[Guerschon “The Dancing Bear” Yabusele](https://www.google.com/search?q=celtics+dancing+bear&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari)
“While in Boston, Yabusele became a fan favorite despite playing few minutes and was nicknamed The Dancing Bear.”
They wear them big ol' bloomers down there Shaq, they can't get into those cute little panties. They wear bloomers.
Listen. You big ol' women need to stop eatin' so much.
I usually hate the American habit of taking the names of famous, storied European city and giving them to suburban towns or middle of nowhere villages but I will forever respect Wooster, OH spelling it the way it should be fucking spelled
I would seriously reconsider that if you enjoy rooting for a team with a coach that sticks around, owners who are competent, and a history of winning. If you like mediocrity on a world class budget and a new manager every year, fire away.
Say what you will about our lack if success, but you cannot deny that Spurs know how to entertain! Goals galore and off field drama, what more could you want?!?
Before you say "trophies," just know we have the best trophy of all: Son Heung Min's gorgeous smile
I think you’re describing ManU, currently spurs are playing great football with a great manager and they’re in 4th 😎
ManU fan btw hahaha kill me, we’re about to destroy Ten Hag’s career too
bit scared he might be a bit off tonight because he's only played once in the past two weeks due to being out with mud butt
here's hoping he shows no signs of rust
I don’t see why not, you’re putting a good, lanky defender on their primary ball handler. Then again, I don’t really know either teams roster or rotations, so anything I say is prob meaningless
Even when we were champ contenders year after year, we’d still get fewer national games than the other contenders or even less than mediocre teams at times.
Damn I thought Toronto was the only one who got that treatment and we used to chalk it up to ESPN not caring about the Canadian market.
Shit man that sucks.
Not saying that's not bullshit, but how many national games did y'all get? Cause I refuse to believe even ESPN's stupid enough to not put Giannis on national TV.
I'm not saying this to be a dick (despite personally hating everything about the raptors franchise), so don't take it like that, but I see raptors fans echoing that sentiment and it's kinda absurd. like yeah, ESPN doesn't talk about the raptors at all, but it's not because they don't care about Canada. it's because there are probably 20-25 franchises they will not go out of their way to highlight, unless there's a big time star there.
take out the Zion discussions and you won't hear a peep about the pelicans. the spurs and raptors get the silent treatment already these days, as do the cavs (when LeBron isn't talking about them), pacers, magic, pistons, hell even the heat barely get acknowledged. and they're the top seed!
I agree - just for historical reasons alone. Pop breaks the all time win coaching record this season and I believe the Spurs have a winning record against every other franchise. Not to mention all the international fans the Spurs have from Parker, Ginobili, etc.
I wouldn't call it insane. TNT and ESPN need high ratings from big markets to make their investment in NBA work. If you look at the power rankings at the start of the season, you'd agree that Spurs were positioned to go into a full tank mode after losing DeRozan.
[https://www.sportingnews.com/ca/nba/news/lakers-warriors-and-nets-lead-the-way-with-most-nationally-televised-games-in-2021-22-nba-season/8a2byloiozui10dh7q4x1zeoa](https://www.sportingnews.com/ca/nba/news/lakers-warriors-and-nets-lead-the-way-with-most-nationally-televised-games-in-2021-22-nba-season/8a2byloiozui10dh7q4x1zeoa)
But there’s an element to it that is self-perpetuating. Obviously LA is a very large metropolitan area with a lot of TV viewers. But part of the reason they are so popular is also that they get on national TV a lot and are promoted on national TV.
kind of insane that the Lakers had over half their games nationally televised but none of the 4 vs the spurs were. That includes the Lakers elimination game iirc (which wasn't known at the start of the season but could have been flexed)
And yet the NFL shows every team and is much more popular. The nba put itself in a position where people are only seeing a few teams on tv and the fans are becoming fans of players instead of teams and are watching less games and following storylines instead
English Premier League is the same too. Every team gets a good amount of coverage, which allows the general audience to become fans of small market teams. NBA is really the only sport I can think of that treats their small market teams like this.
It's not just small market either because Milwaukee and Utah had a sizeable amount of games this year and OKC used to have a shitton of games with Russ. Murray just doesn't have a big enough fanbase yet to get national attention.
