Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Adam Silver Gets Bad News on NBA Finals Game 1 on Friday

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Sean Deveney | Last updated Jun 6, 2025 8:04 PM ET

Heading into the NBA Finals, there was considerable concern about how much attention the league would generate for a series that features two of the smallest markets in the league--the Pacers, whose market in Indianapolis ranks 22nd in the NBA, and the Thunder, with Oklahoma City ranked 26th.

These are not traditional powerhouse teams. The Thunder were born out of the former Seattle SuperSonics and only came into being in 2008. Indiana has been around since the days of the ABA and was a power in the league in the early 1970s, but has only participated in the NBA Finals once, in 2000, when they lost to the Lakers.

Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said before Game 1, "As far as the markets, I understand that there would be concern for how many people would watch because they're smaller markets. But if we're celebrating the game and we're putting game above all, which is one of the things that Adam Silver said when he became commissioner, then it really shouldn't matter. It really shouldn't matter.

"So I know that we're going to do our very best to represent our city, our state at the best possible level. Thunder will do the same. This really hopefully is about the quality of the games. We got our work cut out for us there."

No question, Game 1 was a classic, a 111-110 thriller that saw Indiana come back from a 15-point fourth-quarter deficit to win on a Tyrese Haliburton buzzer-beater.

And yet, the problem of ratings cropped up, as expected.

From Sports Media Watch: "Thursday’s Pacers-Thunder NBA Finals Game 1 averaged a 4.7 rating and 8.91 million viewers on ABC, marking the lowest rated and least-watched Game 1 of the Finals of the Nielsen people meter era (1988-present) outside of the two COVID-affected series, Bucks-Suns in July 2021 (4.5, 8.70M) and Heat-Lakers in the 'bubble' on the final day of September 2020 (4.1, 7.69M)."

The two teams will be back at it, hoping that the exciting finish to Game 1 could draw in a bigger audience on Sunday night at 8 p.m. ET.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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