New York's dramatic 94-90 win over San Antonio on Saturday night, which clinched the Knicks' first NBA title in 53 years, drew massive television audiences on ABC and ESPN. The game averaged 24.5 million viewers, making it the fifth most-watched NBA Finals game since 1998, the Michael Jordan era and the Utah series, and peaked at 33 million viewers. Jalen Brunson, the Finals MVP, scored 45 points as New York erased a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter.
The full Finals averaged 20.6 million viewers according to Nielsen, the highest figure since the 1998 Chicago-Utah series, when Jordan won his sixth and final NBA championship and averaged 29.04 million viewers over six games. It was also the strongest Finals rating since ABC and ESPN began televising the NBA Finals in 2003. Only three Finals series since 1999 have averaged at least 20 million viewers, including Golden State's five-game win over Cleveland in 2017 at 20.47 million and Cleveland's seven-game win over Golden State in 2016 at 20.2 million.
For comparison, last year's Finals between Oklahoma City and Indiana averaged just 10.31 million viewers across seven games. Much of this year's interest focused on the Knicks, but also on Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio's star, who arrived billed as the league's face but has seen his image decline amid several controversial incidents.
After the game, Draymond Green criticized Wembanyama and the Spurs for leaving the court without shaking hands with the Knicks. Wembanyama skipped the traditional postgame handshake and went straight to the locker room, which Green said worsened the public-relations damage from the series. Green said, "Look your killer in the eyes," and added, "If you leave the court and don't look me in the face after I just beat you, I actually know that you are mine forever, because you were not even able to look me in the eyes."
