NBA All-Star Game TV Ratings

On Sunday night the NBA had very solid TV ratings for the 2013 All-Star Game. The game followed a traditional format of NBA All-Star games. The first three quarters were centered around putting on a show for the fans. This includes big time dunks, no defense, a lot of three point jump shots and an emphasis on keeping everyone healthy. The last quarter picks up in intensity. Although players may not be going "all out", they seem to start trying to win the basketball game.

This years game in Huston was won by the western conference. The west can thank the MVP, Chris Paul, for putting a performance together that helped them win the game. Paul scored 20 points while dishing out 15 assists. Some other highlights of the game included Kobe blocking LeBron a couple times at the end of the game.

The television viewership for the All-Star game was a 4.6. This means that 4.6% of U.S. households were watching the game. This number represents a 13% increase from last year's game. Although this number seems rather impressive, it is important to note that last years game was played during the Academy Awards. Obvious viewership was lost due to this fact. This years rating is impressive though compared to recent history. Since 2005, this years All-Star game was the second highest rated game. 

The television markets that most viewed the game shouldn't come as a surprise to most NBA fans. The number one television market was Miami with a 12.6 rating. This is no surprise consider the Heat had the big three (James, Wade, and Bosh) as starters in the game and their coach leading the east. Following Miami in television ratings was San Antonio (9.9 rating), Memphis (9.7 rating), Los Angeles (9.4) and Oklahoma City (8.9 rating). All of these cities saw players from their home team in the All-Star game.

Final Thought

Although I would like to see the NBA All-Star game more competitive throughout the entire game, I enjoyed watching. The fourth quarter seemed like mostly genuine basketball. It is obvious that avoiding injury is a key component to the game, as it should be. 

After Major League Baseball made the change in their All-Star game allowing the winning league to have home field advantage in the world series, I became much more interested in watching. Baseball also has an advantage in the nature of the game. It is more difficult to give less than full effort playing baseball than basketball. In basketball, players can do creative dunks with the defense allowing them to do so. In a baseball game, the pitchers are not going to lob the baseball so a player can hit it out of the park. As far as implementing a rule that the winning conference of the NBA All-Star game could have home court in the NBA Finals, I think it would be interesting. This would force players to give 100% effort during the game. I wouldn't mind seeing that.

@dmrosen7