Category Archives: NBA

Ratings report: Despite Tiger struggles, U.S. Open still up; another big number for Game 3

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Ah, what might have been for NBC and the U.S. Open. Imagine the rating if Tiger Woods actually had resembled Tiger Woods Sunday. Instead, his brutal start had him on the missing person’s report during the meat of the coverage.

As a result, we got a heavy dose of the plodding Jim Furyk and a U.S. Open where par was indeed a good score. It didn’t necessarily add up to compelling golf, but thanks to the primetime window, people still tuned in.

The numbers from NBC:

Sunday’s 6.5-hour (4-10:30 p.m. ET) final-round coverage of the U.S. Open on NBC delivered an 6.6 rating and 13 share, up 29% vs. last year (5.1/12).

The combined Saturday-Sunday overnight was a 6.1/13, up 39 % vs. last year (4.4/11) and the best since 2008 (6.8/15).

Despite competition from the NBA Finals, the rating increased every half hour from 8:30 p.m. ET on, peaking at an 8.1 from 10-10:30 p.m. ET. From 7 p.m. ET on, the rating never dipped below a 6.9.

Yes, there was a finals game last night. Another big number for game 3 on ABC.

From ESPN:

Through three games, the 2012 NBA Finals on ABC – Miami Heat vs. Oklahoma City Thunder – is the highest-rated series since 2004 and the second highest-rated ever on ABC based on overnight ratings, according to Nielsen. The Finals is averaging an 11.3 overnight rating, up 5 percent from a 10.8 last year (Dallas Mavericks vs. Miami Heat).

NBA Finals Game 3 – Miami defeated Oklahoma City 91-85 – generated a 10.4 overnight rating, peaking with a 14.7 rating from 10:30 to 10:45 p.m. ET. The game generated a 41.9 rating in Oklahoma City and a 29.6 rating in Miami.

 

 

Did Stern overreact to Rome interview?

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Perhaps there’s another side to the Jim Rome-David Stern story. I’ve had a few people tell me they thought the NBA Commish overreacted here and went overboard with Rome.

During his Rome show on CBS Sports Network, he discussed the now controversial radio interview with panelists Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com and Kelly Dwyer of Yahoo! Sports. They backed Rome and disagreed with the views, including mine, that he set off Stern by asking the horribly loaded question of “Was the fix in?” regarding the New Orleans Hornets getting the No. 1 pick in the draft.

La Canfora and Dwyer thought Stern was out of line.

Dwyer took offense to Stern’s retort to Rome, bringing up the “Hey, have you stopped beating your wife” question. He said, “I don’t care if it’s the old joke, loaded question kind of thing…This is guy is 69 and has done this for a number of years. I don’t care if he was in a deli in ’61, you don’t make a joke about domestic violence.”

La Canfora said: “He’s a big boy. If you’re going to make the rounds with the national media, if you don’t think somebody is going to say, ‘Hey, you own this franchise and they got the magic ball’…I don’t think it is beyond the realm of possibility that somebody would ask that. He went off the script, went off the rails, and I’m sure he regrets it.”

Later Dwyer said: “It’s an awful answer to a legitimate question.”

Now, speaking of conspiracy theorists, as Rome said in his initial question to Stern, you might say, did you expect Dwyer and La Canfora to disagree with Rome when he’s sitting right across from them?

I’ll knock that down by saying Rome likely told them he wanted an honest appraisal, and that the veteran reporters expressed what they thought.

It’s an interesting subject, one I’m sure will keep Rome’s name out there for a while. Not a bad thing for a guy with a new TV show.

Perhaps, Rome owes Stern a note of thanks.

 

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Rome addresses Stern interview: Thought it was a softball question

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Interesting day for Jim Rome. From CBS Sports Network:

On tonight’s episode of ROME on CBS Sports Network, Jim Rome addressed his radio interview with NBA Commissioner David Stern from earlier today.

(ROME ON HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH STERN): I’ve done interviews with David Stern several times over the years. We’ve always had a very good relationship. It’s been kind of a contentious give-and-take at times, but always a fundamental level of respect. I did not expect that to go that way and that was certainly not my intent.

