Lakers-Spurs

[ham55]

I guess Former Wildcat will tell us the WNBA is more popular and bigger than the NHL now that they are gonna broadcast WNBA games on ESPN2 in the upcoming days...

[vman]

Ratings for these Hockey playoffs are record setting in the Burgh & this just in:

Hockey beats hoops in Motor City ratings
By The Associated Press
Thursday, May 29, 2008


The Pittsburgh Penguins' first victory over the Detroit Red Wings on NBC drew the best overnight rating for a third game of the Stanley Cup finals in six years.

Pittsburgh's 3-2 win on Wednesday night earned a 2.8 national rating and an 18.2 rating in Detroit, beating out the 15.9 rating for the Pistons' matchup with the Boston Celtics.

Game 5 of the NBA's Eastern Conference finals drew a 5.3 national rating.

The rating is the percentage watching a program among homes with televisions, and the share is the percentage tuned into the broadcast among those households with TVs on at the time.

The combination of Games 1, 2 and 3 have made this the highest-rated and most-watched opening games of the Stanley Cup finals since Detroit faced Carolina in 2002.

The rating for Wednesday night's game represented an 87-percent increase over last year's Game 3 between Anaheim and Ottawa.

[Former Wildcat]

If we are so into TV ratings, check the Nielson ratings page. The top seven rated cable shows for the week of May 12-18 were all NBA playoff games. There were no hockey games to be found.

I think the point is this. The NHL is getting high ratings this year. The NBA gets consistantly higher ratings because it is more popular. The NHL is gaining in popularity. The NBA is already very popular.

TAE, your take on talent dispersion is ridiculous. Many more athletes aspire to play in the NBA than the NHL. Therefore, there is more talent to fill 30 NBA teams than NHL teams. The problem with the NBA is drafting on talent (i.e. Kwame Brown). Some rosters have players like that. However, the Pacers do not fall into that category. Jermaine O'Neal and Shawne Williams are the only players I see on their roster that were talent drafts. The rest were all solid D1 b-ball players. O'Neal has been a solid player. Who are the terrible players that you saw? The problem for the Pacers is they do not have a superstar to take them to the next level.

[Former Wildcat]

As for the series, I thought the Lakers were clearly the better team. Overcoming huge deficits twice was incredible and Kobe looked a lot like Michael at the end of games. I think the Lakers win the Finals in five or six games depending on whether they play Boston or Detroit.

[The Ancient Enemy]

That's probably the most ridiculous thing you've said, Wildcat, which is really saying something. More kids aspire to play in the NBA versus the NHL? Based on what???? Are there more kids in Scandanavia wanting to play hockey, or more kids in Lithuania wanting to play basketball? How about Russia versus Croatia?

What championship is more followed, Wildcat: world basketball or world hockey? When's the last time an NHL player scoffed at the Olympics? Give me a break, dude. If you are going to make ridiculous accusations like that, then provide stats.

All this based on "gut feeling".

And I'm not even saying the NHL is bigger!!!! I'm still arguing that there is NO DIFFERENCE. Both leagues have tons of potential and are run by complete fools.

[Former Wildcat]

First of all, I am talking about the USA. I believe that worldwide basketball is a much bigger sport than hockey, and a large percentage of the NBA is foreign born. The Euroleague is becoming a big time league in Europe. However, I am talking about the US. In the US, many more kids aspire to play in the NBA than the NHL. In fact, many kids choose basketball over football because of the lure of the NBA. LeBron was a 5-star WR coming out of high school. Iverson was a top 5 football recruit nationally. Why didn't Antonio Gates play football in college instead of basketball? He is obviously better at football.

As for your Olympics comment, the basketball players who scoff at it are all Americans. After winning at the last Olympics, Ginobili compared it to winning an NBA championship. Doesn't sound like scoffing? Now that the rest of the world is catching up, you will not see American players avoiding the Olympics as they did in the past. Kobe is on the Olympic team. Look at the roster, who is scoffing. That is old news from the late 90's as are most of your comments about the current NBA.

Finally, how is David Stern an idiot? When he took over the NBA, the finals were broadcast on tape delay at 10:30 pm. Now, the league is huge in the US, it has gone international. I do not agree with all of his decisions, but he has done a good job combating the league's problems. A recent example would be the thug image. The younger NBA players (i.e. Chris Paul, LeBron James, Deron Williams, etc) do not project the same kind of thug image that some of the stars 10 years ago (Iverson, Rodman) did.

