OT NBA Finals: The Coronation of King James
Miami rolling late in the first half. LeBron should get his much deserved title and Finals MVP shortly
I would agree. You have to keep one of the best interior defenders and shot blockers in the game over someone who, while a really good player, basically does the same things your other two stars do.
You realize it would have been better for the NBA if the Thunder had won, right?
why?
Another year of the intense drama of "Will he, won't he?" with LeBron.
Endless speculation over whether Spoelstra will be fired and if the Heat's big three will be broken up via a trade.
Etc...
Now that LeBron has won a championship, the main NBA storyline that had been driving the past few seasons is gone.
The LeBron soap opera is dead.
Most of that is talking heads stuff. It doesn't do anything for ratings. (Who CARES whether Spoelstra is fired? Or would have been. Or Bosh is traded?) I can't imagine they want Okie City as titletown over Miami in NBA image and ratings. The story just morphs to "How many can he win?" Win 2 as all great champions do? Three to match Bird? Catch Magic? Kobe? Can he ever pass Jordan? (Ring in Tiger Woods kinda talk). Him winning doesn't change the interest in the Heat. Those that love Lebron will want him to win more. Those that hate him won't want him to win again. Same as 0 vs. 1. It just means the talking heads won't bring it up. But there's not much difference. I mean really, does anyone think his career is made by only winnin1 "a" title? And does anyone think that's his last?
What's good for the NBA is if the Thunder keeps challenging them and at least passing them now and then so they can have a great rivalry. If they can have a poor man's Lakers vs. Celtics, THAT'S good for NBA ratings. The League's been hurting for real rivalries for awhile. Mini-corporations are all too chummy with each other.
I hardily disagree. Speculation over whether or not the big three would be broken up or Pat Reilly, maybe Phil Jackson coming to coach them would be a HUGE boost in eyeballs and interest in the NBA, as opposed to, "Welp, good for them, they finally won."
Have you not seen the rise in ratings of the Finals/general viewership the last two years? There is a reason for that. LeBron hate.
Now that he has won the haters will die down and if they make the Finals again next year I bet you just about anything we'll see a dip in viewership. We certainly won't see another significant uptick in ratings like the past 2 years.
Edit:
Can you name me any bigger storylines this offseason than the potential ones had the Heat lost?
"LeBron James and the Miami Heat blew a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals. Most epic collapse in NBA history. Will he ever win a ring?"
"Are the big three going to be broken up? Is Dwayne Wade going to be traded?" (He would be the most likely guy to go if they'd have broken up the team)
"Will Pat Reilly come back to coach the Heat? Phil Jackson inquired about the Knicks job and was shot down. Will Phil come back to coach the Heat?"
I'll save you the time. You can't.
You can chalk all of the offseason talk up to being just for the talking heads, but you'd be wrong. The Decision, and all of the offseason build up to it, completely revitalized the NBA. If no one cared, 10 million people wouldn't have tuned in to watch "The Decision," and if it didn't drive ratings, talking heads wouldn't give two shits about it.
If the real reason people are watching is they hate James, then they'll just hate him more. Quick- Name me who and where all the talk about Lebron losing last year made people watch this year? I'll save you the time...you can't. Because it had nothing to do with coaching or trade rumors. The only people who pay attention to those things are NBA diehards (this isn't the NFL that captures everyone), and they're watching no matter who plays. No one else cares about any of the "big questions" the NBA faces. Which is why you got a big "who cares?" when they shut down the League. People can do without it.
Ratings go up because the average fan watches, and why do they watch? Great players playing great players. The NBA ratings went up because in the last couple of years you've actually had more than one or two good teams, good players facing off against good players again, and teams that could become rivals. It's still not up to par with the glory days of the NBA, which is why the ratings aren't up to the glory days of the NBA. But it's a good bit better than the late 90's and early-mid '00's, where you had maybe one good guy per team, and the play was awful. I mean, you had a good tandem with the Lakers...but everyone knew they were going to win because the competition was so godawful. (Look who their NBA Finals wins were against). Old Guard vs. New Guard, Celts/Heat, Spurs/Thunder, the two best players in the League going head to head for the title. THAT'S where ratings come from.
No one who's last name isn't "Spoelstra" gives two shits who's coaching the Heat.
Most of the haters are tuning in to watch him fail though, and now that he has succeeded their hate will dissipate. You'd be shocked at the number of casual fans who "hate LeBron and tuned in to see him lose, because, well, you're supposed to hate LeBron.
Will some of them return to watch him fail next year? Sure, but they probably won't care as much, because he already won. The Skip Bayless' of the world can't drive them into a ferver calling him Prince James, or cracking jokes about his lack of a ring. The local media types can't bash him with the same zealotry without seeming fake or hokey.
The casual fans who love James saw him finally win one, and so seeing him win two won't be nearly as interesting.
