On Thursday, June 14, 2007 the San Antonio Spurs wrapped up a 4-0 series victory over Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Tim Duncan and the Spurs are on their way to becoming an NBA dynasty as they take their 4th NBA title in 9 seasons. The Spurs clenched the win by one point at 83-83 and sent the young Cleveland Cavaliers team back home to learn from this playoff experience. Tony Parker from the San Antonio Spurs became the first European player to win the NBA Finals MVP trophy which surprised many fans who were expecting Tim Duncan to take that trophy home. The Spurs quick victory wasn’t exactly a shocker since most people expected them to win in 5 or 6 games. Lebron James, only 22 years old, attempted to lead his team of less-than-all stars but couldn’t quite match up against the extremely deep and experienced San Antonio Spurs.
One of the stories that is more interesting than the playoff games themselves was the extremely low ratings of the final matchup of San Antonio and Cleveland. Game 1 of the Spurs – Cleveland matchup turned out to be the lowest rated NBA Finals Game 1 since the NBA Finals moved to primetime television. The non-excitement around the Spurs and Cavs are probably to blame since just last year when Dirk Nowitzki, Shaq, the Mavs and Heat turned out about 19% better ratings. There was an even bigger gap between this year’s game 2 and last year’s game 2. One unfortunate event or lack of planning scheduled Game 2 the same time as HBO’s Sopranos finale which turned out very good ratings.
The lower and lower ratings coming out of the NBA Finals were about as expected since all televised sports (except the NFL) are in decline. ABC also featured The Belmont Stakes recently which was down 14% from last year and featured the race’s lowest ratings in almost 20 years. All sports are feeling the lower viewership including the NHL Stanley Cup which is showing much lower ratings in recent years. Many analysts predict one of the biggest issues in the NBA is there is no strong rivals in key markets like New York and Lost Angeles. The two Finals teams, San Antonio and Cleveland, are hardly the match up that most basketball fans were looking for. San Antonio is only the USA’s number 37 market and Cleveland comes in at number 17. Fortunately for the NBA, they had the marquee player of Lebron James to draw some fans in. The star of San Antonio, Tim Duncan, is known for his extremely tough and consistent play and has won MVP awards for doing so, but doesn’t exactly draw the young crowd that is looking for high flying dunks and long three pointers.
The NBA desperately needs to go back to the drawing board and find some new methods for bringing the fans back. Unfortunately, they may just have to wait until one of the strong markets emerges with a quality team which is a little beyond their control.
It’s unfortunate, but true. The Spurs will continue to battle for the title in the next few years. So, yes…the NBA better get back to the drawing board. I didn’t know who won the Stanley Cup until I watched SportsCenter to see Spurs highlights.
Comment by Derrich — June 21, 2007 @ 4:10 pm