Despite the fact the Golden State Warriors have clearly pivoted to planning for their 2020-21 campaign, the team will still be shown on nationally televised games 27 more times this season.
Yes, you read that right — 27 times.
If that seems like an awful lot of exposure for a franchise who lost one of their two best players in free agency over the summer, another to an injury that should keep the out of action until some time around the new year, and their third-best player to season-ending injury (and let’s not forget about losing Andre Iguodala), well, it is.
Is the NBA not-so-secretly conspiring to create the Association’s version fo a public flogging for being so good for so long? While it’s comforting to fans to think the Warriors are still living rent-free in the minds of their foes for all of the destruction of many of their opponents over the last decade, the truth of the matter is decidedly less sexy.
We honestly haven’t had a great national TV slate this year. @bryan_mears was talking about it. Between Kawhi load management and the Warriors being on 100,000 times we really haven’t had much for great national TV games. https://t.co/KbuYLIw8Ak
— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) November 14, 2019
Sometimes, these things are difficult to change.
According to The Big Lead’s Ryan Glasspiegel, the science behind NBA game scheduling is an arcane art only fully understood by a select cadre of programming experts who can work within the surprisingly narrow confines the NBA’s broadcast agreements create.
While the NBA has “flex scheduling” (the ability to move games around which will be broadcast to national audiences) like other major North American Sports, it has to do so in very specific ways that do not rock certain boats or collide with other obstacles to game movement.
TNT has the rights, for example, to 11 more Warriors games, ESPN to as many, and ABC to five. But they can’t simply jettison half their Dubs tilts just because Steph is going to be riding pine for most if not all of the rest of 2019.
There’s a limit to how often the league’s teams can appear on TV per season, and all the projected top teams are already at that level. The league also needs to honor specific contracts with networks concerning broadcast schedules as well, especially ABC, who have exclusive rights to consider.
Asked if it's weird to play lopsided game against the Warriors, LeBron says it's weirder to watch on TV, not in an actual game.
Then adds: "I played them in the Finals without Kyrie and Kevin. So, no." pic.twitter.com/FRJiRhprIx
— Kyle Goon (@kylegoon) November 14, 2019
Other issues, like the time and logistics needed to get broadcast crews from one place to the other, and conflicting game schedules with existing programming and many other concerns combine to make moving large numbers of games on or off the broadcast schedule exceedingly onerous — and therefore rare.
So, while it might not be quite as exciting to watch this season’s Warriors square off for regular season matchups against old foe LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers, don’t expect to see many fewer national television broadcasts of those games this year.