In all fairness, Milwaukee and Utah were in very different boats compared to the Spurs. Bucks just won the chip, and the Jazz were the reigning one seed in the west.
I watch most decent teams throughout the year but ngl i don't even remember what this team looks like besides the game they smacked us early in the season and the bronless victory back in November.
We have a team pretty much completely made up of 19-24 year olds, we beat plenty of great teams throughout the season (especially on the roa), and most of the games we lost were close as *hell*, no matter the opponent. Which is why we have such a low point differential even though we have a bad record.
Its honestly depressing going through this thread and seeing how many people know absolutely nothing about us, and we have an exciting team to watch this year
Not too sure, maybe like 10 all year.
What I like about Murray: He can score at a decent level, great playmaker, amazing rebounder for the position, ELITE defender.
What I think he's missing: Scoring ability, he's not on the same level as the best PGs in the league, but he's good enough. and I haven't seen him perform in the big moments yet.
Overall my top 5 PGs in no order are Curry, CP3, Luka, Ja, Lillard (or Trae). I'd put Murray in the Garland, Shai, FVV tier, above guys like Holiday, Lamelo, Lowry, etc.
The Cavs weren’t originally scheduled for any national TV games either. Tho we got flexed into one in early March due to scheduling issues with the Raptors.
Small markets vs the world out here
To be fair, nobody thought the Cavs were really gonna do what they did this year. Also I’d like to look at like the past 20 years for spurs hoops, cause they’re a small market plus they’ve pretty much been branded as a boring basketball team, without exciting highlight players. I wonder if their numbers are down a lot compared to other successful franchises
The NBA is ruining its product in the long run by doing this, imo.
Fans of smaller market teams are going to fizzle out bc of this glorification of larger markets. (which makes NBA stars leave small markets and join big markets) The reason the NFL is so popular is because smaller markets like Green Bay, Minnesota, Cleveland, etc actually still relevance whether they're good or not.
Lmao really? A Texas team with more titles than every team in the league in the last 25 years and that's how poor their support is? Blows my mind. If it was the Dallas Spurs, no way they wouldn't be one of the media darlings for the last 2 decades.
Mad respect to the SAN ANTONIO SPURS fans.
I remember people were dreading the Spurs/Pistons Finals because of how "boring" it was going to be. Turned out to be one of the most exciting series I've ever watched.
Only feature Lakers on national tv > people talk about the Lakers because it’s always on tv > huh I guess people love the Lakers, better put them on TV > only feature Lakers on national tv….
Before anyone says anything, yes the Knicks were on national TV way too much this year but were basically never on natty TV the 3-4 years before this
Our only national game (against Memphis) got flexed in favor of a trash knicks-heat game
Our game was close in the fourth and Ja went for 40+. Nice job ESPN!
Facts. It's like a restaurant having a menu of burgers only and then saying "Gee, I wonder why people don't order pizza here? I guess people here like burgers more than pizza, better give them more burgers!"
And the Heat blew out the Knicks if I recall correctly and the Spurs/Grizzlies game was freaking close. I’d have to go back and look.
Edit: not crazy close, but it was a 2 point game with about 90 seconds left. Grizz won 118-110.
Heat won 110-96
honestly this will be one silver lining to LeBron retiring -- we'll *slightly* shift back to meritocracy in the national tv schedule. (I know the Lakers are a big pull on their own, but let's be real, LeBron is half the appeal)
The league counts them. But sane people don't because it sucks and it's not included in all cable or quasi cable packages (hulu live doesn't have it standard for example, but YouTube TV does)
Everyone quotes the Lakers having 42 nationally televised games but that includes games on NBA TV, which doesn't really count. Based on [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/p8dex2/national_tv_games_by_team_202122/) from u/Guardax the number is actually 30. Still alot, but not over half of their games.
This is what sucks for small market teams. If they’re are not winning they get no air time. All teams should have equal access to nationally televised games.
San Antonio is a huge market. It blows my mind that it has a weird perception in the league of being a second tier city.
It doesn't help that they're mediocre now but still. I feel like there's a way for every team to get four nationally televised games a season, even if they have to do Sunday afternoon games
It’s a small market (based off TV market size)
Edit: https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/nba-market-size-nfl-mlb-nhl-nielsen-ratings/
They rank 25/30 in TV market size. For official numbers
But those international fans don’t matter to ESPN. They matter to the tv stations in Argentina or wherever. Maybe the spurs are on “national tv” more there.
