• by June 4, 2001

The National Basketball Association 2001 postseason has seen the Nielsen Media Research television ratings go an up and down throughout the 2001 playoffs.

For the NBA the latest turn is a downward one as the NBA's Nielsen ratings on NBC Inc. for Eastern Conference and Western Conference finals are down 15% percent from the 2000 playoffs. Hurting the NBA the most was the Western Conference finals series between the Los Angeles Lakers and the San Antonio Spurs.

The Lakers swept the Spurs in four games and the series did not garner much interest after L.A jumped ahead 2-0 in the series. As a result, the final two games between the Spurs and the Lakers last weekend were down 16 percent. The Eastern Conference finals games between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Philadelphia 76ers overall are down about 15 percent. Philly leads the series 3-2 and Game 6 is Friday night at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

"We think the ratings will go up in the series and we will have compelling television the rest of the way," said former NBA legend and NBC broadcaster Bill Walton.

The dip for the NBA comes after the NBA finally saw some improvement in Game 7 between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Toronto Raptors in the second round of the playoffs earlier in May 2001. The Game 7 showdown between Philly and Toronto drew a 8.9 rating on NBC and captured 17 percent of the viewing audience as the 76ers edged the Raptors 88-87 for the win.

NBA poobahs had not seen numbers like that for a second round playoff series in two years. The last time a game scored higher in the ratings department was May 16, 1999, when the Utah Jazz and the Sacramento Kings battled it out in Game 7 and the tilt drew a 9.4.

For the first round of 2001 playoffs, NBC averaged a 4.0 Nielsen rating for their NBA broadcasts. That number was down 9 percent from the 4.4 rating the NBA got for the first round of the playoffs on NBC in 2000.

Also, on America Online Time Warner Inc.'s Turner Network Television (TNT) and Turner Broadcasting Station (TBS), the ratings for the first round of the playoffs were down 14 percent from 2000. The average of the first round on TNT and TBS was a 1.9. In 2000 they got a 2.2 Nielsen rating. These ratings pretty much mirror the regular season ratings, as the NBA's TV ratings dipped 12 percent in 2001.

The ratings could be important for the NBA as their television deals run out with NBC and AOL Time Warner at the end of the 2001-2002 season, but both companies have an exclusive 30-day renegotiating period in September 2001.