All you need to know about how far the Knicks have fallen: a sub-.500
record and a "race" for the final playoff berth is cause for
excitement.
Still, there is no denying the low-grade buzz surrounding the team as
it closes in on eighth place in the East and no denying that its
market dominance over the Nets is as strong as ever.
Last season, the Swamp Dragons drew tantalizingly close to Larry
Brown's train wreck in the objective measure of TV ratings.
The Knicks ended 2005-06 with an average of 1.19 percent of households
on MSG, which translates to about 88,000 homes. The Nets were not far
behind on YES at 1.00.
This season, the Knicks' average rating is 1.42, nearly double that of
the Nets, who have plummeted to 0.72 on YES.
Both times the teams played head-to-head, MSG has roughly tripled the
Nets' rating, including Feb. 25, when MSG did a 1.29, routing YES'
0.44.
Two morals of this story:
1. Marv Albert is as good as ever, but as everyone in TV knows,
ratings have little or nothing to do with announcers. (And anyway, MSG
has one of the best in Mike Breen, so that's mostly a wash.)
2. The Nets need to schlep to Brooklyn ASAP and build a franchise
identity after all these years.
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