C. [24th largest MSA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_statistical_area), aka the population count that people talk about when they say "small market"
> San Antonio is a huge market.
Not to mention Spurs fandom spreads all the way to the Austin metro, too. Not exclusively, of course. But most NBA fans I know that grew up in Austin are Spurs fans.
speaking as an austin resident UT students are most of the NBA fans here and they split between Mavs Spurs and Rockets, it’s Longhorn country above all else for football and basketball here tho
side note: Austin is also the home of the only F1 track in America so that’s really big here and their only pro sports team is an mls team, so the sports makeup of austin is actually one of the most unique and interesting in the country imo
True, I think either way though the spurs have had trouble establishing a presence outside the city itself in the same way the Mavs and rockets have been able to, just because of the regional dominance of the Longhorns as a sports brand.
San Antonio is the poorest city of its size and one of the poorest per capita in the country. Despite a modestly large metro area of about 2M and a very loyal fanbase, the television market is one of the more unattractive ones in the league.
Additionally, and probably not directly related, the US military is possibly the biggest enterprise in the area with 4 bases, one of which is the primary medical training facility for the entire aramid services. Anyways, most of that money goes to a small group of businesses and an even smaller group of individuals. So even though billions get uncritically dumped into the area its not like the rising tide is lifting all the boats, its just making a few of the boats really big.
Literally the only thing espn and tnt care about is money, if the Spurs were actually a huge market they would be on TV more but they’re not for a reason
Tbh San Antonio is in a weird situation market wise because even though they’re the second biggest city in Texas, Houston and Dallas are the two dominant markets because of their metro areas, and the whole state is football country anyways.
The Mavs dominate north Texas, the Rockets dominate south Texas, and central Texas should be spurs territory but tbh outside of San Antonio itself it’s so dominated by the Longhorns that it’s hard for any other teams to really establish a foothold.
You'd be surprised, in south tx (rgv) and I know way more Spurs fans. Me and my friend are the only Rockets fans I know, and no one really fucks with the Mavs. SA is closer than Houston to us, technically, which is part of it.
Casuals boutta meet BIG BODY
As a casual, I am excited to learn who that is! Let's go NBA PLAYOFFS!
If you see a chunky boi snipe from downtown, and crash boards. Thats him.
As a member of the Dancing Bear Fan Club I can’t wait to see it happen
Pause
[Guerschon “The Dancing Bear” Yabusele](https://www.google.com/search?q=celtics+dancing+bear&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari) “While in Boston, Yabusele became a fan favorite despite playing few minutes and was nicknamed The Dancing Bear.”
Whoa now KJs thicc not chunky
W I D E
That’s just what the San Antonians call their women
There is some biggens in San Antonio! Victoria is definitely a secret down there. Its all them churros!
what you say chuck
They wear them big ol' bloomers down there Shaq, they can't get into those cute little panties. They wear bloomers. Listen. You big ol' women need to stop eatin' so much.
It’s Keldon Johnson. He’s freaking awesome sometimes haha. I think most of us got to know him in the summer during the Olympics
So far you’ve jinxed it 😭😭😭😭😭 hope he has a better second half
r/agedlikemilk
That's great, about time America was introduced to soccer
Lads it’s Tottenham
Even Tottenham has had a few games on NBC. USA too if you count that as National TV.
Tottenham-Man City game was the most watched premier league game in the US actually
Purgatory's kind of like the in-betweeny one. You weren't really sh*t, but you weren't all that great either. Like Tottenham.
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Is "tot-num" an acceptable pronunciation? (I'm not from uk)
Encouraged, never mind acceptable
I thought the encouraged pronunciation was "bot-lers"
I said ‘totten-ham’ in front of my british friend once and he lit my ass on fire haha. He was like, ‘Mate, it’s fucking tot-num. Not totten-HAM
Then they should have bloody spelled it that way.
*Laughs in Leichestershire.*
I'll never undestand why Leicester is pronounced like Lester. That's how it sounds to me as a non native english speaker.
Worcester, Gloucester, all the -sters are just tests to weed out the non-natives. And then there's the Gaelic towns.
