Mega stars, young talents fuel NBA’s global viewership surge
New Delhi, Jun 10 (IANS): The National Basketball Association (NBA), a professional league, has for years been the most watched basketball event in the world but in recent past it has broken all records in terms of Viewership.
NBA Deputy commissioner Mark Tatum spoke on the role of foreign players in the recent growth spurt of the association.
“All of these players are driving incredible interest in their home countries, in their regions, and around the world,” said Tatum whilst speaking on a round-table call with reporters.
“In fact, the regular season this year was our most watched globally in five years, and we generated several international viewership and consumption milestones and records, including roughly 75 percent of NBA game telecast consumption came from outside the United States this year,” he added.
The NBA is being consumed like never before, with 26 billion video views across its social media platforms and the NBA app globally and viewership hitting all-time highs. The ongoing finals are being streamed in 214 countries.
Tatum went on to talk about Victor Wembanyama, the Frenchman who entered the league this season as a rookie but had already put the league on notice with his performances in France for the Mets 92.
Wemby was drafted at number one this season by the San Antonio Spurs and went on to put the league on notice with his dazzling skills, fierce blocks and solid shooting. Mark spoke highly on Wembenyama and his impact on the league.
“I will just point to someone like Victor Wembanyama, who’s not in the playoffs, but he was one of the most popular players that we had in the league this year,” Tatum said.
“He was number three in terms of social media followers and views, only behind LeBron and Steph, and Luka Doncic was number four and Jayson Tatum was number nine. So here you have this younger generation of 19, 20 to 25, 26-year-olds that are really asserting themselves and I think it’s fascinating, and it’s fun to watch,” he concluded.
This year’s NBA finals feature 13 foreign players from Australia, Canada, the Dominican Republic, Germany, Latvia, Portugal, Slovenia, and Ukraine, the highest number ever been in the finals.
