Miami has turned up the Heat on NBA ratings

First appeared on January 4th, 2011
in The Lebanon Reporter

In tough economic times such as these it’s natural for only bad things, like gas prices or unemployment, to be on the rise. But with over two months in the books, it has to be a good feeling for NBA Commissioner David Stern to know his television numbers are through the roof (up 30% over last year). Simply put, he can thank the Miami Heat.


Be it hunger for a Sports Center highlight or the closeted hope one will witness a volcano of egos resulting in LeBron slapping Wade or Bosh stepping on Head Coach Eric Spoelstra as if he were a cockroach so fattened on dried grease from the oven that he can’t dodge a size 22 shoe, people are tuning in to professional basketball in numbers the league hasn’t seen in some time.

The answer to what makes the Heat so attractive isn’t overly complicated. Don’t let the Girl Scouts or bank tellers fool you, Americans feed on drama and television is Example A. Art imitating life, the best television is chocked full of drama.

Drama is what made the CBS hit reality show Survivor such a ratings dynamo. Maddeningly popular early on, viewers eventually realized that despite new challenges and the most exotic locales possible essentially the drama never evolved from season to season and, despite their choosing to continue filming episodes, we collectively stopped watching.

The most important ingredient in any good drama is a bad guy; or an antagonist for those who watch Inside the Actors Studio. Throughout history we’ve seen it played over and over. A Great Britain for the Father’s of our Country. A Soviet Union for American children of the 50’s and 60’s. A Joker for Batman or common sense for Al Gore.

Before Miami’s big three, NBA fans knew the Spurs with their gentle giant Tim Duncan or the Lakers and all their sensational Hollywood glitz would win a title (9 of the last 12 to be exact). It was a certainty, as sure as Tom Cruise running in every movie he’s ever made or Will Ferrell appearing shirtless in his.

But now we have someone to hate. For whatever reason. Greed, popularity or the fact James punched a blue collar town like Cleveland in the stomach, it doesn’t matter-the Heat annoy us. The Heat are like television weathermen or the guy who never volunteers to coach his kids but is first in line to question those who do.

It’s not an open hatred mind you (except for those who live in Cleveland) rather it’s more a quiet disgust. Similar to the way you feel about junk mail or the guy who jogs into the store after taking the handicap parking space you had your eye on.

In one summer, in the course of one hour on ESPN actually, LeBron went from a player many rooted for to one old ladies mention in prayer circles or guys throw darts at in seedy bars late at night. But as ugly as both “The Decision” and the pyrotechnic coming out party the Big 3 threw for themselves in the off season were, this is EXACTLY what the NBA needed.

The NBA hasn’t had this kind of black hat since the Knicks of the mid ‘90’s or the Pistons of the late 80’s. And this was an era you could argue the Association was at the height of its popularity. So if you’re David Stern what do you do next? Simple, put as many Heat games on television as possible and charge sponsors Super Bowl commercial-like money to be part of the action.