Quick, guess which year was Michael Jordan's last in the NBA Finals?
Marketed far more on the power of individual stars than any other US team sport, NBA Basketball suffers the most when it lacks those charismatic stars in postseason play.
That's why the NBA is thanking its lucky stars that LeBron James & Kevin Durant are in the 2012 NBA Finals.
1987-1989 were the end of the Magic Johnson/Larry Bird era. 1990 saw an interim year and a ratings low. 1991 began the Michael Jordan championship era, with the Chicago Bulls winning championships in 1991, 1992 and 1993. During Jordan's minor league baseball excursion years of 1994 & 1995, the Hakeem Olajuwon lead Houston Rockets didn't have nearly the star power and ratings crashed again.
Tired of being a mediocre baseball player, Jordan's return brought NBA postseason ratings up again for 1996, 1997 and 1998. His final year being the best finals ratings of his career (and the highest HH ratings we have in our data going back to 1974). Another interim year after Jordan's exit and ratings plunged again. One might have thought that the Kobe/Shaq lead LA Lakers might have raised ratings back to Jordanesqe levels, but they merely halted the decline near the 1990 & 1994 lows from 2000-2002.
Note that while the graph above ends in 2010, the table below is through 2011.
NBA Finals TV Ratings, 1974-2011
| Year | Net | Games | HH rating | HH Share | Average HHs (million) | Average Viewers (million) | Teams |
| 2011 | ABC | 6 | 10.1 | 11.725 | 17.28 | Heat/Mavericks | |
| 2010 | ABC | 7 | 10.6 | 18.144 | Lakers/Celtics | ||
| 2009 | ABC | 5 | 8.4 | 9.642 | 14.347 | Lakers/Orlando | |
| 2008 | ABC | 6 | 9.3 | 17 | 10.530 | 14.941 | Boston/Lakers |
| 2007 | ABC | 4 | 6.2 | 11 | 6.912 | 9.289 | San Antonio/Cleveland |
| 2006 | ABC | 6 | 8.5 | 15 | 9.332 | 12.972 | Miami/Dallas |
| 2005 | ABC | 7 | 8.2 | 15 | 8.951 | 12.544 | San Antonio/Detroit |
| 2004 | ABC | 5 | 11.5 | 20 | 12.451 | 17.942 | Detroit/Lakers |
| 2003 | ABC | 6 | 6.5 | 12 | 6.955 | 9.864 | San Antonio/New Jersey |
| 2002 | NBC | 4 | 10.2 | 19 | 10.752 | 15.678 | Lakers/New Jersey |
| 2001 | NBC | 5 | 12.1 | 23 | 12.390 | 18.996 | Lakers/Philadelphia |
| 2000 | NBC | 6 | 11.6 | 21 | 11.677 | 17.402 | Lakers/Indiana |
| 1999 | NBC | 5 | 11.3 | 21 | 11.205 | 16.014 | San Antonio/New York |
| 1998 | NBC | 6 | 18.7 | 33 | 18.336 | 29.040 | Chicago/Utah |
| 1997 | NBC | 6 | 16.8 | 30 | 16.291 | 25.586 | Chicago/Utah |
| 1996 | NBC | 6 | 16.7 | 31 | 16.019 | 24.858 | Chicago/Seattle |
| 1995 | NBC | 4 | 13.9 | 25 | 13.284 | 20.078 | Houston/Orlando |
| 1994 | NBC | 5 | 12.0 | 23 | 11.291 | 17.253 | Houston/New York |
| 1993 | NBC | 6 | 17.9 | 33 | 16.694 | 27.209 | Chicago/Phoenix |
| 1992 | NBC | 6 | 14.2 | 27 | 13.097 | 20.838 | Chicago/Portland |
| 1991 | NBC | 5 | 15.8 | 32 | 14.750 | 23.910 | Chicago/Lakers |
| 1990 | CBS | 5 | 12.3 | 25 | 11.320 | 17.190 | Detroit/Portland |
| 1989 | CBS | 4 | 15.1 | 30 | 13.620 | 21.260 | Detroit/Lakers |
| 1988 | CBS | 7 | 15.4 | 31 | 13.620 | 21.700 | Lakers/Detroit |
| 1987 | CBS | 6 | 16.7 | 35 | 14.600 | 24.120 | Lakers/Boston |
| 1986 | CBS | 6 | 14.1 | 31 | 14.430 | Boston/ Houston | |
| 1985 | CBS | 6 | 13.5 | 30 | Lakers/Boston | ||
| 1984 | CBS | 7 | 12.1 | 26 | Boston/Lakers | ||
| 1983 | CBS | 4 | 12.3 | 26 | Philadelphia/Lakers | ||
| 1982 | CBS | 6 | 13.0 | 28 | Lakers/Philadelphia | ||
| 1981 | CBS | 6 | 6.7 | 27 | Boston/Houston | ||
| 1980 | CBS | 6 | 8.0 | 29 | Lakers/Philadelphia | ||
| 1979 | CBS | 5 | 7.2 | 24 | Seattle/Washington | ||
| 1978 | CBS | 7 | 9.9 | 25 | Washington/Seattle | ||
| 1977 | CBS | 6 | 12.7 | 33 | Portland/Philadelphia | ||
| 1976 | CBS | 6 | 11.5 | 29 | Boston/Phoenix | ||
| 1975 | CBS | 4 | 10.1 | 28 | 6.920 | 11.380 | Golden State/Washington |
| 1974 | CBS | 7 | 13.5 | 32 | Boston/Milwaukee |
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Without the Lakers in the finals in 2003, the NBA the San Antonio Spurs/New Jersey Nets finals produced a ratings catastrophe. The return of the Lakers in 2004 brought the finals back to their previous early century ratings. The following two years seemed to establish a new baseline just under 13 million average viewers, a level that would have been considered terrible just 5 years earlier, but probably had David Stern breathing a sigh of relief. That didn't last long when LeBron James, and his otherwise overmatched Cleveland Cavaliers were swept away by the boringly successful San Antonio Spurs taking NBA finals ratings with them to their lowest level in the years for which we have data (1974-).
