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Jalen Brunson’s status as one of the greatest small guards in NBA history crystallized. A New York Knicks franchise starved of eternal glory exorcised its demons, finally basking in the cathartic elation that accompanies a league championship.
The Knicks wrote the final chapter of a storybook season that included a 13-game playoff win streak, part of which came at the expense of San Antonio Spurs wunderkind Victor Wembanyama. The otherworldly Frenchman’s talent was on display during an NBA Finals that, despite lasting only five games, proved cinematic.
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The series finished as the most-watched NBA Finals since Michael Jordan capped his “Last Dance” with the Chicago Bulls in 1998, according to ESPN PR.
This year’s Finals averaged 20.6 million viewers, a 100% increase in viewership from last year’s championship series, which saw the Oklahoma City Thunder outlast the Indiana Pacers in seven games, per ESPN. For reference, as reported by Sports Media Watch, Jordan’s Bulls defeating the Utah Jazz in six games in ’98 drew an average of a whopping 29.04 million viewers. That year, of course, Jordan collected his sixth ring, cementing his case as the NBA’s GOAT.
While this iteration of Knicks-Spurs is a distant second to that fabled Bulls series, at least in terms of ratings, it did surpass the 2017 NBA Finals in that category. A series that featured a rematch of LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers against a dynastic Golden State Warriors squad the year after the Cavs completed their unprecedented 3-1 comeback averaged 20.41 million viewers, per Sports Media Watch.
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The 2026 NBA Finals set an ABC and ESPN audience record. The series attracted the largest viewing audience of the day for each of its five games across all of television and in every key male and adult demo, according to ESPN.
This story is being updated.
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/sports-business/article/2026-nba-finals-knicks-spurs-most-watched-finals-since-michael-jordan-capped-last-dance-with-bulls-in-1998-214810687.html
Author : Andy Backstrom
Publish date : 2026-06-16 21:48:00
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