Not only did LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers make the greatest comeback in NBA Finals history to dethrone the Golden State Warriors, they broke viewership, social media and souvenir sales records as well.
The NBA on Tuesday announced that the epic seven-game series was the US’ most watched NBA championship final since 1998, when Michael Jordan won the last of his six career crowns, as well as the most-viewed NBA game ever on digital platforms in China.
US telecaster ABC averaged 20.215 million viewers per game, its best-ever figures, with the thrilling series showdown luring an average of 31.018 million viewers, peaking at 44.807 million viewers to become the third-most-watched NBA game on record.
Photo: AP
In China, an NBA Finals-record 65.9 million total viewers watched the series live on Tencent’s digital assets, with Game 7’s 15.3 million viewers a record for any NBA game in China on digital platforms. Across social media, the NBA Finals sparked a record 5.2 billion impressions and 800 million video views.
Game 7 of the finals induced 337,000 Twitter postings per minute, the top-tweeted moment in finals history and most-tweeted US sports moment so far this year.
The Cavaliers-Warriors showdown was the most-talked about NBA Finals ever on Facebook, with a record 43 million people posting, liking, sharing and commenting more than 269 million times.
On Vine, the NBA ranked No. 1 last week among all accounts with 76.5 million loops.
NBA.com and the NBA App recorded a record 1.9 billion page views and 1.4 billion video views respectively, eclipsing the respective previous records of 1.1 billion and 400 million set during last year’s NBA Finals.
A free NBA emoji app unveiled during the finals ranked first in the sports section of the App Store and NBA Finals-related emojis were used more than 800,000 times.
The NBA online store generated record-breaking merchandise sales, up almost 50 percent from last year’s record totals.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB