You could call the NBA finals “exciting,” but then you would run into the question, whom are they exciting?
Game 2 of the NBA finals drew the smallest audience in NBA finals history, according to Outkick. With just 4.5 million people watching, viewership during the game was down 68% from last year’s Game 2 and was significantly lower than this year’s first playoff game, which attracted 7.4 million viewers. But even that was low for the NBA, which typically draws an audience of more than 10 million people.
Some sports fans have attributed this drop to the NBA’s recent politicization. The league jumped on board the Black Lives Matter movement earlier this summer, allowing players to wear social justice-related messages on their jerseys and plastering “Black Lives Matter” on some of their courts. By far the most vocal advocate for this progressive change, NBA star LeBron James has led the league’s political charge. But much like former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, James’s approach isn’t that popular among fans, as the decline in viewership proves.
The NFL has faced a similar ratings crisis. Its kickoff game saw a 16% drop from last year’s opener, which is a 10-year low for the league. The NFL, like the NBA, endorsed the Black Lives Matter movement and even publicly apologized to Kaepernick and other players who were criticized for kneeling during the national anthem. As a result, kneeling during the anthem is commonplace at NFL games, as it is at NBA games.
The problem is that nearly half of the country finds kneeling inappropriate. More than 42% of people said they disapproved of kneeling during the anthem and urged professional sports leagues to stick to the game, according to a Washington Post poll. That might not be a majority, but that’s millions of could-be viewers.
The NBA and NFL have a vested interest in hearing these fans out. After all, sports is supposedly for the fans.