A lot of "casual" fans are not merely people who don't pay attention to sports, they might be die hard NFL fans, who watch all of the same ESPN shows as diehard NBA fans, who listen to all of the same radio programs, and read all of the same newspapers or sports publications.
Those are generally the people you're trying to pull in, and if they see an interesting story about the big three being broken up on sports center, they will be far more likely to "consume" NBA related material. Whether it be eyes on games, or clicking links to articles, which in turn, drives the popularity of the NBA.
Dynasties are certainly an important aspect of the NBA, but to ignore the factor that LeBron/Heat hate has played in driving interest in the league to levels that haven't been seen in over a decade is ridiculous.
The entire sports world last year was buzzing with talk about LeBron's collapse during the NBA offseason, so to say that no one cared, or that I can't name "Who and where all the talk was coming from" is incredibly stupid. It was coming from ESPN, Sports Illustrated, talk radio, major newspapers, blogs, and just about everyone that has anything to do with sports.
You're really coming across as an NBA hater when you say ridiculous things like that.
It's just fact. You're the NBA lover...did you suddenly start watching Vikings games because you wanted to see what all the Favre talk was on ESPN? When they beat over your head all summer long YANKEES-SOX!!!!! do you tune into more baseball games? The idea that other sports fans care about that stuff to the extent that it makes them tune in if they had no interest before is ridiculous. You completely dodged the question about Jordan below- the highest ratings ever were for a guy winning over and over. And after that it's great teams playing great teams.
It's not hate, it's just looking at reality from the "everyone loves the NBA" fan mindset. There's a reason it doesn't create the interest that the NFL, MLB, college football, or even racing does. That's it's place right now, and it's trying to get back to the glory days. Most of the NBA off-season was spent talking about lock out. And that was greeted with a big "so what?" by the majority of Americans. Sure, guys like Bill Simmons who live and die with it like you were freaking out, but even he acknowledged that most people didn't care, and it was a problem for the NBA. That's what the LONG off-season talk was about. Not Lebron. How you can think any of that was the biggest NBA story THIS off-season borders on delusional.
The NBA is a funny animal, because more than other sports it seems that it has a subset of fans who love the game, rather than a particular team. Probably because the game is so personality-centric and individualized. We'll watch the NFL because it's football, but people seem to root for NBA teams, and root hard, that they're not even a fan of, because they adopt some player or personality. It happens in other sports, but not to the level where people think they're hating on the whole sport for not bowing to a particular guy.
You must be in marketing...you're like the marketing guy who says it's all the PR that's filling the stadium, and not the team winning. Off-season blather is good for keeping the sport in people's mind's, but no one flips their channel in June because of what's said in July. I'm guessing if the Heat and Thunder can meet again next year, and the Thunder can take it to 6 or 7 games, rather than becoming the 80's Rockets, 90's Jazz. pr the '00 Nets, the ratings will be as good or better. And if they're playing someone without a star and not that exciting, the ratings will be down.
Because getting ratings better than they have been in over a decade isn't saying a lot...because they've sucked. And the "hate" level of the Heat isn't even a needle mover. People hated the Pistons. They hated the Celtics. Heck, if you weren't just generic NBA fan or a Chicago fan, you hated the Bulls because of how much they won. People used to chant BEAT LA. The Heat hate? Medium warm. It helps to have a villain, but it's just villain-lite. Rose-Lebron, Lebron-Durant, Durant-somebody not 110 years old out West, there's your ratings. They have it, they will be good. If they don't, hello bad ratings.
It's funny because on PTI they are having the exact same discussion we're having. Tony is on my side, while Mike is on yours.
As to the Jordan thing, it's different though, and I don't think LeBron is Jordan. He doesn't have the same cultural impact, or the same level of fame. At the height of his success Jordan was on another level of fame from any human being on the entire planet. What with all of those "Jordan is more well known around the world than Muhammad Ali or Jesus" surveys. Can LeBron become that? I don't know, but I don't think I'm in the wrong for saying you'd be a bit foolish to believe it.
In the immediacy, the interest in the NBA is going to drop. It won't be the same next year. Now, if the Heat repeat, or if they lose to the Thunder in the Finals next year, things will pick back up again, but there will be a drop off next year. The LeBron hate is going to wane, and people are going to tune out, or lose a bit of interest.
Regardless, this discussion has basically turned into a we'll wait and see sort of thing. So I suppose we will have to do just that.
Edit: I'd also like to add that comparing the NBA of today with the NBA of the mid 90s and 80s in terms of ratings success is just as ridiculous as comparing the NFL of today with the NFL of the mid 90s and 80s in terms of ratings success.
that's ridiculous. Did less people watch when Jordan was competing for his 2nd championship? Or his 6th for that matter? Hell no.
Apples and Oranges.
See the above.
Just because you don't get it, doesn't mean it's not true.