Finals ratings are highest since Jordan

The first two games of the NBA Finals are the mostwatched since final championship in 1998.

Despite two lopsided outcomes, Golden State’s two home wins over Cleveland averaged 19.6 million viewers, according to numbers released Monday by the Nielsen company.

That’s an increase of 5 percent from the 18.6 million average in 2016.

The Warriors’ 132-113 victory on Sunday drew an average leys,” said Warriors forward Draymond Green. “That just means he has ‘em in every city he goes to. That’s an addiction.”

When Game 3 tips off Wednesday night with the Warriors holding a 2-0 lead that feels insurmountable, Brown will be back in a building where he and James appeared in their first Finals together 10 years ago.

In 2007, the Cavs were no match for the powerful San Antonio Spurs, who overwhelmed Cleveland and swept the series. Brown can surely appreciate the irony in coming back as part of a juggernaut.

“Circle of life,” Brown said last week. “Like the ‘Lion King,’ everything comes back around, I guess.”

Brown’s Finals debut must seem like a lifetime ago for the 47-year-old, who guided the Warriors to an 11-0 mark in this postseason while Kerr battled intense pain stemming from back surgeries.

“My guy did OK while I was gone,” Kerr said after the Warriors won Sunday night.

During last year’s Finals in Cleveland, Brown met with Kerr about joining the Warriors staff and replacing Luke Walton, who was bound for the Los Angeles Lakers. The interview came before the Cavs rallied from a 3-1 deficit, and before Kevin Durant announced he was headed to the Bay Area.

After he was fired for the second time by the Cavs, Brown had stepped outside the coaching circle, choosing instead to watch oldest son Elijah play hoops at New Mexico and filming his other son Cameron’s Friday night high school football games. All the while, he stayed connected by talking with San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich, his mentor and former boss.

Popovich urged him to join Kerr.

Brown’s willingness to accept an assistant’s job despite 563 career regular-season wins and 47 in the playoffs underscores his humility. But that’s Brown: unassuming, egoless, the consummate teammate.

And while he hasn’t strayed from preparation and the attention he learned growing up in a military family, Brown has shown a willingness to change. He has loosened up. With the Warriors, he had no choice. of 20.1 million viewers, up 13 percent from Game 2 last year and the most for a Game 2 since Chicago and Utah met in 1998. The telecast peaked with 23.1 million viewers.

In the wake of being ruled medically unable to resume his playing career by the NBA, the former Miami Heat forward has found himself as part of speculation of a full-time move into broadcasting.

The weekly commentary of Sports Illustrated media writer touched on that possibility, potentially as an eventual replacement on the highly rated TNT studio show that features and

Bosh this season served as a studio analyst during that network’s “Players Only” coverage of Monday games that only featured former players.

The Los Angeles Clippers will host two preseason games against the Toronto Raptors in Honolulu this fall.

The games on Oct. 1 and 3 will be played at the Stan Sheriff Center on the University of Hawaii campus. That’s where the Clippers will hold their training camp.

The Clippers will participate in a pregame fan fest at the Hawaii Convention Center as part of the Clippers Hawaii Classic event.

Borrowing philosophies from other coaches, Kerr has created a loose atmosphere, believing a less-structured environment allows players to perform more freely and effectively. Kickball games are not uncommon and yoga is practiced regularly. Warriors practices typically begin with loud music booming through loudspeakers.

It can be jarring to outsiders.

“I remember the first few practices, me and Mike, we were new guys and we were looking at each other like: ‘This is how it goes down here?’” Durant said. “So it was an adjustment for both of us. It was great for me to have Mike to kind of like go through the season with me, and kind of help me out and help me get adjusted. It was different for both of us.”

If things had gone differently, Brown might still be Cleveland’s coach. Given only one season on his return, he was dismissed despite a nine-win improvement and a colossal jump defensively. He still had four years left on his contract, and unfinished plans.

Last week, Cavs All-Star guard Kyrie Irving said he wished his time with Brown had gone better.

“I was a 21-year-old kid, just trying to lead a franchise, and he was a new head coach that I had to get introduced to a new offense, new players, as well as a new system,” Irving said. “I kind of regret being part of that because he was just trying to teach me a lot of things that I didn’t necessarily understand as a 21-yearold. So, he definitely had some great things and the knowledge of the game that’s up there with some great coaches.”

TUESDAY, JUNE 6, 2017

OU pitcher and two Florida pitchers threw complete games of seven-plus innings. It was so long that the Stanley Cup playoff game Monday night in Nashville started and finished during the game. It was so long that the crowd sang “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” three times; they do it in the middle of every fifth inning.

And while the length of the game screwed up newspaper deadlines and fan bedtimes, these teams gave us a gift. An unbelievable treat filled with tenacity and grit and skill.

Florida scored a run in the bottom of the fourth, and the way Kelly Barnhill was pitching for the Gators, it seemed like that might be all she would need. But in the top of the fifth, the Sooners not only broke up Barnhill’s no-hitter with Nicole Pendley’s double but also scored a run on Syndey Romero’s RBI single.

It was the first earned run surrendered by the Gators in this WCWS.

Then lo and behold in the top of the sixth inning, the Sooners got to Barnhill again. Nicole Mendes lined a shot over the right-field fence, and the Sooners led.

But then the Gators answered. With two outs in the bottom of the seventh and chances fleeting, the Gators looped a shot to left field and tied the game.

It was a gut punch to OU.

But the Sooners kept after it. Their bats went quiet for the next few innings, but their defense hung tough. From right field, Mendes threw out a Gator runner at second base in the eighth. Paige Parker motored through Gator hitters in the ninth, 10th and 11th.

Then, in the top of the 12th, OU went up 4-2 on Fale Aviu’s homer. It was a blast that everyone knew was gone as soon as it flew off her bat. She threw up her arms almost before she was out of the batter’s box.

• • 3B

It was a roundhouse to Florida.

But the Gators kept after it. Florida answered with another two-out hit in the bottom of the inning. Two runs scored. Another tie game.

Then four innings came and went with nary a run. Both teams had opportunities, but great pitches were made and super plays were executed and the game continued.

Fans stayed, too. Sure, some left — people around here have to work, after all — but for the most part, the stands remained full even as the innings clicked past. The crowd was lively even as the midnight hour approached.

And in the 17th inning, they were rewarded with a final bit of craziness.

With two outs in the top of the inning, the Sooners did something that they hadn’t done all night. They got a hit. To that point, OU was 0-fer with two outs. But Mendes singled to left followed by Caleigh Clifton getting hit by a pitch. Then on a 1-2 pitch, Shay Knighten blasted a shot to left field. She pumped her fist in the air almost before she was out of the batter’s box.

“I was just thinking one pitch at a time,” Knighten said. “Something will happen.”

It sure did with her three-run homer. Ballgame. Or not. In the bottom of the inning, the Gators threatened. They loaded the bases with only one out. They managed a run, but with the game-winning run at the plate, Lowary got a game-ending, game-ending strikeout.

And after nearly 5½ hours, the game ended. Not mercifully. Wonderfully. “It was a game of will,” Gasso said. “It was a game of team. It was a game of character.”

It was a game like nothing we’ve ever seen.