You know, now that I am not watching NBA anymore the reward would be I don't have to hear that stupid annoying P.u.s.s.y.cats Doll song any more. That song was so annoying.

Of course. Every sports article would talk about how the Spurs/Pistons are MURDERING basketball, and how great it would've been to have LBJ in the finals

Honestly, the only "superstar" i'm interested in watching is Kobe. I don't hate or love him, but i'll watch Kobe. There's no denying that he is the most talented player in the game right now. Put Kobe in the finals, and i think Stern would get the ratings he's looking for.

LBJ doesn't do it for me. He's not really clutch, doesn't/can't ? take over the game. He looks good against bad defense, but that's about it. I just don't see that killer instinct or competiveness in him that all the greats have. He's young though so we'll see.

Good point. This gets us off the hook as ratings killers.

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I agree. I hate that. They so overdid it. Add in that annoying Mike Breen guy and its hard to watch.

I think ABC is part of the reason for the low ratings. ABC should just contract it out to TNT.

Actually, I was thinking about this the other day: the real measure here of how much LeBron helps or (doesn't help) the ratings is not by comparing this year's ratings to last years, as some reports have been doing, but by comparing it to the 2005 Finals. Spurs/Pistons two years ago, Spurs/LeBron now. A comparison of the ratings between those two series would be the most reasonable way to measure a "LeBron Effect" in the Finals. Does anyone know a handy resource for looking up the ratings from previous years' playoffs?

I didn't find a site that listed all the ratings but i did find this.

http://http://www.washingtonpost.com...062500134.html

Quote:

NEW YORK San Antonio's Game 7 win over Detroit was the highest-rated of the NBA Finals, though the average for the series was down 29 percent from last year. ABC got an 11.9 rating with a 22 share for the Spurs' title-clinching win Thursday night. It was the highest-rated show on television for the evening and was the second-highest rated clinching game since 2000.

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Ok for some reason the rest of my long post got deleted ? so i'll just write out the numbers quick instead.

The Spurs/Pistons series (in the above article) averaged an 8.2 and a 15 share.

Game 1 of the Spurs/Cavs drew a 6.3 and an 11 share; the previous low was was 6.4/11 in 2003 (IIRC Spurs/NJ) so SAS/DET game 1 was higher (bu how much i don't know)

Game 2 of the Spurs/Cavs got a 5.6 and 10 share

So unless this goes more than 5, and interest seriously picks us, the 2005 finals would be higher.

Thanks for finding that, lpgrl. Although the link got garbled--this one will work.

Chat's open for Game 3.

2nd lowest scoring game in Finals history...yikes. It looked like both teams wanted to lose down the stretch, with missed shots and turnovers all over the place. Spurs hit just enough shots earlier in the fourth quarter to pull it out, as LeBron missed a 3 to tie it in the final seconds. Weirdest play of the game was in the first half, when LeBron got fouled on a breakaway, so the Cavs got 2 FTs and the ball, but the refs somehow allowed Boobie to shoot the FTs before they remembered that LeBron had to take them. He missed one, which ended up being big at the end, as Dre mentioned in chat. Looks like the sweep will be complete on Thursday.