Barring the lowest ratings ever for the Midsummer Classic, expect the 2007 MLB All Star Game to easily outrate last month’s NBA Finals. It would take a 34% year-to-year drop in the ratings for the game to draw a lower number than the 6.2 average for the recent, four-game NBA Finals.
And while this news may be enough for some to either jump for joy or groan with embarrassment — and while that may spur a myriad of articles and blog posts touting the resurgence of baseball and the death of the NBA — the fact is that this is neither new nor a big deal. Baseball’s All Star Game has routinely drawn higher ratings than the NBA Finals, even back when Larry Bird and Magic Johnson were playing.
The 1984, 1985 and 1987 NBA Finals — featuring the Lakers versus the Celtics — each drew far lower average ratings than the corresponding baseball All-Star Game. In ’84, the gap between the two events was 20.1 to 12.1, in ’85 the gap was 20.5 to 13.5, and in ’87 the gap was 18.2 to 15.9.
The 1991 and 1992 NBA Finals, featuring Michael Jordan‘s Bulls, also fell to the All Star Game. The ’91 series between the Bulls and the Lakers drew a 15.8 average, compared to a 17.4 rating for All Star Game, while the ’92 series between Chicago and Portland drew a 14.2 average — barely lower than the then-record low 14.9 for the Midsummer Classic.
Only ten NBA Finals have ever tied or drawn a higher average rating than the All Star Game, the last being in 2005. And of the nine NBA Finals that did draw a better rating than the Midsummer Classic, four involved the Chicago Bulls and four more involved the Shaquille O’Neal/Kobe Bryant Lakers.
So when the ratings come out, and a bevy of bloggers and sportswriters attempt to use the numbers to write the obituary for the NBA on television, take into account that this is nothing new. Even in the “Golden Age” of the 1980s, baseball’s All Star Game still took the television crown.
Gap between the NBA Finals and MLB All Star Game.
1976: All Stars 27.1/53, NBA Finals 11.5/29 (+136%)
1977: All Stars 24.5/45, NBA Finals 12.7/33 (+93%)
1978: All Stars 26.1/47, NBA Finals 9.9/25 (+164%)
1979: All Stars 24.4/45, NBA Finals 7.2/24 (+239%)
1980: All Stars 26.8/46, NBA Finals 8.0/29 (+235%)
1981: All Stars 20.1/36, NBA Finals 6.7/27 (+200%)
1982: All Stars 25.0/44, NBA Finals 13.0/28 (+92%)
1983: All Stars 21.5/39, NBA Finals 12.3/36 (+75%)
1984: All Stars 20.1/35, NBA Finals 12.1/26 (+66%)
1985: All Stars 20.5/36, NBA Finals 13.5/30 (+52%)
1986: All Stars 20.3/35, NBA Finals 14.1/31 (+44%)
1987: All Stars 18.2/37, NBA Finals 15.9/32 (+15%)
1988: All Stars 20.4/36, NBA Finals 15.4/31 (+32%)
1989: All Stars 18.2/33, NBA Finals 15.1/30 (+21%)
1990: All Stars 16.2/33, NBA Finals 12.3/25 (+32%)
1991: All Stars 17.4/32, NBA Finals 15.8/32 (+10%)
1992: All Stars 14.9/27, NBA Finals 14.2/27 (+5%)
1993: NBA Finals 17.9/33, All Stars 15.6/28 (+15%)
1994: All Stars 15.7/28, NBA Finals 12.4/23 (+27%)
1995: All Stars and NBA Finals: 13.9/25 (tie)
1996: NBA Finals 16.7/31, All Stars 13.2/23 (+27%)
1997: NBA Finals 16.8/30, All Stars 11.8/21 (+42%)
1998: NBA Finals 18.7/33, All Stars 13.3/25 (+41%)
1999: All Stars 12.0/22, NBA Finals 11.3/21 (+6%)
2000: NBA Finals 11.6/21, All Stars 10.1/18 (+15%)
2001: NBA Finals 12.1/23, All Stars 11.0/19 (+10%)
2002: NBA Finals 10.2/19, All Stars 9.5/17 (+7%)
2003: All Stars 9.5/17, NBA Finals 6.5/12 (+46%)
2004: NBA Finals 11.5/20, All Stars 8.8/15 (+31%)
2005: NBA Finals 8.2/15, All Stars 8.1/14 (+1%)
2006: All Stars 9.3/16, NBA Finals 8.5/15 (+9%)
