Thunder and Spurs, at the end of the chain of contempt

The 7th finals between the Thunder and the Pacers won more than 16 million viewers on American TV, claiming to be the highest number of viewers in the finals in six years, but this cannot cover up the sluggish ratings of the first six games.

There are many people saying online that I don’t like SGA.

In fact, the deep reason is just because you have no feelings for thunder. In the seven finals, the number of TV viewers in the United States was 10.2 million, a 9% decrease from 2024. If the special finals of the 2020 Lakers and Heat in the park were removed, then this year is the least watched since the Spurs vs. Cavaliers finals in 2007.

In fact, compared with the first 6 games, the number has a huge jump, and there have been similar jumps in the previous finals, but it is not as big as this year, and it is nearly doubled. If we average the ratings of the first 6 games, it is only 9.18 million, which is actually lower than the average of the Spurs Cavaliers in 2007. From the beginning, Thunder and Pacers attracted few viewers. From the first game, there were only 8.91 million in the first game. Although the game was thrilling, the Pacers defeated the home game and won the Thunder. In the second game, the Thunder won, and there were only 8.76 million people watching TV broadcasts. From the third game, it exceeded 9 million, but it was still far lower than the previous ratings of tens of millions.

These numbers are quoted from the "Nelson Media Survey", referred to as NMR for short, but this is a company that counts traditional viewers. Its parent company also specializes in counting new media data, while Nelson only cares about TV ratings - how many people are there now who only watch sports games on TV? Data on new media such as Netflix and YouTube are not included in Nelson's statistics.

I have made a curve chart here, which is a comparison of the average viewership ratings of the NBA Finals (TV) in the past 30 years. These characteristics can be seen from the development curve:

First, in 1998, Jordan led the Bulls to defeat the Jazz and won the second three consecutive championships, with the ratings and number of people reaching the peak. Since that year, the overall NBA ratings have shown a downward trend. In addition to the 2020 park-closed finals, the average number of this year's first six games actually reached a 30-year low (this decline also includes the factor of replacing TV with new media platforms);

First, the championships in the last seven years have not been repeated, and it is difficult to accumulate a stable audience in the finals.

Third, most of the peaks in the past 30 years are related to large market teams such as the Lakers, Celtics and Warriors, while several obvious troughs are related to the Spurs. In the late period of the Spurs' GDP era, there was no extremely low trough, which is likely related to James' finals for four consecutive years with the Heat, but it is also related to the improvement of the Spurs' reputation.

The Spurs have a very good reputation among fans now. Although they have never won consecutive championships, they are both dynasties in the industry and fans.

However, the Spurs' reputation has been accumulated over more than ten years. From the ratings of the finals in 2013 and 2014, we can see that the Spurs' popularity has rebounded, while the 2003 and 2007 finals received terrible attention.

The Spurs back then were actually the Thunder now. Their common point is that they are located in a small market and their contempt chain is at the end of the NBA. The urban contempt chain is an objective existence, mainly related to population size, economic scale, and media development.

Among the 346 cities in the United States, Oklahoma City is the state capital, but its population in 2024 is only 710,000, ranking 20th. The population is only 8.4% of New York, the largest city, Los Angeles, and 18.3% of the second largest city, and 26.1% of Chicago.

This is just a population comparison. If compared with the GDP of the metropolitan area (statistics in 2022), Oxford only ranks 48th, with a total economic output of 4.4% in New York, 7.7% in Los Angeles, and 11.2% in Chicago. San Antonio, the Texas city where the Spurs are located, has a population of 1.53 million, ranking seventh in the United States, far higher than Russia, but only 18.0% of New York and 39.4% of Los Angeles. If ranked by GDP, the Greater San Antonio District was directly hit 33rd, accounting for only 7.9% of New York and 14.1% of the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Arnham metropolitan area. The

Warriors' population is only 830,000, ranking 17th, far behind San Antonio, but the GDP of the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley circle ranks fourth in the United States, 33.9% of New York and 60.2% of Greater Los Angeles. In this way, Oklahoma City is a perfect small market.

NBA is divided into three levels according to the size of the number of viewers:

14 teams in the first floor, with more than 2 million households, called the big market, namely New York/Nets, Lakers/Clippers, Bulls, 76ers, Mavericks, Raptors, Warriors, Hawks, Rockets, Wizards, Celtics and Suns;

The second floor, with a total of 1.5 million households, is called the "medium market", with a total of 6 teams, namely the Timberwolves, Pistons, Nuggets, Magic, Heat and Cavaliers;

The third floor is less than 1.5 million households, with a total of 10 teams, respectively, namely Kings, Trail Blazers, Hornets, Pacers, Jazz, Spurs, Bucks, Thunder, Pelicans, and Grizzlies.

See it, the Spurs are fifth to last, and the Thunder are third to last. It is not accidental that they create a ratings trough, and the broadcast fee cannot be sold much, and it cannot be compared with the Lakers because the number of advertisements arrives too small. Neither the Pelicans nor the Grizzlies play in the finals. If you enter, you will be able to see the colors every minute.

Many fans said online that I just don’t like SGA because he likes to cheat free throws and win without any force. In fact, the real reason is that you don’t know him enough. The reason why you don’t know him is that there are not many media promoting him. The reason why you don’t promote him is that there are too few media around him and his team..

ESPN live broadcast of the Thunder game. After searching for it, I couldn't find the landmark. Finally, I found a Ferris wheel in a small amusement park and took a drone to shoot it from afar. The sunset was setting, which was quite beautiful. But in fact, this Ferris wheel is smaller than the abandoned Ferris wheel in Longtan Lake, Beijing. There will be no media gathering in such a place.

In fact, ESPN has done a statistics on the basketball level shown by SGA, which is very similar to Jordan's first three consecutive championships, and even surpasses it in some projects.

Also as a small market, the Pacers have no more loyal fans than the Thunder, because regardless of the size of the city or GDP, Indianapolis, located in the "rust zone", is not much higher than the Thunder, and they are even less optimistic in the playoffs.

But since there are no traffic stars, fans who have lost their target will be more sympathetic to the Pacers who have no home advantage and are still striving for a 50% winning rate in the regular season, as well as Halliburton who is more friendly and always smiling when choosing one side.

As a "country star" of a "country team", the only thing SGA should feel lucky is that he is in the mobile Internet era. The image he had to convey through TV screens in the past is now rich in means, and short videos, streaming media, various mobile live broadcasts, and podcasts can show his skills.

In the larger rural Oklahoma, it does not hinder the SGA from making money, because under the NBA's labor-management system, players are treated equally. Soon he will become the first player in history to have an average annual salary of $73 million. Thinking about how many years Jordan received more than 3 million.

SGA once said in a stadium interview: We have finally grown up!

In fact, he and his partners are still very young, and the Spurs are their role models. The Spurs' final ratings hit a trough many times, and after more than ten years of hard work, they finally turned around. The traffic era that belongs to SGA and Thunder will also come.

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