Every game of the 2026 NBA Finals was a nail-biter. And the television ratings reflected as such. The Knicks-Spurs series was the most-watched NBA Finals since 1998 — the last gasp of the Michael Jordan Bulls dynasty — by averaging 20.6 million viewers across the five games, ESPN said in a statement on Tuesday. The Finals, the highest-rated ABC has had, saw a 100 percent increase in viewership over the 2025 seven-game series between the Thunder and Pacers. This year’s Finals was also the top