The Commissioner addressed some fan complaints ahead of Game 3 between the Pacers and Thunder.
There have been plenty of complaints about this year’s NBA Finals — the ratings are low, the markets are small, the production is dismal, there’s no Larry O’Brien Trophy on the court, to name a few. Ahead of Wednesday’s Game 3, Adam Silver addressed a couple of those gripes.
First, the ratings haven’t been great for this year’s series between the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder. Games 1 and 2 together averaged 8.84 million viewers. This total is down at least 24% from the past three years and is the lowest since 2007, except for during the Lakers-Heat bubble series in 2020.
The NBA Finals ratings are down 24% from the past three years.
(Kyle Terada-Imagn Images)
Of course, a lot of that has to do with the size of the markets. Indiana and OKC, regardless of how good the teams are, have a much smaller fanbase than the big-city Lakers, Knicks or even the Mavericks, for example.
But despite a lack of interest from casual fans, Pacers and Thunder faithful are “completely captured” by The Finals, Silver said. Also, the Finals are still pulling more viewers than anything else on TV.
“As a media matter, it’s interesting. People compare us to 20 years ago, but Games 1 and 2 are the highest-rated programs in May and June so far on television,” Silver said. “If something beats us, it’ll be another sports program. Back 20 years ago, we often didn’t win the night when The Finals were on. But the absolute rating is lower now.”
The commissioner does have a point there. It’s absolutely fair to compare these finals ratings to those of recent years. But to compare them to 20 years ago — before people had endless options for things to watch on their smartphones and streaming services — is a little disingenuous.
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The people who are watching the Finals, though, have a different complaint: the hype simply isn’t there.
Fans have noted that the ABC and ESPN broadcasts of these games and their respective pre- and post- shows have lacked the excitement and the spectacle of recent years. They didn’t even bother to paint the trophy on the court.
But Silver squashed that gripe — explaining that the on-court decals haven’t been a thing for a long time.
“I’ve seen some of the chatter on social media about on-court decals,” Silver said. “People don’t realize, they went away a decade ago because there were claims, Kendrick [Perkins] knows … they were slippery when we had them on the court. We’re back to adding them virtually.”
The only problem, though, is the virtually-added Larry O’Brien Trophys in Game 2 looked like low-resoltion clip art.
In any event, the actual basketball in the NBA Finals has been exciting. The Pacers currently hold a 2-1 lead over the No. 1-seeded Thunder and will host Game 4 on Friday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
