Traina Thoughts: NBA Playoff Ratings Are Up as Adam Silver Continues to Get Things Right

The NBA, which encourages fans to post highlights on social media, is getting a postseason ratings bump.

David Liam Kyle/Getty Images

1. The NBA has gotten good ratings news through the first two rounds of the 2018 playoffs.

TNT had its most-viewed second-round coverage since 2013, averaging 4.9 million viewers, which is up six percent over last year. The network's studio showInside the NBA is averaging two million viewers, also up six percent. Overall, the playoffs are up on all networks.

What makes the ratings news interesting is that just last week, commissioner Adam Silver talked about how the NBA has no issue with fans posting highlight videos on social media platforms—something MLB and the NFL refuse to embrace.

"We promote the posting of our highlights," said Silver. "The highlights are identified through YouTube’s software, and when ads are sold against them, we share in the revenue. We analogize our strategy to snacks versus meals. If we provide those snacks to our fans on a free basis, they’re still going to want to eat meals—which are our games. There is no substitute for the live game experience. We believe that greater fan engagement through social media helps drive television ratings."

Take a lesson, MLB. Let your fans have their snacks. Stop sending copyright infrigement notices and let your audience help you promote your game. It will only help you. If you don't believe this, just look at the NBA.

2. Sixers coach Brett Brown had his season-ending press conference with the Philadephia media on Friday and gave us the Quote of the Day.

3. This is why ESPN legend Bob Ley won an Emmy award this week.

4. Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor bet his former high school team that they couldn't go 25-0. They did. So Lindor had to get his head shaved.

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5. At least Akbar Gbaja-Biamila had a sense of humor about his horrendous first pitch before Thursday's Giants-Phillies game.

.@Phillies, I think somebody deflated my baseball ⚾️ pic.twitter.com/Gj6nkU2ShN

— Akbar Gbajabiamila (@Akbar_Gbaja) May 10, 2018

6. I can't remember hearing too many stories over the years of a WWE superstar going to Vince McMahon, being told not to do something and then doing it anyway. That's reportedly what happened this week with Big Cass. Hopefully, the big guy just gets punished and doesn't hear Vince's famous phrase.

[youtube:https://youtu.be/cNX_wGyKhmM]

7. The newest episode of the SI Media Podcast features two interviews with people NBA fans on social media are very familiar with. J.E. Skeets and Tas Melas, two of the four hosts of the The Starters on NBA TV join the podcast to discuss how they went from old-school bloggers and podcasters to hosting a daily show on the league's television network. They also offer advice to podcasters, talk about what it's like to work for the league, reveal whether they get sick of each other and more.

Following Skeets and Melas, NBA Twitter personality Rob Perez, aka @World_Wide_Wob, comes on the podcast to talk about how he's become a social media influencer in the NBA world, whether he's ever heard from the NBA or a network about ripping video highlights, how he goes about posting all those clips, whether he's addcited to Twitter and more.

You can listen to the podcast below or download it on iTunes.

8. RANDOM SEINFELD VIDEO OF THE DAY: "Ladies and gentlemen, it's our good friend, George Costanza!"

Traina Thoughts is the best of the Internet, plus musings by SI.com writer, Jimmy Traina. Get the link to a new Traina's Thoughts each day by following on Twitter and liking on Facebook. Catch up on previous editions of Traina Thoughts right here. And make sure to listen to and subscribe to the SI Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina.

IN CLOSING: Pretty cold blooded to fire a coach because his team got completely steamrolled by LeBron James.