Cavs' TV Ratings Surge in Cincy, Recalling When The Royals Reigned in Ohio

The Cleveland Cavaliers not only have The King, they are the kings when it comes to television ratings in Ohio.

The Akron Beacon Journal reported Tuesday that Fox Sports Ohio’s television ratings for Cavaliers games are up 27 percent overall from last year. Particularly encouraging are the numbers in the central and southern parts of the state.

Ratings are up 47 percent in Columbus. Apart from the NHL's Blue Jackets, fans there are frequently divided between Cleveland and Cincinnati when it comes to following pro sports—Browns vs. Bengals, Reds vs. Indians. But there’s no competition when it comes to the NBA. LeBron and the Cavaliers are the only game in town.

Now the Cavs' popularity is increasing in Cincinnati, too. Ratings there have jumped a whopping 93 percent this year, as the addition of Shaquille O’Neal has apparently improved the Cavaliers marquee value in the southernmost part of the state. That's no small feat, considering that Cincinnati is actually closer geographically to Indianapolis, home of the Indiana Pacers.

It's ironic because there was a time when Cincinnati was Ohio’s only pro basketball home, and the eyes of Cleveland turned there for a hoops fix. From 1957 to 1972, the Cincinnati Royals represented much of the Midwest as they matured along with the growing, but struggling National Basketball Association.

The Royals arrived in Cincinnati after nine seasons in Rochester, N.Y., where they won an NBA championship and reached the playoffs seven times. They would make the playoffs on seven more occasions during their 14-year run on the shores of the Ohio River, and during that time feature a few of the game’s most legendary names on their roster.

As a boy growing up in Northern Ohio, I was loyal to the Browns and Indians. But I quickly realized that, when it came to the NBA, the Royals were the team I would love. In the '60s they had the coolest uniforms, with the name “Royals” appearing vertically down the side of their jerseys. And they had one of the game’s greatest players, Oscar Robertson.

Robertson dominated the guard position from the time he arrived as a rookie out of the University of Cincinnati. The transition to the pro game was child’s play for the Big O, who averaged 30.5 points, 10.1 rebounds, and 9.7 assists a game his first year.

The following season, 1961-62, he established a statistical standard that remains unmatched, averaging a triple-double by tallying 30.8 points, 12.5 rebounds, and 11.4 points a game. It was an astonishing feat, second only to Wilt Chamberlain’s dizzying statistics during the same era.

Robertson would win an MVP award in 1964, after he was teamed with former Ohio State standout Jerry Lucas (both pictured above) to make the Royals a formidable championship contender. However, the franchise suffered from dubious ownership throughout their stay in Cincinnati making it difficult for the team to fulfill its budding potential.

I was a tad young to appreciate the Royals’ earliest years in the city when stars such as Jack Twyman, Maurice Stokes, and Wayne Embry patrolled the hardwood. As my childhood interest peaked, my loyalties were with players such Tom Van Arsdale, Norm Van Lier, Johnny Green, and Connie Dierking.

By the late 1960s, the Royals played occasional "home" games in other Midwestern cities, including about 10 a year in Cleveland. This practice, intended to build a broader fan base, also drew attention to Cleveland as a desirable location for an NBA franchise.

The Cavaliers entered the league in 1970 and gradually won the hearts of fans in Northern Ohio. Despite the hiring of the legendary Bob Cousy as coach in 1969, the Royals could not maintain enough fan support over the next three seasons. They moved in 1972 and became the Kansas City-Omaha Kings.

The pro basketball landscape was changing. When the Royals first set up shop in Cincinnati, the NBA was an eight-team operation. Like other pro leagues at the time, it was based in the eastern United States. Minneapolis and St. Louis were the farthest points west.

It was a simpler time, before multimillion-dollar player contracts and mega-deals for television rights. There was no ESPN or TNT, and there were no regional cable networks beaming every game, home and away, into our living rooms as they do today.

One "game of the week" appeared on network television. (You can see vintage footage on YouTube.) I would sit eagerly in front of our Zenith black-and-white set, watching Robertson, Russell, Chamberlain, West, and the other stars of that era as they literally built the foundation for the NBA we know today.

As a Royals fan in the '60s, I was lucky to catch a scratchy broadcast on the AM radio in our kitchen. Most often, I had to wait until I arrived home from school the next day to find the box score in the newspaper and learn whether the Royals had won or lost.

Game after game, Robertson's stat line would jump out at you, with 30 even 40 points to his credit. I could just imagine the Big O posting up smaller players, zipping pinpoint passes to open teammates, or launching his trademark one-handed shot to the basket.

Stars burned just as brightly in young boy's imaginations back then as they do now, on the big stage of nightly television broadcasts and multimillion-dollar commercials.

Things are drastically different today. Money, marketing, and marquee names drive the NBA. Perennial playoff teams like the Cavaliers are not only fixtures in their local market, they're frequently featured on national broadcasts, as well.

The addition of O'Neal to Cleveland's roster has caused even more Cavaliers merchandise to fly off the shelves. Home games routinely sell out at Quicken Loans Arena.