(ROME ON STERN’S RESPONSE): It was a rhetorical device. A lot of people don’t know that phrase (‘Have you stopped beating your wife yet?’). They didn’t know where he was going. I understood it. I didn’t take great offense to it. I didn’t agree with it. But the fact of the matter is I thought my question was direct and it was not a loaded question. So I thought that analogy was inappropriate. My point is, I don’t think that it’s fixed (the NBA Draft). Even after that conversation, I don’t think that it’s fixed. But I thought the question was fair.

(ROME ON ASKING THE QUESTION): I was not looking to start anything. I thought it was a soft ball question, to be honest. I thought it was an easy question. I thought he’d say, ‘Come on, are you kidding? Conspiracy theories? The only people who believe that are whack jobs and people that are out of hand.’

Stanley Cup Final could have used a Gretzky; Game 1 ratings soar with LeBron, Durant

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It’s all about big, big stars.

The NBA has them for its final; the NHL didn’t. Just look at the ratings.

Final numbers for the Stanley Cup finals were the lowest since 2007. The Los Angeles Kings-New Jersey ratings were down 33 percent from last year, averaging 3 million viewers per game.

Meanwhile, Game 1 of the NBA Finals did an 11.8 overnight rating, the highest ever for a game on ABC. And it only figures to get bigger if LeBron James and company can win a few games in this series.

The NBA rating speaks to the star power of a final that includes James, Kevin Durant, Dwyane Wade, Russell Westbrook. As much as people hate the Heat, they still tune in to watch. I thought it was great that they made the finals. Rooting for Miami to lose to Boston is sort of like wanting Jack Nicholson’s Joker to be knocked off with 45 minutes left in Batman. I wanted more Heat, not less.

As for hockey, would the ratings have been down if the Kings still had a player named Wayne Gretzky? Definitely not.

Gretkzy, though, is long gone, and the league doesn’t have another transcendent star, given the uncertain health status of Sidney Crosby. As a result, the final featured two mostly unknown teams. And the Kings going up 3-0 also dulled the ratings momentum.

The NHL’s parity is great in the early rounds, when the No. 8 Kings proved that the seeds don’t really matter in hockey. The new format of airing every game on NBC’s various platforms resulted in a nice increase in the ratings.

However, the problem with parity is that sometimes the big-name teams and players get knocked off before the finals. For the first time since 2007, there wasn’t an Original 6 team or Crosby-led Pittsburgh in the Finals. Instead, the NHL got Los Angeles-New Jersey, two teams that don’t necessarily move the meter even in their home markets.

There are plenty of positives for hockey. But as the ratings for the Final showed, there’s plenty of room for improvement.

 

 

 

 

Get ready for return of Dream Team; NBA TV documentary debuts tonight

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Given our love for anniversaries with round numbers, the 20-year mark for the legendary 1992 Olympics powerhouse will be front and center this summer. It begins with an NBA TV documentary simply titled, The Dream Team. It debuts Wednesday at 9 p.m. (ET) and will be replayed about a million times.

Then coming in July, Jack McCallum, who covered that bunch for Sports Illustrated, will be out with a new book, Dream Team: How Michael, Magic, Larry, Charles, and the Greatest Team of All Time Conquered the World and Changed the Game of Basketball Forever.

Quite a mouthful, Jack.

Both the documentary and the book are excellent. I’m planning an interview with Jack soon.

Then again, how could they miss given the subjects?

It was an unprecedented, and never duplicated, array of transcendent superstars playing for the same team; 11 of the 12 players are in the Hall of Fame. The Dreamers featured Michael Jordan, fresh off a second NBA championship with the Bulls, trying to grab the torch away from Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, two aging stars who saved the NBA in the 80s.

The documentary details the over-the-top rock star adoration that greeted the team at every stop. And for contrast, there’s great footage of John Stockton, the short white guard, going unrecognized as he walked through the streets of Barcelona with his family.

Indeed, the best part of the documentary is the behind-the-scenes accounts of the team. It includes never-before-seen footage of an intense scrimmage in Monte Carlo in which respective team captains Jordan and Johnson played as if it was the Chicago Stadium for the NBA Finals.