What does this year's NBA finals ratings picture look like?
Now that the matchup is set, good ratings for ABC hinge on a long series, both because every potential clinching game typically rises in ratings, but also because any NBA Finals game will be far more highly rated than anything else ABC could possibly put on its schedule.
The past 10 NBA Finals have averaged 5.6 games, so let's assume a 6 game series for ratings guessing purposes.
Given a six game series, I'll guess an average viewership of 18 million viewers, slightly more than last season.
What's your guess?
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2006-11 data is Live+SD, all previous years are Live viewing.
Of course we know that viewership and HH ratings have no bearing on the advertising revenue for ABC, but like most historical data from Nielsen we have, we lack the important adults 18-49 ratings.
Nielsen TV Ratings Data: ©2012 The Nielsen Company All Rights Reserved.
I’m guessing I agree with you. 18 mil sounds about right if its 6 games. The only way it goes over 20 is with overtime games
Let’s face it the ratings will never ever be like the Jordan era of the NBA finals. A double digit rating now is considered very successful. Same thing with MLB. They use to be America’s past time delivering over 30 mil in each WS game, now they’re happy with over 15
Probably the 2 most hated NBA teams. Bandwagoners and the Stern family about the only ones who still care.
CC=ignorant, well if 18 million people watch each game, that’s a lot more than bandwagoners and Stern’s family. You sound like a hockey fan? Jealous? Lol Also, how the heck are the OKC Thunder hated? They have the humble superstar Durant
June finals = no meaningful broadcast competition = over 20m. And if not now, then never.
Actually I think Thunder is most liked team in the NBA right now lol
I say either
Thunder in 6
or Heat in 7
I think the important question is: Which team do you want to see win, Bill and Robert?
Based on the Game 7 ECF Ratings, I have >20 million, assuming the series isn’t short. If it is a short series, then I think it will be 18-19.9 million.
The Finals are gonna be great, go Heat!!
@cc
Where do you live (perhaps Seattle?) and what websites are you visiting that lead you to believe the OKC Thunder are one of the most hated teams in the NBA? I think Lakers, Spurs and Mavs fans might dislike the Thunder, but NBA fans in general love OKC.
i SAY 18 MILLION. THREE PLAYERS IN THEIR PRIME (OKC’S DURANT AND MIAMI’S LEBRON AND WADE) BUT OKC HAS YOUTH AND SPEED IN WESTBROOK AND HARDEN (LOVE HARDEN’S BEARD).
ABC IS IN FOR A BONANZA. OKC IN 6
Harden’s beard is awesome. It has its own fanbase
I’m sure the only people who hate OKC right now are those in South Florida, Southwest Texas, and the Puget Sound area, and I’d qualify that those folks living in the Puget Sound area are more livid at the owner and the previous owner for letting the team get out of Seattle than the OKC team itself.
The one good thing about David Stern’s marketing of marquee players is that it can make up for an undersized TV market. OKC has to be in one of the smallest pro sports TV markets in America, yet they have two of the biggest stars in the NBA. This should be a highly rated series, especially if it goes six or seven games.
The Heat might be the most hated NBA team because of LeBron James, but I don’t know anyone that hates OKC or Durant. I think people will at least be tuning in just to see Miami lose the championship for the second straight year in a row.
I’m a Lakers fan and interested in this series, although not rooting for any team, it’s just a great matchup. And for that fool [cc] the Thunder aren’t the most hated team, they’re probably one of the mosted liked teams. With that said, Durant and the Thunder aren’t household names yet so my guess it’ll have similar or a tad bit higher ratings than it did in last years Finals.
Still concerned about OKC being such a tiny market. Not sure if non-basketball fans even know who Kevin Durant is. But they did well in the ratings against San Antonio, a team that’s involved in some of the lowest TV ratings in NBA history, so that’s a good sign I guess.
I’ll guess 14-16 Million if it goes 4-5 games, 18-20 Million if it goes 6-7 games.
20-21 million, I guess.
It would’ve gotten over 20 mil if it was Lakers v. Heat. OKC is very exciting to watch but they just don’t have the casual fan support, at least not yet. Maybe in upcoming years
People want to see the Heat lose.
18.9 million. OKC in 4.