Time out for NBA, NHL

Thanks to the Dallas Mavericks, who appeared as eager to start their summer vacations as the members of the Miami Heat, the pro basketball season ended last night, a day after the pro hockey season concluded.

So let's assess why it is the NBA remains relatively popular as a TV draw, while the NHL is in danger of being lapped in the Nielsen ratings by Arena Football.

With 11 million total viewers for last night's Game 6, the NBA doubled the NHL's audience from Monday (5.45 million viewers), even though hockey had the added attraction of a Game 7 matchup and the thrilling return from a 3-games-to-1 deficit by the Edmonton Oilers.

I'm not saying there is any one reason why the NBA continues to dominate its fellow winter sport when the two-month playoff cycle begins in April, and why, at the end, few people pay attention to who's hoisting Lord Stanley's Cup but everyone seems to know (before the game begins, in this case) who the NBA Finals MVP is.

But one big reason is the TV coverage.  Look at ABC.  They've got a camera on a clothesline. They used it tentatively at first, but now they'll televise long stretches of NBA games just using that one camera. If you've got a big screen TV, especially of the HD variety, you know how much more enjoyable watching a game from right above the floor can be. The clothesline-cam sometimes misses the fast breaks and can't track some outlet passes, but you can't deny that NBA television coverage has improved from the days of Marv and the Czar of the Telestrater on NBC.

Now compare that with NBC's coverage of Game 7. I am amazed that after all these years, nobody has figured out how to televise a hockey game. When the puck goes into the boards on the camera side of the ice, it vanishes. And there you are, frantically scanning the frame, waiting for the puck to re-emerge. It's idiotic. Actually, I think NBC's coverage has gone backwards since ESPN/ABC had the rights to the NHL. NBC will probably argue that it has as many cameras on the ice as ESPN/ABC did. But they are not nearly as well deployed or directed as they were when the NHL was at ESPN/ABC.

There are other reasons the NHL is unpopular: the strike, the addiction to fighting (a big turn-off for me), the nonexistent marketing, the fact that it's hockey ... but even if you fix all of those you still have to present it in hi-def so that people can't turn away from it. Until then, the NHL is doomed to getting lapped by college lacrosse, the WNBA, and any other sporting events that have made the leap into the 21st century.