NEW YORK—Start spreading the news. The NBA is back.
The only bigger winner than the Big Apple after the Knicks’ improbable victory over the Spurs on Wednesday night is the league itself.
The Knicks’ historic 107-106 comeback win in Game 4 of the NBA Finals at a rocking Madison Square Garden demonstrated the power of The Association.
For years, many of the prevailing media narratives about the $14.3 billion league have been negative. You’ve heard them.
The NBA can’t draw TV ratings compared to the mighty NFL. The league is too “woke” politically. ESPN, NBC Sports, and Amazon Prime Video foolishly overpaid for league media rights with their $76 billion, 11-year agreements. Today’s flopping, load-managed, prima donna players are not as tough as Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird. Etc.
But guess what? Take an iconic franchise like the Knicks gunning for their first NBA title in 53 years. Pit them against global wunderkind Victor Wembanyama and a talented young Spurs squad. Then stage the NBA Finals in the nation’s largest media market, in the World’s Most Famous Arena, and bang: the NBA looks like a juggernaut again. Here in the Big Apple at least, the Knicks have even knocked the World Cup off the back pages. Consider:
TV Appeal
It’s no coincidence the NBA is at its most successful when the clubs from the country’s three largest media markets—New York, Los Angeles and Chicago—are hot. With the Knicks in position to capture their first title since the Nixon Administration in 1973, these Finals are pulling TV numbers not witnessed since Jordan’s dynastic Bulls in the 1990s.
ABC’s telecast of the Spurs Game 3 win averaged an NFL-like 23.8 million viewers. That’s up a whopping 159% from the comparable game in the 2025 NBA Finals between two small-market teams, the Thunder and the Pacers. That made it the most-watched NBA Finals Game 3 broadcast on any network since Jordan’s last Bulls title in 1998. It was also the most-watched NBA Finals game since the Warriors’ series-clinching victory in Game 5 in 2017, which averaged 24.5 million viewers.
Ratings for Wednesday’s thriller should be through the roof.
Toned Down Politics
With President Donald Trump attending Game 3 at the Garden in person, the Culture Wars between the NBA and the MAGA movement seem to have cooled. On Monday, Commissioner Adam Silver was diplomatic about welcoming a President who often rips his league.
“He’s welcome to be here,” Silver told ESPN’s NBA Tip-Off crew of Trump prior to Game 3. “What makes sports so special, especially when there’s so much that divides people, is it’s something that we have in common. We should look for those things that we have in common and build off that.”
The NBA has noticeably toned down the overt political messaging that turned off some fans. Even frequent critic Clay Travis is giving the league its flowers. “Congrats to Adam Silver & the NBA. This has never been rocket science. Silver says he’s thrilled President Trump is coming to game 3, says he wants fans of all politics to watch, & fans show up in big numbers, “ tweeted Travis. “(New ratings formula & Wemby and Knicks hating each other helps too).”
Thrills and Chills
The Knicks pulled off the largest comeback in NBA Finals history. Knicks-Spurs proves the NBA can compete with any league when it comes to generating scintillating sports moments. Even experienced NBA observers were left stunned after the Knicks roared back from a 29-point deficit.
Charles Barkley of TNT Sports’ Inside the NBA said: “I’ve been in the NBA for 40 years. I’ve never experienced what I experienced tonight.”
On X/Twitter, Bill Simmons described the Knicks’ OG Anunoby game-winning tip-in as “easily one of the greatest NBA Finals plays this century.”
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith admitted on First Take he bowed his head in prayer during the closing seconds–and simply couldn’t watch. “The Good Lord didn’t let me down,” said the lifelong Knicks fan. Mike Greenberg of ESPN summed up the MSG Miracle on Get Up: “You’re going to live the rest of your life, and you are never going to see another game like what we saw last night.”
Pop Culture Appeal
No league attracts celebrity fans like the NBA. MSG’s courtside “Celebrity Row” was a who’s who of stars, ranging from Taylor Swift, Jerry Seinfeld, and Spike Lee to Timothee Chalamet, Kylie Jenner, and Larry David.
Addressing pop superstar Swift on Thursday’s episode of Get Up, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst joked about her frequent attendance at NFL games featuring fiancé Travis Kelce of the Chiefs. “Tell me any Chiefs game has been that exciting,” cracked Windhorst.
One more point about the NBA’s secret sauce: there’s an up-close intimacy to hoops that can’t be matched by other leagues. With the NFL, celebrity fans like Swift are sequestered way up high in a luxury box. But with the NBA’s courtside seats, Swift, Seinfeld and the other famous faces are a few feet from the action. It makes them part of the drama; part of the telecast. Throw in the Garden’s clever courtside lighting and it’s like TV viewers are watching an athletic version of a Broadway show.
“That’s just the nature of basketball. You can’t really do that in any other sport,” notes Joe Favorito, the former Knicks PR chief turned media consultant. “You can get close–like some of the seats behind the dugout at Dodger Stadium. But in the Garden, you’re literally inches away from what’s going on. That’s the beauty of basketball.”
