The final of the NBA’s first in-season tournament on Saturday night was the league’s most-watched regular season game (besides Christmas Day games) on any network in nearly six years, according to a press release.
The broadcast of the Lakers‘ victory over the Pacers averaged 4.58 million viewers, peaking at 5.68 viewers. No regular season broadcast has achieved those heights since February of 2018. The audience for Saturday’s final also represented a 64% increase over the average viewership for last season’s prime-time Saturday games on ABC.
While it was already a lock that the in-season tournament wouldn’t be a one-off and that we’d see it again next season, those television ratings are more evidence that the event accomplished what the NBA wanted it to.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- In their latest 2024 NBA draft notebook, ESPN’s Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo (Insider link) take a closer look at several prospects, considering whether there will be roles in the NBA for traditional big man Zach Edey and defensive specialist Ryan Dunn, examining the rise of Colorado’s Cody Williams to No. 4 on their big board, and evaluating Bronny James‘ USC debut. James already looks like USC’s best defender but is a work in progress offensively, says Givony.
- The U.S. men’s national team will face South Sudan on July 20 and Germany on July 22 at London’s O2 Arena ahead of the 2024 Olympics in Paris, USA Basketball announced today in a press release. South Sudan’s team earned its first-ever Olympic berth earlier this year, while the Germans won the 2023 World Cup, knocking off Team USA in the semifinals.
- In the latest HoopsHype podcast, Michael Scotto and Yossi Gozlan identified and discussed several possible trade candidates who will become eligible to be dealt as of December 15, including multiple Lakers, Rockets, and Bulls players. Several of the names on their list – such as D’Angelo Russell, Jock Landale, and Caris LeVert – were ones we singled out in our most recent article for Trade Rumors Front Office subscribers.
There were no other NBA games, most of the NCAA basketball was not playing. No NCAA football. ESPN showed hockey.
Of course it broadcast more than regular season games – it apparently wasn’t a regular season game.
Imagine Pacers v NOP in the finals and then predict viewership. Lakers effect?
LOL. Alright, that’s enough. What the NBA is releasing in terms of ratings data is now getting insulting. Since I don’t think the NBA is stupid, I have to conclude they think their fans are.
The only comparison that might matter for ratings is the comparison between (i) ratings for IST games (pre-Final) on average, and (ii) ratings for other regular season games THIS YEAR. Pretty basic, you isolate the variable to determine that variable’s impact. Who cares about last year.
Those ratings are not that good when they are trying to promote this as important. Think about it, regular season NFL games get 15-20Million. The bum ass Jets when their season was done after 4 snaps get 20million on the regular. This couldn’t get 10 with LA??
It was on Saturday with no competition besides UFC Fight Night.
Well, sure the powers that be in the NBA are trying hard to increase their viewership and interest in their sport. What would you do if you were in charge? For whatever reason, football is the preferred sport of the guys who love their sports and the lesser number of gals that like to watch world class athletes do their thing also.. Why? Because of the violence that is present in Football? Umm…maybe. The hard hits, Quarterback sacks? Gotta love ’em. I think basketball, especially the NBA, is hurt by the fact that the vast majority of the best players are black. Sorry to say it but it’s still a factor in this day and age. Maybe because football only plays a 17 game schedule plus the pre and post season as well, where as baseball is 162+ and basketball is 82+ games. Every NFL game is usually mega-important. Football mostly plays their games on Sunday, the day of rest, where most families are home and in front of the screen. That could be a factor. Whatever the reasons are, right now football is king of the world of sports.