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What does it all mean? (dramatic hand wringing)
From the pen (sort of) of the AJC's Tim Tucker, an article on the top ranked cities of the NBA Finals in viewership and what towns are watching.
Listed near the top are the cities you would expect to see given the participants (Miami, West Palm Beach, Tulsa, Oklahoma City). Also listed are some interesting cities.
Cleveland is ranked fifth, probably watching to root for/against their former (or current, depending on how you took The Decision) hometown hero LeBron James.
New Orleans and Memphis are also in the Top 10, as is San Antonio. Chicago wraps up the top 10, meaning New York is bitter unless the Knicks are involved, as is Los Angeles.
Seattle is not listed here either, so obviously no kinship with the Thunder.
But who is the other city in the Top Ten?
Why, no other than the Atlanta Hawks, who is regularly among the top TV watchers of the sport. Despite an impressive #9 ranking in a town that is historically dumped on for being a poor sports town, Tucker notes that even more folks might've watched if they hadn't been glued to yet another sports event on TV.
NBC's 6 1/2-hour telecast of the final round of the Open drew a 6.0 rating in Atlanta, including 7.1 for the 2 ½ prime-time hours that overlapped with the NBA game and 7.6 for the finish.
The NBA rating jumped to 18.9 in Atlanta for the conclusion of the Heat victory as many golf viewers switched to the waning minutes of the basketball game after Webb Simpson won the Open at San Francisco's Olympic Club at about 10:30 p.m. EDT.
The overall television average for Game Three was 13.1, meaning approximately 13 percent of the nation's households were watching. Atlanta has averaged 13.6 for the series.
Exit Question: What does this say, if anything, about Atlanta as a sports town?