Mateo’s Hoops Diary: Starstruck With Favorites

The NBA and its partners laid a dud when they set up the national TV schedule for the 2021/2022 regular season. Market size and star power is a factor in the decision making but it seems as if the NBA has its favorites to promote.

As expected and for good reason, there are regulars who the league must show nationally to efficiently promote the product.  It’s in the best interest of the NBA to present Stephen Curry, LeBron James, Kevin Durant and others consistently.  But when the league forgets some of its other quality teams with rapidly developing stars, they do the fans a disservice.

Fans are not dumb.  In some cases they know more than people like me who write what you are reading.  Supporters understand well enough because they have passion for what consumes their time. Surely, it’s not hard to figure out that the NBA is more than a handful of regulars on ABC, ESPN, TNT and NBA TV.  Call me crazy, but I find the idea of exposing the casual fan in moderation to different up and comers, a fine method for hooking the part-time observer for life.

The Denver Nuggets, the team with the reigning MVP of the league (Nikola Jokic), has been on prime time TV 19 times this season and will have four more of those national TV gigs.  Ten other teams will be on national TV more than them.

According to Sports Media Watch, Denver is the 16th largest TV market in the United States. However, they are on track to have the lowest NBA local rating in 15 years because of a dispute with Comcast, per Axios.  Still, there is something terribly wrong with the picture of possibly the best player in the world and his group getting second billing on the prime time pecking order.

At the top spot in TV markets are the New York teams.  One of those two are the Knicks, an outfit so deprived of prosperity and direction who gets close to top billing on TV (32 games) this season.

One might ask, why did the NBA gift the Knicks the fifth most national TV games?  Well, because  the league bet on an outlier.  To bolster its case, in 2021 while the NBA saw its local TV ratings drop for most teams, the Knicks had their best numbers in the previous three years as they made their first playoffs in eight seasons, according to Sports Business Journal.

This season has been a trip to Dante’s Inferno for the Knickerbockers and everyone who afflicts their eyes watching them.  Their record clearly shows they didn’t deserve the opportunity to embarrass themselves routinely on the biggest stage.  In their last 10 games on national TV, the Knicks only have one win, while dropping every other match by an average of 11 points.

 One might wonder, why doesn’t the NBA just cut some of their national TV dates?  There is only some flexibility for those measures.  If travel and crews are already paid for, it isn’t an option.

Another oversight in TV scheduling was not having the Memphis Grizzlies on more often.  Their group is spearheaded by perhaps the most exciting player to watch in the NBA (Ja Morant) and they are the second seed in the west.  So far, Memphis has gotten centerstage eight times with seven more left on the books.

Morant is a skywalker who defies gravity on a regular basis when assaulting the rim. When the NBA awards come out and fans and media see his name on First Team All-NBA, they’ll likely wonder how 15 teams got more love than Morant’s on national TV.

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Add the Heat to the list of underpromoted squads. Miami is one of the deepest bands in the NBA.  Their collection of veterans and developing diamonds rank second on ESPN’s Kirk Goldsberry’s Efficiency Landscape for the last 15 games played, as of March 11 (not counting Miami’s win on Friday over the Cavaliers).  With or without their All-Stars (Adebayo, Butler, Lowry), Miami puts together one of the finest products in the league under the direction of one the top 15 coaches of all-time (Erik Spoelstra).  

Maybe next year the league will show some more respect for the eastern conference’s top seeded team through 4/5s of the season.  I’d only count on it if Miami goes on a postseason run similar to what it accomplished in the bubble two seasons ago.

Come playoff time, it will be obvious who merited the national spotlight.

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