There were numerous complaints about ESPN’s coverage of the 2025 NBA Draft’s first round on Wednesday night, and the viewership numbers appear to reflect those sentiments.
As first reported by Ryan Glasspiegel at Front Office Sports, ESPN and ABC combined to average 3.77 million viewers throughout the broadcast. That results in a 14.5 percent decline from last year’s coverage, which was the first time ESPN and ABC separated the first and second rounds over successive nights (4.41 million).
For reference, the 2023 first round, which featured French phenom Victor Wembanyama, averaged 4.93 million viewers per Sports Media Watch.
Despite the sagging overall numbers, Glasspiegel noted that the first half-hour of the draft broadcast was up four percent from last year. Consider it the Cooper Flagg Effect, as interest in the Duke phenom’s eventual selection by the Dallas Mavericks garnered interest. The discussion surrounding the Mavericks receiving the top overall pick following their trade of superstar Luka Dončić likely drew some interest (or at least some hate-watching).
Here’s the ESPN 2025 NBA Draft crew. 🏀📺🎙️ #NBA #NBADraft pic.twitter.com/5YsVmYC8WW
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 25, 2025
The drop-off probably has way less to do with ESPN/ABC’s much-maligned presentation than with the lack of household names in the draft pool. Given the changing nature of college basketball, it’s unlikely we’ll see many drafts in the years ahead where casual fans will be familiar with anyone past the first few picks—all the more reason to make the draft broadcast as engaging and enjoyable as possible.