Was the NBA considered bigger than the NFL in the 90s?

[BillsPride12]

I was checking out some old NBA on NBC videos online that I came across and was reading through comments where people were declaring back when the NBA was bigger than the NFL.  Sounds crazy but made me stop and think for a minute about that.  The NBA was huge back then during the MJ heyday, the Dream Team, Space Jam, some great rivalries.  I loved the NBA at the time and definitely remember it being huge but hard for me say it was bigger than the NFL.  I also get the comments I was reading could have been coming from biased NBA fans reminiscing on the glory years of basketball but it was amazing to me how many people were liking and agreeing with those comments.  Just curious what your perceptions of that statement to be?  I feel like the NBA was huge but still not bigger than the NFL 

[Another Fan]

It’s not an exaggeration to say where I went too school the NBA was more popular in those days.  
 

The biggest football fan I knew in middle school was a girl who had a big crush on Troy Aikman.  

[Augie]

18 hours ago, BillsPride12 said:

I was checking out some old NBA on NBC videos online that I came across and was reading through comments where people were declaring back when the NBA was bigger than the NFL.  Sounds crazy but made me stop and think for a minute about that.  The NBA was huge back then during the MJ heyday, the Dream Team, Space Jam, some great rivalries.  I loved the NBA at the time and definitely remember it being huge but hard for me say it was bigger than the NFL.  I also get the comments I was reading could have been coming from biased NBA fans reminiscing on the glory years of basketball but it was amazing to me how many people were liking and agreeing with those comments.  Just curious what your perceptions of that statement to be?  I feel like the NBA was huge but still not bigger than the NFL 

 

I think you’re reading what some NBA fans had to say. Yes, the NBA was more popular then than now, IMO, but there was still a large gap in popularity with the NFL on top. I’d be curious to see how the TV ratings compare, but among my crowd it was NFL all the way. 

 

BTW - I loved the NBA when the Braves were in town, enjoyed it in the 90’s, and I don’t even watch the Finals now. We took the kids to too many regular season games and had children say “they’re not even trying!” When they start talking NBA on TV or radio, I change the station. 

 

EDIT: I’d be very curious to see how NFL ratings compare to college football over the years. That is the NFL’s real competition for attention. Growing up I just used to hear scores like LeHigh vs Slippery Rock, plus an occasional Notre Dame game. I’ve lived in the South for decades now, and in Atlanta the Falcons are an after-thought. It seems everybody has a college football team they follow closely, and once in a while I’ll see somebody wearing Falcons gear.   How much has the gap changed vs how much has my location exaggerated things in my mind?   🤷‍♂️  

 

 

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Edited May 13 by Augie

[Orlando Buffalo]

1 hour ago, BillsPride12 said:

I was checking out some old NBA on NBC videos online that I came across and was reading through comments where people were declaring back when the NBA was bigger than the NFL.  Sounds crazy but made me stop and think for a minute about that.  The NBA was huge back then during the MJ heyday, the Dream Team, Space Jam, some great rivalries.  I loved the NBA at the time and definitely remember it being huge but hard for me say it was bigger than the NFL.  I also get the comments I was reading could have been coming from biased NBA fans reminiscing on the glory years of basketball but it was amazing to me how many people were liking and agreeing with those comments.  Just curious what your perceptions of that statement to be?  I feel like the NBA was huge but still not bigger than the NFL 

https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2012/05/why-the-nhl-is-hot-and-the-nba-is-not-again/#:~:text=In

 

The NBA was never in competition with the NFL. In the Mid 90s it was competing with the NHL until the NHL allowed stopped pushing for great skaters to be the best players.

[DrW]

I came to the US in 1990 as postdoc at the University of Rochester. Back in Germany, neither basketball nor "American football" were very popular at that time. Thus, I came here unbiased. However, it became soon obvious that the NFL dominated the conversation. Everybody in the lab was talking about football and the Bills. And this is how I became a fan, too.

[boyst]

6 minutes ago, DrW said:

I came to the US in 1990 as postdoc at the University of Rochester. Back in Germany, neither basketball nor "American football" were very popular at that time. Thus, I came here unbiased. However, it became soon obvious that the NFL dominated the conversation. Everybody in the lab was talking about football and the Bills. And this is how I became a fan, too.

What is fun about Germany is how fast hockey is growing. 

 

American football is growing there, also. The Schwabbish Hall Unicorns won their league last year, I think 2 in a row?

[Steptide]

I vividly remember watching Jordan and the bulls on Sundays, and every other day they played really. The bulls in the playoffs back then was magic. Bulls and knicks was a amazing rivalry, especially during playoffs 

[major]

Everything seemed bigger then. Today we have customized at your fingertips (fill in the blank). Back then we had shared experiences, hence everything was bigger: the nba, the nfl, etc… But to answer your question, NFL was bigger than NBA back then. 

