CNN
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Welcome to Trendlines, your weekly installment of what’s trending up and what’s trending down in sports.
This week we’re talking about the NBA Finals, and the emergence of the small market team.
Think about the iconic NBA franchises: The Los Angeles Lakers, the Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls and, if you indulge me, the New York Knickerbockers.
This NBA Finals features two nicknames to never win an NBA title: the Thunder and Pacers.
These two teams are from not-so-iconic American cities: Oklahoma City and Indianapolis.
So let’s start there with a big downswing.
I’m being a bit charitable here with being down 3 million. I’ve rounded down. Indianapolis has a little over 1 million homes in its media market. Oklahoma City has well under a million. Combined they have a little less than 2 million homes.
What a change from 2024 when the Finals teams (Boston and Dallas) each have over 2 million homes in their media markets.
But it’s not just from last year from which we’ve seen a tremendous shift. Indeed, I plugged in the current media market size for every Finals team since the early 1980s.
Based on the current rankings, this is the Finals with the smallest teams’ media markets in at least the last 40 years.
It’s not just the media markets where we can see how the Pacers and Thunder are small markets. Take a look at the valuation for each franchise.
Both teams are worth under $4 billion. Now, that is still a billion with a “b”, but last year the two teams were worth about $5 billion on average.
The fact that we have one small market team in the Finals isn’t that unusual. Both of these teams have been in the finals before.
What makes this year truly unique is that we have two teams worth so little at the same time. In fact, there hasn’t been an NBA Finals’ with two teams in the bottom 10 in the league in terms of worth since at least the early 1990s.
Small market doesn’t mean unexciting. Tyrese Haliburton ridiculously clutch shooting in Game 1 proves that.
What makes Haliburton’s production so amazing is he was still 24 on February 1 of this year. He’s one of 18 players who have suited up for these squads who were under 25 on that date.
That’s a record since at least the early 1980s
These are young and fresh players beyond just Haliburton. Thunder’s star Jalen Williams clocks in at a mere 24 years old. His teammate Chet Holmgren is 23.
We’re looking at squads that could be good for years to come.
Dare I say that, by the time it’s all done, it may be Bulls, Celtics, Knicks, Lakers… and Pacers or Thunder on the pantheon of iconic NBA teams.