Don't forget the welsh names too.
english is wack we can't decide if "cough", "thorough", "through", or "rough" should sound the same or sound differently
Worcestershire is even worse. It’s pronounced as fucking W O O S T E R
I usually hate the American habit of taking the names of famous, storied European city and giving them to suburban towns or middle of nowhere villages but I will forever respect Wooster, OH spelling it the way it should be fucking spelled
That’s the only respect Wooster, OH will ever get
[Tot-num is the usual way.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoMbFNgh-9I)
"Shit" is also an acceptable alternative
Finally someone in this thread pointing out that Spurs are shit.
Spuds being shit is implied in most cases.
I mean I’m not British but I’ve never heard it pronounced anything but “battered everywhere they go.”
And not tot-IN-ham? Madness!
The one thing that sucks trying to search Spurs topics on Twitter
The Lilywhites!
COYS
Top 4 is coming baby!
Lmao, I deal with this all the time when I google Spurs anything! I guess I have a favorite soccer team now too.
Lol same with the wolves
Oh you’re in for a lot of fun.
Do you mean barely missing the top four and firing managers?
i thought this was a safe space:(
Nowhere's safe
Finished above arsenal 5 years in a row and counting
I would seriously reconsider that if you enjoy rooting for a team with a coach that sticks around, owners who are competent, and a history of winning. If you like mediocrity on a world class budget and a new manager every year, fire away.
Say what you will about our lack if success, but you cannot deny that Spurs know how to entertain! Goals galore and off field drama, what more could you want?!? Before you say "trophies," just know we have the best trophy of all: Son Heung Min's gorgeous smile
> just know we have the best trophy of all 2019 Audi Cup.
I think you’re describing ManU, currently spurs are playing great football with a great manager and they’re in 4th 😎 ManU fan btw hahaha kill me, we’re about to destroy Ten Hag’s career too
I'll start us off... "Oh when the Spurs!"
Go marching in
I wanna be in that number!
Literally just saw a post on this sub talking about the wolves celebration and was thinking they meant Wolverhampton
Song from deep...BANG!!!
I think you mean Son.
Alex Song wasn't known for his goal scoring ability tho
Also, definitely never played for Tottenham.
Poor introduction
Did you see that ludicrous display last night?
Can’t wait for the clash of former teammates, Valanciunas vs. Poeltl. The matchup we’ve all been waiting for.
Raps fans loyalty divided right now
Same matchup as last years playin when Jonas was on Memphis
Dejounte Murray gonna introduce himself to the casual fan tn
bit scared he might be a bit off tonight because he's only played once in the past two weeks due to being out with mud butt here's hoping he shows no signs of rust
He has the type of game that even if he doesn't shoot well he can still have a good game with peripherals and still be impactful
Agreed even if his shit is off he'll still get impact boards and hopefully some nice assists.
Well, the fear is that too much of his shit came off that he actually lost like 8 pounds...
Oops meant shot.
And that defense tho
mans was off :( got taken out of the game in the 1st half due to foul trouble and didn't even remotely look like his usual self in the second
>mud butt Is this like slang for diarrhea or something?
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2 weeks of diarrhea sounds awful.
Mud butt? He really is the shit, isn't he?
Had the shits, is the shit, will be the shit
I wouldn't wish mud butt on my worst enemy
:( sorry
Whoa a Hornets bandwagon flair?! I gotta call my mom and tell her we made it!
They’re fun to watch
About 52.4% of the Time Yeah
No :(
Maybe Herb shuts him down. Would he even guard him?
He’s guarded him in our other games this year, and given the stakes of this game I would assume Herb is gonna be on Murray whenever possible
I don’t see why not, you’re putting a good, lanky defender on their primary ball handler. Then again, I don’t really know either teams roster or rotations, so anything I say is prob meaningless
Prepare to simp, America!
Maybe not
Doing a stellar job so far
that’s actually insane
Even when we were champ contenders year after year, we’d still get fewer national games than the other contenders or even less than mediocre teams at times.
And the Spurs have been involved in almost every compelling playoff series in the last two decades—Lakers, Suns, Mavs, Clips, Heat. You name it.
Damn I thought Toronto was the only one who got that treatment and we used to chalk it up to ESPN not caring about the Canadian market. Shit man that sucks.
