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NBA Finals Ratings & Revenue Down? Let's play 7

By BIGPHILLY, Section NBA
Posted on Thu Jun 23 2005 at 1:57 PM EST
More on: (all tags)

Well...I thought I could never be bored to the point of hating television and then last night the NBA finals brought me to my knees.

"It's alright Tony...Stern promised us we'd win in 7"

This article will not explain how to do so but let's applaud the players union and the owners for coming to a nice agreement on the latest CBA.

Now the real story. The NBA is facing a crisis of very large proportions. What is the crisis? Not a single person outside of San Antonio who isn't a fan of the Detroit Pistons cares about the NBA FINALS. This excerpt from John Consoli of mediaweek.com tells you the whole story:

"Household ratings for Game Two of the NBA Finals on ABC on Sunday night in which the San Antonio Spurs defeated the Detroit Pistons, were down 36 percent from last year's Game Two, reaching only a 6.9.

The household ratings' average for the first two games of the finals on ABC are averaging a 7.0, down 32 percent from last year, when the Pistons played the Los Angeles Lakers in the finals. If these ratings hold up at this level, it will be the second lowest rated NBA Finals in history. Through the first two games, ratings in the key 18-49 demo are down 34 percent to a 6.0 from a 9.1 last year."

Wow! Staggering numbers. So what does David Stern do? Well...um...[this is where those of you who think the world is a perfectly run utopia can tune out]...You gone? Ok...for the rest of you...David Stern has ensured that the NBA Finals goes 7 Games. Why? Because even depressed numbers for the NBA Finals kill the average numbers of shows in the same time slot.

I mean even with a poor matchup between Detroit and San Antonio taking place - the NBA Finals still pulls ABC the #8 and #12 slot in this past week's ratings for game 1 and 2.

http://tv.yahoo.com/nielsen/

NOTE: Who in the world watches Two and a half men? More people than the NBA Finals apparently.

So this leads to how David Stern has been able to manipulate what looked like a SPURS easy series to a 7 game series in which...Yes the Spurs win...

So how does David Stern Accomplish this?

NBA Officials/Refs

I watched the most boring and agonizing first half of NBA basketball I have ever watched last night. (Game 6)

All I saw was Rasheed Wallace crying like a two year old, Chauncey Billups whining, Larry Brown crying, assistant coaches yelling, Tim Duncan being a baby and Brent Barry being a sissy.

It wasn't basketball. This wasn't Magic to Kareem. This wasn't Michael Jordan over Clyde Drexler. This wasn't even Shaquille and Kobe. (Thought I'd never say that) This was a bunch of babies yelling at REFS. Between these moments were some wild three pointers and rebounds.

So why was game 6 like this? The REFS are coached by David Stern and the NBA. Believe it. No they don't meet in a dark room and Stern goes "Ok. San Antonio needs to win. Make sure Billups fouls out." - What happens is the NBA puts pressure on the refs to call the games a certain way focussing on the team that they want to lose.

It's obvious and it can be seen over and over if you look closely.

Stern relies on TV revenue like a baby relies on milk and with ratings down like they are he needed a GAME 7. With the help of those that he controls...

He got it.