[The Ancient Enemy]

How has the NBA gone international? I seem to remember an "international" idea that led to a team being moved to Memphis and the other one being rumored to move every season.

As for China, they have a Chinese player that they are trying to market over there. In Europe, those European leagues have been around for 25 years. A European basketball movement was started by ex-US coaches who went over there teach a bunch of Romanians how to play. They should have taught them how to make clothes that don't look like they are from the Salvation Army.

Seriously, who wears a purple pair of shorts and yellow and pink striped shirts?

I really do not agree with you at all that basketball is bigger in Europe than hockey.

In the US, I don't think there is enough evidence to support that claim, even if it is true. NHL finals are on NBC, what are the NBA finals on? TNT?

As far as "sport" goes, there is NO comparison. Take a look at who is in the title game!!! Two teams who bought conference championships in ONE offseason. What kind of a league is that? And is there a more blatant move by a commissioner to prove that this is all just a business than him letting the Celtics and Lakers make those trades? Garnett and Ray Allen would NOT have been traded to Charlotte. Boston has a good fanbase and so does LA. It is completely disgusting.

[Former Wildcat]

Just so we are backing this up somewhat, I googled Most popular sports in the world. Basketball came up and hockey did not anywhere.

The NBA Finals are on ABC. We can compare ratings in a few weeks.

Crowds show up for Euroleague games, so obviously some people in Europe care. Is there a European hockey league?

As for "sport",how are other sports different. The Yankees in 96-00 were mostly purchased from other teams. Last year's finals featured two teams that were both mostly home-grown. The only Laker who was not home-grown was Gasol and he is only marginally better than Bynum. You might not like the impact that one or two players can have on a team, but that is how basketball works. Take Jordan off the Bulls and they go from six championships to zero. If you don't like basketball, that is fine. I have reasons why I don't like hockey, but this argument is not about personal preference, but about the sports popularity.

[The Ancient Enemy]

It's not that I don't like basketball. My argument is just that it is run very poorly by an unlikable commissioner who allowed those LA and Boston trades for no other reason than the fact that they can profit off of those cities. Boston has a large, recently untapped fanbase because they were so horrible. It just grates on me that you can honestly make one offseason move and go from last place to first place. It shows how bad the rest of the conference really is.

And if the conference is terrible, how good are YOU?

A case can be made for Bryant being homegrown, because he was traded on draft day.

But then look at LA, too. Is there any reason other than marketability that Gasol was allowed to go to LA for a 17th round pick? Do you honestly think they would have allowed that to happen if the other team was Seattle?

There are too many teams, the talent is way too dispersed, and what that ends up equaling is that you have street ball games instead of actual basketball. One good player and 4 guys who run up and down the court. I have a hard time watching the NBA because of this. It's just not real basketball. And on to of that, the refs pick and choose when they want to call penalties. Look, traveling is traveling. You don't get to pick when you want to call it and when you let it slip.

I'll reiterate again the reason why I like hockey: its a team sport where you penalize your entire team if you do something stupid. Think what basketball would be if you had to play with 4 guys for 2 minutes because someone did something stupid.

Wildcat, you need to give hockey a chance. I hated it for a real long tiem, but then it just clicked for me and now I love it. It's my second favorite sport behind college football.

[Former Wildcat]

I honestly don't have a problem with hockey. I am getting a little tired of all the Penguins fans who have suddenly appeared. My only problem was with the idea that it is on a par with basketball IN POPULARITY. I would be similarly annoyed if someone made a statement that baseball is as popular as football because it is America's game.

As for the NBA, most of the statements that you make are applicable to basketball - not the NBA. Ten years ago, I was really annoyed with the NBA because so much of it was one on one isolations and defenses were allowed to manhandle players. The NBA has changed its rules so that the game is really not much different than the college game, except that the three-point line is farther back. I actually like the game in the NBA better now because college ball too often is a 3 point shooting contest. Watch the Lakers and Celtics play. Both teams move the ball, do not rely on the three, and have dynamic players.

One or two players making a huge difference happens in college and high school ball as well. Ohio State went to the title game because they brought in Conley and Oden. Without them, they would have been a borderline tournament team. That is part of basketball, not just the NBA.