Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James being hurt is bad news for the NBA’s TV ratings.
According to SportsMediaWatch.com, ratings have taken a substantial hit with King James on the bench dealing with a high-ankle sprain. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
High-ankle sprain for LeBron James, out indefinitely, source tells ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) March 20, 2021
Just how bad are they? The March 23 loss to the Pelicans, which Anthony Davis also didn’t play in, averaged 920,000 viewers on TNT. That’s a 35% decline from the 2019 game in the same slot, according to SportsMediaWatch.com.
For those of you who might not remember, the ratings for the 2020 NBA Finals were absolutely atrocious. People seemingly threw in the towel on the league. Nobody wanted to watch a championship series featuring LeBron James and Jimmy Butler.
Many hoped it was an outlier, but clearly, the league is struggling to generate attention.
NBA TV Ratings Continue To Be Absolute Garbage. It’s Officially Time For The League To Panic https://t.co/dK1BSdIgSB
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) October 11, 2020
Averaging 920,000 viewers is laughably bad. There are average P5 college football games that blow that number out of the water.
Obviously, I’m sure there are several reasons as to why things aren’t going well, but making the league ultra political seems to have been a terrible decision.
Adam Silver even admitted that people didn’t want to see it.
We’ll see if they bounce back at all once King James returns, but I’m not holding my breath.