This year’s NBA playoffs has seen the focus shift on the current superstars in the postseason, but fans are feeling the absence of Los Angeles Lakers forward Lebron James, especially the eastern conference fans during the regular season. The Lakers missed the playoffs this season so obviously people are not able to witness another attempt at a Finals run by the future Hall-of-Famer. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is not afraid to share this sentiment at all. He went on NBC’s the Today show and gave few reasons for a ratings slip on the season, which in included James leaving the Eastern conference, as well as the reason some households could be absent viewership.
“I think it was mainly in the early rounds,” says Silver. “Face it. Lebron is one of the big stars in the world and he also played in the East…The reason I look a little bit tired is a lot of our games are on the West and it’s late at night and I recognize most people choose to go to sleep at a reasonable hour.”
Silver is then asked to elaborate a little more on the difference in time zones as he labeled as a reason for a ratings drop.
“Sometimes I forget Fifty percent of television households in this country are in the eastern time zone. So if your west coast game start at 10:30 p.m., in the East, you’re invariably going to lose a lot of viewers who are around 11:00 p.m….11:30 p.m.”
The ratings dive has taken a hit on some more playoff games as well. Sports Media Watch reported that the Warriors-Trailblazers series had down ratings but was not too bad. It also reported that Game 3 of this year’s Eastern Conference Finals between the Milwaukee Bucks and Toronto Raptors hit a 12-year low.
The commissioner gave valid points are why ratings are down but the solution to start Western games earlier just seems a little too problematic. A game that starts at 7pm in the Midwest region, will be 8pm on the East coast. That could work television-wise but then are people on the West Coast at home to see it? To that same point, if a Lakers game were to start at around 6-6:30 p.m. pacific time – which is 8:30 p.m. central and 9:30 p.m. eastern – will that infamous traffic allow people to get to the game on time?
The ratings drop really just boils down to the lack of storylines and assumption of little suspense, which was usually brought on by Lebron taking mediocre teams to the NBA Finals the last 2 seasons. Once people saw how the Golden State Warriors were winning after Warriors forward Kevin Durant sprained his calf, they pretty much wrote this year’s championship as a foregone conclusion that they would be the victors. The Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Toronto Raptors’ Kawhi Leonard are great talents but their teams are not enough to stand in the way of the Warriors dynasty, and probably won’t be enough prevent a potential ratings plummet if the Finals become one-sided.