San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama invited fans out to New York’s Washington Square Park to play chess on Saturday, despite the dismal rainy weather. “Who wants to meet me at the SW corner of Washington Square Park to play chess? I’m there,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Bleacher Report caught up with the French basketball player at the park. “So… I was just… I don’t know, I was just feeling like it.”
Wemby’s outing comes as the NBA is experiencing a major drop in regular season viewership. The league is currently averaging 1.6 million viewers per game, a 50% decline over last year — and claims that Christmas Day games brought in 84% more viewers than last year are being met with skepticism by many.
On Thursday, the NBA said that the five games played on Christmas brought in an average of 5.25 million viewers per game, a boost from the previous year. The Lakers vs. Warriors game averaged 7.76 million viewers, peaking with 8.32 million viewers at 10:30 p.m. ET, a nearly 500% increase over 2023.
But there’s a catch, OutKick noted the same day. Last year, three of the five games aired only on ESPN. But this year, all five games were broadcast on ESPN and ABC, which helped boost the numbers. The NBA was also up against three NFL games in 2023, but this year there were only two — the Chiefs vs. the Steelers and the Ravens vs. the Texans.
The outlet even questioned the Lakers vs. Warriors numbers feat. “ESPN put its sexiest matchup (LeBron vs. Curry) in primetime on ABC on Christmas (the day most Americans are home) without any competition from the NFL,” wrote Bobby Burack. “In past years, ESPN booked its sexiest matchup at 3:30 p.m. against a football game, leaving the primetime block exclusive to ESPN.”
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