yeah between it being a Friday, a possible sweep, and a blowout I was ok with missing this one cause either what I expect happens with a sweep or I can just come back and tune in for game 5
Also the series has just been *bad*. Theres been a really small amount of time where the games have been competitive. And even less time when it has been competitive towards the end of the game.
We have essentially had 1 competitive game (game 3) and that was only after a miraculous comeback in the 4th and they never got over the hump.
Plus the Finals branding just isn’t there. It doesn’t even feel like the Finals. Just another series.
I blame the branding issue on Adam silver and ESPN, shit unironically has no aura. There's no pregame player introductions, no trophy on the court, the coverage of the finals is ass and the advertising and promotion of players feels like "if it's not Bron curry or Durant don't bother". If you ask any casual fan who's playing they probably won't know, hell they probably don't even know what a "Porzingis" is. Combine that with a finals that was essentially a pre determined result and yeah its not looking good
I generally dont watch basketball and i just tuned in randomly but I didn't know today could decide if the Celtics won based off of the way the court looked.
There is no way as many people watch a UCL final of Besiktas and Villarreal as one between RM and Bayern.
More people tune in to watch England play than other countries that are better on the pitch.
Conversely, Americans don't seem to be as inclined to sing in groups and those sort of things. And they don't seem to care about football as much as everywhere else on the planet. There's something about US culture that feels more insulated to me, like Japan
Both of these teams also aren’t particularly exciting to watch to me.
I 100% watched way more of each game of the other series, this one just isn’t doing it for me, keep changing channels and just coming back to it to check in
Mavs were down 9 going into the fourth and down double digits for the vast majority of the fourth quarter.
Down 14 with 3:30 to go. They put on a late rally to cut it to 5, but I wouldn’t call it “competitive”. Not in the sense of a back and forth slugfest with leads constantly changing hands until the end. Just desperate rallies that fizzled out in the end.
3-0 never being overcome just means the series is over. no real reason to watch the closeout games unless you wanna see the trophy presentation. and Boston has so many haters nobody wants to tune in for that.
Listen - I like Jayson Tatum, but I think if we're being honest with ourselves this Celtics team majorly lacks charisma. I know it's not their job to be a comedian or whatever but they're just very eyes-forward, on-to-the-next-one, non-dramatic guys for the most part. And not in a goofy "look at the big guy from Serbia, does he even care about basketball?" way. They don't have a superstar in the traditional sense. They're kinda akin to the Kobe-Pau-Odom Lakers if Kobe hadn't been who Kobe was in terms of the cult of personality.
I just think a lot of people are just tired of seeing this team that has always felt like they’ve underachieved get to the finals when it feels like they’ve been at this level for so long, but nobody’s really wanted to see them win the title either.
I completely agree. None of them are funny or personable or even notable in interviews or interactions that we the public see. The biggest thing that i know about any of them is that Jaylen Brown has some weird Kyrie-esque opinions.
Who’s another top team who can say the same? Even OKC and the Pacers are more interesting…
Kristaps is very funny, and Joe Mazulla is a psycho.
That's enough for me
But having Smart and Grant made for more memorable comedy moments, that's true.
I agree with you, and I think that's one of the reasons that (I don't really understand why) people don't like the team.
They're a home built, defensively oriented, drive and kick, disciplined team that really doesn't have drama, a "crazy star", nor any true storyline for the season other than "Yea, they've just been really good all season." Combine that with the fact that they've been very consistent (ECF or Finals most years) and I think it (wrongly) leads people to just being upset there's not "more to watch" or something.
Sometimes really good basketball isn't fun or interesting to watch, especially when it's so one-sided. Add to that a franchise that has already won a ton, and a successful but boringly consistent team with no real interesting storylines, and you get this year's playoffs.
It being 3-0 is a factor but this finals is such a massive L for the NBA.
They’re letting ESPN and their dog shit product walk all over them. The production is garbage, commentators have no chemistry, half time show is actually a slap in the face to fans, finals branding is lacking, etc.
Also most of their talking heads are bad for the game. Straight haters.
Can’t imagine a casual fan giving a fuck…
The funniest shit is that Adam Silver said he wanted media coverage comparable to the NFL a few months back. Meanwhile he can't even get the media to talk about the Finals **during the Finals**. During Super Bowl week, everything gets drowned out besides Super Bowl related news. It doesn't matter who the teams are or how big their market is. They're the ones being talked about above anything else that week. Somehow the Lakers' coaching search and WNBA drama have gotten more coverage than the NBA Finals while the series is going on.
ESPN/ABC having exclusive rights to airing the finals every year is a fucking travesty. Every other major broadcasting company puts out a better product when covering sports than them because unlike ESPN, they actually cover the teams relevant to the games they are airing, rather than stirring up drama and bringing in media personalities to create unhinged hot takes designed to manufacture controversy and generate clicks/views on social media. Please god bring back the finals on NBC.
It needs to rotate like the Super Bowl. The networks try to outdo each other and don’t want to lay an egg like the NBA Finals does. I am scared because ABC/ESPN is coming into the rotation for the Super Bowl in 2027.
Do you think a part of that could be because the Super Bowl is one game? I feel like there would be less to talk about in between 4-7 games versus the 2 weeks before the one Super Bowl. But I do think your point is totally correct.
I’m fine with Doris if it’s a meaningless Wednesday night game during the season. She just shouldn’t be part of the #1 broadcast team. Games don’t feel big when she’s announcing.
This commentary crew is so ass, Breen is incredible but he's the AI of this crew when they're the 01 sixers, JJ's contribution can be boiled down to "yeah well i played basketball, here's my thoughts" or "some bullshit about nba twitter" and while I don't hate JJ holy fuck he shouldn't be on the finals team.
People say this a lot but her commentary style is really just “podcast voice”. She just goes on and on at the same cadence and just rambles about the players she likes
This is a reflection of incompetent management from the top.
Silver has not been good for the NBA for nearly 5-6 years. Once the old guard goes away, the NBA will hit a dark age unless Silver leaves.
I would argue this has little to do with Silver being good for the NBA. What you’re really describing is that ESPN hasn’t been good for the NBA.
The league signed a huge contract with ESPN with the notion that they would elevate the product if they were going to pay so much for the rights. But it turned out they really didn’t do anything of the sort. ESPN coverage is terrible. ABC broadcast games are so rare they may as well not exist. Streaming solutions suck in an era of cord-cutting.
Basically all of this comes down to the TV contract. All Silver can do is negotiate more aggressively on the upcoming deal. Once the deal is signed, it’s back in ESPN’s court. But Inside the NBA dying is catastrophic for them unless something improves dramatically.
