NBA fans and media members alike haven’t been shy in voicing their complaints on social media about the presentation quality of the 2025 NBA Finals. But, to the league’s credit, they have been open to change in regards to catering to what viewers at home want to see both before and during NBA Finals games.
Among the many complaints about ABC’s NBA Finals broadcast throughout the series have been about the lack of on-court decals separating the NBA Finals from a regular-season NBA game, an overwhelming amount of references to the NBA’s partnership with YouTube TV, and the lack of a pregame introduction for both teams.
Not every attempted fix has worked for the NBA, which was shown in the criticisms of the league’s attempt at implementing a pair of digitally imposed on-court Larry O’Brien Trophy decals that were largely seen as low quality.
But one universally praised change was pregame introductions returning for Game 5 of the series between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers, which were last seen in 2013.
One could argue that both the NBA and ABC could have better prepared for this year’s NBA Finals so that these changes would have never needed to come mid-series in the first place.
But in the eyes of Rob Perez, better known to some as World Wide Wob on X, and ESPN’s Frank Isola, who spoke to Front Office Sports on the matter recently, the NBA should at least receive some credit for paying attention and adjusting to feedback from its audience on social media.
“It does not take a genius to realize the most controversial trending Twitter topics about players were discussed on the broadcast, and the most viral complaints regarding the game presentation’s lack of pageantry were remedied the very next game,” said Perez “I certainly commend the NBA for keeping the feedback line open and acting on what their fans desire, but also worry that they can be so easily influenced by a small, loud faction. The Board of Governors’ vote was obviously an exaggeration, but maybe an ambassador to Secaucus is not out of the question to streamline communication between the viewers and the business.”
“It’s kind of odd that they waited until Game 5 to do it, right?” said Isola about the return of the pregame introductions. “People like the player introductions. It gives the games a big feel. This was the one time where the pressure from social media has been good*.* Because it certainly influences how these teams and the league are covered.”
Make no mistake, the NBA clearly has a long way to go to reach the kind of production that we see in other sports championships, like the Super Bowl in the NFL, and even the World Series in MLB, which featured a pregame appearance from Ice Cube last year in Los Angeles.
But at the very least, the NBA has clearly shown to be open to hearing criticism and change, which gives us hope that we could see year-over-year improvement to the NBA Finals broadcast in future years.