Interesting, NBA President Adam Xiao Hua responds to fans discussions about NBA ratings

The NBA Finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers were exciting. Adam Xiao Hua is not interested in the discussion of ratings.

As the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers continue to compete in the 2025 NBA Finals, somehow, ratings remain the focus of discussion. Shea Gilgers-Alexander and Tyres Halliburton, two rising stars, are struggling to lead their respective teams to the first NBA championship in team history, and Adam Silver hopes this will be the focus of discussion.

Before the NBA Finals, Xiao Hua specifically talked about the discussion of ratings.

Adam Xiao Hua responded to fans' discussions about ratings

In the Eastern and Western Conference Finals, the NBA's playoff ratings have increased this season, and social media views have also increased significantly.

In the 2025 Eastern Conference Finals, the Indiana Pacers vs. the New York Knicks, with an average of 7 million viewers, which is 10% higher than the Boston Celtics vs. the Pacers last year.

This is also the highest ratings in the Eastern Conference Finals that ended within six or six games in the past 11 years.

In the 2025 Western Conference Finals, the Oklahoma City Thunder played against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Although the performance was not as strong as the Eastern Conference Finals, the average number of viewers in the five-game series was still watched by 5.59 million viewers.

However, overall, the 2025 NBA playoffs have an average of 4.5 million viewers on ABC, ESPN and TNT, 3% higher than last year's playoffs.

Therefore, when NBA President Adam Xiao Hua talks about ratings at the annual NBA Finals media meeting, he will definitely express his feelings.

"I often think about this," Xiao Hua said before the first game.

"I mean, on the one hand, I'm following Mike Bass, the head of messaging, and I'm glad everyone is talking about us. I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing. There's so much discussion about ratings in the league, which seems a little unusual. Again, as I said, I love all sports, I'm also following a lot of media, and it seems that there are more discussions. Even for me, walking down the street, there are fans coming over and asking me, which is frustrating because their first words are 'how are the ratings', or 'wow, you just reached two great Eastern Conference Finals. Your playoff series is really great.' So I can't say what's the reason."

fans on social media have been complaining about ratings for weeks, as if it had some impact on their lives. But most of the complaints are caused by some of the alliance's network partners, who focus more on the negative factors than the positive factors of the alliance.

"Before he left the league office," Silver continued, "I remember Joe Dumars saying to me, 'It's just a problem with the NBA.' Just like we self-criticism is part of the NBA culture, focusing on the bad aspects rather than the good aspects is also part of the league culture. To be honest, I think that has permeated our coverage."

"I mean, maybe the league office should sometimes look for better ways to promote our sports, but I've embraced that fact."

These ratings discussions don't even cover the amount of video views on social media, which is the channel for a large portion of NBA fans to watch.

As of the 2025 Playoff Eastern Conference Finals, the NBA's viewing volume on all social media platforms has hit a record 32 billion views, an increase of 62% from last year, according to Videocites.

Oklahoma City Thunder star Shay Gilgers Alexander had the highest number of views on NBA social media accounts during the Eastern Conference Finals, reaching 864 million times. Gilgers Alexander is also the seventh-ranked player in the regular season social media viewing volume, with a total of 1.06 billion views.

"This may have been due to a period when the early league games were dominated by several teams," added Xiao Hua. “So people start talking more about if one of the teams isn’t playing, it’s definitely a bad thing for the league.” Obviously, to make my point clear and clear, I love what’s going on right now. I have always advocated for these changes. I think it's a good thing that two so-called small markets compete with each other, but I'm not even sure if it's fair to describe it like this.

"I think what we want in the end is a league like this: If you're a basketball fan, then for granted, you'll want to go and watch the Finals because it's the most exciting basketball game so far. The two teams went through a tough, competitive and long regular season and finally advanced to the fourth round, the Finals, and now they're finally here. So I don't want to complain too much about it because I'd rather people talk about us than people don't, but I think it's just part of this league culture."

The first NBA Finals reportedly dropped in 2025, but this game is one of the most viewing NBA Finals in recent years. The second game between the Oklahoma City Thunder vs. the Indiana Pacers will be held Sunday at 8:30 PM ET.