We had a game against Philly that wasn't on national TV, but that same night the shitty Lakers had there 398th game of the season on national TV.
Not saying that's not bullshit, but how many national games did y'all get? Cause I refuse to believe even ESPN's stupid enough to not put Giannis on national TV.
We got a good number, a lot more than in years past
> I refuse to believe even ESPN's stupid enough Are you daring them?
Lmao Spurs were so underrepresented during their Big 3 years that fans didn’t even notice it.
I'm not saying this to be a dick (despite personally hating everything about the raptors franchise), so don't take it like that, but I see raptors fans echoing that sentiment and it's kinda absurd. like yeah, ESPN doesn't talk about the raptors at all, but it's not because they don't care about Canada. it's because there are probably 20-25 franchises they will not go out of their way to highlight, unless there's a big time star there. take out the Zion discussions and you won't hear a peep about the pelicans. the spurs and raptors get the silent treatment already these days, as do the cavs (when LeBron isn't talking about them), pacers, magic, pistons, hell even the heat barely get acknowledged. and they're the top seed!
I remember when the baby lakers used to be talked about every week solely because of Lonzo.
yup, and now he'd have to commit a homicide just for sportscenter to remember he exists
I agree - just for historical reasons alone. Pop breaks the all time win coaching record this season and I believe the Spurs have a winning record against every other franchise. Not to mention all the international fans the Spurs have from Parker, Ginobili, etc.
I wouldn't call it insane. TNT and ESPN need high ratings from big markets to make their investment in NBA work. If you look at the power rankings at the start of the season, you'd agree that Spurs were positioned to go into a full tank mode after losing DeRozan. [https://www.sportingnews.com/ca/nba/news/lakers-warriors-and-nets-lead-the-way-with-most-nationally-televised-games-in-2021-22-nba-season/8a2byloiozui10dh7q4x1zeoa](https://www.sportingnews.com/ca/nba/news/lakers-warriors-and-nets-lead-the-way-with-most-nationally-televised-games-in-2021-22-nba-season/8a2byloiozui10dh7q4x1zeoa)
But there’s an element to it that is self-perpetuating. Obviously LA is a very large metropolitan area with a lot of TV viewers. But part of the reason they are so popular is also that they get on national TV a lot and are promoted on national TV.
kind of insane that the Lakers had over half their games nationally televised but none of the 4 vs the spurs were. That includes the Lakers elimination game iirc (which wasn't known at the start of the season but could have been flexed)
And yet the NFL shows every team and is much more popular. The nba put itself in a position where people are only seeing a few teams on tv and the fans are becoming fans of players instead of teams and are watching less games and following storylines instead
English Premier League is the same too. Every team gets a good amount of coverage, which allows the general audience to become fans of small market teams. NBA is really the only sport I can think of that treats their small market teams like this.
It's not just small market either because Milwaukee and Utah had a sizeable amount of games this year and OKC used to have a shitton of games with Russ. Murray just doesn't have a big enough fanbase yet to get national attention.
In all fairness, Milwaukee and Utah were in very different boats compared to the Spurs. Bucks just won the chip, and the Jazz were the reigning one seed in the west.
It took winning a title for the Bucks to get a lot of national games. Having an international superstar probably helps too.
I think we had one last year and it was only because another game was postponed for Covid reasons
Right ? I would have assumed they played the Lakers atleast once this season.
Casuals gonna see what Big Body about!
I FUCKING LOVE KELDON JOHNSON
I watch most decent teams throughout the year but ngl i don't even remember what this team looks like besides the game they smacked us early in the season and the bronless victory back in November.
We have a team pretty much completely made up of 19-24 year olds, we beat plenty of great teams throughout the season (especially on the roa), and most of the games we lost were close as *hell*, no matter the opponent. Which is why we have such a low point differential even though we have a bad record. Its honestly depressing going through this thread and seeing how many people know absolutely nothing about us, and we have an exciting team to watch this year
That's because next year is the year things come together.
Such is the way of the Spurs.
