An unfortunate but true statement is that the NBA Finals have not, and probably will not, be very interesting this year. After a triumphant return to basketball in August, and an honestly fun first three rounds of the NBA playoffs, it seems like a foregone conclusion that the Los Angeles Lakers and LeBron James will cruise to a championship sometime this week, with their 102-96 game four win over the Miami Heat they have taken a commanding 3-1 lead. The Lakers winning is not a depressing outcome on the whole. What is depressing is when you look at their competition. The Portland Trail Blazers, Houston Rockets, Denver Nuggets and Miami Heat. All admirable teams, but, the first three were very good matchups for L.A. since they had no wing defenders who could check LeBron or Anthony Davis and while the Heat series had potential, Miami was ravaged by injuries before the first half of game one with stars Bam Adebayo and Goran Dragic both getting injured and effectively ending the series.
This is not an asterisk season or anything like that. Lord knows that LeBron is owed a title or two due to team injuries, but it is just disappointing, and it has been reflected in the ratings. Game 1: 7.4 million viewers, Game 2: 6.1 million viewers, Game 3: 5.9 million viewers. For context, last year’s finals between the Warriors and Raptors averaged 15.1 million viewers a game. Not good. Some of this can be chalked up to having to compete with football, but it feels like the rapid pace and explosion of basketball, and sports in general, has caused fans to become fatigued with the game. The bubble was an overwhelming success for the NBA in finishing out the 2019-2020 season and keeping everyone safe and healthy, but that doesn’t mean that they won’t have to answer some difficult questions before next year begins, whenever that is.
