Rob Parker: OKC Thunder Are The New San Antonio Spurs in a BAD Way

Rob Parker: OKC Thunder Are The New San Antonio Spurs in a BAD Way

I got bad news for you when it comes to the Thunder. The Thunder are the new San Antonio Spurs, but in a bad way because all the numbers that come out remind me of what the Spurs were. And and this and here’s the thing. The Spurs at least were boring. You know what I mean? Fundamentally sound, not that exciting, right? But they won. The Thunder got something going on and people don’t seem to be interested or be be enamored with this team. And I’m already here to predict that it will that you know when the Pacers beat the Knicks, it will be the lowest rated finals in the post uh co era. I I’m I’m convinced of that. And let me tell you about the Spurs. You ready? Mhm. Spurs had were in two of the lowest NBA finals precoid. 2007 versus the Cavs and 2003 against the New Jersey Nets. Just awful, right? Small market kind of like, you know, we talk about you you say this all the time, baseball’s regional. Mhm. NBA can be very regionable. region regional as well if it’s not involving the big teams and we’ve seen that’s true and we have seen that very true cuz there’s no reason why people should be afraid to tune in to watch SGA right and this rising star and this unbelievable team with the numbers and the defense and all the stuff that has piled up this isn’t a team that backed their way in and oh my god I can’t believe they were a wild card and somehow something happened and uh two players ran into each other and they picked up the ball and laid it up and won the game. Do you know what I mean? This is not like the Keystone Cops. They dominated all year. All year. All year. Even at one point thinking they might be uh you know challenging the uh Golden State Warriors for the most wins in the regular season. They were ahead of them for a while. That’s what I mean, right? And none of it seems to matter. And I get it. Uh the blowouts and the games, people watched the uh dream team. Any of those games competitive? Any of those games competitive? The dream the original dream team? No. Oh, no. They would win it by like 45. Oh, okay. People watched it. They still wanted to see the demolition of it. Do you do you know what I mean? Like sometimes you do want to see uh the fire and you do want to watch and see even the train. Exactly. You do. And the Gawkers, you know that. So I I if I’m the NBA, I’m a little worried here that this new hotness of the NBA is only new hotness in Oklahoma City and maybe the surrounding areas, but not the United States proper cuz this is not a good thing. and and anybody who challenged me and tell me that if the Pacers are playing cuz again the Pacers and being regional, right, the Pacers and OKC will rank as one of the lowest rated finals. I already know that. Well, I don’t I don’t disagree at all. And if you’re the NBA, you’re praying Jaylen Brunson goes crazy like he did last night and pulls off a stunning, you know, comeback from down three to one against the Pacers. Uh, a couple of things we’ve talked about and I mentioned this earlier in the week and even last week actually I think it was last Friday I mentioned that some of the issues that the Thunder have to to add to your point is that they don’t have the coupling meaning okay you got the MVP but who’s the other guy right usually we get them in pairs you got Scotty and Michael Sha and Kobe Kareem and Magic Bird and Male or Robert Por it’s just really SGA now Jaylen Williams is really good and Chad is on his way to being a really good player. Williams was allar. Yeah, but everybody always when your team wins a bunch of game the No, but I’m just saying Kyle Corver was an all-star in like 2016 or 15 or something like that because his team was by far the best record in the Eastern Conference at Atlanta Hawk. They had Al Horford, Joe Johnson, uh somebody else and Kyle Corver. So, it happens where when you’re the by far leading your conference with the record, you’re going to get multiple allstars. happens all the time. So, they don’t have that. I mentioned they don’t have a name of the team. Usually, when you’re really this good, you get something, Rob. You get a Splash Brothers, a Showtime, a Detroit basketball. They don’t have it. Right now, they’re just the Thunder. They’re not the Heels. They’re nothing like that. And usually you have that and it brings some type of thing. People want to watch you. So, only thing is the teams you all mentioned just bigger markets. I’m I’m OKC is a really small market. So is San Antonio. I really believe market size brothers and you know Oakley wasn’t that big. Nah, but that’s that’s next to San Francisco. But I think if they had that’s the region, the Bay Area, you don’t but I mean if they and I get your point, but I’m saying if they had something right now it’s just man, they just play a lot of defense with a bunch of guys that you don’t know outside of one or two guys. So here’s what I’m thinking and hoping or if you’re Adam Silver you’re praying for. It reminds me, Rob, of JCole versus Drake. Nas versus Jay-Z. It’s one of those purest things, right? Jay-Z can wrap his butt off, but he got he knows he goes to go a little commercial, make some commercial hits, and and kind of be played on a bunch of different station. Nas in his prime was more of a just straight up word smmith storyteller, a pure hip-hop appist. JCole when he first comes out he was trying to go pop in and men mainstream and