For The Nba, Revival Means Survival

It isn't always how you're doing so much as how people perceive you're doing. Take the CBS telecasts of NBA games this season. To be sure, things are on the upbeat from the gloom and doom of last year, when there was much public hand-wringing about the league's future on TV. But the odd thing about this turnabout, according to Chuck Milton, the executive producer of pro basketball for CBS, is that "the ratings are up this season, but they aren't up as much as the media would have you believe."

The 1979-80 NBA telecasts started off well with the infusion of new stars (notably Larry Bird and Magic Johnson), slumped in the ratings when the Winter Olympics dominated the airwaves and continued to slide when the pros started to compete with the hoop and la of the NCAA tournament on NBC. In fact, the colleges have moved ahead in the overall Sunday ratings—they led 7.1 to 6.0 at the end of last weekend—though the networks are tied 5-5 in hoops after having gone head to head 10 times. Nonetheless, the NBA's ratings are up 16% over last year, and the pros expect to get even higher numbers in the playoffs.

The fact that CBS and NBC are splitting the basketball audience explains why neither the pros nor the colleges are on top of the ratings. That honor belongs to the series of trashsport "events" like Superstars that ABC has put on in the same Sunday afternoon slot that the other networks have used for their battle of the baskets.

Certainly, the pro basketball telecasts are better this season than they have been in recent years. After the NBA's 26% drop last season—the colleges, with Bird, Johnson et al., led the pros 8.1 to 5.1 in the pre-NBA playoff ratings—the league and CBS made some significant changes. They moved up the starting time of the games so that NBC didn't retain its head start with the audience; they canned regional coverage in favor of national telecasts, featuring Boston with Bird and Los Angeles with Johnson, to best showcase the sport; they scheduled "fresh" teams—i.e., those that hadn't played the night before—for TV games; and they promoted the telecasts more aggressively. CBS has enhanced the NBA's image by doing more interviews with players and using taped highlights at halftime—instead of the hokey one-on-one and H-O-R-S-E games of past seasons.

Most important, CBS brought back Bill Russell. Russell, who did the color commentary for three seasons when ABC telecast NBA games, has added substance to the CBS coverage. He is an interesting man, and he says interesting things. Though he could enunciate better—a shortcoming that might be alleviated by turning his volume higher—he has a way of making listeners feel that they are getting inside stuff. And the fact that he was the best player ever to perform in the NBA lends authority to whatever he says.

When Seattle was in a dry spell during a recent game against Boston, Russell noted that the Sonics had stopped getting the fast-break opportunities they had been enjoying earlier. 'That's because the Celtics aren't missing the kind of shots that set up such opportunities," he said, "and because foul situations have forced the Sonics to go to lineups that don't include their best fast-break combinations."

Russell's observations that "a lot of centers put the ball on the floor a lot when they are nervous, and that gives the defense more chances to steal the ball" and that "when Bird is playing some of his best basketball, he sometimes will go four minutes without taking a shot" are the kind of comments that have enhanced the CBS coverage.

Russell isn't afraid to be silent, and he laughs a lot while kidding with his co-announcers, Brent Musburger and the irrepressible Hot Rod Hundley. This offends some purists, but, Milton says, "An average fan tuning in might get the feeling, 'Those guys are having fun. I'd like to listen to them.' "

The general view in the NBA and at CBS is that this year's improvement is merely a start. Boston's resurgence is important because the Celtics are the closest thing to a national team in the NBA. The big TV markets are important, so Los Angeles' rebirth is significant. But the league won't hit full stride until there is a revival of the Knicks, with the huge New York audience, and the Bulls, with the big numbers Chicago can provide.

Musburger, who has toned down the cheer-leading that earned him ridicule last season, says, "With all the criticism last year about the NBA having no TV future, you began to wonder if the game really isn't dull, if it isn't all decided in the last five minutes, if the players don't have a strict take-the-money-and-run attitude. It has been different this year. I feel that the athletes understood they had to contribute. There is a subtle black-and-white issue here. I think the big stars have come to feel there are a lot of kids on the playgrounds of the big cities who need the same opportunity they had. It's not that pro ball is the answer for most black kids, but the players realize they have a pretty good thing, and they don't want that door closed on those kids. I also think the players have tried harder in the games televised nationally."