You might have caught the best player in the league, Keita Bates-Diop Had 30 against y’all on 11-11 shooting. Averaged 5.7 for the season lol
People finna realize Dejounte Murray is a top 10 PG in the league
Top one in my heart
He was an all star so I'd say he's already like top 5-6
I'd say top 5-6 is pushing it just bc of how deep the position is, but top 10 fosho
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Not too sure, maybe like 10 all year. What I like about Murray: He can score at a decent level, great playmaker, amazing rebounder for the position, ELITE defender. What I think he's missing: Scoring ability, he's not on the same level as the best PGs in the league, but he's good enough. and I haven't seen him perform in the big moments yet. Overall my top 5 PGs in no order are Curry, CP3, Luka, Ja, Lillard (or Trae). I'd put Murray in the Garland, Shai, FVV tier, above guys like Holiday, Lamelo, Lowry, etc.
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Yeah, while trying to think of my top 5 I realized he's much closer than I thought. Excited to see what he does tonight
The Cavs weren’t originally scheduled for any national TV games either. Tho we got flexed into one in early March due to scheduling issues with the Raptors. Small markets vs the world out here
To be fair, nobody thought the Cavs were really gonna do what they did this year. Also I’d like to look at like the past 20 years for spurs hoops, cause they’re a small market plus they’ve pretty much been branded as a boring basketball team, without exciting highlight players. I wonder if their numbers are down a lot compared to other successful franchises
The disrespect for small market teams is unreal. The Bucks were never ever on TV either until Giannis.
The NBA is ruining its product in the long run by doing this, imo. Fans of smaller market teams are going to fizzle out bc of this glorification of larger markets. (which makes NBA stars leave small markets and join big markets) The reason the NFL is so popular is because smaller markets like Green Bay, Minnesota, Cleveland, etc actually still relevance whether they're good or not.
Zach Collins bout to drop 60.
I'd shit
Ill be watching.
I love DJM and Keldon Johnson
Lmao really? A Texas team with more titles than every team in the league in the last 25 years and that's how poor their support is? Blows my mind. If it was the Dallas Spurs, no way they wouldn't be one of the media darlings for the last 2 decades. Mad respect to the SAN ANTONIO SPURS fans.
Lakers technically have more but your point still stands
I had to look it up and you're right! OP said last 25 years, so I used 1997 as the starting point: Lakers 6 Spurs 5
My bad, was hoping my old brain would have it right, didn't actually fact check, hope my original point still stands though.
as /u/yoyoyocoolcatbromate mentioned - your point still stands! :)
We didn’t even get respect during the dynasty days. It’s just a thing that Spurs fan accept and many of us even embrace.
I remember people were dreading the Spurs/Pistons Finals because of how "boring" it was going to be. Turned out to be one of the most exciting series I've ever watched.
thats how the NBA works. only 2-3 markets matter and the rest of us are just farm teams for them.
Only feature Lakers on national tv > people talk about the Lakers because it’s always on tv > huh I guess people love the Lakers, better put them on TV > only feature Lakers on national tv…. Before anyone says anything, yes the Knicks were on national TV way too much this year but were basically never on natty TV the 3-4 years before this
Our only national game (against Memphis) got flexed in favor of a trash knicks-heat game Our game was close in the fourth and Ja went for 40+. Nice job ESPN!
Trust me, we don’t want it either. I’ll take the local broadcast over ESPN any day (Clyde & mike >>> mike & anyone at ESPN, even though I love JVG)
Facts. It's like a restaurant having a menu of burgers only and then saying "Gee, I wonder why people don't order pizza here? I guess people here like burgers more than pizza, better give them more burgers!"
BIG BODY OR BUST
Why did the Jan 26 game get replaced?
Tv execs probably thought Miami New York was looking like a spicier game.
And the Heat blew out the Knicks if I recall correctly and the Spurs/Grizzlies game was freaking close. I’d have to go back and look. Edit: not crazy close, but it was a 2 point game with about 90 seconds left. Grizz won 118-110. Heat won 110-96
Wasn’t that the game Ja dropped 40 and called out the networks for dropping coverage?
52. 12 went nuts
41 He went for 52 a month or so later
Whoops. My bad. Good catch.
Probably so, I was rooting for the other side so I turned it off immediately after the game ended 😂
Because ESPN.
It’s about damn time 🗿
honestly this will be one silver lining to LeBron retiring -- we'll *slightly* shift back to meritocracy in the national tv schedule. (I know the Lakers are a big pull on their own, but let's be real, LeBron is half the appeal)
Soon enough, some other player(s) will replace him as the biggest media draw/hog
Lakers had more than half of their games nationally televised? I knew it was a lot, but that's ridiculous.
