Garnett leaves one apathetic NBA city for another.

With the news that Kevin Garnett is being traded from the Minnesota Timberwolves to the Boston Celtics, it should be pointed out that the two markets involved in the deal are two of the least dedicated NBA cities.

Minneapolis and Boston routinely finish at the very bottom of the metered-markets in NBA ratings. During the 2006-07 season, Minneapolis finished tied for last with Pittsburgh in regular season ratings on TNT and ESPN, drawing a 0.3 and 0.4 rating respectively. NBA games on ABC drew a 1.1 rating in Minneapolis, third worst among metered markets. During the playoffs, games drew a 1.1 rating on ESPN, (52nd out of 55 markets) a 0.9 on TNT (tied for dead last with Pittsburgh), and a 1.4 rating on ABC, ahead of only Pittsburgh and Boston — the latter of which finished with the worst ratings of any metered market.

From 2004 to 2006, Boston and Minneapolis finished near the bottom of NBA Finals ratings. Boston averaged a mere 4.3 rating for the Pistons/Lakers final in 2004, a 4.0 rating for the Spurs/Pistons final in 2005, and a 3.3 rating for the Heat/Mavericks final in 2006. Boston was dead last among metered markets in 2004 and 2006. Minneapolis, meanwhile, drew a 10.1 rating in 2004 (which, it should be pointed out, was the year the Timberwolves made the Western Conference Finals) before dropping to a 4.8 rating in 2005 and a 4.9 rating in 2006.

Metered-market ratings for the 2007 NBA Finals are currently unavailable.

Boston and Minnesota finished #20 and #24, respectively, in attendance during the 2006-07 NBA season.

Putting the numbers in perspective:

The 2006 Coca Cola 600 drew a 3.2 rating in Boston, only 3% lower than the 3.3 average for the 2006 NBA Finals.
The 2006 Daytona 500 drew a 7.2 rating in Boston, 118% higher than the 3.3 for the ’06 NBA Finals. That same race drew 12.9 rating in Minneapolis, 163% higher than the 4.9 rating for the Finals.
The 2006 Kentucky Derby drew an 11.2 rating in Boston, 239% higher than the local rating for the ’06 NBA Finals. The same event scored a 9.1 in Minneapolis, 86% higher than the local rating for the NBA Finals. The 2006 Preakness drew a 7.8 and 6.4 in Boston and Minneapolis, respectively.
The 2005 NCAA Men’s College Basketball Championship Game drew a 8.7 rating in Boston, 118% higher than the 4.0 for that year’s NBA Finals; that same game drew a 13.2 rating in Minneapolis, 175% higher than the 4.8 for that year’s NBA Finals.

The trade of Garnett to Boston could result in one of two scenarios: Boston becomes a legitimate NBA city again, with ratings rising significantly across the board, while Minneapolis completely abandons the league. Or, Boston remains apathetic to the NBA, with most citizens keeping their attention on the Red Sox and Patriots, while Minneapolis completely abandons the league. Either way, one of these two weak NBA markets will completely abandon the league for some time, as the fans in Minnesota will likely not care about a rebuilding project.

Garnett trade could delay release of NBA schedule.

Jon Lewis

Jon Lewis has been covering the sports media industry on a daily basis since 2006 as the founder and main writer of Sports Media Watch. You can contact him here or on the social media websites X (Twitter) or Bluesky.

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Comments 6

Anonymous says:

19 years ago

I think that Detroit is one of the NBA cities with the highest ratings in the nation. I read on Detroit newspapers the Pistons get enormous ratings in the metro detroit area, not only in the playoffs, but also during the regular season. A lot of regular season Pistons games get a 10+ rating in metro Detroit, which is waaaaay more than the NBA Finals ratings on a national level.
Michael says:

19 years ago

I’m confused. I thought that Atlanta was the worst sports city in the history of Western Civilization and Boston was a mecca of sports in the same way that Florence was the mecca of the Italian Renaissance. Now I find out that Boston fans don’t watch NBA games that don’t involve their team, while Atlanta routinely draws the highest NBA ratings of any city (other than the cities involved in the later rounds of the playoffs). This can’t be right. You mean that the national media’s perceptions about which cities are the best sports cities are, gasp, wrong?
kzfone says:

19 years ago

Living in New England, I can say Boston was one of the biggest NBA hotbeds in the 1980’s when Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, Dennis Johnson, and Danny Ainge were in their prime. The Celtics were the number one team over the Red Sox and Patriots during that period. Having won three championships, the Garden was sold out, ratings for Celtics games on independent WLVI-TV were better than the three network affiliates. But of course, that has all changed as the Celtics fell from prominence. If the Celtics start winning again, the ratings will improve, probably not to the apex of the 1980’s, but the interest will be there again.
Pacifist Viking says:

19 years ago

Mostly in Minnesota we care about the Vikings, and if a good team can capture our attention during the football offseason, so be it.

But I’d be surprised if the T-Wolves move anytime soon. They don’t have any arena issues (that I’ve heard about recently). Fans don’t seem drastically less interested than fans in some other NBA cities. In fact, trading KG could increase interest: everybody in MN was bored with the status quo of Garnett playing sterling basketball while the Wolves missed the playoffs and had no pieces in place to build toward competitiveness.
Morgan Wick says:

19 years ago

Minesota is one of the smallest markets in the NBA, so its ratings will always be small in comparison to larger markets… Except that market ratings are based on the size of the market. If a sporting event’s viewers are distributed proportionately across all markets, every market, from New York to tiny Glendive, MT (210th and dead last among Nielsen markets), should get the same ratings. Conversely, if a show gets a .9 in Minneapolis that doesn’t account for a .9 across the country.

In other words, if Minnesota is getting lower ratings than the rest of the country, that means people are watching it in a smaller proportion than the rest of the country – in addition to the market’s smaller size.

The markets near the bottom of the 55 metered markets shouldn’t be NBA cities, regardless of their size. There are 30 teams in the NBA and two pairs of them share a market. 55-28=27. That Minneapolis should do worse than 26 or 27 non-NBA metered markets – the vast majority of which are even smaller (unless the Sonics move Tampa/St. Pete is the only NBA-free market larger than Minneapolis, though they are close to the Magic) – says some very bad things about it.

If the Sonics somehow salvage an arena deal, expect to hear about the Oklahoma City or Las Vegas Timberwolves sometime in the next decade. (In fact, even if the Sonics do move, expect the T-Wolves to go to whichever market the Sonics don’t, or even to Seattle to replace the Sonics.)
The Producer says:

19 years ago

Your analysis is flawed because three years is not enough time to support your thesis. The Red Sox and Patroits have both won championships in the last three years. Fans want to watch competitive team. With the exception of a few years, the Celtics have been one of the worst teams in the East over the ten years.

Minesota is one of the smallest markets in the NBA, so its ratings will always be small in comparison to larger markets; furthermore, it also hurt that the Wolves rarely get out of the first round.

This post is more of a snapshot than a study of rating trends or fan apathy.