1. Here’s the thing about television ratings: They can be spun to fit any narrative you want.

The NBA’s ratings, before coronavirus shut down the league in March, were down from last season. And ratings for the seeding games were down even further.

So obviously, you can read those two sentences and make the claim that the NBA is having a viewership problem and leave it at that and offer no context.

I would like to add some context, on a narrow scale and on a broad scale.

When ratings are down for any sport, it’s not because of one reason. There are always multiple things at play. One big problem for the NBA with the bubble games is that many of them took place in the afternoon, when most people work. For Monday’s slate of playoff games, ratings were up for the prime-time game.