The NBA Finals provided great basketball. So why don’t fans participate in the game?
The 2025 NBA Finals are ongoing. Because both the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers have won one game.
Game 3 is inspired tonight from Gainbridge Field House in Indiana. From the lightning side, Jalen Williams said their spirits must change when playing on the road.
On the other side, the Pacers will hope their team has full strength, Tyrese Halliburton’s limp legs scares him about his position.
Up until this point, both sides played great basketball. However, the rating shows that fans’ interest is in history.
Game 1 in the NBA Finals averaged 8.91 million viewers, while Game 2 was soaked with 8.76 million viewers. Game 1 was the lowest viewer since 1988, but Game 2’s numbers were the worst since 2007.
Both of these ratings outperform the 2020 and 2021 NBA Finals, which affected COVID. But why are their reputations falling as these elite-level basketball and emerging stars are in the spotlight? Now, there are three important factors to this sudden drop in audience.
The NBA Finals are the pinnacle of sports. Of course, hardcore NBA fans will adjust regularly when the Larry O’Brien Trophy is on the line.
However, the NBA Finals also captivate casual basketball fans who haven’t caught up with it during the regular season. Casual fans are usually drawn to big names and teams that permeate the barriers of sports.
The Thunder and Pacers are two teams in the small media market in Oklahoma and Indiana. These two aspects do not have a large national fan base outside of local support.
As a result, Periphery fans feel that they are less likely to see which of the two teams is winding up the Championship trophy above their heads.
Neither the Thunder nor the Pacers have signed famous free agents on their roster. So there’s a lack of appeal on their part from the perspective of casual or wrapped fans.
And while Shy Gilgauss Alexander and Ty Halliburton are incredibly talented players, they are not yet common names.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander won the MVP Award this year. However, his playing style and reliance on free throw shooting have gained a lot of negative fan sentiment for Shy from a larger audience.
Shy himself dismisses the claims of the “free throw merchant,” but the story is stuck. As for Tyrese Haliburton, his calm pass-first style play doesn’t create much excitement.
Halliburton can make shiny, thrilling clutch shots, but he can’t do it in every game. However, there is one factor that has contributed much more to the lack of interest in the NBA Finals.
Perhaps the biggest reason for the decline in the NBA ratings is due to media partners. Some notable analysts were very critical and negative about the players in the NBA Finals now.
For all the stories of Shy’s free throw habits, the story was mostly within the fan circle. That was until Doris Burke proved the criticism surrounding Shy during an NBA game during an NBA game.
On the Pacers’ side, Stephen A. Smith has less to dismiss the case of Ty Halliburton’s superstar. ESPN analysts have consistently insisted he is not at that level yet, and fans seem to be hearing at first glance.
Halliburton appears to have responded to Smith’s critique during his troublesome interactions with his ESPN colleagues. However, the damage may have already been done.
Is this type of negative coverage for the star playing in the NBA Finals supposed to encourage fans to tune?
By actively firing these talented players, analysts are actively compassionate with their fans and see these amazing athletes do their best.
What makes this even worse is that ESPN and ABC are taking on the NBA Finals, so they are actively damaging their media properties with this kind of negative coverage.
Negative media coverage is part of the bigger issue. Over the years, people who cover sports have adopted a more hot take-oriented approach.
This negative media coverage has degraded basketball discourse into a muddy, constant, redundant discussion about the greatness and legacy of players, rather than a more detailed point of the game.
And this is because this approach has led to improved viewership ratings. Fans must defy this trend and help show the NBA that the parity they’ve been hoping for for a long time is paying dividends.
You can do this by supporting two well-built teams who play great basketball in line with the NBA Finals.