NBA FINALS RATINGS ARE THE WORST SINCE 1988 — NEW TV NEEDS HELP FROM … JORDAN?
Caitlin Clark shouldn’t mention that her numbers doubled her friend, Tyrese Haliburton, while Adam Silver deals with parity — Indiana and Oklahoma City were great fun — that brings down viewership
When they share dinner in Indianapolis — the shrimp cocktail at St. Elmo Steak House will be comped for life, as will Steak ’n Shake’s burgers — Caitlin Clark shouldn’t mention TV ratings to her friend. She drew 18.7 million viewers in the NCAA championship game at Iowa. She drew 14.2 million in a Final Four. She drew 12.3 million in an Elite Eight.
Tyrese Haliburton averaged only 8.91 million Thursday night for the shot that branded him “HaliCurry” in lore. Clark more than doubled him in the lowest-rated Game 1 of the NBA Finals since 1988, pre-Michael Jordan years, not counting two COVID seasons. This is what happens when Adam Silver will inject his seventh champion in seven seasons, a download of his congruity. “The goal isn’t necessarily to have a different champion every year,” the commissioner said. “It’s to have parity of opportunity.”
The Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder were great fun, while representing the 25th and 47th markets in this country. America might not tune in for the final five or six games, though it should. In Silver’s thinking, he says, “It’s one thing I really admire about the NFL. If we were going into a Super Bowl, and it was Packers against Steelers, you guys would be celebrating that. Nobody would be talking about how Pittsburgh is a small market.”
Next season, the NBA moves forward to a new deal with NBC, Peacock and Amazon Prime Video while keeping ESPN and discarding TNT. “Inside the NBA” will take a seat beside Stephen A. Smith, Pat McAfee and the ESPN Bet/Debt crew. Have you noticed, by the way, how round men with big mouths attract TV ratings? That always was my retort to Charles Barkley, who weighed 352 pounds before using an injection called Zepbound. Shaquille O’Neil is down to 360 pounds and wants a “12-pack.” We’re fortunate Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson are thinner, because if not, one wrestling takedown of 710-plus pounds could crash the entire studio set.
“You won't find any healthy fat old folks. If you're both overweight and aging, you're asking for health troubles,” said Barkley, explaining his gradual droppage at age 62. “I want to be here because I’ve got more money to spend. I don’t want to leave it for my freeloading relatives.”
They are heavy. They are loud. And you watch. Sorry, social media terrorists, but you won’t find me in a media gang of sheepy commonality that thinks “Inside The NBA” is the most enjoyable sports program ever created. The characters are still fun and fearless, but Barkley remains wickedly political in a supersensitive league and creates life feuds with single comments. When he began his shtick, it thrived for two decades and became known as iconic. Once Chuck is acclaimed, while repeatedly ripping San Antonio women as “big ole bitches,” something new is needed in due time.
I said, SOMETHING NEW IS NEEDED.
Slap me down. Haliburton me.
The show will linger for six seasons on ESPN. The bosses who run networks ache to employ what has worked, which is why chairman Jimmy Pitaro exchanged college events — 13 football games and 15 basketball games from the Big 12 — and obtained Barkley and his mates from TNT. No money was offered. As you may know, Al Michaels once was traded to NBC for rights to a cartoon character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. But with an 11-year, $77 billion media package about to launch, we need content involving other human beings discussing pro basketball. It can’t be Barkley saying this. And Shaq doing this. And Smith falling on his rump. And Ernie playing the square guy.
Bristol will not mess with whatever Barkley and O’Neal say on the air. It’s how they employ Smith and McAfee. Let them speak. Let them lie. Let them mangle. Let them speak about gambling. Let them invent hokey trades. Let them send people to Cancun. Let them interview people who don’t like them. They will be produced in Atlanta by what remains of TNT, so anything Pitaro wants to fix immediately will be ignored anyway.
Barkley is pushing mid-60s. Johnson is 68. Smith is 60. O’Neal is 53.
Can we hear someone else, please?
I would like to think Michael Jordan, who is losing his lawsuit against NASCAR and surely possesses the same competitive vigor, will have relevance to convey on NBC. Isn’t he upset that Barkley, his former friend, became the TV prince while he lost games as owner of the Charlotte Hornets? Please show up often and suggest why the game has evolved but megastars have not. Compare his reign to that of LeBron James, which is what we all want. Wonder why young fans stick with 21st-century monsters and ignore 20th-century greats. Compare his buzzer-beating magic to that of Haliburton.
He doesn’t want to sign as a special contributor and blow off entire months. He needs a connection with fans who haven’t heard from him in ages. Let him make comments that are viral. Take on Barkley, as he did in 1993, with the usual championship.
Who else? Carmelo Anthony signed with NBC and Peacock and will wield chops as a studio analyst. Reggie Miller is a lead game analyst at NBC and shakes the floor. Dwyane Wade signed with Amazon Prime Video. Stan Van Gundy also is with Amazon and should be joined someday by brother Jeff, the best game commentator of all.
Barkley says he will work through 2027. True? False? “I said I would work for two more years and that's what I agreed to,” he said. “I actually have seven years left on my contract. Yeah, there's no way I'm working seven years. I'm going to be a good soldier for Kenny, Ernie and Shaq and the people I work with ... but the best I can do is two years.”
He also dares ESPN to piss him off. “I’m not going to change. I’m going to do what I want to do,” Barkley said. “Nobody’s going to tell me what to say, or what to do. I get upset. ESPN is like, ‘The Lakers are contenders.’ I’m like, ‘No, they’re not.’ They know they’re not contenders. Kendrick Perkins, who don’t know his ass from a hole in the wall, he’s like, ‘The Lakers are contenders. The Lakers are contenders.’ And I said, ‘They’re not contenders.’ And, clearly, if you lose in the first round, you aren’t a contender.
“They can’t fire me. I make too much money to get fired. So, they can’t fire me. First of all, if they fire me, they got to pay me for seven years, and I’m going to quit way before then. But if they want to fire me, I would love for them to do that. The only decision we’ve been making is how long I’m going to work. I’m not worried about getting fired. And nobody at ESPN is going to tell me what to say or do. Period.”
On TNT, the post-game show ran deep into the night. Already, Pitaro is making room for extra time. He’d better do that and more. “We have the same crew of people doing the show. But the timing: Are we a half hour now? Are we 45 minutes? Fifteen minutes?” Smith said. “Those are the things that you can control when you own your I.P. But we don’t. That was the only part that made me uncomfortable and disheartened, because I felt that the four of us should have went into ABC to negotiate that deal. I’m not saying that our executives don’t know how to do that, but we are the I.P. now.”
The I.P. means Idiots Preside. ESPN has no rules for them. Chuck will take on Stephen A. and McAfee and Kendrick Perkins and Silver, for howls. Just so you know: I know what Barkley is giving me. In a few months, I will watch one man, and so should you.
Michael Jordan, take the last shot and extend the wrist in the air.
Why wouldn’t he try to win, again?
###
Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.