Bringing NBC back was such a good move for the NBA

Hate watching reaching new heights

17 million thats more then ind-okc game 7 last year these finals could be the first to hit 20 million since 2017

I feel like the viewership has been highest on NBC all season

I’ll be interested in what the finals numbers will be because it will be on ESPN

Edit: no surprise sensitive fans are acting like I said nobody will be watching. I said I am curious what the numbers will be. And if there is a major difference in the networks and viewership. I wasn’t saying the views will be down. In what world would okc draw more viewers than the Knicks??

hello opening day, christmas n MLK matchups!

I feel like we keep seeing high numbers since streaming came around and I wonder if there’s a different way to measure or something. I’m not a ratings doomer kinda guy but I’m so suspicious of how that all works now.

Obligatory this is only because they changed the way views are counted, everything is the highest it’s ever been

As someone who follows all these leagues, the ratings discourse around the NBA across the other sports subs last year was ridiculous. Either that league was dying product that can be caught or in the NFL subs case, saying NBC would regret getting the NBA TV rights.

Thank you Wemby, Shai, and these two incredible teams for not only bringing an intriguing series but also shutting that shit down for a while.

Wemby is special. All that face of the league shit went out the window

The power of hate watching vs an emerging team casual fans like a lot.

Even my mom who was last interested in the NBA was during the Barkley Suns years was tuned in to all OKC/Spurs games.

MLB had one single season of being more popular than NBA, but now we’re so back

Legit happy we finally found the next face of the league with Wemby. The league and the media kept on trying to make it happen with other excellent players, but you can’t fake generational talent. New fans are going to be telling their kids about this era.

The Western Conference finals were on free network TV - the last time the conference finals were primarily on free TV was……24 years ago. Wonder if that’s a coincidence.

Just maybe there’s something to making games easily accessible for viewers.

That NBC stimulus package. I’m sure the millions of Thunder haters tuning in out of spite didn’t hurt either

I think between Wemby, NBC/Prime, hatred for the Thunder hitting the mainstream, and coming up now a huge market being in the Finals with the Knicks, this is the best the NBA has been doing in almost a decade. Of course it’s my algorithms but people all over social media have been talking about the generational hatewatch, “the day sports were saved” with Game 7 and the Champions League Final on the same day. This series had more motion than the last like 6 Finals in a row.

I think Wemby is even better as a face of the league than I could have anticipated. He’s open with his emotions, psychotically passionate like so many all time greats which is just super refreshing after the 2010s stars being empowered/entitled divas and then the next group of guys being very lowkey/“boring”/“nonchalant”, even has appealed to other realms of fanbases like anime with his Attack on Titan celly, etc. As a 25 year old he just seems to represent everything Gen Z is looking for coming into adulthood

That being said I know Silver is salivating at the idea of a Lakers/Spurs matchup next year… put the fix in Adam, you know you want to

I got into basketball again because Steph plays for my home team. I stayed for the playoffs this year because of Wemby. He has a similar kind of draw, despite playing a completely different style of ball 

Who’s reporting these numbers? Nielsen? The same ones who changed the formula for viewership ratings

But everyone told me that viewership is declining

Being able to watch random games (and playoffs games) on prime sucked me back in much more than in previous years.

See what happens when you don’t put that shit behind a paywall?

I was told that metro market sized mattered

Wemby is box office.

I watched to see OKC lose, and I’ll probably watch the finals to see the Spurs lose… or the Knicks… I can’t decide…

People don’t care about American or what. They just want to closely interesting punch by punch on both teams and that is what is provided. Will love to see how it goes now with knicks

Chet wtf dude

Not bad for two small market teams. Turns out people will tune in to watch great basketball with appealing storylines

Having nationwide games does a lot.

Wonder if PK Subban, Travis Clay, etc are gonna comment about this

It makes sense, but also you need to consider the amount of games that were broadcast over the air (ie ABC and NBC). It seemed like there were a lot more games that were done like that. It also helps that some of the most competitive series have been over the air. I’d be curious of a series by series breakdown and via what broadcasting method.

Don’t misinterpret this to mean the people want OKC, Adam Silver

Wish they could adjust these numbers for NBC-flation so I could see how it compares to some of the other big Conference Finals over the years.

Turns out the fix to viewership was putting every game on a different streaming platform

And that’s the reason it was officiated in the way it did.

If officiating was normal, the series may possibly have ended in less games.

People want to see Wemby, because he wants to win so badly. He is a phenomenon…

Why do they keep lumping crappy Peacock into the mix when we know nbc  is doing the heavy lifting. 

the hits just keep coming for Kings fans. being from Sacramento has to be sickening

Adam silver and league is smiling right now… the viewership it gained is more than some of the NBA finals being aired since 2020s…

You could see how many people really are invested watching this series

It was on free OTA signal, which is great

I hope we can get both ECF and WCF on free OTA soon.

Small market teams getting views. 👀

Sadly my number won’t count this finals since it’s a heavy seas time for me due to not having cable

I was told OKC is unwatchable and the reason for dwindling viewership

“See, SGA’s flops & generational whistle can’t be all that bad if people still tuned in in hopes of watching him lose. Solid work, refs!” - Adam Silver

Adam Silver will learn the wrong lesson from this.

“The games with terrible reffing and flopping were the most watched in 24 years. Guess we need more of that.”

I’ve never watched an NBA game in my life but like to keep up from time to time with the news. But all the memes of OKC and Wemby got me into giving it a watch.  

For the millionth time, ratings calculations were changed.

The Hate watch was strong in this game!

One had to feel afraid that the ratings would drop off when LeBron, Stpeh and KD retired, but Wemby is probably already drawing those levels of eyes. I imagine Luka (or rather the Lakers) is probably not far off as a draw now, and Brunson is certainly getting there.

If we get a game 7, could we pass 30 million? Wemby Vs. the Knicks, the match up made in ratings heaven.

Was it worth letting Tony brothers steal 2 games Adam? Sources say ye$

I stream it on illegal sites because I can’t be bothered to pay for 3 different channels just for the NBA

Hate watch at its peak!

Lots of hatewatching.