough to offset the blandness of San Antonio, and draw a national television audience.
On second thought...
Look, Drive and Dish is staffed by basketball people. We love the NBA playoffs. We wouldn't miss the Fianls for anything. But the rest of America, apparently, couldn't care less about the NBA.
David Stern and the "association" better watch out. Their league could become as irrelevant as the NHL.
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3 comments:
This is sooo obvious. I can't believe that noone else has thought of it. Clearly, with the onset of the WNBA season, nobody's going to waste their time watching the NBA finals.
Neither Cleveland nor San Antonio has a visible white star player. Without a visible blue eyed devil/white star player (or great white hope/hype to be more accuate), the racist Amerikkkan public will never embrace the NBA. Amerikkka is overwhelmingly racist. That's why the powers that be in the NBA named that undeserving blue eyed Aryan devil, Dirk Nowitzki, the league's MVP.
Last year Nowitzki was in the Finals. So the public tuned in, hoping to see the melanin challenged devil from Hitler's fatherland prevail over the strong, powerful Nubians, Shaq and Dwayne Wade. Needless to say, the white devil was no match for the Nubian warrior. But in this year's finals, without a Nowitzski or a Larry Bird, or a sell out Uncle Tom like Michael Jordan or Karl Malone, the Amerikkkan public has no interest in watching strong young Nubians dominating yet another Amerikkkan pastime.
Nat X, you are my hero.
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