There’s much more. You come away from the documentary feeling the same way as the players. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for everyone.

Said Jordan: “What we did will go down in history as one of the biggest, biggest things that ever happened. And it won’t ever be duplicated.”

 

 

 

Pressing issue: Ralph Nader ticked off at in-game radio ads on Yankees games

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In December, when I review my favorite stories of the year, I’m pretty sure this one will be high up on the list.

Ralph Nader is ticked off at the amount of in-game ads during Yankees radio broadcasts. Really.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times reports Nader sent a letter to the Yankees. From his story:

In a letter Friday to team executives Randy Levine and Brian Cashman, Nader listed 22 in-game ads that ran during the June 1 Yankees-Tigers game; he said they served to “disrupt the flow and excitement of the game broadcast and undermine your responsibilities as a guardian of the national pastime.”

Later in the story:

Nader cited ads that sponsored the pitching matchup (Chock Full o’ Nuts), pitch count (5-hour Energy), rally moment of the game (Rally BMW), game-time temperature (Peerless Boilers), national anthem (Mutual of America Life Insurance), call to the bullpen (Honda) and 15th out of the game (Geico).

Most of the ads, not surprisingly, strained to make a connection with the action on the field.

“Have you no boundaries or sense of restraint?” Nader wrote, in his position as the founder of the sports advocacy group League of Fans. “Have you no mercy on your play-calling broadcasters?”

At age 78, has it come down to this for the great consumer advocate? Complaining about in-game radio ads seems a bit trivial given all the other things to harp about in society. Then again, Nader always has been a multi-tasker.

As for the in-game ads that pollute games broadcasts everywhere, let’s be honest, nobody likes them. Not the teams, not the stations, and certainly not the listeners. Most of them are annoying and some are obnoxious. From the Yankees game, Nader notes this brutal ad:

“And the pitch is called a strike as he threaded the outside corner. And that is painting the corner. And painting the corner is sponsored by Certa Pro Painters because painting is personal.”

Nader does have a point, but here’s the bottom line: WCBS pays the Yankees $14 million to air the games. The station has to find a way to pay its bills.

Times are tough, you might have heard. The big-name sponsors are cutting back. Hence, stations are forced to wedge in the cheaper in-game ads to lure in the small companies. It’s called making ends meet.

Unless the teams reduce their right fees (yeah, right), listeners will have to suffer through more in-game ads despite the noble efforts of Mr. Nader.

Full disclosure: I am the co-host of a Saturday morning golf talk radio show on WSCR-AM 670, the flagship station of the Chicago White Sox. Have yet to receive a letter from Nader complaining about number of ads on our show.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ESPN hires NBA referee equivalent to Mike Pereira

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Sound move by ESPN. The network has hired a former NBA official to lend insights for its coverage of the finals on ABC.

Richard Deitsch of SI.com reports Steve Javie will work as a rules analyst for the network’s pregame and postgame coverage of the NBA Finals, as well as SportsCenter.

Javie, a 25-year ref who had to retire because of a bad knee, told Deitsch that he was inspired by Mike Pereira’s work on Fox’s NFL coverage.

“Mike and I are friends and I think what he’s done has fantastic,” Javie said.  “He’s been the trailblazer here and he told me he thought the NBA, ESPN or TNT  would be interested in something like this. I think Mike has really gained  credibility for officials in the NFL, but fans of the NBA have never heard from  or been given the perspective from the officials’ point of view. I’m hoping for  positive feedback because I believe it’s something that’s been missing. I hope  people come away and say, “Boy, I didn’t even look at it that way, and I never  knew that.”

Yes, but what happens when he has to call out one of his former NBA colleagues for missing a call?

“Now I’m not going to be a jerk about it because these are my guys. But I want  to be the voice of the official and tell people, ‘Look at this play. Maybe you  should have had a whistle here, but here is the reason why they didn’t blow it.’  I won’t be a guy who blasts the officials but at the same time I will be someone  who points out to fans that the ref did not get call right and here’s why. It’s  not necessarily a criticism but an explanation on why a call was missed.”

