America Hugged The Oklahoma City Thunder And The Indiana Pacers (Sort Of)

Forbes

5 hours ago

OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA - JUNE 22: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander #2 of the Oklahoma City Thunder speaks ... More to the press after defeating the Indiana Pacers 103-91 in Game Seven of the 2025 NBA Finals at Paycom Center on June 22, 2025 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by)
Wait. What?
So Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals between the Indiana Pacers and the Oklahoma City Thunder (you know, two teams from the middle of nowhere) was the most-watched game for the league in six years?
Yep.
We've entered a new era of sports, especially in the NBA, where even the non-traditional powers can hold the attention of the masses.
Well, maybe not. Excluding the pandemic seasons of 2020 and 2021, this was the least-watched NBA Finals overall since 2007, when the boring San Antonio Spurs of Tim 'The Big Fundamental' Duncan swept a Cleveland Cavaliers team not ready for prime time with a raw LeBron James at 22.
We've got a contradiction here.
Even so, let's start with those positive TV vibes generated by Sunday's Game 7 with an average of 16.35 viewers on ABC and ESPN+.
Who says America couldn't care less about a world championship series between teams from states more popular for wheat (Oklahoma) and corn (Indiana) than producing NBA teams with national appeal?
Think about this: Early in the first quarter of Sunday's Game 7, Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton tore the Achilles tendon in his right leg, but few viewers reached for the remote. They stayed close to their screen from the Haliburton injury through the Thunder's surge in the fourth quarter toward a 104-91 victory for their first world championship in franchise history.
Just so you know, No. 2 on the list of most-watched NBA games since 2019 involved some of the league's big boys. It was Game 6 of the 2022 finals, which drew an average of 13.99 million viewers when the Boston Celtics of Jayson Tatum played the Golden State Warriors of Stephen Curry. Such star power had an average of nearly three million fewer viewers than those for Sunday's Game 7.
Sunday's Game 7 also peaked at 19.3 million viewers, and if you go by NBA.com, 'The seven-game series accounted for the seven most-watched primetime television programs over the past two months.'
Take that, Los Angeles, with your who's who of Lakers, ranging from Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain to all of those Showtime people, and then to Kobe and sidekick Shaq before jumping to the older LeBron.
New York?
Fugetaboutit.
A slew of folks wanted the Knicks to reach the NBA Finals for the first time since the 1990s, and it wasn't just because they were into Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns and all things orange and blue. It also was because they were suggesting, with their help, the Nielsen ratings would rise like crazy featuring the Knicks versus anybody compared to something like a Thunder-Pacers snoozer.
They were wrong.
At least for Sunday's Game 7.
LILLE, FRANCE - JULY 28: LeBron James #6 of Team United States drives to the basket against Team ... More Serbia during the second half of the Men's Group Phase - Group C game between Serbia and the United States on day two of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Stade Pierre Mauroy on July 28, 2024 in Lille, France. (Photo by)
Perhaps you know about the East Coast media machine.
From the Statue of Liberty, that machine stretches west to Philadelphia and Washington D.C., north to Boston and then to wherever the older LeBron plays. It turns (mythically not actually) mediocre teams in those cities into spectacular ones and spectacular ones into something that makes the rest of us which to leave the planet to avoid the hype.
Sunday's Game 7 proved America isn't obsessed with creations from that East Coast media machine, or even with the older LeBron.
The same goes for Curry and his Golden State Warriors, or with any team featuring Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic or others on NBA.com's list of the 10 most viewed players this season on social and digiital media.
For the Thunder-Pacers series, Oklahoma City's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was the only player for both teams on that top ten list.
He was splendid during the NBA Finals.
After Gilgeous-Alexander finished as the league's top scorer and most valuable player, he grabbed MVP honors for the finals. He also joined his Oklahoma City teammates in making the Thunder resemble a Bobby Knight or a Coach K team in search of Final Four glory by playing suffocating defense throughout the regular season and playoffs.
The Pacers were the masters of the comeback.
Even without Haliburton for much of Sunday's Game 7, the Pacers stayed competitive into the fourth quarter. With Haliburton in the previous games, they were often unstoppable with their long-range shooting.
They also flashed enough defense to ignore their heavy underdog tag to make this an entertaining NBA Finals before Sunday's Game 7.
Not that America cared.
Actually, it just took a while.