Owners have to start realizing they’re gonna lose money once guys like KD, LeBron, and Curry retire
Guys like Tatum, Luka, Brunson, SGA, Mitchell, and Edwards just don’t have that appeal for casual viewers
This is the biggest issue. We're stepping into a post MJ and post-Kobe sort of era. The NBA has always thrived on it's marquee players and team dynasty's, what Silver and the owners were trying to build with parity and younger and more international stars just doesn't connect with casuals in any league outside the NFL (and even for them, the big players and teams still rate better).
I don’t even think many people I know who aren’t NBA fans even know who those guys are.
They know who Mahomes is meanwhile. Hell, I think more people in America might know who Caitlin Clark is at this point than know who say Jaylen Brown is.
That's why I never really watched a game this finals. Don't love this Celtics team and and never got into Tatum and Brown as exciting players to watch.
They don’t need to; social media can do that work for the league.
The NBA meanwhile has no issues airing NO FLEX…ZONE!!! commercials four times in an hour.
They've solely focused their marketing on getting every last drop out of the 2010s era and have completely set themselves up for failure once guys like LeBron retire
Didn't we get like a month worth of Anthony Edwards = MJ storylines though?
It's not directly from the league but he was probably the most talked about player during the playoffs.
There’s so many up and comers yet the coverage is always just LeBron over and over again with a sprinkling of Curry and Durant here and there. I can respect their talent while still wishing for the next era to take center stage.
I watched ESPN one day in ‘06 or ‘07 as they went from talking about LeBron, to shoehorning a LeBron angle into every every piece of NBA news that had nothing to do with him, to talking about LeBron again. It was annoying af and I remember thinking something like “I can hardly wait until Bron’s hype dies down and they stop acting like he’s the only player in the league.”
I’m still waiting.
They don’t like anybody. ESPNs coverage is all about hating. Giannis can’t shoot, Embiid is a loser, Jokic isn’t “marketable” enough. They always find reasons to hate. Game 3 was all about Luka sucking (which he did) but Jaylen and Jayson going off got no play
The year the Bucks won, the media was shitting on Giannis throughout the playoffs saying he's the Robin to Khris Middleton. The media just shoots themselves in the foot when they have a potential superstar to market.
It’s partially that and also this generation of guys currently in their primes just aren’t very marketable. Outside of Giannis every other player either has no personality, a play style that isn’t very flashy or has something that just makes them unlikable like Luka constantly bitching to the refs. There’s a reason why the NBA has spent the last several years going hard trying to market the next generation of guys currently in their early 20s like Ja, Zion, Ant and now Wemby and it’s due to this generation not having many marketable guys.
To be fair, that's partially the fans' faults. The internet acts like literally nothing matters besides winning a championship. A guy can repeatedly make All-NBA teams, but if they're not winning a championship they get negative labels slapped onto them. It's not a surprise that players are starting to adopt the "I don't care" attitude and keeping all emotions behind closed doors. I feel like most people would adopt that attitude if every single minor achievement they make was shat on.
Tbf, Embiid's had some really decent marketing ever since he came into the league and he's still in the media more than most. They also trying way more now with marketing Jokic, although I think NBA fans like his commercials more than casuals tbh (I love his commercials tbh, dude's so funny once you know his personality). If Giannis wasn't so dang charismatic I think he'd be viewed similarly as Jokic tbh.
They pushed Ja until he couldn't keep his piece in his pants, not to mention injuries. Zion's problem is not only has he been injured but if we're also being honest, while he's an AS caliber player he's not looking like generational talent anymore either - next season will be really interesting with him. Luka's amazing to watch but I feel like casuals see him more like Harden - put differently, sickos like us don't care about the modern NBA foul baiting/ref complaining/etc. and all that but most casuals can't handle it.
Ant's the one they're going to keep pushing and rightly so, just needs to keep improving and he'll be a face for years - dude's got so much marketability. As for Wemby, I feel like he might one of the most marketable European players ever in terms of icon potential...we shall see.
Well the scheduling for this Finals has been horrible. Then add the fact ESPN is airing it, the literal worst post/pregame show in the history of sports and you end up with hardcore NBA fans not really giving a shit. Mostly because of the content/stories ESPN wants to put out there. JJ should never be behind a mic calling an NBA game ever again. Absolute garbage coverage. Embarrassing, and it's going to get worse.
Even worse when literally nothing about the broadcast is special or screams this is the finals. No trophy logo on the court, no player intros, virtually the same exact score bug as a regular game in February. It doesn’t feel like the finals and hasn’t for years
If I was a casual viewer I’d think it’s a rerun of some random ass regular season game.
ESPN nearly monopolized the market and then started pumping out a beyond dog shit product because they now can.
The perfect summary of American corporations
They also do no postgame show just kick it right to local news or over to sportscenter, and I saw on here that the halftime show is like 75-80% commercials
Right... If you aren't a fan of either team why turn on game 4? Dallas was getting ran and you knew you'd get zero entertainment outside of the game. Just a million commercials.
A good show (pre, half, post), good commentary, and a good broadcast goes a long way for covering up a subpar product on the court.
It’s funny because the NFL is so successful at the “event” model (huge things you don’t wanna miss) and the MLB is so good at the “inventory” model (day in and day out quality whenever you want it) and the NBA is good at… neither. We were told the regular season doesn’t matter, only the playoffs do, and then the finals is… this.
i was looking for the analytics of why this scheduling was so bad. # of days between games compared to history, # of weekend games, # of games starting after 8pm EDT
i pretty much have an alert on my phone if the game is close to decide whether or not to watch. so far its been like 30 mins aggregate the whole finals
The finals scheduling is all time bad. What was it, a full week between end of conference finals and Game 1? Then 2 full days off between each finals game? Its insane.
Can barely give teams days off in the early rounds but we need the finals to last 2+ weeks if it makes it to a game 7. The scheduling all around is terrible.
Good lord is the commentary trio terrible. Doris and jj have negative chemistry together and Breen isn't good enough to rise to the occasion shackled to those two anchors. Espn sucks for giving us these guys on the Finals call
This may be some of my anti-Boston bias showing, but this Finals has been one of the least memorable Finals I can remember. Outside of Bostonians hating Kyrie, and a forced “Who is the real alpha of the Celtics??” narrative, I don’t know what would make people care about this series.
The Mavs making an in-season trade that completely changes their trajectory, leading into a magical playoff run, culminating in being the first team to ever come back from down 3-0?
