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·4 min read
Teams with superstars generally win in the NBA, but you might not realize just how few exceptions there are to that rule. Prior to this year, 31 of the past 33 NBA champions had a current or former MVP on the roster.
Since the MVP award was first given out, 65 of the 67 NBA Finals featured a player who had won it. The two outliers: 1977, which had ABA MVP Julius Erving, and 1990, which had the previous year’s Finals MVP Joe Dumars.
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By that criterion, the 2024 NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks will be the first in league history without a “proven” superstar. Jayson Tatum has only finished as high as fourth in MVP voting, while Luka Doncic received the third-most votes this season.
If we include off-court indicators of stardom into the analysis, then this year’s title series isn’t unique, but it’s still far from the norm. The highest-paid player in the Finals is Doncic, whose $52 million in earnings this season from both salary and endorsem*nts lands him at No. 14 on the list. The 2023 NBA Finals also didn’t feature anyone in the top 10, since Nikola Jokic’s sponsorship deals don’t quite stack up to what you’d expect from a three-time MVP. But you have to go all the way back to 2005 to find another Finals with no representation among the league’s 10 highest-paid players.
Using Instagram followers as a proxy for fame, this series does have a household name in Kyrie Irving, one of only four NBA players with at least 20 million followers on the platform, as well as Doncic, who ranks 15th. But the Celtics’ personalities have yet to catch on with the masses, as Tatum (No. 19), Jaylen Brown (No. 30) and Kristaps Porziņģis (No. 45) trail guys like LeBron James and Stephen Curry by an order of magnitude.
For better or for worse, this is not exactly a star-studded NBA Finals, and that's been in keeping with the playoffs in general. James lost in the first round, Kevin Durant was swept, Curry missed the postseason entirely, Kawhi Leonard suited up for two games, and Giannis Antetokounmpo was sidelined with an injury.
TV ratings indicate that fans miss their beloved 2010s figures—through the first three rounds, viewership is down 14% year-over-year. It’s worth noting, however, that overall TV usage was down 7% during that time span. Throw in the fact that 2023 audiences were treated to a 50-point Game 7 from Steph in the first round in addition to a second round LeBron vs. Curry showdown, and the viewership decline doesn’t seem too bad after all. The 4.35 million viewers the networks have averaged per playoff game this year are just 4% short of 2022’s 4.53 million average despite an overall TV usage drop of 17%.
The first three consecutive Cavs vs. Warriors Finals series were the three most-watched of the post-Jordan era of the NBA, but the league was never going to be able to ride that high forever, nor does it need to. While ABC likely cares about the bottom line numbers, the additional casuals who tune in only when one of the most famous people on the planet is involved aren’t the folks the NBA needs to court.
Luka has averaged 31.1 points per game in his postseason career, second all-time behind only Michael Jordan. Fans may not have realized it yet, but they are likely witnessing the early stages of a historically great career.
A Mavs win could catapult Dončić to a new level of fame similar to Antetokounmpo’s rise after winning the 2021 Finals MVP. The Greek Freak is now the leader in endorsem*nt earnings among all NBA players aged 35 or under, with a $45 million haul last year. By comparison, Dončić brought in $12 million off the court in 2023, showing how much room he has to grow his brand.
This championship series features a record 13 international players, surpassing the 2013 Finals which had 10. A third non-American Finals MVP in the span of three years would further the league’s goal of expanding its global reach heading into the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
If the Celtics win relatively easily, they will be crowned as one of the best teams of all-time after going 64-18 in the regular season with the fourth-best point differential ever. In a weak Eastern Conference, they should be back in the years to come.
No MVPs? No problem. Dončić is one of the most skilled offensive players in the history of the sport, and the 2024 Celtics had the most efficient offense of all-time. Anyone who isn’t excited about this matchup isn’t much of a basketball fan, anyway.
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