NBA TV ratings are down this season and one league official believes the absence of New Orleans Pelicans rookie Zion Williamson is one reason why.
Williamson was a force for the Pelicans in the preseason, but a knee injury forced the 2019 No. 1 overall pick to go under the knife before even stepping on an NBA floor for a regular season game.
The NBA gave the Pelicans a bunch of national TV games because the prevailing thought was fans around the world wanted to see Williamson play, per Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports:
According to a league official who requested anonymity, in 22 of the first 35 national TV games (ESPN, ABC, TNT), at least one star was missing from the game (63 percent). Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, Kyrie Irving, Paul George, Kawhi Leonard and Klay Thompson count as stars.
So does Zion Williamson.
The total has risen some, but as of Thursday it’s at 50 percent — still a whopping number of games missing stars.
“The Pelicans games were put on almost exclusively because of him,” the official told Yahoo Sports. “So his absence hurt us big time because they were on [national TV] so much early, and it hurt the spotlight on those games.”
Williamson is expected to make his regular season debut on Jan. 22 against the San Antonio Spurs barring a late setback.
The NBA can't expect Williamson alone to make the ratings higher, but his return to the Pelicans' lineup will surely help.
New Orleans is currently 14th in the Western Conference standings with a 15-26 record, though it is worth noting that they are only four games behind the eighth seed.
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