The Royals/Kings have long since moved to Sacramento, where they’ve toiled in an odd sort of West Coast obscurity for most of their 25 seasons, despite a run of eight straight playoff appearances and a trip to the Western Conference Finals in 2002.

But there was a time when the kings of Ohio basketball operated out of the Queen City. The Royals of Cincinnati were my first NBA love and still hold a special place in the hearts of die-hard hoops fans throughout the Midwest.

(This article also appears on BleacherReport.com.)

Best Ever: Otto, or Else...

The analysts who warned that the Cavaliers just didn’t match up well against Orlando (Charles Barkley chief among them) appear to have been onto something. Anything could yet happen in the Eastern Conference Finals, but, if the first four games are any indication, Orlando will advance. Cleveland simply hasn’t devised an answer for the Magic’s incredible three-point shooting arsenal. Seriously: 17 three-pointers in Game Four? That’s ridiculous.

And yet, the Cavs lost by just two points. In overtime. And LeBron James had the ball in his hands for another buzzer-beating attempt that would have won the game. That’s why anything could yet happen. The Magic have the upper hand, but every game has been a battle.

Predictably, with the luster wearing off of James’ star for the moment, people are coming out of the woodwork with the “best ever” banter. The party line goes like this: LeBron is great, but he’s not an all-time great. The true test of greatness is championships. Minus championships, no one can be the “best ever.” Michael Jordan is the best ever because of his six NBA titles. Joe Montana is the best ever because of his four Super Bowl victories. Babe Ruth is the best ever because of his seven World Series titles....

And that’s the sentence that begins to reveal the folly of the argument. No, Babe Ruth is the best ever simply because he was…well, the best ever. He revolutionized the game. He established the benchmarks against which hitters would forever be measured. Not just those 714 home runs, but also an insane .342 lifetime batting average. And, before all of that, he was one of the sport’s premier pitchers, winning 78 games for Boston over a four-year span – 18 of those in 1915, at the tender age of 20! The Red Sox won three World Series titles during that time. Ruth was, by any account, Herculean. Bunyanesque. Did I mention larger than life?

I bring all this up only because I read something this morning that left me scratching my head. A blogger on the ESPN Sportsnation website, who goes by the moniker “Pastor Troy,” blasted away at LeBron – apparently because the good reverend just had to get something off his chest. You can read the entire entry here, but he basically takes James to task (now that Orlando’s up 3-1) for not bringing out the best in his teammates; says Jordan did it, LeBron hasn’t, so ya’ll be hatin’. Something like that. And then he slips back into the championships-are-the-one-true-measure-of-greatness line.

Fine. Then I am here to proclaim, once and for all, that the greatest athlete in the history of professional team sports in the United States is not Michael Jordan…is not Joe Montana…is not Babe Ruth…is not Jose Mesa (ahem)…but is, without question…

…Otto Graham.

The man played 10 seasons at quarterback for the Cleveland Browns. His team was in the league championship game all 10 of those seasons. And they won seven of those 10. He was four-for-four in the brief history of the All-America Football Conference. Lest we be tempted to poo-poo that league as one minor (that’s the first time I’ve ever written “poo-poo” in a sentence), the year after the AAFC folded Graham led the Browns to the NFL title in their first year in the league. And then he led them to two more over the next five years.

Ten seasons. Ten championship games. Seven victories.

Take that, all you title-touters.

Bill Russell’s eight straight NBA championships (and 10 in 11 years) don’t count, because…it messes up my argument for Graham.

But not really. I’ve never bought the championships-as-benchmark line of reasoning. Of course titles matter. But Terry Bradshaw has four Super Bowl rings – and he did it first. Why isn’t he as great as Montana?

The aforementioned Russell’s 10 championships outdistance Jordan’s six (and everyone else's). Why isn’t Russell the greatest?

In hockey…OK, I don’t know anything about hockey.

But you get my point. I have no problem with people taking the Cavs to task for the way they’ve performed against Orlando. But the problem isn’t LeBron. He’s once again exceeded expectations. He’s making 30- and 40-point games routine – routine – and that hasn’t happened since Oscar Robertson was running roughshod over the rest of the NBA in his prime.

I don’t know whether Otto Graham was the best quarterback in history, or even in the top 10. I know he was unsurpassed as a big-game player. And he won more championships than any other.

But the greatest? There are too many factors to consider. And those who insist on titles first are missing out on the intangibles that make the greatest athletes truly great.

LeBron has those intangibles. Yes, I’ll accept that he needs to win a championship or two to fully secure his place in history. But Pastor Troy has jumped too quickly into the LeBron-taunting fray. Number 23 is everything he was cracked up to be, and more. And the series isn’t over, although the Cavs are admittedly on life support.

This is LeBron’s sixth season. He’s 24. Michael Jordan didn’t win his first championship until his seventh season, at age 27. LeBron’s time will come. The fact that he’s accomplished so much so soon is cause for celebration, not degradation – no matter what happens Thursday night, or for the rest of this series.