it didn’t really work because at his heart he’s a purist he’s a hip-hop artist and rapper Drake who can rap is much more mainstream much more pop and I say that to say you hope that basketball purist would tune in to to the Thunder and Pacers basketball lovers who love the game who love it at a high level high quality basketball high IQ basketball would tune in and enjoy it and make it something and the ratings maybe wouldn’t suffer as bad as we predict they would. So that’s what the NBA is banking on that the purists will show up like they show up for Nas, like they show up for JCole, like they show up for Kendrick, even though they may not be the most commercial ally of Lakers, Allah a Knicks or Allah, you know, the Warriors or something Boston, some of these mainstream bluebud teams. That’s what you’re hoping for. Otherwise, if it’s just Pacers and Thunder, yeah, we might see I’m predicting maybe a 15% drop from last year. Well, outside of the bubble, game five versus Minnesota was the least watched Western Conference final game since 2013. Yeah. Yeah. The full fivegame series, Thunder versus Timberwolves, averaged 5.59 million, down 17%. From the Mavericks and Timberwolves just a year ago, and it was the least watched conference final since 2021. So that’s four years. So, there’s just a lot of bad numbers. And if it was a fluke team, I could see it. This is a team that all year, right, them and Cleveland were winning at a high clip. So, people were prepared for this all year knowing like, oh, okay. Wow, SGA is going to do his thing. Wow, they did it. We thought that they were too young. Like, there’s an intrigue that should be there. That’s what I’m saying. Like, this should This is why I was telling you, Rob, I I’m with you last yesterday. I was saying if they had closer games where we saw SGA go on. Remember when LeBron was playing the Pistons and he scores 25 straight and we’re like, “Oh my gosh, look, this kid has arrived. He had a moment and whoa, LeBron’s been good, but he can’t do it against the Cavs or the Celtics in that game six.” I’m saying if SGA on the along the way was having closer games where he could remind people or show people, I can close out. I can outduel Ant Edwards. I think that would have added to the intrigue when you’re blowing everybody out. I still don’t think it would have been I I I agree. It would be a lesser to but it would help some. You get what I mean? Cuz you woo man that boy I’m telling you man he had to drop 50 on he don’t have to drop 50 cuz the games aren’t close. I just think people are really it depends on who’s playing and people are into just like when I just gave you like the Nets with Jason Kidd. They went to two finals I think in a row 023. Yeah. Right. And had terrible rate. Nobody in New York watched those like like they could care less like which is crazy. There was Ali oops and they had a fun team KD shooting threes that was actually a pretty fun team. Like you wouldn’t even know that they were that they were even in the finals. You know what I mean? I wonder if that was Spurs more than like No, I think Spurs because Well, New Jersey New Jersey doesn’t even have a TV market, you know? Do you know what I mean? Like like it’s the weirdest. Oh, it’s just New York. Yeah, it’s they don’t have a TV market. So, so they’re kind of in no man’s land. South Jersey is the 76ers. Above Jersey and New York and the Knicks. And then right in Northern New Northern New Jersey is where the Nets play. Yeah. I wonder what that what the Nets spur uh Nets Lakers was. What was that? 02. Yes. What that 02 was? Rob G has it. Yeah. You ask and you shall receive. Oh, dang. Rob G. All right. That’s why you goated Rob G. So, here we go. 2002 Lakers Nets did a 10.2 million viewers a 10.2 rating. The following season, those same Nets taking on the Santos Spurs in a series that went six games, two more games than the previous series with Lakers mopped the floor with them dropped 40%. Yeah. See, yeah, that’s what I mean. Like Spurs, you’re right. That I’m saying that did not help because meaning the Nets was a fun team against the Lakers. All right. Right. But I’m saying that’s why I think OKC is the new Spurs and and that’s even though they won the five championships spread out over 20 years. It it really wasn’t a feast for the NBA. I do wonder Rob G and maybe you can hit us with these numbers after the break. But when it had the Spurs heat those Heles that had been fun cuz those two series were great. One where the you know Ray Ray Allen one of them was low right? Oh no Cleveland I’m sorry. Yeah. And then the next year the uh Spurs get their revenge. So I’d imagine those different because you got LeBron in it and so that’s going to where But I’m with you, man. Okay. See, that’s what I said, dude. That they’re just they’re they have a collegiate way of scoring. I mean, it’s a bunch of different guys you don’t know, and it’s great for them, and it makes them play the basketball the right way, but it isn’t the most entertaining.

THE ODD COUPLE: RobParker tells Kelvin Washington why the OKC Thunder are like the Tim Duncan-led San Antonio Spurs of the past.

► SUBSCRIBE: http://bit.ly/FSRYT_SUB
► Twitter: https://twitter.com/foxsportsradio/
► TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@foxsportsradio
► Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/foxsportsradio/
► LISTEN LIVE: https://foxsportsradio.iheart.com/listen
► Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/foxsportsradio/