What does the NFL have that the NBA is lacking?

The NBA doesn’t have anything like a Super Bowl

BY HENRY ABBOTT, JAROD HECTOR, TRAVIS MORAN, and DAVID THORPE

The NBA is popular and has a big PR team armed with facts and figures to prove it. But they’re only so convincing.

In last week’s AFC championship game, 57.4 million people watched the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Buffalo Bills. Many Super Bowls have had reported viewing audiences in excess of 110 million people.

When prime Michael Jordan walked on water through a close-fought NBA Finals, the NBA mustered the league’s biggest-ever one-game audience of 35.9 million viewers. Last June’s Finals averaged 5.8 million viewers. [CORRECTION: Last June’s Finals had a 5.8 average rating, which in real terms means an average of 11.3 million viewers.] A few weeks ago, the NBA had an instant classic from the league’s two best teams: The nationally televised Cavaliers vs. Thunder drew 1.87 million viewers.

The NBA numbers are small enough you don’t bring that big game up to a stranger—when less than one percent of Americans watch something, y…