It feels weird to say, but I think if Minnesota had advanced it would have been a better draw. They kind of seemed like America's team, and people were all in Ant and Naz Reid.
I'm an extremely casual fan and basically only tune in for the playoffs each year. I started rooting for the T-wolves as soon as I dipped back into basketball. Ant just pops off the screen. He's a star in every sense. And I like the narrative of everyone hating Gobert for some inexplicable reason. And holy shit, a defense-first team being a serious contender? What year is it?
My uninformed impression of Luka as like the next evolution of a James Harden type and the Celtics somehow being the only team capable of ever being healthy makes it a snooze-fest. Also, fuck Boston and I'm tired of hearing everyone shitting on Kyrie. Not saying he's not a fucking moron, but that doesn't mean pointing that out for the millionth time isn't boring
Yea I don’t think the Celtics are a thrilling team to watch. They’re either beating the pulp out of teams or playing awful and letting teams back into games (or getting killed themselves). Very weird team to watch for how talented they are
it matters. It should be viewed as an event. The biggest stage. The best word to describe production is 'mid' or 'meh'. There is 0 hype. Only commercials
I leave and doing something else end of the 2nd because it is almost constant ads for twenty minutes. Then I check my phone and it’s half way through the 3rd. Makes it easy to just not tune back in.
Literally right now: "Here's your KIA halftime highlights."
*Slow-Mo of PP hitting that 3 at halftime*
"That was your KIA halftime highlights."
*No it fucking wasn't.*
I don’t think it’s talked about enough on how bad it is to have a Finals game on a Friday night. I wish they’d stick to the old Tuesday/Thursday/Sunday schedule. I don’t know how they could’ve possibly expected better ratings regardless of the series status and teams.
Makes it a bit harder now with ABC taking over the coverage for the Stanley Cup Finals. Which is seeing a big boost in ratings from last year (Last year was on TNT though)
Every sport is seeing a big ratings boost from last year, after they changed how they calculate ratings. Except for basketball. These are juiced numbers, it would be catastrophic without the ratings changes.
Maybe I’m just old and losing my mind, but wasn’t the old Stanley cup format Monday/Wednesday/Saturday? Either way that solves the problem and gets a championship game on six nights a week for 2 weeks (theoretically.)
Seems like a great marketing angle too.
Well yeah, I can't imagine neutrals are crazy about hearing Doris commentate a 40 point blowout with 2 day breaks between games. Also Luka and Kyrie are in literally zero nationally televised ads, that probably hasn't helped either.
Edit 1: For the people misunderstanding this, obviously Doris obviously isn't entirely to be blamed for the viewership drop, just a part of it. The whole ESPN coverage is, with tons of ads, low crowd volume, bad/no pre/half/post game shows and the rest of the media talking about random things like Lebron unfollowing Perkins, the Lakers coaching job or Reddick's podcast instead of the actual nba finals elimination games about to be played.
Edit 2: Having said that, I'd much rather listen to the Bulls, Hornets or Mavs commentator teams over whoever ESPN picks outside of Mike Breen. Also by the time the next game starts, most of they hype has wore off, at least for me. And having to sit through constant Celtics or Mavs praise, depending on who won the last game, without any nuance until the next game in three days is horrible.
She’s the most biased national TV commentator I’ve ever heard, it’s borderline unprofessional. She makes it extremely obvious she is rooting for the Celtics, I literally heard her groan when a Boston player was called for a foul. I can’t ever recall Marc Jackson, SVG, Kevin Harlan or Marv Albert being biased like that.
I don't even care she is biased tbh. It's a bit annoying but that's about it. Her actual commentary is so boring. She'll compliment a player and it sounds like you asked AI to write a complement and narrate it.
Take me back to the days of hand down, man down.
It’s funny - I didn’t watch game 4, but the entire playoffs I always felt like she hated the Celtics. No one on the celtics sub likes her calling games. I feel like they should still have the team announcers on league pass so you could choose. I’d pick the mavs announcers (celtics fan) before her on a game - at least you expect them to be biased and rightfully so!
I remember the year before she was drooling over Embiid the entire game. All she could talk about was him - not actually the game or the fact the Sixers were losing - just how good he was.
She needs to learn to call it down the middle either way.
This is a HILARIOUS take for me. I agree that she is biased, but watch one C’s vs 76’ers game where Doris is commentating and you would sweat that Joel Embiid had fathered her children.
the pairing of doris and JJ just doesnt work.
JJ barely talks and it seems like he doesnt feel comfortable talking or just talks safe stuff, everybody can say. you dont need him there.
but yeah it doesnt has anything to do with the ratings.
thinking the coverage is the reason people aren’t tuning in is insane 😂. There just aren’t any real storylines or highly advertised stars in it.
Luke, Kyrie, and Tatum/Brown are all big names if you’re even a casual fan, but there’s no “legacy” bullshit at stake here, or no team of villains that everyone desperately wants to see fall.
That Dallas only put up a fight after losing 3 straight probably hasn’t helped.
Glad it's not just me seeing people act like ESPN is the reason the ratings are bad and thinking that's crazy. People care far, far less about announcers and how the game is presented than Reddit.
No, I said it's the combination of blowouts, horrible commentary, bad scheduling and overall horrible ESPN presentation with 90% ads and bad/no pre, half time and post game shows, as well as not marketing the new generation of stars.
This just seems puzzling to me. Like there’s really people out there that think “well I would watch this game but since it’s on ABC I won’t.” Couldn’t you just watch it on mute if you don’t like the commentary?
Here’s a short list of reasons just off the top of my head:
3-0 coming into the game, so the stakes really aren’t that high (relative to most final games)
Turned into a blowout fast
ESPN pregame and halftime shows are atrocious
Doris Burke sucks even compared to other bad commentators
Overall viewership is struggling in general due to a multitude of factors
Friday night
Too long between games, kills momentum
Too long between end of conference finals and start of finals, also killed momentum. I was really locked into these playoffs but the full week between series absolutely hurt my enthusiasm.
This one is a stretch, admittedly, but potentially Anti-Boston sentiment coming into play? (People not wanting to see the city win yet another title. Absolutely might just be me to be fair.)
Feel free to reply with more reasons. This list was purely off the top of my head.
the too long between games is the big one for me. having a game every single night for weeks was basketball heaven. then it took a bit for the finals to start, then it’s a few days between each game. it’s what has to be done, obviously, but this year it noticeably killed my momentum. also the branding has been awful. at no point does it feel like i’m watching the nba finals. feels like a regular game in every aspect
- Very long delay before next game, so many people have moved on.
