LeBron James went west, and the NBA ratings have gone south.
More than halfway through the regular season, NBA ratings have fallen. The real plummet has been on Turner, which started with a LeBron-less opening night and has been playing from behind ever since.
The network is down 22 percent compared to this point last year.
ESPN is also off, but just 5 percent, while ABC was up 5 percent on Christmas Day. ABC tips off its weekly Saturday night coverage this weekend, which will offer a truer gauge.
As for Turner, its ratings started off very poorly without James at all on opening night, which contributed to a 42 percent (4.