WHERE’S THE NBA LOVE?
April 30, 2009 by R.C. Cola
t’s a shame that some of the best basketball being played all season is being completely ignored.
Unless you’re from Boston or Chicago, or just really love basketball, you’re probably paying little attention to the Celtics-Bulls series. If you haven’t tuned in, you’re missing a series filled with fantastic plays, dueling match-ups, clutch (and anti-clutch) plays and two burgeoning young superstar point guards. If we’re lucky, we’ll be treated to years of insane clashes between Rajon Rondo and Derrick Rose. Ray Allen, meanwhile, has met his late-game shooting match with Ben Gordon. It’s all capped off by a furious and still-intense - and sharply dressed - Kevin Garnett on the bench.
Boston leads it 3-2, and everyone predicts a crazy ending to a series that’s already featured three overtime conclusions and close finishes in all but one game.
Yet no one really cares. It’s a foregone conclusion that the Los Angeles Lakers and the Cleveland Cavaliers will meet in the NBA Finals. Every other playoff series is irrelevant. At least that’s the popular thinking. It’s sad, since most people have missed a tougher-than-expected series between the Orlando Magic and the Philadelphia 76ers, which resulted in a controversial elbow thrown by Dwight Howard - and a subsequent suspension. Or how about the Dallas Mavericks breaking through and serving the San Antonio Spurs their first early exit since 2000. The Portland Trailblazers are maturing as the series with the Houston Rockets progresses, making for a more interesting playoff battle.
Granted, if you were tuning into the marquee series - the Lakers vs. the Utah Jazz or the Cavs vs. the Detroit Pistons - you were treated to two fairly boring series. The Jazz tried to make it an effort, but Coach Jerry Sloan’s prediction of “bleak” prospects against the Lakers proved stunningly true. The Cavs never left cruise control in sweeping an undermanned and hopeless Pistons team. The media tried, and failed, to stir up some excitement out of two lifeless series.
As a result, most casual sports fans and even some more intense basketball followers are finding it difficult to focus on the playoffs. The basketball season already drags on for too long, and the playoffs are worse, particularly with the seven-game first-round series. Did the NBA really need that extra ticket revenue? With the Finals not around for another month, it’s easy to see why people find it difficult to stir themselves to watch these games.
There are also a few other distractions, what with an economic meltdown, swine flu, and debate over just how terrible the new “Wolverine” movie could be. But if you’ve got a spare hour or two and are near a sports bar or TV, track down a playoff game. With each remaining series going to Game 6 or 7, you’re virtually guaranteed a good time.
wrong.
Through april 26, the playoffs have had a 4% increase with average viewers to 2.97 million compared to 2.85 million for the first round in 2008 according to Nielsen Media Research data. NBA.com had its best week of the year, averaging nearly 2 million unique visitors from April 20-26, topped by 2.17 million on April 20, which beat the 2009 NBA All-Star Sunday. In addition, NBA.com streamed 16.8 million video streams for nine days of playoffs, also peaking on April 20 with more than 2.4 million videos, according to Omniture.
I guess our data conflicts, since I got mine from Turner and ESPN.
At least last Friday, ABC’s ratings were down 21% (glaring since this is the widest possible reach for an NBA game), while ESPN was down 5% for its games. TNT did see a 5% increase for its games. Overall numbers were down too.
The culprit has really been the Western Conference games, since the East games were actually improving as the series on.
NBA.com has been growing, but so has every Website, since more people watch online videos that ever before.
Ultimately, this was a call to sports fans of all kinds to catch these games, since they’re missing out on some good basketball.