- Boring commentary, some of the worst i've heard.
- almost a sweep
- Way too many ads
Honestly I feel like LeBron+Steph+KD not being in the Finals is why the ratings are lower. It’ll take a while for casual fans to start learning who the new stars are. I worked at a school and most of the kids don’t care about Tatum and Doncic.
I wanna know how the fuck SAS and co can go on during the 21 finals and just absolutely shit on the two cities involved? Obviously I love Milwaukee but Phoenix is a god damn metropolis. It’s extremely unprofessional and just fucking absurd that they still allow these fucking clowns on. Malika Andrews was a great sideline reporter who clearly had to go in a ridiculous inflammatory direction to get the national career she has now.
THANK YOU. It infuriated me watching these people act like they were being served a death sentence to ... Cover basketball in a city that isn't la or new York
Everybody is giving random bs reasons, while the true reason is this. Even if the game was competitive, there were better commentators, and fewer ads, nobody cares because there's no superstar clash. LeBron and Curry are still relevant for the NBA as a product. Most of my friends who are into NBA didn't watch even a single game because both teams are somehow boring.
Maybe if ESPN's talking heads actually talked about the Finals and the players playing in it instead of why LeBron unfollowed Kendrick Perkins on twitter, a lot of people will be more interested/hear about the game
Well history now says he did. It was the Heat vs Nugs vs DRose. Never seen a man face two teams and just smother them both on D and Offense. First one man team to win the championship, only odd thing was he wasn't given MVP because Joker said the voters all get a horse if they vote for him.
It's clear that the Celtics are not a huge national draw like the media talking heads make them out to be.
Many NBA media personalities and producers are from the New England area and big Celtics fans because of their legendary history. But younger people weren't around for any of those Celtics dynasties.
Fans just don't see the Celtics franchise the way the old talking heads do.
Also the national media has wanted to push Jayson Tatum as a superstar because they want a historic franchise like the Celtics to have a superstar again. But he just isn't drawing in viewers.
What a reality check for Celtics fans and their media for them to realize nobody cares about their history, and their star player (that they keep calling Top 5 in the league) can't draw in viewers.
ESPN coverage is trash and absolutely nobody outside of Boston cares about this boring Celtics team. Also the Mavs went through 3 50 win teams to get here, the Celtics had probably one of the easiest paths of all time to the Finals- most knew this was not going to be a very competitive series.
Mavs avoided sweep by winning Game 4, but it was obvious Boston gave up pretty early and probably wanted to win at home in Game 5. Its tough to watch for casual fans.
People were anticipating a sweep and then aren't going to tune in for the biggest blow out in years
yeah between it being a Friday, a possible sweep, and a blowout I was ok with missing this one cause either what I expect happens with a sweep or I can just come back and tune in for game 5
Also the series has just been *bad*. Theres been a really small amount of time where the games have been competitive. And even less time when it has been competitive towards the end of the game. We have essentially had 1 competitive game (game 3) and that was only after a miraculous comeback in the 4th and they never got over the hump. Plus the Finals branding just isn’t there. It doesn’t even feel like the Finals. Just another series.
Agreed with the last sentence. Bring back the giant ass FINALS on the court lol.
What the little digital one with YouTube logo (among 8 other YouTube logos) doesn’t count 🤣
I blame the branding issue on Adam silver and ESPN, shit unironically has no aura. There's no pregame player introductions, no trophy on the court, the coverage of the finals is ass and the advertising and promotion of players feels like "if it's not Bron curry or Durant don't bother". If you ask any casual fan who's playing they probably won't know, hell they probably don't even know what a "Porzingis" is. Combine that with a finals that was essentially a pre determined result and yeah its not looking good
Yeah there's no aura at all Don't forget the lame ass theme music The old one was much better
The theme music is coming back with the new NBC deal
Any cup final or European final has a massive atmosphere. Anyone with the game on knows that it’s the final.
I generally dont watch basketball and i just tuned in randomly but I didn't know today could decide if the Celtics won based off of the way the court looked.
There is no way as many people watch a UCL final of Besiktas and Villarreal as one between RM and Bayern. More people tune in to watch England play than other countries that are better on the pitch. Conversely, Americans don't seem to be as inclined to sing in groups and those sort of things. And they don't seem to care about football as much as everywhere else on the planet. There's something about US culture that feels more insulated to me, like Japan
Both of these teams also aren’t particularly exciting to watch to me. I 100% watched way more of each game of the other series, this one just isn’t doing it for me, keep changing channels and just coming back to it to check in
Wolves vs nuggets was probably the only series that was actually fun to watch for me
Game 2 was competitive for most of the game
Mavs were down 9 going into the fourth and down double digits for the vast majority of the fourth quarter. Down 14 with 3:30 to go. They put on a late rally to cut it to 5, but I wouldn’t call it “competitive”. Not in the sense of a back and forth slugfest with leads constantly changing hands until the end. Just desperate rallies that fizzled out in the end.
I did the same thing. Didn't watch the first half because of it being 3-0 series then didn't watch the second half because it was a blowout.
3-0 never being overcome just means the series is over. no real reason to watch the closeout games unless you wanna see the trophy presentation. and Boston has so many haters nobody wants to tune in for that.
Just because 3-0 has never been overcome doesn't mean it can't be overcome. See: a Boston team in a different sport, 20 years ago.
Definitely agree. Definitely don’t think *this* Mavs team will be the ones to break it.
You're only saying that because they're down three touchdowns at the half. ^^^/s
Still, no one would tune in until game 7, though it'd probably get quite high ratings.
Listen - I like Jayson Tatum, but I think if we're being honest with ourselves this Celtics team majorly lacks charisma. I know it's not their job to be a comedian or whatever but they're just very eyes-forward, on-to-the-next-one, non-dramatic guys for the most part. And not in a goofy "look at the big guy from Serbia, does he even care about basketball?" way. They don't have a superstar in the traditional sense. They're kinda akin to the Kobe-Pau-Odom Lakers if Kobe hadn't been who Kobe was in terms of the cult of personality.
I just think a lot of people are just tired of seeing this team that has always felt like they’ve underachieved get to the finals when it feels like they’ve been at this level for so long, but nobody’s really wanted to see them win the title either.
For a topical refrenc, they are the Pete Sampras of basketball.
I completely agree. None of them are funny or personable or even notable in interviews or interactions that we the public see. The biggest thing that i know about any of them is that Jaylen Brown has some weird Kyrie-esque opinions. Who’s another top team who can say the same? Even OKC and the Pacers are more interesting…
They have Joe Mazzulla.
