Basketball from a fan perspective

Game 3---The Heat played as if it was Game 7, having no desire to go down 0-3 they played with a ferocious not witnessed to this point.  The Heat came out of the dressing room as if their hair were on fire.  Jimmy Butler's 40 points led the way to the 115-104 victory over the Lakers.  Early foul trouble caused Anthony Davis to miss portions of the game, Game 4 on Tuesday we await the outcome. 

Bothersome to me---We have attempted over the years to tailor Words eye view to accommodate all levels of basketball.  Unfortunately, that has not been the case since last spring over the summer and into the fall.  The pandemic has slowed the news and events that usually occur during this time frame, it has become increasingly difficult to locate and profile issues related to basketball at the amateur level. We certainly intend to attempt maintaining this blog covering all aspects and level of amateur basketball.  If a story or event is missing, it’s because there is little to report not because it is being ignored.   

It was not without purpose---Rest assured many of you believed I was after Jeff Van Gundy for a trivial reason.  The long time ESPN/ABC analyst mentioned during a broadcast the Lakers should only count the championships won in Los Angeles.  The 5 won while they were in Minneapolis don’t count toward the total, well that might be Van Gundy’s view but allow us to check a few NBA teams of the past.  The Rochester Royals preceded the Cincinnati version and Kings franchise in Kansas City and Sacramento. 

Their team history indicates they won the 1951 NBA Championship…they called Rochester (NY) home at the time.  If we check the Atlanta Hawks the history shows they were 1958 NBA Champions.  The Hawks of that era were headquartered in St. Louis and not Atlanta.  There are probably other examples those come to mind immediately.  If Van Gundy wants to discount the Laker totals based on where the team played okay, he certainly cannot take that stance with the teams. 

How do they determine? ---There must be a method to determine a television viewing audience however we are unsure exactly how it works.  In the old days, the Nielsen ratings were the key to a program being cancelled or remaining on the air. At one time my family was asked by Nielsen to monitor our programs for a week, we even received payment for it.  The advent of cable television witnessed the viewing audience being fractured as the number of channels began to proliferate. 

Cable systems might contain upwards of 250 or more choices.  More recently streaming services Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and others continue the trend reducing viewership.  The question is this, how is the NBA able to determine my household is viewing a game?  We could make the same statement regarding several sporting events since they appear on several platforms other than those existing 20 or so years ago.  NBA viewership is reported to down but how do we really know based on the information we just presented?