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Ratings Crash for NBA Finals

The NBA Finals between the L.A. Lakers and the Miami Heat have suffered the worst ratings crash in the league’s entire TV history, Breitbart reports.

Despite featuring the duo of LeBron James and Anthony Davis, Game 1 of the Finals on Wednesday drew huge record low ratings for the NBA.

Wednesdays Game 1 averaged only a 4.1 rating and 7.41 million viewers on ABC, “comfortably the lowest rated and least-watched NBA Finals game on record (dates back to 1988),” Sports Media Watch reported. The second game in the series did even worse than the first.

Game 2 crashed with just 4.5 million viewers and a paltry 1. 9 in the ratings, down 68 percent over Game 2 in 2019.

The 2020 Game 2 event now rates as the lowest ratings ever for an NBA Finals game. Until Friday, Wednesday’s Game 1 was the lowest-rated in league history.

This horrific collapse should not be surprising after polls suggest that many fans now believe that basketball is far too political.

A Sept. 2 Harris poll found that 39 percent of respondents who identified as sports fans felt that the league was too political. And another 19 percent said that they had turned off pro basketball because of the NBA’s deep links to China.

Lakers superstar LeBron James has become one of the most vocal advocates of the Black Lives Matter movement this summer. OutKick’s Jason Whitlock thanks him for personally destroying the NBA’s popularity.

“A ship doesn’t sink for one reason, but undoubtedly, politics sit atop the historical tank,” the outlet said. “After nearly two decades of reinventing the NBA discussion, LeBron is now a detriment to the league’s brand.”

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About Catherine Smith

Catherine Smith is a newcomer to Washington D.C. She met and married an American journalist and moved to D.C. from the U.K. She graduated with a B.A. in Graphics, Media, and Communications and worked in design and retail in the U.K.

Photo: (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)