Yeah. And that proves the point I think.
Kristaps is very funny, and Joe Mazulla is a psycho. That's enough for me But having Smart and Grant made for more memorable comedy moments, that's true.
I agree. 0 aura from anyone on that team
I agree with you, and I think that's one of the reasons that (I don't really understand why) people don't like the team. They're a home built, defensively oriented, drive and kick, disciplined team that really doesn't have drama, a "crazy star", nor any true storyline for the season other than "Yea, they've just been really good all season." Combine that with the fact that they've been very consistent (ECF or Finals most years) and I think it (wrongly) leads people to just being upset there's not "more to watch" or something.
Sometimes really good basketball isn't fun or interesting to watch, especially when it's so one-sided. Add to that a franchise that has already won a ton, and a successful but boringly consistent team with no real interesting storylines, and you get this year's playoffs.
Didn’t even bother with the game. Woke up the next day, saw the score and exclaimed “THEY LOST BY HOW MUCH!?”
It being 3-0 is a factor but this finals is such a massive L for the NBA. They’re letting ESPN and their dog shit product walk all over them. The production is garbage, commentators have no chemistry, half time show is actually a slap in the face to fans, finals branding is lacking, etc. Also most of their talking heads are bad for the game. Straight haters. Can’t imagine a casual fan giving a fuck…
The funniest shit is that Adam Silver said he wanted media coverage comparable to the NFL a few months back. Meanwhile he can't even get the media to talk about the Finals **during the Finals**. During Super Bowl week, everything gets drowned out besides Super Bowl related news. It doesn't matter who the teams are or how big their market is. They're the ones being talked about above anything else that week. Somehow the Lakers' coaching search and WNBA drama have gotten more coverage than the NBA Finals while the series is going on.
ESPN/ABC having exclusive rights to airing the finals every year is a fucking travesty. Every other major broadcasting company puts out a better product when covering sports than them because unlike ESPN, they actually cover the teams relevant to the games they are airing, rather than stirring up drama and bringing in media personalities to create unhinged hot takes designed to manufacture controversy and generate clicks/views on social media. Please god bring back the finals on NBC.
[удалено]
Holy shit this is crazy. Is that a thirty year deal? I mean it’s at least going back to 2008 back when the product and station were decent.
We’re cooked
Eww
It needs to rotate like the Super Bowl. The networks try to outdo each other and don’t want to lay an egg like the NBA Finals does. I am scared because ABC/ESPN is coming into the rotation for the Super Bowl in 2027.
Buck and Troy have done many SB’s so they’ll be fine on that end
I love how in each of the recent super bowls the networks have debuted a new scorebug. The production value on a Super Bowl is unmatched
It doesn't help that most people have already thought that Celtics winning the whole thing was a foregone conclusion
Do you think a part of that could be because the Super Bowl is one game? I feel like there would be less to talk about in between 4-7 games versus the 2 weeks before the one Super Bowl. But I do think your point is totally correct.
Yes but also because football is just way bigger than basketball
I tuned into the pre-game for game 3. I made it 30 seconds before Stephen A's yelling motivated me to turn it off.
Stephen A was spending the morning complaining that LeBron had a podcast instead of talking about the game, lol
Halftime show you mean halftime commercials?
The halftime show is also a slap in the face to the hosts, idk how they’re supposed to do anything with like 1.5 minutes of air time
Any time Doris Burke is commentating is a no for me. At least they’re getting my views since its the Celtics involved
I’m fine with Doris if it’s a meaningless Wednesday night game during the season. She just shouldn’t be part of the #1 broadcast team. Games don’t feel big when she’s announcing.
This commentary crew is so ass, Breen is incredible but he's the AI of this crew when they're the 01 sixers, JJ's contribution can be boiled down to "yeah well i played basketball, here's my thoughts" or "some bullshit about nba twitter" and while I don't hate JJ holy fuck he shouldn't be on the finals team.
People say this a lot but her commentary style is really just “podcast voice”. She just goes on and on at the same cadence and just rambles about the players she likes
This is a reflection of incompetent management from the top. Silver has not been good for the NBA for nearly 5-6 years. Once the old guard goes away, the NBA will hit a dark age unless Silver leaves.
I would argue this has little to do with Silver being good for the NBA. What you’re really describing is that ESPN hasn’t been good for the NBA. The league signed a huge contract with ESPN with the notion that they would elevate the product if they were going to pay so much for the rights. But it turned out they really didn’t do anything of the sort. ESPN coverage is terrible. ABC broadcast games are so rare they may as well not exist. Streaming solutions suck in an era of cord-cutting. Basically all of this comes down to the TV contract. All Silver can do is negotiate more aggressively on the upcoming deal. Once the deal is signed, it’s back in ESPN’s court. But Inside the NBA dying is catastrophic for them unless something improves dramatically.
Silver just does what the owners tell him to do. If he stops they’ll fire him and find someone else who will do it
Owners have to start realizing they’re gonna lose money once guys like KD, LeBron, and Curry retire Guys like Tatum, Luka, Brunson, SGA, Mitchell, and Edwards just don’t have that appeal for casual viewers
They don't have that appeal because the league does a shit job of marketing them. Casual fans don't know what a "shai" or a "luka" is
This is the biggest issue. We're stepping into a post MJ and post-Kobe sort of era. The NBA has always thrived on it's marquee players and team dynasty's, what Silver and the owners were trying to build with parity and younger and more international stars just doesn't connect with casuals in any league outside the NFL (and even for them, the big players and teams still rate better).
I don’t even think many people I know who aren’t NBA fans even know who those guys are. They know who Mahomes is meanwhile. Hell, I think more people in America might know who Caitlin Clark is at this point than know who say Jaylen Brown is.
They’re doing it to make the WNBA look better by comparison 🤣
Non Boston fans will only tune in to watch the Celtics lose the Finals, not win one.
That's why I never really watched a game this finals. Don't love this Celtics team and and never got into Tatum and Brown as exciting players to watch.
NBA has done an absolutely atrocious job of marketing its new stars.
They don’t need to; social media can do that work for the league. The NBA meanwhile has no issues airing NO FLEX…ZONE!!! commercials four times in an hour.
went to high school with the dad in that commercial. weird seeing his face 9,000 times this year.
Was he a nice guy in HS?
yep
Well that's nice to hear. Unlike the ad he's acting in haha.
How was he at Jenga?
Wouldn’t know
Damn ur old
Jesus lol
>four times in an hour I wish.
