NBA Playoffs Down 27% Despite Mark Cuban, Media Spin-Job

The NBA's two-year ratings tank just took tanking up another notch. As pointed out last night, year-over-year, the first round of the playoffs was down an eye-popping 27%. Furthermore, the first round's 1.94 million average is down 40% from two seasons ago, the last time LeBron James participated in the playoffs.

Bizarrely, NBA ratings were the top sports topic on Twitter Thursday. For the first time since the NFL's 2016 decline, sports media added the ratings beat to its fading arsenal. Along with spin-master Mark Cuban, the non-paid PR reps spent half the day boasting and retweeting that a down-to-the-wire Game 7 drew 4 million viewers. The latter was spent ignoring the more telling, more important first-round collapse.

The best part of Thursday's disingenuous reaction came via Cuban, who was so proud he even allowed comments on his tweets. (That story is here.)

The headline is not a viewership decline. In an election year, with cable news ratings drawing unprecedented interest, sports are at a disadvantage. Additionally, August is not an ideal television viewing month. However, that doesn't add up to a near 30% turnaway. Professional basketball's grave issues are growing.

The NBA's pivot to a Democratic promotion machine is at the top of explanations. A Harris Poll found that 38% of sports fans say they're watching fewer games because the NBA has "become too political." But the injection of partisanship isn't the only reason fans have chosen to tune out.

I explained the reasons last month reacting to a report viewership is down a damning 45% on broadcast TV since 2011-12:

"The NBA’s greatest strength is its stars. Stars that overshadow teams. The league is too reliant on a few top individuals. And the gap between LeBron James and No. 2 is massive."

Similarly, social media has increased the NBA's popularity while decreasing the need to consume it on television:

"Social media has promoted the NBA more than any other entity. The NBA is to social media what MLB was to newspapers and what the NFL is to flat-screen televisions. Twitter and Instagram, particularly, have grown the league’s interest. That’s great. What’s not: it doesn’t lead to television viewership. Instead, it encourages fans to consume games through highlights and live reactions online.

"To the younger demographic, social media is a more enjoyable medium to consume the NBA. At least as of now, and likely for years to come, a rights deal with a television network is exponentially more lucrative than what social media can provide."

"But I thought...," Aldridge writes while pulling a Cuban and shutting off his mentions. If Aldridge thought the league he promotes is in trouble — he thought right.

To interview Bobby Burack, contact him on Twitter @burackbobby_.