Rob Parker and Kelvin Washington discuss why this year's NBA Finals may be the least viewed Finals since the COVID year. Rob says it's a bad sign for the NBA that the Thunder have this young Superstar in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and no one really cares while Kelvin says the NBA is banking on diehard basketball fans to tune in and help the ratings.
Rob Parker:
"All the numbers that come out remind me of what the Spurs were and here;s the thing, the Spurs at least were boring you know what I mean, fundamentally sound not that exciting right, but they won. The Thunder got something going on and people don't seem to be interested or enamored with this team and I'm here to predict that when the Pacers beat the Knicks it will be the lowest rated finals in the Post COVID era I'm CONVINCED. The Spurs had two of the lowest NBA Finals Pre-COVID 2007 vs. the Cavs and 2003 against the New Jersey Nets.
Awful. Small market. There's no reason why people should be afraid to tune in to watch SGA and this rising star and this unbelievable team. This isn't a team that backed their way in. This is not like the keystone cops. They DOMINATED ALL YEAR. Even at one point they were challenging Golden State Warriors for most wins in a season, and none of it seems to matter. The blow outs in the games. People watched the Dream Team, were any of those games competitive? People still watched them. If I'm the NBA I'm a little worried here that this new hotness in the NBA and maybe the surrounding areas but not the United States proper because this is not a good thing."
Kelvin Washington :
"Some of the issues the Thunder have is that they don't have the coupling. Okay you have the NBA but who's the other guy? Usually we got them in pairs. Scottie and Michael, Shaq and Kobe, Bird and McHale. It's really just SGA. Now Jalen Williams is very good and Chet is on his way. When your team wins a bunch of games, the Atlanta Hawks, Kyle Korver was an All-Star, Joe Johnson, and someone else were All-Stars because the Atlanta Hawks were leading their conference. Right now it's just man they play a lot of defense with a bunch of guys that you don't know besides one or two guys. Here's what I'm thinking or hoping if you're Adam Silver you're praying for. It reminds me of J Cole vs. Drake. Nas vs. Jay Z. One of those purist things. Jay Z can rap his butt off but he knows he goes a little commercial, makes some commercial hits and kind of be played on a bunch of different stations.
"Nas in his prime was more of just a straight up wordsmiths storyteller, a pure hip hop purist. J Cole when he first comes out he was trying to go pop and mainstream but it didn't really work because at his heart he's a purist. He's a hip hop artist. Drake, who can rap but is more mainstream, much more pop. And I say that, you hope that the basketball purist would tune in to the thunder and Pacers. Basketball lovers who love the game, who love it at a high level, high quality basketball, would tune in enjoy it and make it something and the ratings maybe wouldn't suffer as bad as we predict they would. That's what basketball is banking on. That the purists will show up like they show for Nas, like they show up for J Cole, like they show up for Kendrick , even though they may not be the most commercial."