2025 EAST FINALS: (3) New York Knicks Vs. (4) Indiana Pacers

Are you playing?

 

Towns has been hooping his heart out…my opinion and preconceived notions of him have a changed a little bit

 

Crazy that Haliburton just turned 25, we probably haven't even seen the best of him yet.

Probably will be a top 5 player at his peak, if he's not already.

 

Officiating very New York-centric to open this game, as expected.

 

Why is it that the NBA suffers from this the most? If it was an Indiana-OKC Super Bowl, u wouldn’t be seeing so much discourse about neither of them being a big market or not having MJ/Bron/Steph/*insert incredibly popular generational star playing

 

most overrated should be reserved for Gobert or Evan Mobley

 

Thibs cannot get them easy buckets.......what a waste.

Seems so forced.

 

Maybe the NBA is more popular in cities and doesn't pull in as much of an audience from vast, sparsely-populated rural areas? Them country boys love their football

Just a hypothesis, could be dead wrong

 

The players matter more. There's a lot less of them per team so they're bigger stars/bigger fish in their pond so to speak. The NBA also I think has more of a "cool factor" with its stars that other sports don't necessarily have as much. There's a reason MJ is the guy who had a shoe that became that successful despite basketball at the time not even really being that much of a global sport, and it isn't just that the shoes are great. Have you ever seen footage of Kobe in China or Japan or wherever the **** it was? Basketball players have a certain mystique in a way that the player sells a lot more than the team. It's very common here in Europe to find people who don't even support teams, they either just follow their star player, or jump from player to player throughout their careers. I know people who've supported the Bulls then Lakers then Warriors straight up. I think more of the NFL fans I know (hockey and baseball are SUPER niche tbh) tend to support the franchise, but the teams are marketed better than the players overseas. Do NFL players have shoe deals? Basketball is just player-centric in a way that other sports aren't I think.

 

I see some Mitchell Robinson.

 

these same people in the densely populated cities aren’t focused on market size and watching only the most popular superstars when it comes to the NFL

the NFL version of the Pacers going up against whoever won the MVP putting up dominant stats for 1 of the youngest teams in the league…hardly anyone would be talking about market size or skipping that matchup because there’s no Tom Brady or Mahomes

 

Okc in 4. Whoever wins this series.

 

with the way Brunson has been having his way with the Pacers averaging 33 ppg on 48% shooting heading into this game, them trying to guard Shai could get very ugly

he will dog walk Haliburton, Nembhard, and Nesmith

 

I agree that the NBA is more player-driven than the other sports, but the league doesn’t even try to promote the non-glamor markets or younger stars…they’re still holding onto 40 y/o Bron and ancient Steph being the face of the league

Pacers play objectively good basketball and the Thunder are 1 of the youngest teams in the league, have the MVP, and are absolute dawgs on defense while playing unselfishly on offense…but the ratings will be weak because neither are large markets

Pacers will be lucky if they get more than 10 combined games on NBC and ESPN next season while Boston with no Tatum or the sorry ass Sixers with unreliable Embiid get double

young Pistons team with Cade might not even get much more than 5 national TV games, but they’ll give the Suns 20 if KD wasn’t about to get traded

 

Oh yeah there's no argument, most people here have never even heard of the Rockets never mind the Thunder lol. Everyone knows the Lakers, Bulls etc though, obviously.

 

Not a good game by the Pacers and OKC has the Knicks' and Thibs' numbers......

 

Looks like Halliburton left his heart back in Indy. Hope he finds it after they fly back.

 

Not a good effort tonight. Passive and sloppy from the get-go