Bono Set to Serenade NBA Fans
By: Interactive Sports Wire
June 5th 2001 5:44pm
Washington, DC, Jun 05, 2001 (ISWire Sports Beat via COMTEX) -- With the
National Basketball Association's (NBA) Nielsen Media Research television
ratings going up and down in the 2001 NBA postseason, NBA Entertainment -- the
entertainment wing of the NBA -- has announced that NBA fans will be treated to
tunes from the rock band U2 at halftime Wednesday in Game One of the NBA finals.
<p>U2's concert at the Fleet Center in Boston, Massachusetts, will be beamed in
to the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, so fans in the stands and fans
watching the game on television can listen to U2 lead singer Bono wail in
between watching the Los Angeles Lakers battle the Philadelphia 76ers. <p>NBA
Entertainment is also planning to have the rock band Sugar Ray perform live at
Game Five at the First Union Center, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Besides
Sugar Ray and U2 the NBA is also considering having the R&B group Destiny's
Child perform. Destiny's Child performed for the NBA earlier in 2000 at the NBA
Store in Gotham. <p>"We may be able to get fringe fans more interested in the
NBA through these halftime performance," said NBA executive vice president and
executive producer for NBA Entertainment Gregg Winik. "The finals generally
attracts more fans than just the normal NBA fan." <p>Winik also said the hit NBC
Inc. television show "The Weakest Link" will appear at halftime during Game 2
and Game 3. Some NBA on NBC broadcasters and NBA players will appear on the
show. <p>"We hope these shows will improve some of the ratings," said Winik, "so
far they have been pretty good." <p>NBA's Nielsen ratings on NBC Inc. for
Eastern Conference and Western Conference finals were down 15% percent from the
2000 playoffs. The NBA was hurt the most by the Western Conference finals series
between the Los Angeles Lakers and the San Antonio Spurs. <p>The Lakers swept
the Spurs in four games and the series did not garner much interest after L.A
jumped ahead 2-0 in the series. As a result, the final two games between the
Spurs and the Lakers last weekend were down 16 percent. The Eastern Conference
finals games between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Philadelphia 76ers overall were
down about 15 percent. <p>The dip for the NBA comes after the NBA finally saw
some improvement in the second round after seeing a dip in the first round.
Through the regular season, ratings were also down.
 Copyright 2001 Interactive Sports, New York, NY
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