NBA TV ratings are at record highs

With Kobe Bryant in the Western Conference Finals and Lebron James in the Eastern Conference Finals, the NBA is doing better than ever when it comes to TV ratings.

From Multichannel News:

After ESPN set a record for most-viewed NBA playoff game in cable history Monday night, TNT donned the crowd Tuesday with its coverage of Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals. TNT's telecast of the Orlando Magic's 116-114 overtime win over Cleveland averaged nearly 10.1 million watchers on May 26. That toppled the 9.88 million ESPN drew the night before for the fourth game of the Western Conference finals when the Denver Nuggets evened the series at two games apiece.

Slam Online notes that the game between the Los Angeles Lakers Denver Nuggets game on Monday "annihilat[ed] ABC’s The Bachelorette and NBC’s Dateline."

Which is made all the more impressive by the fact that the game was on ESPN -- basic cable, not network TV.

And the next night's game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Orlando Magic had even higher ratings, becoming "the most-watched show on cable this year!"

The ratings for last night's Lakers victory over the Nuggets (on ESPN) will be available later today.

Update 4:07

Something else that I thought about: my dad, who has had just about no interest in the NBA since Jordan retired if not before, wanted to see a Lakers/Nuggets game so bad the other day that he resorted to listening to the ESPN radio version of it on his cell phone.

Despite the horrible officiating, it appears that the NBA is as strong as ever, even among casual fans.