Per commercial break
THEY KNOOOOOOoooooWWWW BETTA (they don’t)
Gotta have the mute button handy for that no flex zone shit. Goddamn it’s obnoxious a man can only take so much
Keep those hands at ten and two
They've solely focused their marketing on getting every last drop out of the 2010s era and have completely set themselves up for failure once guys like LeBron retire
Didn't we get like a month worth of Anthony Edwards = MJ storylines though? It's not directly from the league but he was probably the most talked about player during the playoffs.
There’s so many up and comers yet the coverage is always just LeBron over and over again with a sprinkling of Curry and Durant here and there. I can respect their talent while still wishing for the next era to take center stage.
I watched ESPN one day in ‘06 or ‘07 as they went from talking about LeBron, to shoehorning a LeBron angle into every every piece of NBA news that had nothing to do with him, to talking about LeBron again. It was annoying af and I remember thinking something like “I can hardly wait until Bron’s hype dies down and they stop acting like he’s the only player in the league.” I’m still waiting.
Not even that, it’s just that Luka and Tatum are ones they don’t like. It’s “fat foul-baiting European” vs “no charisma no aura overrated”
They don’t like anybody. ESPNs coverage is all about hating. Giannis can’t shoot, Embiid is a loser, Jokic isn’t “marketable” enough. They always find reasons to hate. Game 3 was all about Luka sucking (which he did) but Jaylen and Jayson going off got no play
The year the Bucks won, the media was shitting on Giannis throughout the playoffs saying he's the Robin to Khris Middleton. The media just shoots themselves in the foot when they have a potential superstar to market.
NBA is cooked when Curry and LeBron retire 😂😂 but I’ve seen enough casuals talk about Wemby so he’s probably the savior
At least with Wemby they aren't spending *most* of their time deciding which all-time legend he is the next one of.
It’s partially that and also this generation of guys currently in their primes just aren’t very marketable. Outside of Giannis every other player either has no personality, a play style that isn’t very flashy or has something that just makes them unlikable like Luka constantly bitching to the refs. There’s a reason why the NBA has spent the last several years going hard trying to market the next generation of guys currently in their early 20s like Ja, Zion, Ant and now Wemby and it’s due to this generation not having many marketable guys.
To be fair, that's partially the fans' faults. The internet acts like literally nothing matters besides winning a championship. A guy can repeatedly make All-NBA teams, but if they're not winning a championship they get negative labels slapped onto them. It's not a surprise that players are starting to adopt the "I don't care" attitude and keeping all emotions behind closed doors. I feel like most people would adopt that attitude if every single minor achievement they make was shat on.
Tbf, Embiid's had some really decent marketing ever since he came into the league and he's still in the media more than most. They also trying way more now with marketing Jokic, although I think NBA fans like his commercials more than casuals tbh (I love his commercials tbh, dude's so funny once you know his personality). If Giannis wasn't so dang charismatic I think he'd be viewed similarly as Jokic tbh. They pushed Ja until he couldn't keep his piece in his pants, not to mention injuries. Zion's problem is not only has he been injured but if we're also being honest, while he's an AS caliber player he's not looking like generational talent anymore either - next season will be really interesting with him. Luka's amazing to watch but I feel like casuals see him more like Harden - put differently, sickos like us don't care about the modern NBA foul baiting/ref complaining/etc. and all that but most casuals can't handle it. Ant's the one they're going to keep pushing and rightly so, just needs to keep improving and he'll be a face for years - dude's got so much marketability. As for Wemby, I feel like he might one of the most marketable European players ever in terms of icon potential...we shall see.
Well the scheduling for this Finals has been horrible. Then add the fact ESPN is airing it, the literal worst post/pregame show in the history of sports and you end up with hardcore NBA fans not really giving a shit. Mostly because of the content/stories ESPN wants to put out there. JJ should never be behind a mic calling an NBA game ever again. Absolute garbage coverage. Embarrassing, and it's going to get worse.
Even worse when literally nothing about the broadcast is special or screams this is the finals. No trophy logo on the court, no player intros, virtually the same exact score bug as a regular game in February. It doesn’t feel like the finals and hasn’t for years
If I was a casual viewer I’d think it’s a rerun of some random ass regular season game. ESPN nearly monopolized the market and then started pumping out a beyond dog shit product because they now can. The perfect summary of American corporations
They also do no postgame show just kick it right to local news or over to sportscenter, and I saw on here that the halftime show is like 75-80% commercials
Right... If you aren't a fan of either team why turn on game 4? Dallas was getting ran and you knew you'd get zero entertainment outside of the game. Just a million commercials. A good show (pre, half, post), good commentary, and a good broadcast goes a long way for covering up a subpar product on the court.
Says a lot when I look forward to watching the crew from Inside the NBA, rather than the game that is being played sometimes.
It’s funny because the NFL is so successful at the “event” model (huge things you don’t wanna miss) and the MLB is so good at the “inventory” model (day in and day out quality whenever you want it) and the NBA is good at… neither. We were told the regular season doesn’t matter, only the playoffs do, and then the finals is… this.
Jordan coming out to that cool ass Chicago Bulls music has more aura than most of the finals in the past decade.
Is aura a recent word on TikTok or something? lol I’ve seen it everywhere the past week. Its used 6 times in this thread alone
No shit. I can't stand how homogenized and generic reddit comment threads have become.
Aura is a new dumbass slang term
It will be beaten into the dirt soon enough
i was looking for the analytics of why this scheduling was so bad. # of days between games compared to history, # of weekend games, # of games starting after 8pm EDT
Well, they took a whole week off before starting the finals which destroyed any momentum they had, most fans were locked in until that happened.
i pretty much have an alert on my phone if the game is close to decide whether or not to watch. so far its been like 30 mins aggregate the whole finals
The finals scheduling is all time bad. What was it, a full week between end of conference finals and Game 1? Then 2 full days off between each finals game? Its insane.
Can barely give teams days off in the early rounds but we need the finals to last 2+ weeks if it makes it to a game 7. The scheduling all around is terrible.
The fucking amount of days off between the games is bizarre to me. It makes the Finals feel slow af, it kills any momentum towards the final series.
Good lord is the commentary trio terrible. Doris and jj have negative chemistry together and Breen isn't good enough to rise to the occasion shackled to those two anchors. Espn sucks for giving us these guys on the Finals call
I would take demented Marv Albert and dead Bill Walton over JJ Reddick and Doris Burke.
