Television viewers tune out NBA’s sour notes

With the NBA playoffs upon us, the question must be asked: How did the NBA, once hugely popular on TV, become a show that can't play in Peoria?

I exaggerate for effect, of course. The diehards still tune in. But the ratings have tumbled so far from the Magic Johnson-Larry Bird years of the 1980s and the Michael Jordan era of the '90s that it's embarrassing. The league is a shell of its former self.

NBA commissioner David Stern, a savvy man, has to be demoralized.

As recently as 1998, when Jordan's Chicago Bulls won their last NBA title, the finals on NBC drew an 18.7 rating -- the highest ever. Last year the Miami Heat-Dallas Mavericks finals on ABC drew an 8.5.

In the regular season the decline has been more alarming. In 1996 the league got a 5.0 rating on NBC. In 2002 the league switched largely to cable for six-year TNT and ESPN deals totaling -- get this -- $4.6 billion. But regular-season ratings have been microscopic. ESPN has been pulling a 1.2, and the playoffs on ABC (ESPN's corporate brethren) the last two years averaged just a 5.6.

Is the NBA still America's third sport behind the NFL and baseball? Don't be silly. Last year a rained-out NASCAR telecast pulled a higher rating than a Lakers-Cavaliers game involving Kobe Bryant and LeBron James on ABC.

Stern is currently negotiating new deals with ESPN, ABC and TNT. He no doubt will raise more billions simply because cable needs wall-to-wall sports programming to draw young male audiences for sponsors.

But the question remains: Why has America at large since the end of the 1990s effectively told Stern to take his game and shove it?

Reason 1: The NBA's playoff system is an abomination. Thirty teams play an 82-game regular season, then 16 make the playoffs. Ridiculous! The only other league that lets more than half its teams into the playoffs is the NHL, and its regular season is just as irrelevant as the NBA's.

Note to Stern: Reduce the number of playoff teams from 16 to eight -- three division champions plus a wild card from each of the two conferences. Make first-round series best-of-3 or best-of-5. That way each game would really count.

Reason 2: A few teams that were out of the playoff hunt sat down key players with suspicious injuries at the end of the regular season, perhaps in a not-so-subtle attempt to improve their chances in next month's NBA Draft lottery.

Nothing could be sicker than this. Never mind if tanking did or didn't occur. The bottom line is that perception is reality.

So Stern must get rid of this lottery nonsense with the weighted pingpong balls. Give every team in the league -- winners and losers -- an equal shot in the draft. Reward success instead of penalizing it. Fans want great, inspiring teams to root for, not a big bunch of mediocre ones. Come on, Mr. Commish, show some chutzpah.

Reason 3: As Ryan Seacrest always says, "America has voted!" And the decision when it comes to NBA TV viewers is that America is tired of players who act like thugs, who glorify the hip-hop culture with the bling and the sideway baseball hats and the low-riding pants and the $300 sneakers.

It would take every inch of this sports page to recount the Ron Artest brawl in the stands at Auburn Hills in 2004, Allen Iverson's battle with Stern over the latter's 2005 dress code, and athlete behavior that Stern belatedly recognized as destructive for the league.

Stern needs to pull a Roger Goodell and enforce behavior standards the way the new NFL commissioner recently did.

Look, this isn't about race in the NBA any more than it is in the NFL. But on the issue of player comportment, Stern's hands are tied by players union leader Billy Hunter.

Translation: Don't look for an NBA ratings comeback anytime soon.

• BARBARO -- NBC and HBO have been working on documentaries chronicling the poignant story of Barbaro, the potential superhorse who won the Kentucky Derby last year but broke down in the Preakness and was finally put down in January.

HBO's account won't debut until June 16, but NBC's hour special, "Barbaro: A Nation's Horse," will air at 2 p.m. Sunday. I can only describe it as painful, poignant and sweet. He was a horse for the ages, as everyone associated with him suspected.

Bill Taaffe is a former award-winning TV-radio sports columnist for Sports Illustrated. His "Remote Control" column is published Tuesday. He can be reached at taaffe-reviewjournal@earthlink.net.