I like the move. More explanation and less whining about the officials is the way to go.

 

LeBron show generates highest cable rating ever for NBA

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Wasn’t that fun to see LeBron James throw it back in the face of all those ESPNers who buried him and the Miami Heat Tuesday? Count on the First Take’s Skip Bayless to be fairly insufferable if the Heat win Saturday. He was about the only person in Bristol who stuck with LeBron.

As expected, Game 6 broke ratings records. From ESPN:

Thursday night’s NBA Eastern Conference Finals Game 6 on ESPN – the Miami Heat defeated the Boston Celtics to even their series at 3-3 – generated an 8.2 overnight rating, the highest overnight for an NBA game ever on cable (records back to 2003), according to Nielsen. The 8.2 for Game 6 surpasses the previous record, a 7.9 for Game 4 of this series, as the best overnight ever.

The 8.2 overnight rating is up 49 percent compared to the most recent Game 6 on ESPN – Boston/Orlando in the 2010 Eastern Conference Finals – which posted a 5.5.

In Miami, Game 6 delivered a 22.0 rating, the highest-rated NBA playoff game on ESPN in the market. In Boston, the game averaged a 20.5, the second highest-rated NBA game on ESPN in the market.

Besides the Celtics, the other big loser was the NHL Thursday. Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final also is slated for Saturday night.

 

Durant, small-market Thunder deliver solid ratings for TNT; bodes well for Finals

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The Western Conference Finals also were big for the NBA and TNT. Thanks to the star power of Kevin Durant, the small-market series delivered solid ratings.

From TNT:

TNT’s coverage of the 2012 Western Conference Finals (WCF) between the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs – two of the smallest cities among the 56 metered markets with Oklahoma City ranking 44th and San Antonio 36th – averaged a 5.0 U.S. HH rating and 7,823,000 viewers. The network’s coverage of the Western Conference Finals isup 16 percent in U.S. HH rating (vs. 4.3) and 13 percent among viewers (vs. 6,939,000) compared with last year’s WCF between the Thunder and Dallas Mavericks.

TNT’s coverage of last night’s Western Conference Finals Game 6 – Oklahoma City’s 107-99 series-clinching win over San Antonio – generated a 6.0 fast national rating and 9,498,000 viewers. The telecast is up 30 percent in rating (vs. 4.8) and 16 percent among viewers (8,154,000) compared to the network’s last Game 6 between the Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns in 2010.

That’s huge for the NBA, and positions Durant to be the league’s next transcendent star if the Thunder win the finals. He’ll leap into the Kobe, LeBron territory, if he isn’t already there.

Naturally, the NBA would love a finals featuring Durant and LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. Big game tonight in Boston. Don’t write off the Heat just yet.

 

 

 

Bayless might be last ESPN analyst sticking with Heat; Stephen A does great Jay Pharoah

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I can’t account for every ESPN analyst, but each talking head I’ve heard out of Bristol is burying the Miami Heat.

Jon Barry blew them up on NBA Countdown last night. While riding in my car, I just listened to Michael Wilbon destroy LeBron James and company on WMVP-AM 1000, the ESPN-owned station in Chicago.

Yet through the chorus of jeers, there’s one person sticking with the underachievers: Skip Bayless.

On First Take this morning, Skip proclaimed: “Miami was the heavy favorite to win it all and I’m not backing off.

Later, he said: “I’m not writing them off. I’m sticking with them in seven games, because they’re still the Miami Heat.”

I’m not even sure Pat Riley agrees with Bayless.

Skip obviously is hoping for the last laugh. If you’re soon-to-be-fired Heat coach Eric Spoelstra, you’re hoping Bayless is right and you’re using the avalanche of negative Heat comments to fire up your dead team.

Of course, you have to go to the 5:40 mark to hear Skip’s comments. The open is a classic rant against the Heat by Stephen A. Smith that goes on for nearly four minutes. I’m not sure I’ll be able to watch Stephen A again without going to Jay Pharoah’s take on him on Saturday Night Live.

Four minutes of my life gone again, but it was worth it.