The finale of the NBA’s inaugural In-Season Tournament between the Los Angeles Lakers and Indiana Pacers delivered the league’s top audience aside from Christmas and the postseason in six years.
Overall, IST viewership is up 26 percent compared to the equivalent regular season game windows last year. While the ratings are a good sign, it is too early to call the IST a success.
The NBA Ratings Problem
The NBA has a problem it is trying to solve. While its players are among the most popular and recognizable people in the world, the actual games aren’t being watched at the same level. The IST is an attempt at innovation to draw in more eyeballs, but it is in its first year.
You can’t deem anything successful or not after one iteration. That’s not how business, and the NBA is a business, works. This needs to be studied and tweaked over the next few years and then we can start drawing conclusions.
“Adam Silver is a genius. It’s that simple,” said LeBron James. “This is gonna work.”
This might be a little hyperbole and glad-handing by Bron, the IST’s first MVP. But the tournament does have a chance at working and becoming successful, we just need more time and more bold tweaks.
As human beings and sports fans, we by and large reject change and are provincial. Both are anathema to innovation.
Sports consumption is changing. The options people have for entertainment today far outnumber the options 10 years ago much less 20 or 30 years ago. The choices and options aren’t going to decrease as time goes on.
The NBA, like any entertainment property, is fighting for mindshare in a crowded marketplace.
Bolder Innovation
The one thing that makes live sports so compelling is the uncertainty and the potential to see something you’ve never seen before. In particular, single-elimination in sports generates a type of audience that is unmatched. It’s why the NCAA basketball tournament and NFL playoffs are so popular.
You have an idea who might win and it’s a safe bet that the better team wins, but that is no guarantee.
The IST borrowed from that for its knockout round once group play concluded. But the league should continue to raise the stakes.
How Can We Improve In-Season Tournament?
In an ideal world a true tournament that would include teams from the top basketball leagues around the world would be great. Play with FIBA rules so the other teams have a little bit of an advantage.
The reality is an NBA team will probably win more often than not. But in a single elimination tournament, upsets happen all the time. All we need is to see an undefeated Los Angeles Lakers team lose in the quarterfinals to Real Madrid or a G league team and that would be dramatic.
It would lead every single talking head show and be the sports story of the moment. That’s just a small sampling of how Adam Silver and the league’s owners should be thinking. Bolder and more innovative. The world is changing and our sports need to change with it.