[Cynical]

NFL. Not even close.

However, ratings and popularity can vary across different regions of the country.

 

I'm sure in some parts of the country, the NBA may been just as big as the NFL, but overall, no.

[BillsPride12]

1 hour ago, Cynical said:

NFL. Not even close.

However, ratings and popularity can vary across different regions of the country.

 

I'm sure in some parts of the country, the NBA may been just as big as the NFL, but overall, no.

Great point

 

For instance, I'm sure nothing was bigger than the NBA in Chicago in those days 

[DrW]

3 hours ago, boyst said:

What is fun about Germany is how fast hockey is growing. 

 

American football is growing there, also. The Schwabbish Hall Unicorns won their league last year, I think 2 in a row?

 

Germans (and I assume the same applies to most other nationalities) are always attracted to sports where "one of our own" does well. E.g. professional US basketball (NBA) gained attention with Detlef Schrempf, but it really took off with Dirk Nowitzki. Similarly, in hockey, there had been several important German players in the NHL (Sturm, Eckhoff, Kolzig), but never a top ten star like Leon Draisaitl. 

As to football, Germans love it. If you remember, in the last year of NFL Europe, 5 of the 6 teams were stationed in Germany. While we do not have any star yet, we hold the record of the oldest player ever played in a professional football game. Manfred Burgsmüller was the Rhein Fire's place kicker at age 52.

[Another Fan]

1 hour ago, Cynical said:

NFL. Not even close.

However, ratings and popularity can vary across different regions of the country.

 

I'm sure in some parts of the country, the NBA may been just as big as the NFL, but overall, no.

Yeah in New York/New Jersey after Super Bowl 25 the G-men really weren't that good for much of the 90's.  The Jets had a couple good seasons but weren't really that solid either.  Coupling that with the days pre-Internet yet alone social media the NBA seemed way more popular in these parts then through my lenses.  

 

I'm not sure though as a whole the NFL was still more widely popular than the NBA back then.  I mean you had guys like Michael Jordan, Shaq, Dennis Rodman, and Larry Bird, Magic Johnson who had cross over appeal to more mainstream audiences.  NBA shoe culture was huge back in the day as well.  

[Mikie2times]

3 hours ago, Steptide said:

I vividly remember watching Jordan and the bulls on Sundays, and every other day they played really. The bulls in the playoffs back then was magic. Bulls and knicks was a amazing rivalry, especially during playoffs 

WGN was the only time I recall an out of market channel being broadcast in other regions. Not sure if WGN was in Buffalo as well but it was in Detroit. So nearly all Bulls games. Then the Cubs and White Sox. 

[Gregg]

MLB was the most popular sport from the Babe Ruth days thru Joe D, Yogi, Mantle, Maris and even into the 70's with Reggie. Maybe it was the Super Bowls between the Steelers and Cowboys that got the NFL's popularity on the upswing. By the 80's the NFL had caught and then eventually passed baseball as America's most popular sport. Over the last 30 years the league's popularity as exploded. Today the NFL is way more popular than any other sport and it's not even close. As for the NBA I don't think basketball was ever as popular as football. Baseball was more popular at one time but not anymore.

[dpberr]

Interesting question.  I'd say no, as the NFL very likely still had substantially higher TV viewership and merchandise sales.  I think the one area where the NBA really took off was in mainstream fashion - you saw NBA jerseys and hats being worn on TV shows and in music videos, everybody was wearing the black Nike sneakers, and NBA stars besides Jordan had shoes - Larry Johnson, David Robinson, etc.  

 

However, the 1990s were the apex of the NBA's popularity, ever. Has never seen the heights of popularity it did this decade. While the 90s will always be the decade of Jordan's Bulls, there were compelling teams and storylines that drew in viewers from all over the United States:

 

The last year of the Bad Boys Pistons

The Houston Rockets back to backs in 1994-1995

The tantalizing good, almost great teams - Malone/Stockton Jazz, Drexler's Blazers, Ewing's Knicks

The tease of the O'Neal/Hardaway Magic

The start of the Spurs dynasty 

Edited May 13 by dpberr

[NORWOODS FOOT]

I think football was bigger but Michael Jordan was transcendent and every person in the country knew who he was.

[BillsPride12]

42 minutes ago, NORWOODS FOOT said:

I think football was bigger but Michael Jordan was transcendent and every person in the country knew who he was.

There's no doubt Jordan was the biggest athlete in any sport in the 90s 

[4th&long]

Football was always a lot more popular from what I remember and it wasn’t close. Baseball was the “national pastime” when I was young but football took over. I never remember basketball even being talked about as being that big. It didn’t even get much notice till Magic and bird came along.

[Steve O]

No