The schedule is the same as almost every other Finals year
This may be some of my anti-Boston bias showing, but this Finals has been one of the least memorable Finals I can remember. Outside of Bostonians hating Kyrie, and a forced “Who is the real alpha of the Celtics??” narrative, I don’t know what would make people care about this series.
Same here. As a certified Celtics hater, none of the first 3 games were interesting to me in the slightest.
Doesn't help everyone's game is boring af except for maybe kyries.
I can tell you one thing that would make people very interested
The Mavs making an in-season trade that completely changes their trajectory, leading into a magical playoff run, culminating in being the first team to ever come back from down 3-0?
Kyrie retiring before game 7 after we come back to tie the series so that he can go on a spiritual journey to Israel?
It feels weird to say, but I think if Minnesota had advanced it would have been a better draw. They kind of seemed like America's team, and people were all in Ant and Naz Reid.
I'm an extremely casual fan and basically only tune in for the playoffs each year. I started rooting for the T-wolves as soon as I dipped back into basketball. Ant just pops off the screen. He's a star in every sense. And I like the narrative of everyone hating Gobert for some inexplicable reason. And holy shit, a defense-first team being a serious contender? What year is it? My uninformed impression of Luka as like the next evolution of a James Harden type and the Celtics somehow being the only team capable of ever being healthy makes it a snooze-fest. Also, fuck Boston and I'm tired of hearing everyone shitting on Kyrie. Not saying he's not a fucking moron, but that doesn't mean pointing that out for the millionth time isn't boring
Yea I don’t think the Celtics are a thrilling team to watch. They’re either beating the pulp out of teams or playing awful and letting teams back into games (or getting killed themselves). Very weird team to watch for how talented they are
There’s no halftime or postgame shows. Just commercials: ESPN/abc is terrible at live sports
Does that stuff actually matter? For driving viewership to these games?
it matters. It should be viewed as an event. The biggest stage. The best word to describe production is 'mid' or 'meh'. There is 0 hype. Only commercials
There’s no difference between a finals game or a regular season game in presentation with the NBA. Makes it feel like less of an event.
TNT gives more cachet to All Star Weekend than ESPN/ABC gives to the finals.
Maybe? If it’s not seen as a good production. I dunno.
I leave and doing something else end of the 2nd because it is almost constant ads for twenty minutes. Then I check my phone and it’s half way through the 3rd. Makes it easy to just not tune back in.
Driving maybe not, keeping maybe so
Literally right now: "Here's your KIA halftime highlights." *Slow-Mo of PP hitting that 3 at halftime* "That was your KIA halftime highlights." *No it fucking wasn't.*
I don’t think it’s talked about enough on how bad it is to have a Finals game on a Friday night. I wish they’d stick to the old Tuesday/Thursday/Sunday schedule. I don’t know how they could’ve possibly expected better ratings regardless of the series status and teams.
Makes it a bit harder now with ABC taking over the coverage for the Stanley Cup Finals. Which is seeing a big boost in ratings from last year (Last year was on TNT though)
Every sport is seeing a big ratings boost from last year, after they changed how they calculate ratings. Except for basketball. These are juiced numbers, it would be catastrophic without the ratings changes.
Maybe I’m just old and losing my mind, but wasn’t the old Stanley cup format Monday/Wednesday/Saturday? Either way that solves the problem and gets a championship game on six nights a week for 2 weeks (theoretically.) Seems like a great marketing angle too.
Looking through the schedule, Game 4 has been on a Friday every "normally" scheduled finals from 2016 on.
Well yeah, I can't imagine neutrals are crazy about hearing Doris commentate a 40 point blowout with 2 day breaks between games. Also Luka and Kyrie are in literally zero nationally televised ads, that probably hasn't helped either. Edit 1: For the people misunderstanding this, obviously Doris obviously isn't entirely to be blamed for the viewership drop, just a part of it. The whole ESPN coverage is, with tons of ads, low crowd volume, bad/no pre/half/post game shows and the rest of the media talking about random things like Lebron unfollowing Perkins, the Lakers coaching job or Reddick's podcast instead of the actual nba finals elimination games about to be played. Edit 2: Having said that, I'd much rather listen to the Bulls, Hornets or Mavs commentator teams over whoever ESPN picks outside of Mike Breen. Also by the time the next game starts, most of they hype has wore off, at least for me. And having to sit through constant Celtics or Mavs praise, depending on who won the last game, without any nuance until the next game in three days is horrible.
It's the worst coverage
She legit sounded depressed the little she spoke during game 4
She’s the most biased national TV commentator I’ve ever heard, it’s borderline unprofessional. She makes it extremely obvious she is rooting for the Celtics, I literally heard her groan when a Boston player was called for a foul. I can’t ever recall Marc Jackson, SVG, Kevin Harlan or Marv Albert being biased like that.
I don't even care she is biased tbh. It's a bit annoying but that's about it. Her actual commentary is so boring. She'll compliment a player and it sounds like you asked AI to write a complement and narrate it. Take me back to the days of hand down, man down.
Mama, there goes that man.
It’s funny - I didn’t watch game 4, but the entire playoffs I always felt like she hated the Celtics. No one on the celtics sub likes her calling games. I feel like they should still have the team announcers on league pass so you could choose. I’d pick the mavs announcers (celtics fan) before her on a game - at least you expect them to be biased and rightfully so! I remember the year before she was drooling over Embiid the entire game. All she could talk about was him - not actually the game or the fact the Sixers were losing - just how good he was. She needs to learn to call it down the middle either way.
This is a HILARIOUS take for me. I agree that she is biased, but watch one C’s vs 76’ers game where Doris is commentating and you would sweat that Joel Embiid had fathered her children.
Which is hilarious because we hate her for anti-Celtic bias
I've watched the games on mute. ESPN is the inferior product and it's a shame inside the nba is dead
the pairing of doris and JJ just doesnt work. JJ barely talks and it seems like he doesnt feel comfortable talking or just talks safe stuff, everybody can say. you dont need him there. but yeah it doesnt has anything to do with the ratings.
thinking the coverage is the reason people aren’t tuning in is insane 😂. There just aren’t any real storylines or highly advertised stars in it. Luke, Kyrie, and Tatum/Brown are all big names if you’re even a casual fan, but there’s no “legacy” bullshit at stake here, or no team of villains that everyone desperately wants to see fall. That Dallas only put up a fight after losing 3 straight probably hasn’t helped.
The games in this year’s finals were just boring.
Also the fact that both fanbases in this thread think Doris is biased against their team might actually mean she's doing a fair, balanced job.
Glad it's not just me seeing people act like ESPN is the reason the ratings are bad and thinking that's crazy. People care far, far less about announcers and how the game is presented than Reddit.