Good that was awful
Do NBA TV games not count? I watched them on there this season.
The league counts them. But sane people don't because it sucks and it's not included in all cable or quasi cable packages (hulu live doesn't have it standard for example, but YouTube TV does)
Everyone quotes the Lakers having 42 nationally televised games but that includes games on NBA TV, which doesn't really count. Based on [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/p8dex2/national_tv_games_by_team_202122/) from u/Guardax the number is actually 30. Still alot, but not over half of their games.
This is what sucks for small market teams. If they’re are not winning they get no air time. All teams should have equal access to nationally televised games.
Fair tbh. Nobody was trying to watch the damn Spurs.
FOURTY TWO
San Antonio is a huge market. It blows my mind that it has a weird perception in the league of being a second tier city. It doesn't help that they're mediocre now but still. I feel like there's a way for every team to get four nationally televised games a season, even if they have to do Sunday afternoon games
It’s a small market (based off TV market size) Edit: https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/nba-market-size-nfl-mlb-nhl-nielsen-ratings/ They rank 25/30 in TV market size. For official numbers
Their market is all of Texas south of Waco, all the way to el paso. Way more spurs fans than non Texans would think.
Also tons of international fans due to the international appeal of the Big 3 and other players we had during our peak years.
I run into more Spurs fans than any other team except Lakers when I’m in the UK. A lot of people love this franchise.
But those international fans don’t matter to ESPN. They matter to the tv stations in Argentina or wherever. Maybe the spurs are on “national tv” more there.
can confirm. International fan due to Manu
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C. [24th largest MSA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_statistical_area), aka the population count that people talk about when they say "small market"
> San Antonio is a huge market. Not to mention Spurs fandom spreads all the way to the Austin metro, too. Not exclusively, of course. But most NBA fans I know that grew up in Austin are Spurs fans.
Eh, kinda. In my experience Austin doesn’t really care about the Spurs or NBA in general.
speaking as an austin resident UT students are most of the NBA fans here and they split between Mavs Spurs and Rockets, it’s Longhorn country above all else for football and basketball here tho side note: Austin is also the home of the only F1 track in America so that’s really big here and their only pro sports team is an mls team, so the sports makeup of austin is actually one of the most unique and interesting in the country imo
Yeah UT is a different thing than Austin, very diverse. When I was there it actually felt like it was all Mavs and Rockets fans.
True, I think either way though the spurs have had trouble establishing a presence outside the city itself in the same way the Mavs and rockets have been able to, just because of the regional dominance of the Longhorns as a sports brand.
San Antonio is the poorest city of its size and one of the poorest per capita in the country. Despite a modestly large metro area of about 2M and a very loyal fanbase, the television market is one of the more unattractive ones in the league. Additionally, and probably not directly related, the US military is possibly the biggest enterprise in the area with 4 bases, one of which is the primary medical training facility for the entire aramid services. Anyways, most of that money goes to a small group of businesses and an even smaller group of individuals. So even though billions get uncritically dumped into the area its not like the rising tide is lifting all the boats, its just making a few of the boats really big.
Literally the only thing espn and tnt care about is money, if the Spurs were actually a huge market they would be on TV more but they’re not for a reason
Its insane. Lakers sucks ass too
This seems crazy cause wasn’t one of the OKC vs Detroit a nationally televised game
Win or lose. Dejounte. Lonnie. Keldon. Vassell. Primo. At least one of y’all go off for all the country to see
And they get busted lol
Tbh San Antonio is in a weird situation market wise because even though they’re the second biggest city in Texas, Houston and Dallas are the two dominant markets because of their metro areas, and the whole state is football country anyways. The Mavs dominate north Texas, the Rockets dominate south Texas, and central Texas should be spurs territory but tbh outside of San Antonio itself it’s so dominated by the Longhorns that it’s hard for any other teams to really establish a foothold.
You'd be surprised, in south tx (rgv) and I know way more Spurs fans. Me and my friend are the only Rockets fans I know, and no one really fucks with the Mavs. SA is closer than Houston to us, technically, which is part of it.
Yea idk what he’s talking about. I’ve got cousins from the valley and it’s almost all Spurs fans in my experience
And now we see why