NBA’s Biggest Stars Flicker Out as Media Rights Renewals Loom
Whether it’s brought on by orbital decay or gravitational collapse, the demise of the NBA’s binary star system is as inevitable, and as close-at-hand, as the next sunset. LeBron James and Steph Curry have revolved around each other and the common mass of their unworldly talents for the better part of the last 10 years, and in that span they’ve served as the league’s biggest draws and greatest ambassadors. When the rivalry ends, as all things must, the NBA will be a much colder, darker place.
Since first becoming gravitationally bound to one another during the 2015 NBA Finals, James and Curry have played a starring role in some of basketball’s most-watched moments. Punctuated by The Block, Game 7 of the 2016 Finals between the Cavs and Warriors averaged a staggering 31 million viewers, marking an 18-year high and giving ABC bragging rights to the third most-watched NBA broadcast in the modern Nielsen era. The following year’s rematch was the highest-rated Finals since Michael Jordan closed out his second three-peat 19 years earlier.
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Age has not dimmed James’ and Curry’s collective star power. In dispatching the Warriors 4-2 in the second round of this year’s playoffs, LeBron’s Lakers helped ABC, ESPN and TNT average just shy of 7.8 million viewers per game, good for the most-watched conference semifinals in 27 years. James’ and Curry’s prints were all over the Nielsen charts, as their series accounted for four of the 10 biggest draws of the postseason. Through 76 games, Los Angeles and Golden State have factored into nine of the NBA’s 10 top playoff telecasts, with the April 30 Warriors-Kings clincher beating all comers. In drawing 9.84 million viewers, ABC put up the biggest numbers for a first-round series since 1999.
If the ratings train now seems to have been derailed by Denver’s sweep of L.A.—LeBron’s exit and an unlikely run by the eighth-seeded Miami Heat took the prospect of a 13th Celtics-Lakers title…
