As the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers continue to battle in the NBA Finals to capture their first league championship in franchise history, the matchup has been part of the discussion across sports media outlets. Yet Sean Pendergast of SportsRadio 610 feels that the sweepstakes Phoenix Suns superstar forward Kevin Durant are “getting way more attention” than the best-of-seven series. The 17-year NBA veteran is reported as being on the trading block following a year in which the Suns failed to qualify for the postseason and fired head coach Mike Budenholzer.
During the Wednesday edition of the show, Pendergast offered an analogy delineating the conversation around Durant as being similar to if quarterback Aaron Rodgers asked out from the New York Jets during Super Bowl week. While ratings for the NBA Finals are down 19% compared to last year heading into Game 6 of the series, Pendergast conveyed that the league has an issue relating to the overarching topic of conversation.
“This is going to go on at least until the Draft a little later on this month,” Pendergast said of the Durant sweepstakes. “Some of this admittedly is probably a function of who’s in the Finals. It’s been a good Finals, very watchable basketball, but it’s Oklahoma City and Indiana, and America, by and large, is not tingled by those two teams. So it’s an extreme situation here where you’ve got one of the greatest players of all time clearly on a trade block and you’ve got two very small markets in the NBA Finals.”
The issue Pendergast illustrated comes down to an ostensible perception of there being more interest in the offseason than the regular season of the NBA, occasionally stretching into the playoffs. Seth Payne, co-host of the Payne and Pendergast show, averred how people have discussed how the NBA has been discussed as more of a social media-type of league than a television product. Payne separated NBA fans into one of two competing factions – those who follow players and those who follow teams – something that creates distinctive and sometimes divergent points of interest.
“They may not see it as a problem, I don’t know,” Pendergast replied. “Maybe they just want attention for whatever — attention for attention’s sake. If it’s Kevin Durant and the Knicks’ coaching search that’s bringing people into the store talking about the NBA and generating TV interest in the NBA — I know the ratings are what the ratings are — then maybe that’s it. I just feel like when you have a sport, the most important thing should be who the champion is.”
Payne acknowledged that the situation with Durant is evidence about how important the individual players are, and he reflected on previous iterations of the Houston Rockets featuring guard James Harden. Although he was an all-star talent who spent nine seasons with the organization, the rest of the roster had frequent turnover and made it difficult to form an attachment with the players.
Pendergast admitted that he could be feeling the effects of the conversations about Durant in a more acute manner since the Rockets are reported as being involved and his proximity to the team. Yet he concluded a general consensus that more people are interested in the outcome of these reported negotiations than who will hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
“ESPN, for all the things you can criticize it for, is they know what they’re doing when it comes to topic selection, and if you’re sick of ESPN talking about something, it’s because they’ve done the research and they know that that’s what people are actually watching, and they’re talking a whole lot about Kevin Durant,” Payne said. “If you sat down — Sean, this afternoon, this is your project — you’re going to go down and you’re going to watch all the debate shows and you’re going to give me what percentage of the time were they talking about NBA Finals versus what percentage of the time were they talking about Kevin Durant.”
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
