Is ABC responsible for the declining interest in the NBA? That depends on whether or not ABC’s moves have caused fans to leave the game.
Technical style.
Since taking over the NBA in 2002, ABC has taken remarkable creative license with telecasts. The games are secondary to strange camera angles; floorcam, FreeFlight and sideways shots of the backs of players jerseys have been favorites of ABC’s game producers. ABC cameramen seem to have ‘pet shots’. An astute observer could make a drinking game out of it; during nearly every game there’s a shot of a basketball rolling towards the camera, a shot from the perspective of the cameraman walking into the arena, or a shot of the roof of the building while the camera is spinning around.
In the immediate aftermath of a big shot, ABC always cuts away to a player on the bench, one of the coaches, or a group of fans — usually so quickly that it doesn’t allow for the viewer at home to even sink in what just happened on the court. It was especially bad during the 2006 NBA Finals, when several clutch shots were followed by an abrupt split screen between Avery Johnson and Pat Riley, the respective coaches. Those shots interrupt the flow of the game telecast, not that this matters to ABC.
Reaction shots don’t just come after big plays. ABC routinely cut to attractive women in the stands in its early years of covering the NBA; during the 2003 NBA Playoffs, it was almost guaranteed that when any player hit any type of shot, the viewer was about to be treated to a pair of breasts attached to some woman in the stands.
Camera shots of everything but the game are one thing. But during Game 6 of the 2003 NBA Finals, ABC showed just how dedicated it was to the NBA. At halftime of the game, Mike Tirico sat with Good Morning America‘s Joel Siegel for a preview of the upcoming summer movie season. The segment took up most of halftime and included one of the most shameful moments in the history of televised sports — the sight of Siegel and Tirico, both wearing Incredible Hulk toy-hands, bumping fists.
Music
Do The Pussycat Dolls mean NBA basketball? Do The Pussycat Dolls watch NBA basketball? Likely not; one of their members wears an outdated #8 Kobe Bryant jersey in their NBA on ABC music video. Who is ABC targeting with The Pussycat Dolls? Their music does not resonate with most sports fans. One would assume that the network is once again attempting to draw the casual fan.
ABC attempted to draw casual fans in 2004, when the network hired Justin Timberlake to sing “Can’t Get Enough” as the theme song for NBA telecasts. ABC did it again later that year, with The Black Eyed Peas. And again in 2005 with Destiny’s Child and Rob Thomas. And yet again in 2006 with Tom Petty.
These musical selections were not made for NBA fans. Only The Black Eyed Peas have any true appeal to the 18-34 male demographic that watches the NBA. Just as ABC’s camera shots marginalize the game itself, the network’s music choices marginalize the game’s hardcore fans — alienating them in the hopes that some twelve year old girl will hear music she likes and stick around to watch the rest of the game.
Al Michaels
One would imagine that most sports fans could ignore camera shots, movie previews and the screeching noises of The Pussycat Dolls. After all, the game is the draw; if baseball fans can stomach constant ads during the World Series, then NBA fans should be able to do the same for the NBA Finals.
So maybe Floorcam and The Pussycat Dolls aren’t to blame. Maybe it has more to do with a general philosophy at ESPN and ABC, one that seems to designate that the NBA is simply not a big deal. The epitome of that belief was Al Michaels, who broadcast the 2004 and 2005 NBA Finals for the network.
In 2004, ABC paid Al Michaels two million dollars to broadcast six regular season NBA games, playoff games and the NBA Finals. Al Michaels deemed the NBA so important that he decided to roll out of bed six times a year during the regular season. Not only that, but of the thirteen total regular season games he broadcast, eleven of them were in Los Angeles or Sacramento. Michaels lives in LA. One would suppose then that the NBA and ABC were scheduling games around Michaels’ living conditions; in 2005, when the Lakers were out of contention, ABC didn’t bother to drop any of the team’s games, even one against the Kings — when both teams were doing terribly. To pay the NBA and ABC back for their kindness, Michaels apparently decided to sleep in on the day of Game 1 of the 2005 Western Conference Finals, which was on ABC’s air.
Michaels was the voice of the NBA, and his decision making made it clear to America how much he valued the league. America returned the sentiment in kind, as only 8.2 percent of the viewing public tuned into the 2005 NBA Finals — the last that Michaels broadcast.
Inconsistency
Since ABC took over the NBA, the network has had three lead play-by-play voices (Brad Nessler, Al Michaels and Mike Breen). To put that in perspective, NBC only had two lead voices for the twelve-year duration of its coverage (Bob Costas and Marv Albert).
There have been four different sets of analysts (Tom Tolbert and Bill Walton, Doc Rivers, Hubie Brown, and Mark Jackson). There have been six different studio teams (’03: Mike Tirico, Tolbert and Walton; 04: Tirico, Tolbert and Byron Scott; ’05: Tirico, Walton and Steve Jones; ’06: Tirico and Scottie Pippen; ’06: Dan Patrick, Pippen, Jackson and Michael Wilbon; ’07: Patrick, Jackson and Wilbon).
There have been five different graphics packages (one for each season), three different theme songs and eight different music groups (Robert Randolph and the Family Band, LL Cool J, Justin Timberlake, The Black Eyed Peas, Destiny’s Child, Rob Thomas, Tom Petty and The Pussycat Dolls).
It all adds up to the most inconsistent network sports series in history. There have been five different NBA Finals broadcast teams in five years. ABC has never had the same team twice; each year has been completely different than the last. Constant change means bad decision making. And bad decision making means that the people in charge of the NBA on ABC don’t know what they are doing in the first place. Mike Pearl, the man in charge of the NBA on ABC, somehow managed to help craft the gold standard over at TNT. Unfortunately for NBA fans, he has not had the same success at ABC.
Conclusion
Indecision, constant change, appealing almost exclusively to the casual fan, camera shots that make no sense. Add to that the fact that, five years in, games that aired on NBC look as if they have better quality than those on ABC (thanks to brighter colors and a camera that was closer to the action) and it becomes obvious that ABC has done its fair share to diminish the NBA in stature. Considering how awful a job the network has done with the NBA, one tends to wonder if this isn’t just some sort of massive conspiracy to take down the league; no network can be so horrible by accident.
But then again, there’s FOX’s Major League Baseball coverage. That could be a whole other piece by itself.
Truth be told, this alone does not equal poor ratings. Matchups obviously have also played a role (the small-market, small-attraction Spurs have played in two NBA Finals) as has the general decline in sports ratings across the board. But ABC’s presentation of the NBA has definitely had a significant role to play in the league’s decline. When Rob Thomas has appeared on ABC more often than Gilbert Arenas (not a joke), there’s a problem. One that David Stern is happy to ignore, as he is likely to sign a new six year deal with Disney this year.