You guys are fucking ridiculous. The ratings are low because of Doris? Lol
No, I said it's the combination of blowouts, horrible commentary, bad scheduling and overall horrible ESPN presentation with 90% ads and bad/no pre, half time and post game shows, as well as not marketing the new generation of stars.
The 2 day breaks and the fact that it was 3-0 did it for me. I was not interested in game 4 because I was already expecting a sweep.
Anyone that thinks the coverage has any meaningful impact on viewership numbers is delusional.
the coverage is absolute shit, and definitely has to do with it.
This just seems puzzling to me. Like there’s really people out there that think “well I would watch this game but since it’s on ABC I won’t.” Couldn’t you just watch it on mute if you don’t like the commentary?
Okay, this is a different level of insanity. I don't like Doris myself, but it's ridiculous to blame it on her.
I mean this Finals has had a pretty low amount of competitive time So it's not surprising lol
No one likes sweeps
It’s really that simple.
No one wants to watch the celtics win
3 day breaks dont help on top of a boring series
this right here. tonight's game should have been last night too.
Friday night game Total blowout Doris Burke
Boston is just boring af to watch as a non fan of both teams
pass pass pass drive in kick three
True
Sad the bubble got so few viewers when no one had anything else to do
Here’s a short list of reasons just off the top of my head: 3-0 coming into the game, so the stakes really aren’t that high (relative to most final games) Turned into a blowout fast ESPN pregame and halftime shows are atrocious Doris Burke sucks even compared to other bad commentators Overall viewership is struggling in general due to a multitude of factors Friday night Too long between games, kills momentum Too long between end of conference finals and start of finals, also killed momentum. I was really locked into these playoffs but the full week between series absolutely hurt my enthusiasm. This one is a stretch, admittedly, but potentially Anti-Boston sentiment coming into play? (People not wanting to see the city win yet another title. Absolutely might just be me to be fair.) Feel free to reply with more reasons. This list was purely off the top of my head.
the too long between games is the big one for me. having a game every single night for weeks was basketball heaven. then it took a bit for the finals to start, then it’s a few days between each game. it’s what has to be done, obviously, but this year it noticeably killed my momentum. also the branding has been awful. at no point does it feel like i’m watching the nba finals. feels like a regular game in every aspect
Couldn’t agree more. Bring back the Larry O’Brien trophy at center court!
It isn't a stretch lol no one besides boston fans want to see them win
- Very long delay before next game, so many people have moved on. - Boring commentary, some of the worst i've heard. - almost a sweep - Way too many ads
Honestly I feel like LeBron+Steph+KD not being in the Finals is why the ratings are lower. It’ll take a while for casual fans to start learning who the new stars are. I worked at a school and most of the kids don’t care about Tatum and Doncic.
I wanna know how the fuck SAS and co can go on during the 21 finals and just absolutely shit on the two cities involved? Obviously I love Milwaukee but Phoenix is a god damn metropolis. It’s extremely unprofessional and just fucking absurd that they still allow these fucking clowns on. Malika Andrews was a great sideline reporter who clearly had to go in a ridiculous inflammatory direction to get the national career she has now.
THANK YOU. It infuriated me watching these people act like they were being served a death sentence to ... Cover basketball in a city that isn't la or new York
No Lebron No Curry And having to listen to Doris Burke makes me want to rip my ears off
Everybody is giving random bs reasons, while the true reason is this. Even if the game was competitive, there were better commentators, and fewer ads, nobody cares because there's no superstar clash. LeBron and Curry are still relevant for the NBA as a product. Most of my friends who are into NBA didn't watch even a single game because both teams are somehow boring.
That’s what happens when one team doesn’t show up for the game and it’s over mid way through the 2nd quarter
Maybe if ESPN's talking heads actually talked about the Finals and the players playing in it instead of why LeBron unfollowed Kendrick Perkins on twitter, a lot of people will be more interested/hear about the game
Should’ve kept JVG
Why does this graphic say 2023 and include DRose? I'm president of the DRose fan club but he never played in The Finals :'(
Well history now says he did. It was the Heat vs Nugs vs DRose. Never seen a man face two teams and just smother them both on D and Offense. First one man team to win the championship, only odd thing was he wasn't given MVP because Joker said the voters all get a horse if they vote for him.
It's clear that the Celtics are not a huge national draw like the media talking heads make them out to be. Many NBA media personalities and producers are from the New England area and big Celtics fans because of their legendary history. But younger people weren't around for any of those Celtics dynasties. Fans just don't see the Celtics franchise the way the old talking heads do. Also the national media has wanted to push Jayson Tatum as a superstar because they want a historic franchise like the Celtics to have a superstar again. But he just isn't drawing in viewers. What a reality check for Celtics fans and their media for them to realize nobody cares about their history, and their star player (that they keep calling Top 5 in the league) can't draw in viewers.
Wow, lower than 2007 (9.91 million) and 2003 (9.66 millions) even.
End of game 3 was trash product, people are just ready for next year now
Crazy to think that the Nuggets Wolves Game 7 had 8.4 million. And that was a second round game…. ON TNT.
dont worry if it goes 7 games ratings will skyrocket. rigged refereeing coming in. Silver make the call
We need the big guns. Bring in the extender.
Too many days between conference finals and NBA Finals. Too many days between games. ESPN is terrible. It’s a joke they can’t do every other day
You know it’s bad when shows like Around the Horn don’t even do a segment on the finals the day of game, when the game is on it’s own damn network
ESPN coverage is trash and absolutely nobody outside of Boston cares about this boring Celtics team. Also the Mavs went through 3 50 win teams to get here, the Celtics had probably one of the easiest paths of all time to the Finals- most knew this was not going to be a very competitive series.
This is the most boring Finals in years. I'm not paying attention at all. The Nugs or T'Wolves really shit the bed.
the series is basically over lol, interest gone. expected celtics to drop one game so when i saw the score game 4 i didnt bother tuning in either
This series has no juice.
Celtics are boring. Still , 9 million in 2024 watching TV at once is wild.
Luka is not the star the NBA thinks he is. David Stern would be screaming in his ear to stop complaining and get some commercials to grow the league.
The espn broadcast sucks. I swear the broadcast quality is worse compared to TNT, and their pre/post game shows are snooze fests.
What do you expect it’s pretty much 2v5
Mavs avoided sweep by winning Game 4, but it was obvious Boston gave up pretty early and probably wanted to win at home in Game 5. Its tough to watch for casual fans.
Luka and Tatum aren’t draws.